LONDON TO LAND'S END

Well, the bikes are packed up and ready for the long journey. I want to thank everyone that has donated and supported us. We reached our goal of $5K last week and are still climbing. Also, a special shout out to Marcos and Polly Prado who sadly won't be able to join us on this trip. They have been traveling companions on many trips. We will be thinking of them and will miss them on the finish line.  Amanda recently contacted the Cycling Records Archive in the UK for our father's records. He completed Land's End to London in 15 hours and 26 minutes on a racing tricycle (yes, a tricycle. Think road bike with two wheels in the back, not a tiny mode of transportation for toddlers). In 106 years, only 10 people have set records for that ride with Dad being the 4th fastest. The first record was in 1912. It took that guy 25 hours which is still faster than Daniel and I will be and we will have the benefit of modern bikes, not some lead framed beast with wooden wheels (I have no i...

Michael has been training with the donor song list for motivation. Here’s a sample. Watch him jam from the bike cam! Our $100 donors have contributed 1 hour and 20 minutes of music so far.  But Michael and Daniel could be riding for  30 HOURS!  We need a lot more tunes and $1000 to hit our 5k goal. It’s not too late to get on the list at $100 per song and contributions in any amount are welcome. We leave in three weeks! Video, s ong list to date (courtesy of) and Spotify link below.      My Name is Price – Prince (Audrey Granger) Rock ‘n‘ Roll (Part 2) – Gary Glitter (Kyle West) What A Feeling – Irene Cara (Gabe Mendoza & Nicole Sponsler) Get Got – Death Grips (Gus Granger) 3AM Eternal – KLF (Kyle West) The Middle – Zed (Anonymous) King of the Road – Roger Miller (Paul Cathey) Love Me Like You Do – Ellie Goulding (David Hess) Flying in a Blue Dream – Joe Satriani (Mark St. John) The Fugitive Kind – The...

Matt and Paula Wildash are giving up their vacation time to drive around England in a rental van (named Snail 1) big enough to hold 6 people, 2 bike cases, luggage and enough Walker’s Crisps to start another potato famine.  Matt and his brother Nick lived next door to our grandparents growing up. Nick is roughly the same age as our eldest brother Simon and Matt is the same age as Daniel. For me, I had a stuffed panda named Kevin. My lack of a human, similarly aged counterpart living next door left me with the choice of Leia or Chewbacca when we were role-playing Star Wars. It also contributed our routine hide and seek games  - where everyone else would piss off home while I hid under a tree for 3 hours - crying. Ah, memories. That being said, I once fell into a mass of stinging nettles and Matt was very helpful and consoling. Daniel not so much.    We have known the Wildashes almost as long as we’ve known our own family and over the years they have ...

There are many charities that are set up for Alzheimer’s but there’s a bit of a story on why we chose Alzheimer’s Society.  I contacted Alzheimer’s Society about 2 years ago, maybe 6 months after our father died. I knew that many of the UK charities did sponsored bike rides to raise money and awareness. Their website had a specific London to Land’s End ride, which was perfect with our father’s cycling record. We liked the idea that we’d be riding with a SAG Wagon, scheduled stops, meals and fellow riders supporting us. Well, unfortunately they discontinued that ride. But we didn’t want to give up on that route, and we still wanted to make sure that the money we raised went to a group that could help. I reached out to a couple of sports tour companies but they required a large group of riders. We weren’t about to call up 50 of our closest friends to invite them on a scenic tour of southern England that could result in their knees exploding. ...

Land's End to London wasn't Roy's only cycling feat. Check out these trophies listed in in the Tricycle Association Handbook! 1959 The Tricycle Trophy 100m 4.43.53 1959 The Pickwick Trophy 1959 The Nelson Trophy 1960 The Higgins Trophy 25m 1.02.05 1961 The Higgins Trophy 25m 1.01.41

The playlist so far. If you’ve donated $100 or more you get to pick a song to either encourage or torture us with. https://open.spotify.com/user/west7881/playlist/2mE7t8R2WRkUVo77qSOKne?si=IA9-q_0NSTuaQ8DuCMPvtA

Louis Garneau jerseys designed by Daniel have arrived! Very comfy and lightweight. We only have one each so these are going to have to be washed in a hotel bathroom sink along the way or we'll be bringing a swarm of flies to Land's End with us.

I have updated the route to better reflect where we will be going. We added a small detour on day one to ride past the actual Watership Down of Richard Adam's childhood. Check out the final route here. 359 miles! Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyRide

The original snail logo adorning the walls of the Physics lab in Bath, England.

The original logo that I drew back in and around 1985 is still out there. Check it out! The original version was green and yellow; the colors of the Norwich City Football Team. Norwich is where we lived and where Dad worked. Outside of that, this is 100% the logo I drew all that time ago. Apparently, this was used by an old colleague of Dads and good friend of the family who worked at the University of Bath. I should probably claim some royalties for this! Regardless, the old snail has been updated for the modern age. Enjoy!