BPE Bike Ride: On the road to Santiago
It takes grit and determination for a professional athlete to train for an extraordinary physical challenge, as the Olympics is demonstrating in heroic spades.
Take away the training, add courage and what we might charitably call 'chutzpah', and you get the heroic endeavours of BPE Senior Partner John Workman, and Commercial Property Partner Tim Williams.
John and Tim are cycling 1,000 miles through France and Spain raising funds for The Footprints Foundation, a charity that supports orphanages in South Africa.
From 1-15 August, the duo is tackling scorching temperatures, varied terrain and an 8,750 metre climb as they embark on their latest cycling challenge from Le Puy en Velay to Santiago de Compostela.
The story so far:
After a 4am start and an already long journey to South-Central France (albeit by car), the team's 1,000 mile bike ride began on Monday 1 August. The intrepid adventurers embarked on the challenge which will see them average more than 60 miles a day in the saddle.
John and Tim battled through 32 degree heat throughout their first two days of cycling, but saw the temperature top at 40 degrees on day three, whilst covering another 75 mile stretch to reach Cahors in South-West France. As Tim says: “Anyone who thinks this is a jolly, try riding uphill with a hairdryer blowing in your face...”
By day six, the Pyrenees were in sight, and Sunday 7 August brought the two cyclists into Spain, where they took on a gruelling 1,000m climb in just one hour. Despite the heat and a broken pedal bearing, both John and Tim made it to Rioja – a.k.a. Spanish wine country – on Monday 8 August.
One week down; one week to go.
To achieve their fundraising goal, the BPE team need your support, so please dig deep and help them to raise money for The Footprints Foundation. To donate, please visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/JohnWorkmanProjectSA2016.
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