As you’ll see, Streetgames is a wonderful project and the visit was an uplifting experience for everyone involved. 

Enjoy…

After yesterday’s ride we went to Stoke-on-Trent’s young persons community project, Streetgames.  There were loads of really enthusiastic kids, all doing their best to beat me on the cycle challenge (this involves two laps of a circuit on a static bike).  I’m afraid to say that two or three of them did get the better of me and I was given a lot of stick. It was a great project and really backed up what has been written in the report, Laureus: Breaking the Cycle of Violence - Click here to read it.

I’m also delighted that Jed Mason, who joined us on yesterday’s leg, presented a cheque for £1000 to the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. He has also pledged a further £1000 on completion of the ride, which is extremely generous and has given me even more motivation (not that I needed any!).

Today we had an even tougher route over some pretty serious hills but I’m feeling good and slowly starting to get used to that saddle. Halfway through the ride we were joined by the Laureus Head of Communications, Mal Thompson (no relation!), but his timing couldn’t have been worse - he started at the bottom of a 2 mile hill. Mal dropped back about halfway up, leaving the rest of us to wait at the top with big grins on our faces. By the time he arrived we were bombarded with excuses about the saddle, gears, handlebars and all sorts of other strange problems. To give Mal some credit, he started to motor ahead after that but there’ll be a few charity fines for him this evening.

Later this afternoon we’re visiting the Sporting Futures project just outside Coventry.