Grand Depart - Tour Of Britain 2009 Scunthorpe

As this years Tour of Britain is starting in our home town, I have felt it was my duty to write an article. It has filled every rider in the area with pride to find that we have won the great honour of hosting this years 'Grande Depart' and our local councils and police force haven't let us down in their efforts.

The area around the start line was a cycling festival, with bike suppliers stalls and many other cycling related stalls including our very own stall linked with the promotion of the Treaderz and Lincsquad combined, many thanks to our own Jeff Chappill and from Lincsquad, Alan Rayment both of whom did a sterling job promoting cycling and multi-sport in our area.

Back to the race itself, many of the pro tour riders attended, above right is Bradley Wiggins, probably one the best British pro tour riders at this time, along with local riders such as Malcolm Elliot of Sheffield.

The riders rolled north out of town towards Normanby Hall where the racing began. A couple of minor hills allowed Michael Mortesen and Thomas de Gendt to break away from the main pack. By the time the race had looped back to come through Scunthorpe for the second time, they had achieved a five minute gap, a further 10k they had got this to 8 minutes at Keadby Bridge where I managed to get the video footage you can view below.

All in all a very exciting start for the Tour of Britain, well done to North Lincolnshire Council for what they have achieved on our behalf and lets hope it further boosts local interest in our sport.

If anyone wants any help in achieving their fitness, charitable or general cycling aims then we can help, the Treaderz that is, so just post a comment on to any of our blogs and we will be in touch to help.

Bidding Now Open !

Bidding is now open for the charity auction, email bids are open to everyone......

Please follow this link for a list of the main items and details on how to bid;

http://www.treaderz.co.uk/auction.htm

Happy bidding........grab yourself a bargain!!!

Need Auction Items

We are holding a charity Auction on the presentation night on th 12th Septmeber and we need more items to Auction.

We need to have promise of the item or the item no later than the 28th August so only got a couple of weeks.

Whether you can offer a signed picture of Lance Armstrong, a cycling bottle discarded on the Tour De France or an afternoons gardening work, anything will help.

If you can donate anything please leave a comment to this post and we will be in touch.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered

Help - Next Year's Tour Suggestions

For the first time ever the Scunthorpe Treaderz are stuck for suggested routes for next year!

We need suggestions as to what our charity endurance ride route should be for next year. It needs to be something manageable, ie approx 80 - 100 mile per day for a maximum of 5 days.

We would prefer to either start or finish, or in fact both in Scunthorpe as it is getting logistically difficult to transport 20 - 30 riders with bikes and luggage.

All suggestions are welcome along with suggestions for which Charity to raise funds for, this does need to be a local Charity as we prefer to keep the money we have raised within Scunthorpe.

If you have a suggestion for either please reply to this post.

The Complete Video

Video Section

DAY 1 DAY 2




DAY 3 DAY 4







DAY 5

Holmfirth Day 5

Cycling Tops

Top value, all of the money goes to the charities, thanks to the sponsors whos' names appear on the tops for donating the money to produce them.

We are selling them at a bargain price of £15/each, so why not buy 2.

If you are interested please leave a message to this post and I will get in touch.

Cheers

Meet the Riders

Day 5 Holmfirth - Scunthorpe

The final day!

A tired team mustered to breakfast for 7am, where we fed to the same standards as the evening meal, half a pig per breakfast and so on.
It was what we needed as final boost to face what looked like an awful day, weather wise. The only way out of Holmfirth is to climb and that we did, for about 3 miles, just right to warm tired legs up! We climbed onto the moors into drizzle and fog where it was very cold. It was slow riding on the tops in head wind and the first 11 miles took about an hour. Navigation was tough and we stuck together. It was a nice route, managing to avoid Doncaster and Barnsley town centres. After a disasterous spate of punctures and damaged tyres (mended with gaffer tape) out of South Emsall we pushed on.

The head wind continued to batter away at us but we kept going, reaching the 1 hour away point , Sandtoft near Scunthorpe at about 2.30pm, where we phoned ahead and let everyone know we were coming. We rode into Scunthorpe as a tight team, adrenalin and excitement keeping us going.

