Company News

Bruce Elkins' Charity Cycle Challenge
Final Diary Entry

Dear Friends and Colleagues

I am very pleased to report that myself and my three fellow cyclists and our support van driver, David North, all enjoyed our ‘holiday’ cycle challenge venture from the North to the South of the UK, in aid of our four designated charities; Wessex Cancer Trust, Rose Road Association, Wooden Spoon (Hampshire) and Emmaus Hampshire.

We have applied to become members of the John O’Groats to Lands End Association by sending off ‘proof’ of our stays (in mainly Youth Hostels) as we made our way down through Scotland, Wales and the UK and climbed the three Peaks of Ben Nevis, Scafel Pike and Snowdon, cycling a total of 1,049 miles in 17 days of mainly dry weather.

We saw some superb scenery (we do have a beautiful country when the sun shines) and have numerous photos to view which we will add to the CW Fellowes Limited website very shortly. 

We suffered a few aches and pains, with sore backsides for the first week in particular but the biggest problem was that Dave Jordon, one of my fellow cyclists had a stomach upset from Liverpool for a full week which drained him by the last few days.  Thankfully, we had planned to reduce the mileage as we got to the South-West as some of the hills became quite tough in Devon and Cornwall.  We all thought that this was the toughest challenge we have taken on but stuck to the schedule whilst the weather was good.

For those of you who believe in good luck charms, I found a four leaf clover on our trip which I kept quiet about but tucked in my cycle top – I’ve never seen one before!

The sum raised is in excess of £20,000, with a number of ‘promises’ to come, so if anyone would still like to make a donation to our four excellent charities it is not too late to send a cheque payable to CW Fellowes Charity Account.  

We would like to give many thanks to all our sponsors and donors, in particular Dave Wolfenden at Abacus Car and Van Hire, for donating the support vehicle for the trip and Tony Beck at James Byrne Printing Limited for the printing of the flyers, my fellow directors for the vehicle fuel and friends and family that hosted us some nights to help keep costs down.  

Some Facts and Figures of the Trip

  • Average daily speed was around 13.5 mph but varied generally between a minimum of 13 and maximum of 15 each day depending on road conditions, terrain and wind direction. Minimum speed was 4.5mph and a maximum speed of 46.5mph!
  • We averaged around 75 miles per day, other than the three days climbing a mountain and excluding the last 2 days in Cornwall, where we did the last 70 miles over 2 days so we could ‘enjoy’ the end!
  • We must have eaten at least 1,000 calories per day more than usual – full cooked breakfast at least every alternate day, cakes, a couple of pints in the evening with dinner and still lost 2lbs in weight!
  • Furthest distance cycled in one day 101 miles.
  • Shortest distance cycled 30 miles, after climbing Ben Nevis.
  • Vaseline - not sure how much we used but it was a lot!!!

You can view our progress reports of the trip at the following link:   

http://www.cwfellowes.com/bruce_elkins_progress.htm

Bruce Elkins
on behalf of the End to End team (Andy Gates, Dave Jordan, John Mursell and me)