The Biggest Thank You!

What a day, I don't think any of us will forget Friday, the weather was perfect, everything ran like clockwork and everyone finished without too many hiccups.

I have to say thank you to everyone who was involved in making the day a great success. Well done to all the cyclists for giving 100% and battling through tired legs, hills, gear problems and punctures. You should all be extremely proud of yourselves for making it to the end.

Thank you to the support drivers, Colin, Chris, David and Ryan, you did a fantastic job, keeping us on the right roads, keeping us fed and watered and supporting us throughout the day. It made a big difference and made us all feel safe every time we you passed us or we saw you up ahead.

A big thank you to the Masterlease guys, you were flying!! And without you we wouldn't have got to the school in time to see the kids and give them their cheque. Brilliant effort, thank you.

Thank you to the school for all your support at short notice, for letting us disrupt your day and for getting all the pupils out to welcome our guys back, it really completed the day for the cyclists that got back. And the card was wonderful, we are going to put it up on the wall to remind us of the day.

Thank you to everyone else who helped keep things on track, it made a big difference to have all the organisation handled on the day by Helen and Steve.

And finally, everyone who supported us and helped us raise over £2500 for the school. This money will enable the school to start planning the room and will get the first stage of the sensory room up and running. We will keep regular posts on the blog of how the room is progressing and the impact it has on the both the pupils and the school.

Can't say it enough. Thank You!!

Michelle

And then there were 12!

Sadly, we have lost Rob from the Cycle Team. He has had to pull out due to a back problem and has been told to rest, so a 75 mile bike ride, probably isn't the best cure.

We've also just found out that there has been some early coverage of the event in the Fleet News - the national magazine for the fleet car industry.

4 days to go

The days are counting down really quickly now and everything is coming together.

Thank you everyone for donating on the Just Giving Site and I know the teams sponsorship forms are filling up.

Noel form Water Wells, who supply the water for AFS has kindly donated the water for the day.

Tomorrow night, we're designing the banners to go on the mini-buses, so that should be quite fun.

I'll update again tomorrow

Michelle

6 Days to Go!!

With less than a week to go, I think everyone is feeling apprehensive about completing the whole 75 miles, but I know on the day we will get our team of 13 cyclists to the end (It may not be light still, but we will do it).

The fundraising is picking up now and we heading towards £2000 which is brilliant!! We are all busy asking friends and family to support us and everyone is being very generous. Thank you.

We're starting to gather supplies now for the day - energy bars, drinks etc anything to help us make the 75 miles.

We're hoping to have the first team finish at the school for 2pm to take the charity cheque with what we have raised. It will be amazing to see how this helps the school and we'll keep the blog up to date after the cycle ride to show you all how you're money has been spent.

All of the money that we raise will go towards equipping the room so every penny is valued.

Michelle

A Big Welcome to The Masterlease Cycle Team

We would like to give a very warm welcome to the Masterlease team, joining us in the event.

With 5 members, the ride is turning out to be quite an event.

The team are:

Carl Rudge

Andrew Gullery

Justin Foxall

David Swales

& Michael Bellizzi

Its great to have the two companies coming together for the event and the help and support from Masterlease is very much appreciated!! Thank you.

There will be a picture of the team coming soon.

2 Weeks to Go!!

Hopefully, in two weeks time we should making good progress on route to Shrubberies!!

With only 2 weeks to go, lots of the planning is starting to fall into place, the tops are all being ordered, the route is almost finalised (avoiding as many hills as we can), the sponsorship is starting to come in and I'm hearing good things from the team about their training.

We've just been up to Shrubberies to meet Ms Jones and to see the room that will become the new Sensory Room. Its a lovely space and was flooded with sunshine when we went in. With all the money raised I'm sure something quite amazing can be achieved to make this a valuable space for everyone who will use it.

Ms Jones has also very kindly offered the school bus to be used as a support vehicle for the day and we would like to say a big thank you for this!

Big Update

Apologies for the long silence, but there is lots of news and we've just over 2 weeks to the big day.

We've had to change the ride slightly, bringing it down to 75 miles over 1 day and we're going to start at Masterlease, so that we can try and finish at Shrubberies in time for home time. This will be on Friday 17th September.

The AFS team is now, Michelle, Dave, Nikki, Dan & Chris, with new members Alex Day, Rob Leonard and Jonathon Haggarth. We also have a team from Masterlease and I will blog later with their names, so far we have Carl Rudge, Justin Foxall & Andrew Gullery - Welcome to the ride Masterlease!!

There's still lots of planning taking place, finalising the route, pulling in sponsorship, both in money and for provisions - food, drink and inner tubes etc.

Chat later

Michelle