We arrived back at St Lukes School for 3.40pm to an incredible return, rode the bikes as far as the School hall where we welcomed by staff, pupils,friends and family. The pupils had made a banner 'Welcome Back Treaderz' which was very touching, the welcome was amazing, the best we have ever received.

Well that's it for the ride folks but stay tuned, I will try and get some video's on here one way or another. I will be putting a 'This Years Riders Section' on along with photos, just so you know who we all are and I still want your money, for the charities that is, so if you can spare anything before the presentation night on the 12th September, then please get in touch.

Todays Garmin Link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9334972

Day 4 Blackpool - Holmfirth

A very urban day of riding and a tough day's navigation. Not a high mileage but the team needed to stick together to follow the sat nav as we routed out of Blackpool, through Preston, round the back of Bolton, across through Bury, Heywood, Middleton, Birch into Oldham and out into the hills at Saddleworth. We found a very good reception in Oldham, where cars stopped at junctions for us, kids cheered and clapped and overall a very warm welcome.

The team are tired, Mark Baker is suffering with both of his knees, Ric Short suffering with one knee and Jamie aching following his crash.

We made good time to Holmfirth, where we arrived to a familiar site, the place we stopped 4 years ago on the second tour, at the Old Bridge Hotel, very friendly great food (fantastic portions) and tonight behind the bar they have a charity bucket for us.

It's the final day tomorrow, spirits are high home to family and friends and hopefully a good reception (in the rain!) again at St Lukes School for mid afternoon, we will be stopping an hour away to let people know what time exactly we will be back.

Tired as I will be tomorrow night I will do a final nights posting and perhaps learn how to upload a video or two.

On behalf of the team, I would like to say a big thanks to Sarah, who has driven the support vehicle, gone shopping for us and looked for lost riders!

Requests Area

Dean
Tamika, Krista miss you both can't wait to get home, been a good trip, hope my house is still in one piece!

Dazzy G
Eh up Pudding Chops, Bran & Dec missing you all lots, won't be long now till I'm home

Martin
Zachary, daddy's nearly finished his big bike ride, look forward to seeing you and mummy tommorow

Kev
All the guys at Humberside last day tommorrow, going to be good to get back to work....... in the car!

Todays Garmin Link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9245929

Day 3 Pateley Bridge - Blackpool

Before I start a quick request from Mark;

Hello to Lucy & Ella love from Daddy

A very tough start today, a lovely hotel we stayed in at Pateley Bridge, Harefield Hall Hotel,top quality food, just took so long to prepare we were a little late setting off.

We were all a little nervous setting off knowing that the first 4 miles were just a hill, Greenhow Hill so hearts were racing before we were on the bikes. We set off and did the hill in 30 mins approx. The morning continued with lots of big hills up and down like rollercoasters. We got to Grassington were we met by Scunthorpe United flags being waved.... Steve Grout's parents were there for the weekend. We continued to Cracoe were the rain started and an accident occured, Jamie came off smacking his hands knee and crash hat on the ground and breaking his brake/gear lever, he is ok just a little bruised.

My garmin played up again so no data to upload, we did 75 miles, over 6 hours in hilly terrain.

I haven't got any pictures yet for today, I will catch up with Sarah tommorow and put some pictures on at dinner time.

We arrived quite late tonight, it was nearly seven when we got into the hotel so you can appreciate my brief post tonight as it is now gone midnight.

Day 2 Scarborough - Pateley Bridge

Day 2 Or shall we call it the Treaderz go swimming!

A tough day in both navigation and wind direction, at us all day.

We split from an early stage this morning into a fast group and into the group that is suffering! We all made it in the end.

We had several incidents in the first 50 yards this morning, a tyre off the rim and a fall before we left the street the hotel was on. It took a little longer than expected to reach Castle Howard but spirits were high, Minster FM had our details on every hour on the hour this morning.

