By Nokey and Andy:
It was a colder day than we had seen for the past few weeks at around 12 degrees when we all came together at 9.15 at Highburton Cross in the centre of the village – the traditional Saturday morning meeting place for the Big Cogs.
The atmosphere was mixture of excitement and apprehension with a general feeling that we just wanted to get started. Within 15 minutes we arrived at The Kirkwood – our starting point for the grand depart and one of our chosen charities to benefit from our ride.
What a fantastic greeting we received as we rolled in to the car park with staff, friends and family there to greet us and see us off.
We had some time to mingle with staff, supporters and team, a few tears were shed when specific thoughts and memories were remembered. There was time for some hugs, kisses and best wishes together with just a few photographs before we gathered at the starting line for the countdown … and we were off !
We were now underway through familiar roads (and hills) of Huddersfield – climbing out of Kirkheaton up to Flockton and on to West Bretton and getting quickly in to our stride. Along rolling roads and soon we were out in to the beautiful Yorkshire country side heading through Woolley and Barnsley and before we knew it we were through Askern and Stainforth with a welcome lay-by pit stop near to the A1 with our support van driven by stalwarts Nic & Miles.
By now we’d left the quaint village churches behind and rolling countryside and were on more open countryside. We had decided to split in to two groups of 5 by this stage and made our way for a further 15 miles to our lunch at Hatfield . We were 45 miles in now and ready for a meal.
The staff were great including the yodelling local pensioner, Pete the chef who came out to see us, and the visit was made all the more memorable when a couple having lunch started chatting with our cultural attache and social secretary (Lee) and sponsored him there and then – the kindness of strangers can be amazing!
We have been inspired by the ever rising donation total and when we checked at lunch we were just shy of £10,000. What a great amount, but we were keen to work hard with our supporters and see if we could break the barrier.
Now the problem with stopping for lunch is .. yes you’ve guessed it … starting again. Aspi looked ready for a nap so we had to get going .
The second stage saw us put some pedal power in as a healthy cross wind had started to whip across us . We were smashing out 19 to 20 miles per hour and the next hour and half flew by. The early chatter had subsided and we were into serious pedalling now.
The iconic Humber Bridge was in our sights but still took around 45 minutes to reach . A quick dismount and walk across the verge and we were cycling across the Humber estuary – a bucket list experience for some of us. Now getting off the other side was as straightforward as the entrance and after some debate and back and forth along a gravel track we managed to pick up the route and we were heading in to Hull with about 5 miles left and 45 minutes to boarding the ferry at 5.30 pm.
The cycle lanes were fantastic and took us through the busy streets of Hull , accompanied by a tour guide style commentary from Rob and Chris … well they did go to university here you know!
The cycle lanes took us passed the gigantic and impressive Siemens plant – like an unearthly scene with huge wind turbine blades laid line by line . And then we were there – applauded in to the Docks by Miles & Nick – we’d arrived. And what greater news could we have asked for than to learn that we had broken the £10k barrier.
Now the smooth logistics kicked in and it was a quick shoe change and pick up of our day bag and through the steady stream of staff to board the bus to take us on the ferry, but not before 1 team member had his passport checked and confirmed that it was valid within only 1 day of his return – one nervous rider !
A fantastic day and a cool beer awaited us at the end of day 1.
