7 amateur cyclists are taking part in a mammoth challenge for one special little girl with cerebral palsy

Today marks day 2 of a charity cycle ride from Edinburgh in Scotland to Dover in the south east of England - around 500 miles of riding in just 5 days! The ride is to raise funds for Lola Stockdale was born cord prolapsed and was starved of oxygen for 50 minutes.

This resulted in her having cerebral vision, cerebral palsy and developmental issues, and her family is now trying to raise enough money – approximately £100,000 – for her to have stem cell therapy to help improve her quality of living.

Police Officer Warren Beadle of Kent Police is a close friend of Lola’s family after serving in the Army with her father, Noel, 14 years ago. He was so touched by the little girl’s bravery he decided to organise an epic 500-mile cycle ride to help raise the cash for her therapy. 

PC Beadle said: “When I met Lola I was overwhelmed by what a sweet young girl she is and how the whole family pull together to care for her. Noel works long hours for a multinational building company and Lola’s mother, Kelly, works tirelessly to look after Lola and their two other children. The way they carry on regardless of the hardships and always seem to have a smile on their faces, is inspirational. They are an optimistic and hardworking family who deserve all the support we can give them.”

This is a great cause and I was originally supposed to be on this ride with the rest of the guys but unfortunately had to pull out some time ago. I’m sure you all know people who are as tough and deserving as Lola and her family, but if you would like to donate, you can find the details here on the Lola’s Journey website. You can also follow their progress on their Facebook page here.

GOOD LUCK GUYS!

2013 is here and with it brings the awesome new Fantasy Cycling league brought to you by road.cc.

This year we have a new and improved fantasy game to bring you, the new bit is from me (I’ve given the league a new name) and the road.cc chaps are supplying the excellent, improved game play. For those of you who competed last year the game rules are almost exactly the same but the user interface has been improved with improved visual stats and new achievements to unlock in the Premium section. You can find the full list of rules and regulations here.

As we go to press there are no confirmed prizes for this year’s competition but be assured that it will be worth fighting for at every race this season. I’m hoping to secure some prizes for the Grand Tours as well as the overall so make sure you make those team substitutions in time for the next race/stage.

Although you will be able to join the league at any point in the year, overall scores will only be taken from people competing in all of the NON-premium events. We did have a situation last year where a certain someone (who will remain nameless due to editorial privileges) competed in the extra Premium rounds which skewed the scores slightly. This year the Premium game does actually give you something extra rather than just a few extra races. For a mere £10 (that’s 16 Americani bucks by my quaculations) you get 10 extra races including the early Classic races, Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. You also get more stats options for your roster as well as being able to select 2 teams to run side by side, one in the regular LovingTheBike.com league  and the other in a ‘Purist’ league where you keep the same squad throughout the season and are not allowed to make transfers. Please feel free to upgrade to premium and compete with me in every round, the scores will be adjusted accordingly for our own league.

The final thing you need to know is the league details… Head over to road.cc and the LovingTheBike.com league, which can be found with code 76148  if the link doesn’t get you straight there. Ensure you have your account created and first team picked by January 22nd for the start of the Tour Down Under. Although we won’t be reminding you before every competition, when possible, you will get a nudge via the #bikeschool feed on Twitter from myself (@StevieDexter). If you are ever in need of some background information on the races and/or riders my favourite source is steephill.tv. Don’t say I never help!

The best of luck to everyone and please, please don’t beat me!

Stevie

There comes a time in every cyclists life where stage racing seems the most beautiful and awe-inspiring way of making a living.  The scream of the crowd, the podium girls, the adrenalin and the mammoth, super-human efforts needed to achieve your goals mean that even whilst wearing very tight clothing and talking about shaven legs, nobody can deny how bloomin tough you are.

So what happens when you remove all those desirable things?  Millions of people every year take on and complete cycling endurance challenges and there is never the prospect of a screaming crowd of kisses on the cheek from a couple of girls in corporate clothing.  Charity does funny things to people and I’m proud to say I will become one of those to go soft in the old noggin-box next April when I take on a challenge on behalf of ‘Lola’s Journey’.

