Plantforce Pedlars for Green Bike Week
22 June 2010
Plantforce kicked off, or rather pedalled away, Team Green Britain Bike Week by taking part in the London to Brighton bike ride on Sunday 20th June. This was their 4th time and with 6 people taking part, they left London at 9am and hoped to get to Brighton by early afternoon, with diversions via the WI cake stalls, Scouts BBQ and the odd pub or two! Here’s Darren Stobbart’s account of the day...
"The day was a bit chilly to begin with as we set off at 9am, having queued up for 45 minutes before we could get going, we wound our way through South London, heading for the Kent and Sussex countryside along with 29994 cyclists, with us 6 that made 30000 cyclists in total!
The going was slow at times as there were so many of us and the roads narrowed causing bottlenecks. After the first 10 Miles we stopped at a local Scout group and had some refreshments, tea and mars bars.... after 3 hours we had covered 15 miles, an average of 5 miles an hour; we were getting slower...the roads were getting smaller and busier...
At about 2 pm we reached Turners Hill and rewarded ourselves with a beer and burger...just what you need after 33 miles and before going up a 1 in 4 hill, ¾ mile up (Ditchling Hill/Beacon) every cyclists nightmare, though some were determined to cycle up and did so!
I’m afraid none of us managed to do so, settling to walk up with a cold drink and donut! Scouts were offering to push our bikes up for us for a £5 donation to their charity…unfortunately they were all snapped up before we could secure their services!
Finally at just 1 minute past 6 we crossed the finishing line - well, we walked over it as it took 20 minutes to walk the final 200 metres! We each collected a Gold Medal and bottle of water! After a small rest and some group photographs and self congratulatory hugs we headed for the nearest bar and treated our team to several beers and one of us even had a celebratory cigar! Later we left Brighton in a Plantforce van, loaded with the bikes.
Food was now the priority and the Wimpy at Clacket services on the M25 came in very handy at 10pm ... for an extra £1 we all upgraded to a ‘large’ meal. We had cycled 54 miles earlier... by midnight everyone had been dropped off and were soaking in the bath and telling their loved ones tales of hardship and seeking sympathy for that sore spot caused by their saddle ... needless to say everyone was back at work the following morning on time and vowed to do it again (sometime!).
N B We currently have 2 of the Plantforce team who cycle to work every day .... and we are trying to encourage more."
Congratulations to all the team at Plantforce from everyone at eFIG.
Plantforce Pedlars get ready to set off
Plantforce receive their medals
