TOUR DE NORFOLK RIDE REPORT 2010

On Friday 17th September, the day after the official Tour of Britain Stage came through Norfolk, a team of 27 ambulance cycle medics and colleagues took on the gruelling 118 mile route. Their ultimate goal was not only to get the whole team around the course, but to take with them 4 fully equipped cycle response unit’s weighing 45 kilograms each.

The team set off from the Tuesday Market Place in Kings Lynn at 7am, blessed with a crisp autuminal blue sky. Due to the size of the group, for safety reasons it was split into two teams. The first leg was to Hunstanton ambulance station, followed by Wells and then Sheringham.

Darren Rutterford (ride organiser) said ‘We planned on stopping approximately every 15 miles, so that the guys riding the CRU’s could change over to their own racing bikes. Riding these machines, fully kitted is very tough, so to keep everyone at their best, riders took it in turns.’

From Sheringham, the group took on the King of The mountains stage up through Roman Camp to the main A149 road to Holt. The guys who endured this stage on the CRU’s done really well to drive the kitted bikes up this long, long hill.

We arrived in Holt, and the sun was still shining, no sign of the wet stuff! One or two aches and pains were starting to present with some of the riders. Spirits were kept high though, as the support vehicles kept supplying bananas and flapjacks. It was now a drive to push on and get to The forum in Norwich, where Pizza Express had kindly provided us all with not so much lunch.......as afternoon tea, by the time we had arrived. This was about the 90 mile mark, more than most of the group had ever ridden before. As the pizza on offer was munched, there was just time for a few photos and a quick radio interview with Radio Norfolk before we geeded ourselves up for the last drive through to Great Yarmouth.

The pizza energy kicked in and we all cruised through to Potter Heigham ambulance station, where the staff there had very kindly supplied some drinks and snacks. After a final bike change for some of the riders, it was starting to get dusk. As we all dug in very deep, we finally made the turn onto Great Yarmouth seafront. The last small section of road brought us into a warm reception by some of the public outside of the Marina centre, some 12 hours after we began in Kings Lynn. 54 legs had never been so glad to stop pedalling!!

Karen Winstanley (a member of the Norwich CRU team) said,’I can’t believe I have just ridden 118 miles. I am so pleased with myself, I have never ridden so far in my life! It’s been a great day, there has been a really good atmosphere, the weather could not have been kinder to us, but most of all we have hopefully raised some money for our Cycle Response Unit’s.’

In total, £3500 was raised from this ride, and the CRU team would like to thank all those who gave their time, support and donations for our worthy cause. This will enable the local CRU’s to fund some of the specialist lightweight life saving equipment that they urgently need.