The life and less ordinary times of LDC

In 2010, LDC raised over £12,800 for Wallace and Gromit’s Cots for Tots Appeal.  The Cots for Tots Appeal is part of LDC Bristol’s regional charity Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal and is raising £1million to provide four life-saving cots and a new intensive care suite at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol.

Sarah Vipond, Corporate Partnerships for Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal said “The total that LDC has now raised for our Cots for Tots Appeal is amazing and has made a huge impact on the Appeal”

LDC looks forward to raising more money for this year to assist them with the £1million target…any ideas welcome…can we get Paul Oldham (Director of LDC Bristol) to do a ski-dive??

For more information please visit http://www.cotsfortots.org.uk/.

The response to this event has been truly uplifting…not just from those who took part but from those people who have supported us along the way…and the result is truly staggering and will we hope help to change lives and assist those less fortunate than ourselves.

At the Completion Party (held on the 1st July) over 140 people arrived at LDC’s London headquarters to celebrate the end of this adventure…and it provided a great opportunity to swap stories about their day(s) riding, the weather, the camaraderie and the experience. It is something that will live long with many of us for year’s to come…and the tales will get ‘longer’!

It was also nice to be able to applaud the sponsors who supported the Tour with money and kit (Evans Cycles, The Bike Chain, City Inn, Leasedrive Velo, Malmaison, Ring Automotive, Cannondale, Macdonald Hotels, Quantel…and a host of others supporters). 

It was also a great opportunity for the charities involved to meet with the riders and to thank them for their support - there were in fact some superb fundraising efforts and whilst I don’t want to embarrass anyone online there were certain individuals who raised over £10k by themselves – a fantastic effort.

Our thanks also to Quantel – they produced a superb 3D video of the last two days. Interesting experience to watch 3D but the clarity and brilliance of the production was a joy to watch.

The problem now…what to do next year…only time will tell!

Thank you to everyone who helped, sponsored, supported, rode, and cheered the Tour on its journey…we could not have done this without you.

Guest note from Amy at Friendship Works (and I apologise for the delay in getting this one live…better late than…):

Friendship Works is the UK’s oldest children’s mentoring charity and has been operating since 1977. Friendship Works provides long term, one-to-one volunteer support to children from severely disadvantaged and vulnerable families. Each volunteer supports a child by taking them out once a week for 3-4 hours and commits to doing this for a minimum of 2 years.

Friendship Works  volunteers spend a few hours each week with the child they support doing simple activities like playing football, going to the park, visiting a museum or just having a chat in a café. Through these activities volunteers build a one-to-one relationship with the child and help them to build self-confidence and esteem.

On behalf of all of the children and families we support thank you to all of those involved in organising this event and special thanks to each cyclist for their efforts in training, cycling and fundraising for Friendship Works. 

The Completion Party held last week really was an eye opener – there really were quite a lot of adventures during the 15 days!

 Thank you also to all those who have sponsored these incredible cyclists. If you would like to know more about Friendship Works please visit www.friendshipworks.org.uk or please call us on 0207 485 0900.

Note from Editor: Friendship Works is LDC London’s charity for 2010

From the banter, I was led to believe that the LDC tour would be a rather amateur affair. Indeed, most people might guess a group of office bound finance folk would make a rather woeful thousand-mile peleton. In truth, the Tour de LDC involved more lycra than a Mardi Gras and enough bling kit to belie the cyclists claims of punterism. I was impressed.

The Tour de LDC was a triumph of endurance, a wonderful example of people working well together whilst pushing their personal ability and comfort zone. The Tour de LDC will remain a career defining experience for many. Everyone involved should be incredibly proud of the miles they cycled, support they gave or part they sponsored.

However, the Tour de LDC was not an expedition! I have been criticized about being precious on this point… guilty! Tough hills were climbed, fierce headwinds beaten and rainstorms faced with gritted teeth… but with the prospect of a warm shower and pint of beer at sundown it was altogether a most civilized of adventures! In fact, the element that helped many a tired body and mind face another day in the saddle was winding down to the ‘fishermans tales’ of the days escapades.

The last time I cycled the End to End was 12 years ago, so to join the team on a number of stages pedaling north was a great pleasure. For all my cycling, I hadn’t explored the roads we took from Newcastle to Edinburgh and further north through Scotland. Promote the map setter but sack the map reader in my opinion!

So, let us not forget the comraderie of the road and the endurance of those tough miles – and all raise your drinking vessels (water bottles?) to the Tour!

Editor’s Note – Mark, it was an expedition for many of them especially the getting up early…and Iain insists it must have been like Peru at least once ( possibly more to do with the language in Scotland than the wind though)!

A short note of thanks to our sponsors…worthy and active partners in this endeavour.

Our main supporters – City Inn, Malmaison, Ring Automotive, Quantel, Evans Cycles, The Bike Chain, Macdonald Hotels and HT Forrest - have been outstanding supporters of this project.

All of the hotel support has been first class and I think the team would like to give a special mention to Albert at City

City Inn - Leeds

 Inn who not only worked out some of our logistics but actually followed us from Manchester to Leeds on the Tour – his contribution was excellent. Both Malmaison and Macdonald could also not have been more helpful so our thanks to Wim, Lizzie, Roy, Scott and Ruaridh.

Our kit and cycle suppliers – Evans Cycles (Great support from Neil, Nick and Mark)and The Bike Chain (Mark and George – thank you) – have been supportive throughout with consumables (Cyclists eat almost anything when they are on the road!) and hardware but again I think we should make special mention of our mechanic Mark McGhee who was tremendous throughout his time on the Tour and really was an ambassador for Evans Cycles.

Ring Automotive probably coordinated one of the most memorable stops on our journey – at Hollybank Trust. This

Ring Automotive and Hollybank Trust

stop and their contribution to the Tour really brought home to many of us why we embarked on this. Henry, Catherine, and Angie deserve special mention here as well.

And Quantel not only provided the Knight Rider they have participated with numerousTour riders on every stage (although I understand gentle persuasion from Knight Rider may have helped here) and their donation pot has grown daily through pledges. And the 3D video they’ve opted to film could show us at our best…or worst!

And finally HT Forrest, a team of people who have been integral to the success of this Tour – they’ve not only supplied support vehicles and people to man them but riders to participate on every stage. Their contribution has been enormous. A special mention should be made here for the support team who were fantastic – Mike ‘Low Bridge’ Renwick, Chris ‘Smokey’ Flanagan, Richard ‘Crash’ Bate, Bernard ‘noisy’ Bolton, Paul ‘Patience’ Kershaw and the other Ray ‘Reliable’ Cross.

Cannondale Bikes

It should also be noted that a number of other companies have been great supporters of this Tour – Leasdrive Velo the suppliers of Matilda the Van (dented but pride intact) – Cannondalefor their guidance on great bikes – BDO, Ernst & Young, Osborne Clark, Eve Trakway, MB Aerospace, Cameron Price, GVA Grimley (suppliers of Iain ‘ Machine’ Stanton and Kevin ‘one man and his van’ Marriot), British Salt, Ascend (Team ‘twitter@Ascendonwheels’ kept everyone up to date on activity for four days from Bristol), Emprise and Modelzone.

And there have been so many individuals in these companies that have been invaluable in ensuring the show stays on the road (including Roddy, Anthony and Chris at Leasedrive who arranged to fix Matilda in Birmingham) that this column has probably left off a few…Please accept our thanks for your part in this massive undertaking.