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Nice video Ellie; may I suggest Dad corrects the unforgivable missing apostrophe at 1:43, and perhaps puts some emotive music over it. Suggestion below 😉 .
Found a fiver today; donated (I'll only spend it on parking/crisps).
will do BN, and thank for taking her to the £500 mark! How about Nicki Minaj "Lets go to the Beach" for the soundtrack, as that's where she's headed?
Clever!
How about some leftfield link that fits the STW sterotype? 😀
Ok so, we went back to the drawing board a bit and changed quite alot, added some new footage, re-edited and here's Ellies Revised Extended Directors Cut!
Please take a moment to watch if you can, and leave her a brief comment. You wouldn't believe how committed to this she is now. Thanks STW
Inspirational, good luck and keep us up to date with the progress.
Blimey it's hot! Another ride tonight, done 80 miles in the past three days, mostly over Cannock Chase, planning on doing a 70 mile ride early on Saturday, I'm crossing my fingers for a breeze 😉
Ellie, if you wanna give something back, sustrans are looking for volunteers down that pretty track out of Stafford.
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/volunteer/get-involved/vacancies/volunteer-rangers-stafford
Did my first 70 mile ride today, which is two thirds off the way there and the good news is that I wasn't [i]completely[/i] exhausted when we got back! Hurrah! It was an overall success, I wasn't too tired, I didn't do anything stupid on the road, and we were having such a good ride with a tail wind it was a very reluctant pair of bikers who turned around about 8 miles out of shrewsbury, agreeing that today wasn't really the day to go to Wales. However, my bike did fall apart.
Twice.
The left crank fell off, the first time we were on a quiet back road and before I knew what was happening it had detacthed itself from my bike with my foot still slipped into the pedal. The second time, we were less than a mile from home, which was good but what was less good was that we were about 1/3 of the way up Weston Bank, the great big massive hill that we have to go up to get back home. Oh joy of joys.
Hi Jekkyl, may well do that.
She does already volunteer to Chase Trails too though. For Example, As you go through the final rock armoured rollers on Follow the Dog, the third drainagesump from the end, on the right, was dug by Ellie (with a little help from me, mostly supervising in this photo it seems)!
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so shes handy with a shovel as well as a hardtail
Go Ellie! An inspiration to us all.
Just seven days to go now! Starting to look at weather forecasts....
is it time to start a "what tyres for riding 110 miles to Barmouth?" thread?
Support has been fantastic folks, thank you all so much. And Ellie has bagged herself a radio interview with BBC Radio Stoke for the day before we go!
Bearnecessities, did you and everyone else see/like the revised video?
Done another 100 miles this week and I'm now starting a taper week before we go on saturday, although my legs were starting to be very tired on our last ride, is that to be expected?
Donated.Great story so far ellie good luck with the ride,any chance of a route and times you are starting out so people can look out for you on the day
Great story, Good luck for Saturday!
We should be starting at 7 or 8 am, I'll try and post the route later on for you but we are hoping to get to Barmouth for 6 pm, just in time for fish and chips!any chance of a route and times you are starting out so people can look out for you on the day
And once again cheers for donating guys! Every pound is a pound well spent. Are you ready for the grand total... drum roll please...
[u]£1078![/u]
We have broken the thousand mark, how amazing is that?
We have broken the [s]thousand[/s] £1100 mark, how amazing is that?
Ftfy 🙂
Much better vid; love the emotive music 😀
Drillski, no email in your profile, but drop me an email if you need any car support on the day; got a couple of decent spare bikes I can throw in boot as well ICOE.
Thanks guys, that's over £10 per mile now, fantastic.
We are hoping to do live updates en route, if possible, but neither of us have smart phones so it might be a bit second hand . I think we'll be ordering one of these yellow [url= http://www.wiggle.co.uk/altura-night-vision-short-sleeve-jersey/ ]night vision jerseys[/url] as MrsDrillski was getting a bit concerned about most of our kit being a bit low vis for all the road work so if you see a pair of banana coloured mountain bikers, please give us a wave 😀
Never saw this first time around, but donated now.
Good luck Ellie.
route here, hopefully.
