President's bike ride

President’s bike ride

The first day will take me from my home in Debenham to an overnight stay in Chelmsford. The following day I will attend the Rotary Club’s lunchtime meeting at Chelmsford Rugby Club. Then, provided my ageing legs are up to it, I will cycle home, hopefully arriving before it is too dark!

I will be sponsoring myself at £2 for every mile I cycle, and hope others who know me or are interested in supporting the following charities will support me with a donation:

• Our Club’s chosen charity for this year, Kids Inspire, which is a Chelmsford-based children’s mental health charity that is looking to expand into Suffolk, so cycling between the two counties is appropriate; and
• Rotary’s own charity, The Rotary Foundation, which supports a myriad of good causes both in the UK and worldwide. Across the world, Rotary’s primary focus has been the eradication of polio.

If you can support me, please make your donation by direct payment to our Trust Fund bank account:
   Account name: Rotary Club of Chelmsford Trust Fund
   Sort code 20-19-95
   Account number 90796948
   Reference: cycle ride

There are some other reasons for my ride, including the following:

• I haven’t done the mileage this trip will involve (it is between 55 and 60 miles from Debenham to Chelmsford, so over 110 miles in two days) for many years, so this is going to be either a “last hurrah” or the start of a cycling Indian summer.
• not using my car for a week will provide some relief from the frustrations of travelling on the A12, as well as doing a little for our planet’s environmental wellbeing.
• a while ago I started a project of photographing Suffolk’s country churches by bike, so this is a good opportunity to add a few of those near the Essex border to my collection.

Intended timings

Wednesday 28 August

• Depart from Debenham by 10:30 am.
• Refreshment stops along the way, around midday at Semer and mid afternoon in Kelvedon or Witham.
• Arrive in Central Park, Chelmsford, hopefully by 5:30 pm.

Thursday 29 August

• Depart Chelmsford Rugby Club between 2 and 2:30 pm after Rotary meeting.
• Hopefully arriving back in Debenham between 8 pm and 8:30 pm.

The route

From Debenham I will pass through the following villages and towns, in order: Stonham Aspall, Earl Stonham, Creeting St. Mary, Needham Market, Barking, Barking Tye, Great Brickett, Naughton, Semer, Kersey, Polstead, Stoke by Nayland, Nayland, Wissington, Bures, Mount Bures, Wakes Colne, Chappel, Great Tey, Little Tey, Feering, Kelvedon, Witham, Hatfield Peverel and Boreham.

The route back the following day will be broadly the same except that from Bures I will go to Kersey via Assington and Boxford.

I will be using country roads as far as possible, although I will have to use the B1113 for several miles from and to Needham Market and short sections on some A roads. The route from Kelvedon to Hatfield Peverel will be on the cycle track alongside the A12.

The equipment

Provided my good friend in Debenham who is also our local cycle mechanic, gives it a clean bill of health, I will be using my 33-year-old “Claud Butler Legend”, shown in the photograph above in the Yorkshire Dales, where I have cycled on it for many years.

If it fails its MOT I will be on a relatively young (12 year old) Cannondale, that made the remaining two trips to Yorkshire, the last in 2016.

How else can you get involved?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Cyclists are welcome to join me, although you will gather from my timings that my pace on the outward trip will be leisurely, in an attempt to preserve my legs for the return trip!
• Meet me when I arrive in Chelmsford or cheer me off when I leave the following day.
• Pray for two fine days on 28 and 29 August, daytime temperature between 18 and 20 degrees, light wind from the east on the 28th, switching to the southwest the following day. In my dreams!

A link to my current collection of Suffolk church photos is here. If you don’t feel like donating for my Rotary bike ride, perhaps these might inspire you to. All these churches have been visited by bike, and with a few exceptions, on rides starting and ending in Debenham

Francis Whitbread

  
Click here to download the flyer about Francis’s upcoming ride in pdf format.