My garmin did not like the route, kept crashing and trying to send us back to Scarborough and now when I try to upload it to the internet it is telling me I have done nothing, my legs are telling me otherwise!

After a team re group near Boroughbridge, we set off for the last 20 miles, only to be met by 'Road Closed' signs, flooding ahead, which we ignored only to find two flooded sections of road. The first of which we managed to navigate around in a field. The second we could only get past by, taking off our shoes and socks, wadding in and walking through, it was about 100m long and about 1m deep at worst. We have videos, i will try to upload if Blogger lets me, I don't think it likes videos

Day 1 Scunthorpe - Scarborough

What a day!
The best ever send off we have received, from parents, friends, family and press this morning their must have been about 100 people seeing us off this morning. We rode out of the school through a tunnel of people cheering for us. The police closed all the junctions down out of Scunthorpe so we had a straight ride out of town.

The weather has been kind to us unusually, having been forecast heavy rain and strong winds, we seemed to cloud dodge all day, only getting a little damp this morning from road spray.
At the minute, this is just a quick write up before tea, after we have eaten I will grab all the technology and upload pictures and videos.

The Garmin link is below, showing our ride time of 5 Hours 49 mins for the 85 mile ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9033091

Everyone managed the ride in fine form today but it is only day 1!

As previously stated, I will put more information on the blog after I have eaten but I am very hungry now

Is everybody ready?.......then we will begin

The time has come, everything is in place, the training has been done.

Start time tomorrow morning is 8.30 - 9am out side on the field next to St. Luke's School on Grange Lane South in Scunthorpe.

Anyone wishing to see us off if the could park in the road next to the Toyota Garage opposite, so as not to get in the way of the School Busses coming in.

Also watch this space, I will be updating the blog at every opportunity, with pictures, video and general chit chat.

Keep watching

Sponsors & Supporters

We need all the sponsors and supporters we can get, this year we are doing a 5 day endurance ride in aid of 2 charities, Scunthorpe MS Society & St. Lukes Special School sports equipment.
This years ride will start on the 17th July 2009 setting off from St. Lukes School in Scunthorpe at 9am:
Day 1: Scunthorpe - Scarborough
Day 2: Scarborough - Pately Bridge
Day 3: Pately Bridge - Blackpool
Day 4: Blackpool - Holmfirth
Day 5: Holmfirth - Scunthorpe

We expect to do in the region of 400 miles in the 5 days, covering The Pennines twice.

We will be having Police Out riders ensuring that we leave Scunthorpe on the 17th July, this should be quite a colourfull start to the ride with blue lights flashing etc, now 22 riders and a support vehicle, covered in Logo's from all the companies that are sponsoring us.

If you feel you can help in any way, be it advertising, cash or anything you can think of please post a comment in reply to this post.

Daily Ride Updates

Hi everyone, just a few notes so you will know what to expect during the ride.

I will be updating the blog site every evening while we are away, this is in addition to the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph doing follow up stories whilst we are away. They have leant us a decent camera, to take photos with which we will also be using here on the blog.

In addition to a daily story, there will be a link to Matt Porter's sat nav system, which you will be able to see the routes, calorie count and heart rate stats, just so you can see how much pain we are going through.

Martin McGloughlin will be riding with a head cam, so expect to see some video updates on here as well, although I will try to restrict this to the funny or dangerous looking bits, it could get a little boring if I post the full days video links. I may also try to do an interview to the head cam to sum up the days ride.

So with all this technology with us, it will be like doing the ride without any of the pain, enjoy!

Treaderz

2009 Routes

Day 1 Scunthorpe - Scarborough


Day 2 Scarborough - Pately Bridge


Day 3 Pately Bridge - Blackpool


Day 4 Blackpool - Holmfirth


Day 5 Holmfirth - Scunthorpe

Last Minute Sponsorship

Hi if anyone can find their way to sponsoring us in this final week before the ride itself;

Please make cheques payable to: Scunthorpe Treaderz

and post them to;

Matt Porter
Scunthorpe Treaderz
C/O Flexi-Hire Ltd
Unit 1 Ashley Ind Est
Exmoor Avenue
Scunthorpe
North Lincs
DN15 8NJ

Any companies sponsoring us will automatically get a weblink of some description and the offer of sticker space on the support vehicle, stickers need to be received at the above address no later than 16th July 2009.

