Forget Paris to Berlin, our Gas Instructor, Richard smashed his London to Paris bike ride over the weekend.
Richard is known as ‘the marathon man’ here at Able Skills, because as well as being a fantastic tutor, he also loves his running and also his cycling. Over the past four years Richard has trained himself up and run at some great events up and down the country beating his personal records, including the last two Brighton Marathons in which he achieved a new personal best this year.
However, Richard decided to jump on his bike for a whole new challenge over the weekend and completed the London to Paris bike ride. Him and three friends wanted a different challenge and this provided just that.
Here is how Richard documented his ride:
“We left Greenwich park at 16:00 on Sunday. We road 60 miles down to Newhaven and got the overnight ferry to Dieppe. I got about 2 hours sleep on the ferry. We arrived and set off at 05:00 French time cycling 120 miles to Paris. There were 15 riders in total with 2 support vehicles. 3 riders were friends I went with. We stopped for breaks around every 30 miles. We arrived at the Eiffel Tower at 15:00 French time so it took us 23hrs in total.
Being primarily a runner, I was very nervous only having done 5 long rides in my whole life with 53 miles being the longest. Fortunately, with a good pair of cycling shorts and the fitness from running I found it easier than expected and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The weather was reasonable kind to us with only a couple of light showers on the way down, but it did rain reasonably heavy as we entered Paris.”
Massive respect to Richard and his team on completing this challenge and plans to cycle a lot more now after the success of this event.
Saying that, his next event is just around the corner as he is completing the London to Brighton bike ride this Sunday with fellow Able Skills Gas Instructor, Ian. They are both riding for charity and Ian already an established rider, they should have a good ride down to the south coast.
Riding for the British Heart Foundation down to Brighton. Able Skills Director, Gary will be sponsoring them both as they look to raise a lot of money for a great charity. You can also donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/richard-purton?fb_event=a3d983a&prompt_event=b70fccf
We want to say a massive well done to Richard for his achievements and also good luck to them both on Sunday!