VHE employees complete cycling challenge in aid of Tiny Tickers

Five VHE employees took on the Way of the Roses cycling challenge to raise money for the VHE charity of the year, Tiny Tickers, and so far have raised £4,895.01!

On Friday 2nd June Equipment Support Manager Darren Whittaker, Project Manager Richard Hargreaves, Works Supervisor Mark Nuttall, Engineer Chris Milbourn and Site Agent Iain Power commenced the 170 mile coast to coast route between Morecambe and Bridlington. On the second day they were also joined by Estimator John Murphy.

Darren Whittaker describes the route they followed;

Day 1 – Morcambe to Burnsall – 51.8 miles and 4,000ft of climbing

The team left Morecambe and followed the traffic free cycle route through Lancaster riding opposite the former VHE Luneside site and on to Caton where the days climbing started, over 4,000ft of it! It felt like a fairly progressive climb for about 20 miles followed by a welcome decent to Settle where we stopped for lunch. Then came the big one, the 1.5km climb out of Settle, a real leg and lung burner. However, as normally is the case, this was followed by a decent to Airton which was great fun and probably the highlight of the ride. Seven of us like a freight train coming off the hillside and we hardly had to pedal for around four miles. Iain Power managed to pick up two punctures and Mark Nuttall managed a tactical dis-mount, or in plain English, he “fell off”, no damage to himself just a few scratches to his bike.

Day 2 – Burnsall to York – 56.6 miles and 3,000ft of climbing

Within three miles of leaving Burnsall we had a tough climb from Appletreewick up to the top of Greenhow Hill followed by the extremely fast downhill into Pately Bridge with some of the team hitting 45mph+. We then headed over to Brimham Rocks where we hit a few more short sharp climbs, the ride got a little easier from here taking in Fountains Abbey, Ripon for lunch, Boroughbridge and finally finishing the day in York.

Day 3 - York to Bridlington – 63.4 miles and 2,000ft of climbing

With the finish line in sight and knowing the hills were more or less finished we picked up the pace and cracked on leaving York and racking up 40 miles in under three hours. We then stopped for lunch in Driffield and then slowed the pace for a leisurely run into Bridlington.

Although the team have successfully passed the finishing line it is not too late to donate via the Virgin Money Giving page. All at VHE and Tiny Tickers appreciate any support you can give.

Steve Stiff, VHE Managing Director, commented; “This was a tremendous effort by the lads, including our ever willing charity crew support manager, Brian Sparkes, who made sure all riders made it to the start on time, delivered and collected clean socks and underpants from the overnight stops and collected the team from the finish line.

Everyone at VHE is really proud and grateful to all of the team for taking on such a challenge, largely in their own time, to support this year’s chosen charity and have raised an exceptional amount of donations for their efforts. Well done and thank you to all of you.

VHE staff have a long standing history of charitable challenges including the Lyke Wake Walk, Yorkshire Three Peaks and Snowdon already conquered. Ideas for something new are very welcome!”