QF Focus Magazine Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
For those of you who read cycle clips on a regular basis you will all know and appreciate Nick Dinsdales cycling articles, inputs and features. Nick owns NJD Sports Injury Centre and works very closely with all the professional cyclists, including the British Team, and in particular Matt Bottrill. Nick and Carol have been great friends of Lynn and I for many years and Nick has been an inspiration to many people including my daughter’s boyfriend Sam Maunder, who was diagnosed with the same illness that Nick has.
Sam just graduated from Edinburgh University with a first class honours degree at the end of June. However earlier on in the year Sam was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, which was a shock to everyone. He had been complaining about sore feet all the time and being tired and everyone told him to slow down that he was doing too much. My youngest daughter Sonia and Sam are regular visitors over here at our villa and on one occasion 18 months ago I asked Sam out on a road bike with my regular Thursday night training group which is pretty hard. He loved it and didn’t find any pressure on his feet which meant they weren’t sore, he also enjoyed a few buckets of beer when we had finished and through Dutch courage, and a lot of persuasion from the guys, he said he would come with us on the Sunday ride which was 125kms and included the climb from Albatera to Hondon de Las Frailes and back via Aspe. This is a pretty tough ride for only your second trip on a road bike but he made it and without walking, brilliant effort. On our return home I told my daughter that she could keep him as he was pretty tough. After that holiday he went back to the University and got a group of guys together, they bought some cheap bikes and formed the Edinburgh University cycling club. They got sponsorship from High 5 and Endura clothing and even got Jans Voight to come over as a guest and speak to them.
Sam is a real nice guy and a fighter and after some pretty tough times with his illness and medication he became
more informed,
determined and aware of his illness, so he decided to try and raise some money for the Highland Hospice Trust. He set his sights on cycling from London to Alicante covering well over 2000kms and to raise well over £2000. He left London with a close friend from University, Matthew Benger, on Friday 17th July heading for Dover at 7 am to beat the traffic. From Dover their route was to
Calais, Lens, Compiegne and Paris where they caught the train to Geneva. From Geneva they headed for Sion, Como, Milan, Genoa, San Remo, then along the coast to Barcelona, Valencia, Calpe, Alicante and finally Quesada. The guys arrived at our shop in
Quesada on Wednesday 12th August after covering a total distance of 2937kms. They were very tired but delighted to have made the trip and both thoroughly enjoyed it. They had a few mishaps on the way, punctures, broken spokes and a little tumble where Sam ended up having to walk a few kms carrying the bike to the nearest village and looking for a bike shop to repair his trusty stead. The bike shop they found was unable to help so they had to get the train 30km to Barcelona where again the first shop did not have the parts but the second one did. He had to get new forks and a new front wheel and disc before they could continue. However they overcame and got on with it leaving Barcelona a day behind schedule but soon made up time and enjoyed the rest/ recovery day. After that gruelling month of hard riding they both came out with us on our Thursday night club ride over Rebate and down to Torremendo then back to El Granio in Benijofar, where they celebrated with the lads and a few buckets of beer. Sam also asked if we would take him up the climb from Albatera to Hondon de las Frailes on the Sunday, as this is where it all started and he wanted to see if it was any easier, but we didn’t as my daughter Sonia had arrived and wanted to spend some quality time with us and Sam, so we promised that we would take him up when they next come back.
If anyone is interested in supporting or making a donation to Sam you can do so at
https://www.justgiving.com/SamMaunder/. You can also follow them to see what they got up to on their blog at
www.maundering-around-the-world.blogspot.com. As if that is not enough two weeks after this epic ride, Sam plans to take a year out and depart on a round the world trip while he can (not on his bike this time). He plans to leave in early September and travel to Dubai, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand then America before flying home. He is planning a few months work in Australia to help pay for his adventures. What a guy.
Gary and Lynn are available at Cyclogical, in Quesada Monday to Friday from 9.30am – 5.30pm and from 10am -2pm on Saturdays to assist and advise you on all your cycling requirements.
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