A group of colleagues and I will be riding from Edinburgh in Scotland all the way to Dover in the South East of England over 5 days.  At approximately 100 miles per day it will be by far the biggest challenge I have taken on a bike but everyone taking on the challenge has got one thing in the back of their mind. The cause.

Lola was born cord prolapsed and was starved of oxygen for 50 minutes.  This has resulted in Lola having four limb cerebral palsy, global development delay and cerebral vision.

When Lola was first born the doctors were ready to give up on her.  To the extent that they even asked me if I would still like my baby as they were reluctant to feed her and didn’t want to give her the start in life she deserved.

Lola has had a tough ride but she has achieved so much in her first few years of her life.  Lola started to breath by her self after a week of life, something that the doctors didn’t think she would ever do and were willing to turn off her life support.  By the time she was 14 months she began to eat three meals a day orally.  Although this is still very difficult for her to do she manages well.  As Lola is now getting stronger and is determined to try more things I would like to raise money to help her achieve her full potential in life.

With your help I am determined to raise money to give Lola stem cell treatment.  This is an operation that introduces new cells into damaged tissue.  Many medical researchers believe that stem cell treatments have the potential to change injury as it has the ability of to self renew and potentially replace damaged areas, with minimal risk of rejection and side effects.

This operation has helped many cerebral palsy children have a better quality of life and I would like Lola to have the same and give her the opportunities to reach her full potential which she was denied of from the beginning.

It might not be stage racing as such but I’m sure there will be a little rivalry between us all and never before will more street signs have been sprinted for!  Over the coming months I’ll be upping my training and thrusting a sponsorship form under anyone who stands still long enough.  As a bunch of amateurs who are organising the whole thing ourselves we’d love to hear from anyone if they can assist us.  Training ideas, similar experiences (good and bad!), stories, tips and hints on how to make it as enjoyable as possible.  A lot of the finer details of the ride are still to be ironed out but I will bring you updates on our challenge as we get closer to the date.

Stevie

Here is part 2 of Aaron Madrid’s ‘Century’ series. You can check out the first installment here and keep your eyes peeled for further editions.  Today @AaronMadrid talks about training and preparation for your event, both physical and mental and how #30daysofbiking helped motivate him so much!

Joining the Century Club – Part 2

So you have an event picked out, now it’s time to start thinking about training.  I know not everyone is like me, but like I mentioned previously, a support group can really be a valuable asset.  My support group came from four locations.  I discovered this very website where you are reading this article now at the beginning of my cycling journey.  I subscribed to the RSS feed and continue to read every article posted each morning as it drops into my email box.

As you surely know already, the information on this website is both educational and often inspirational.  I am proud to be a part of such a passionate, knowledgeable team and to be able to now contribute my own voice to theirs.

Through Lovingthebike.com I discovered #Bikeschool.  As an active twitter user for quite some time, I originally scoffed at the idea of a tweet-chat.  However, I showed up to my first #Bikeschool early in 2011 and now I attend as often as possible.  Many of the people involved in those Thursday night conversations I speak to on a daily basis.  I have even managed to make quite a few very good friends because of it. The discussions are always fun, informative, and engaging, three things I find very valuable, especially when it comes to motivation.

Through both of these groups I learned about #30daysofbiking. The group that created this social cycling movement is equally as fun and they organize an amazing global event.  The idea is simple, ride your bike every day for 30 days.

I further learned about Team Lovingthebike which was being put together for #30DaysofBiking, so I joined up.  It wasn’t anything major, just an opportunity to socialize your rides with other friends and reach for a specific goal. You can search around this site and Google for lots of information and posts from both this year and last year’s events.  Lastly was the encouragement from my family.

Being a new father, I needed to only look at my daughters face to find the heart to go out and push myself to become better.  Lastly my wife was very supportive and allowed me to ride my bike every day.

