In August this year myself and 5 friends are undertaking a challenge that quite frankly, will probably break us…

For me this is a very personal challenge that I intended to complete back in 2006. The End2End ride was originally planned as being a 7 day challenge taking in some of the UK’s stunning scenery along the way. There were three of us completing the cycling, the team consisted of Brian (a family friend), Leigh Dolby (my dad) and myself – Dan Dolby.

On 25th May 2006, the three of us set off from John o’Groats supported by two friends following behind in a campervan, we had one goal in mind and that was to finish cycling when we arrived in Lands End 7 days later. Unfortunately that was not to be, Brian was taken poorly on route in Fort William and spent 3 days in Fort William hospital and he was unable to complete the ride, this temporary halt to proceedings cut short our riding distances for those 3 days as we had to be collected and brought back to Fort William each evening, which meant that the 1008 mile journey ended up taking 10 days instead of the ambitious 7 days.

Some of you may know, the following year my dad was sadly killed whilst out training for another cycle marathon, so he and I never got to complete the challenge together. In 2009 I attempted the challenge again with two friends and fell short again, only managing 903 miles in 9 days.

This year is the 10th anniversary of my dad’s passing and I intend to mark the occasion in the most fitting way that I can think appropriate – I intend to finish what we started in 2006 and complete the 930 mile route in 7 days.

The ride will be exceptionally challenging, with over 31,000 feet of elevation to climb and having to cycle direct in to south-westerly head winds for an average 130 miles each day, this challenge will only be made achievable by having a support team to take us the 600 miles North to the start, follow us 930 miles down the country ensuring we are safe and to bring us back home when we have completed the ride and without this team none of this would be possible.

However, back to the same old story, only people can give their time for free, the kit, the hotel rooms, the vehicles and the fuel are not free, so we are looking for some generous people, companies, organisations to sponsor us. To date, we have received a very generous donation from Basil’s employers and they are paying for the hotel rooms for all nights for all riders and the support team. We are now hoping to find sponsors to help cover the costs for the two hire vehicles required to transport the riders and kit and the fuel for these vehicles, so should you like to help, please let me know. The plan is to have removable adhesive vinyl’s made that are to be adhered to the Kit Vehicle (van) with all the company logos on, along with all the names going on the web page that we will have live for the challenge www.end2enduk.net. We are also hopeful that with the involvement of Viv Anderson MBE, patron of the Basil Skyers Myeloma Foundation that we should gain some good publicity as Viv will be riding with us on the first day of the ride from John o’Groats to Inverness.

Thanks for taking the time to read about what we are doing and if you’d like to sponsor us for a direct donation to the charity, please click here

Regards

Dan Dolby