[url= https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Weston,+Staffordshire,+United+Kingdom&daddr=Barmouth,+UK&hl=en&ll=52.609719,-2.894897&spn=0.955661,2.705383&sll=52.749543,-3.044689&sspn=0.952605,2.705383&geocode=FTFPJgMd-v_g_yn7Fvy7lnJ6SDHkXk_zQ6CKmQ%3BFbl8JAMd5BvC_ylDiCnRnHhlSDHM-KMMo4IadA&oq=Barmouth&t=h&dirflg=b&mra=ltm&z=9&lci=bike ]https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Weston,+Staffordshire,+United+Kingdom&daddr=Barmouth,+UK&hl=en&ll=52.609719,-2.894897&spn=0.955661,2.705383&sll=52.749543,-3.044689&sspn=0.952605,2.705383&geocode=FTFPJgMd-v_g_yn7Fvy7lnJ6SDHkXk_zQ6CKmQ%3BFbl8JAMd5BvC_ylDiCnRnHhlSDHM-KMMo4IadA&oq=Barmouth&t=h&dirflg=b&mra=ltm&z=9&lci=bike[/url]
Basically Its Stafford to Newport, Wellington, Shrewsbury via back roads, and the old railway line. Then back roads from Shrewsbury to Llanerfyl, bypassing Welshpool and LLanfair on teh north side, and the busy but narrow A458, then the A458 to Mallwyd, A470 to Dolgellau and onto the old south side of the estuary railway line, and finally across on the railway bridge to the North side and Barmouth, and chips!
Haven't quite got as far as sorting timings accurately yet, but on recent performance we are hoping to be able to average between 12.5 and 14 mph, which isn't exactly earth shattering but we should be able to maintain it on the mountain bikes. Little climb before Dolgellau to a place called Tabor for a sting in the tail. Ellie will love that when she's 100 miles in!
Bearnecessities, thats very kind of you. We would absolutely love to see anyone who's out and about, it'd make it even more of an adventure ( we're really starting to look forward to it now). MrsDrillski will be setting off a couple of hours later ( silver galaxy) and she's going to be bringing spares/kit as we (subject to sorting accommodation) will be stopping over for a few days after and I'll be hoping to introduce Ellie to the joys of CyB, and the Marin, plus hopefully more subject to getting a pass out from MrsDrillski.
But If you're around let me know
Route stats summary and profile:
[img][url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3805/9387105310_abf16b5c47_c.jp g" target="_blank">
Only just seen this thread, but have now donated. Good luck.
Haha, thanks for donating exactly 22 quid theotherjonv to make it up to 1110, it's made my day!
Also, my dad won't stop whistling The Climb by Miley Cyrus while we're out riding and to say it's getting on my nerves is an understatment 😉 can anyone recommend something else for him to sing on route to Wales?
That's the accomadation booked then, seafront B&B at Barmouth, 2 nights, thanks to the logistics team ( aka MrsDrillski). Any preferences/local knowledge in terms of recommended chippies? I think we'll be in need of some quality cod & chips come Saturday night.
Just like to thank Veronica from Swinnerton Cycles in Birches Valley and her ladies rides, they are a great refuge from testosterone and just good fun. They've been a great help and everyone there is really encouraging and there will always be some one at the same level as you, which is really heartening. The next ride is this sunday (the 4th of August) and it's for beginners, so if you know anyone, well, any woman, that fancies giving biking a go in the Cannock Chase area then I'd send them along there. [url= http://www.bikechase.co.uk/index.php?page=contact.php ]Here is the link[/url] to the shops website with contact details
£1200 🙂
[i]Very[/i] glad I'm not going today, it's so hot!
One day to go, radio interview today, went for a test spin last night and I discovered the evils of shammy cream.
Just done my radio interview with John Collins from BBC Radio Stoke- how cool is that? I went really well and John was really cool and it should be on drive time tonight as well as tomorrow morning! 😀
it'll be broadcast on BBC Radio Stoke at 17:40 friday evening, and again 07:05 on saturday morning, DAB or 94.6 & 104.1 FM
The 'evils' of chammy cream?
Assos? Did you get a tingle in your dingle?
be careful Radio stoke are sometimes a bit haphazard about their timings. I'd listen about 40 mins before it's supposed to start iiwy
Hi all, its not actually Drillski here its another Drillski junior. They have just set off for the seaside at precisely 8:00ish. I will hopefully be bringing you updates as they go along.
There is a link to the route further up in the thread and if you haven't yet please do visit the justgiving page in the op and donate whatever you can. I know that every penny will be put to an excellent use.
Hi all, just to give you an update on their progress.
They hit a quarter distance at 10:22, with everything okay, but a little more headwind than they'd like.
They have made it into Wales around 1:15pm. There is a strong headwind so they are a bit behind schedule but they have no completed 56 miles so there just over halfway.
Are they there yet?
I can now confirm that after a few communications glitches, many many hills and an encounter with a large and smelly puddle they reached the Irish Sea at 9:14pm.
A truely incredible achievement. 110 miles complete 0 to go. Backyard to Barmouth: DONE
Thank you everyone for your support this far the total raised has passed all expectations. If you can find any loose change in your pockets please do donate it to the justgiving site in the original post.
Drillski has informed me that the full debrief will be posted tomorrow, once they have managed to crawl out of bed 🙂
Excellent stuff, buy that girl an ice cream 8)
We made it, Ellie had been a star, a prouder dad you will not find, an details tomorrow, but one little bit of info, THAT last climb between Mallwyd and Dolgellau, she smashed it!
Go Ellie,
Well done both of you! Now you have to cycle back !?