Team Star Inn Medstead to Paris Bike Ride

On the 23^rd July, 22 members of “Team Star Inn” will be setting off from Croydon to cycle some 300 miles to the Eiffel Tower. The journey will take us 4 days with overnight stops at Calais, Arras and Compiegne. As if that isn’t enough, several of us are cycling 65 miles to Croydon from Medstead in Hampshire (via the Star Inn in Bentworth) the day before. As if that isn’t MORE than enough, three of the more insane individuals intend to forgo the celebrations in Paris, immediately turn round and cycle another 185 miles straight back to Bentworth (in less than two days!) with the intention of beating the rest of us coming back on Eurostar the next day. For them, that will be an overall total of 550 miles in 6 days.

And why are we doing it? Last year Matt Williams, the landlord of the Star in Bentworth, and 4 other regulars decided to take up the challenge, formed “Team Star Inn” and entered the Action Medical Research 2007 London-Paris ride. They went on to complete the ride and raised over £14000 for AMD. They even picked up a new member from Cornwall on the way. So this year they are doing it again and others (including some of their wives) have decided they also need a challenge and are joining them to make up a 23 strong team.

Each of us has pledged to raise at least £1100 for AMD (although £545 of that is the cost of entry which we will be paying ourselves). To do this we will be getting sponsorship and organising a number of fundraising events. However, based on last year’s success, we believe that we can raise a lot more than that and some of us have decided that we also want to raise money for a local charity, Broadlands Riding for the Disabled in Medstead.

This is a big physical challenge for most of us. We estimate that the ride itself will account for only 15% of the cycling we each will need to do between when we started training and when we arrive in Paris – that’s over 2000 miles of training. Most of us have never attempted anything of this magnitude before. Added to that, some of us are not the most athletic or youngest people on this planet and will need to shed a fair amount of weight before we set off on this epic journey – probably a bigger challenge than the cycling.

For more information on Team Star Inn go to the Team Star Inn website or the Star Inn website Paris Bike Ride page.

For more information on the AMD London-Paris Bike Ride go to Action Medical Research London-Paris Bike Ride or to look at the route go to Medstead-Paris Route.

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