Thanks again to everyone that has sponsored us already..

Treaderz

Final Preparations

Nearly there now, 9 days to go, still looking for more sponsors, more publicity and more time for extra training.

No, joking aside, all riders are ready for action, after hours of training for everyone I think we are ready.

We shall be setting off from St. Luke's School in Scunthorpe at approx 8.30 - 9am Friday 17th July. If you would like to support us it would be appreciated, as the Team need as much morale boosting as possible, they won't be hurting yet but give them a couple of days and they will know about it.

We shall be riding through whatever weather conditions are thrown at us, it wouldn't be the first time that we have spent a day in torrential rain and high winds. Every morning we shall be up for 7am to eat and prepare for the days ride, so there won't be any late nights, all will be in bed for 11pm at the latest, or at least that's what I would suggest!

If you feel you can help, be it publicity, sponsorship or just a cheeer as we set off or go past, it would be much appreciated.

Treaderz

Appleby Frodingham Gala

Many thanks to everyone that helped on the day at the stall and to everyone that donated money or took part in activities.

A special thanks to Daz Grey of D.C. Leisure who let us have use of one of his inflatable Penalty Shoot Out Set up's.

Along with the penalty shoot out, sale of cycling tops, raffle tickets and kind donations we managed to raise £298 for the day.

Again thanks to everyone for making this possible

Treaderz

Burringham Duathlon 2009

The Burringham Duathlon Series opened tonight with a 1 - 11 - 1, that is a 1 Mile Run, 11 Mile Bike Ride followed by another 1 Mile Run. A very good turn out 57 competitors in all and a good turn out for the Treaderz. A big well done to Claire, Jamie and Matt in completing their first duathlons ever! Not an easy task but all managed it, results will follow within the next 10 days and will be posted as soon as they are for all of the Treaderz that completed it.

Well done again to Claire, Jamie and Matt !

Team Photo - Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph

With a big thanks to Paul Torrie at the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph for doing our team photo with the new team kit. The Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph are supporting us over Easter with a full article about us and this years ride, thanks to Paul Hart for that one.

As always we have been given great publicity by the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph and Paul Hart and we are very gratefull. When the article is published online I will put a link to it from here.

Team Members Introduction & General Chat

Please use this section to introduce yourself and any inter-club chat

Training Talk & Equipment

This section is for the Team to chat about training rides, events and any equipment bargains or advice. Even if you are going out for an hour after work or at a weekend and fancy some company post on here and see if anyone fancies joining you.

I will start the posting with the 3 Team Training rides:

DATES

Sunday 19th April Scunthorpe 30 - 40 Mile Team Riding Basic Skills

Sunday 17th May Kippax (leeds) 50 Mile Navigation Trial 50/50 Split Urban/Rural Navigation

Sunday 28th June Hawes - Wensleydale 50 Mile tough hill ride, see what the hills do to us as a team.

Let me know who is up for this and I will arrange transport.

Treaderz Background

We formed as a cycling team in 2005 and our ideas have grown with us.
We have for a few years now had our own website www.treaderz.co.uk , please feel free to visit if you haven't done so already.
This year we wanted to expand our internet communications one step further with the addition of a blog, so here we are.
The blog is here for the use of team members to communicate what we are doing as regards training, what fund raising achievements we have made and just general communication.
The blog is also here for anyone who cares to follow our path, both in fund raising and on the ride itself. In the run up to the ride itself we will be posting what publicity we are achieving, what fund raising targets we are hitting. The ride itself will be a different matter, I do plan to take a Lap Top with us on the ride this year so I can publish a daily ride update, hopefully with a few photos.
If you feel you can sponsor us in any way, please post on here. Companies, if you wish to offer corporate sponsorship a link to your own website can be posted on here. We can also provide you with a full written receipt with all charity numbers.