Let the Century Training Begin

Now we need to start training.  This is actually pretty easy… just ride your bike.  Every day you possibly can make it happen, get out and ride your bike.  I’m competitive by default, so 30 Days of Biking was perfect motivation for me to get out and ride.  Each night after work I would take 30 minutes to an hour and go ride.  Sometimes it was just up to the store down the street to pick something up, but as long as I was riding I was ok.

If you are just starting to ride don’t worry about anything besides getting on that saddle and going.  The more you ride, the faster and farther you will go.  I remember thinking that 10 miles was incredible, and for a 320 pound nerd who spent most of his life on a couch in front of a television… it was.  Eventually you reach a point where you just feel comfortable on your bike.

It get’s easier and easier, and that is when it’s time to start Googling some of the serious stuff.  Once I felt really good on my bike I decided it was time to take it up a notch.  I started asking more questions in #Bikeschool about technique and form.  I watched videos on YouTube about proper pedaling, and breathing and I got even faster and stronger.  I subscribed to Bicycling magazine, which, while informative, has really just caused me to have bike envy for every bike I see. Don’t get me wrong, I love my bike, but the rides in that magazine are frequently way out of my price range…and beautiful.  At this point I still didn’t have anyone really to ride with and I was too afraid to join our local club for fear of looking like a newbie (sorry, that’s a geek term for someone who is often inexperienced to the point of being laughable).

You have an event chosen, you have a great support group to ask questions and learn from, and you are riding your bike every day.  What else can you do to prepare?  Truthfully… not a lot.  Of course, there are specific things you can do on your rides, like interval training and hill repeats (climbing a steep hill over and over again) but the most important thing for incredibly busy people like us, is to just ride.  A couple of rules of thumb, if you can go out and ride ¾ of the distance you are aiming for, you can do it all.  That extra quarter will come easy from the endorphins and adrenaline on the day of the event.  Another rule of thumb is, make sure you are at least riding your goal distance over the course of the week.  Meaning, if you want to ride a century, make sure you are at least riding 100 miles in a week.  Right now because of my commute to and from work, I ride about 150- 200 miles a week, depending on my weekend ride.  I usually rest on Sunday (it’s important to take a break from hard riding if you can).

Thanks to Aaron for a great 2nd edition,

Stevie

We are already a third of the way through #30daysofbiking and Team #LovingTheBike is ‘performing’ really well. As one of the team Road Captains I thought it would only be proper and correct to sing your praises and try to raise the morale even higher with a run down of some of the last week’s worth of photo’s and comments. (Sorry in advance for the formatting… WordPress!)

Krissy showing everyone you can still participate without even going outside!

Craig Stauffer got arty with the camera... or did he get the settings wrong? The bike is the main thing though

I have to admit that this smiling oaf is my brother, Andy Wynn... 30daying it in the rain

Kayla Beaconsfield, one of the youngest members of Team #LovingTheBike takes a well earned nap

Krissy Nelson started the event off as she meant to go on with a little 17 mile ride before dinner! Good work Krissy

Aaron Madrid chillaxin by the river

Landscapes... always a great Reason2Ride

As someone who also commutes after midnight, I appreciate the night time sights as much as Mark

It's amazing what you can find when out on the bike. Myrna Gatheridge Mibus found... this

Riaan Coetzee found a beauty of a single track that'll make commuting to work much more enjoyable

There has been a 'Treasure Island' feel to many of Laura Losey Faulkner's photo's

Glenn Crosse Sr... I salute you! A fine moustache! Chapeau!

You shouldn't need inspiration during #30daysofbiking but I took a quick peak in 'the bike room' to get the mind in gear

Marty Boyd reconnected with the El Paso Bicycle Club chaingang

What is it about facial hair that makes a man look... erm... Chapeau sir!

Tulips... the national flower of Julie Starling's bike nation

Glenn on the Tour de Cure

When riding your bike becomes too easy... try dragging a huge cannon as well like Riaan

To all of Team #LovingTheBike… keep up the great work. Let’s clock up as many rides as possible and shout about it from the rooftops!

Stevie