Day 4

OK, So I failed. It is now the tail end of the afternoon of day 6 and I am trying to recall Day 4, So…
Worcester to Chester. It didn’t start too well as some Italian students had attacked the motorhome during the night and the owners were quite rightly a bit miffed.  It is after all Youth we are trying to raise money to support so the irony was a bit lost.  I suppose because they were Italian they can be considered as foreign vandals. However a small delay and we rolled out of Worcester on a sleepy Sunday morning at 0730. We pressed on towards Kidderminster and on to our lunch stop near some locks at Whitchurch. On the way we picked up a couple of riders who had come out especially to join up with us and be part of the Nigel Mansell experience.  A friend of theirs was an avid NM fan and with a car sporting a ‘Red Five’ union jack in the back window he tooted and waved as he passed us for the first time.  A few miles later and we stopped as he had set out his banners and flags from the ’92 British Grand Prix on the side of the road in support of his hero.  A Tee shirt with a picture of Nigel was duly signed and the photos taken.  We saw him about 10 times more along our route over the following few hours till our lunch break.   Post lunch (extended as we were well ahead of schedule and the grand prix was on the telly) we headed off to a bike club function in Chester.  These guys at bike club do am amazing job with some very mixed ability children getting them into our sport.  I was approached by a burger wielding ‘Youf’ on a BMX bike who suggested he could ‘Kick my Arse’ in a cycle race around their very crowded track.  This was a catch 22 situation – win and demoralise the young lad (with a bit of an attitude) and run the risk of my Cento Uno being slightly misaligned or loose and face a ribbing from him for a couple of minutes.  I am a chicken who likes his bike too much so took the latter option.  Not the best move as i then had to ‘race’ several other Youfs to prove that i was useless.  I tried to reason that 300 miles in the last few days might have taken a bit out of my legs but that didn’t work either. Answer – give my bike to maria (media lady) to have a go on and make a polite excuse as i was strapped into a wheelchair bike with greg at the controls.  The first collision was at the second corner and the dumping out along the back straight.  We swapped places and with a bit of effort managed to stay ahead of Leo on a hand driven trike.

Fun over and bike still in one piece we made our way to the Premier inn for dinner and sleep.   We said our goodbyes to the guys from LR8 and Lotus who had been with us for a second day and not spent as much time in the broomwagon. The guy who had been to hospital following a collision managed to ride the whole day with no major problems despite having a hole in the palm of his right hand (i hope he doesn’t need his hands for his job as a composites engineer at Lotus Racing).  Matt had gone home the night before and had thoroughly enjoyed himself (he could only get a pass for one day), Eric decided to re-arrange his week and stay on till Tuesday (Carlisle) and then come back for the final two days from Lincoln to London. The other two went home with smiles on their faces as they had ridden most of the day’s easier sections and avoided most of the hilly stuff.  Well done lads, I know two other young racing drivers who thought riding a bike was easy and with a bit of training they seem to be able to prove it so.

To the bar and dinner to meet Andy Crinson and his team from AI in Blackpool who would be riding to Carlisle with us.   Day 5 (yesterday) comes next.

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• July 27, 2010
• BY Ian Williams
• IN