CHRIS WAINWRIGHT CYCLES ON...

In our last issue, we shared the details of the book debut of our energetic member Chris Wainwright.

His current best selling tome, “Gentlemen, I give you .. “ regales its readers with tales of many famous business leaders of Liverpool’s recent past.

Chris was also inspired to dedicate the proceeds of the book to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, which supports the quest, initiated by Doddie Weir to eradicate MND.

Last month, there was another amazing initiative to support the charity, and Chris could not resist joining it as around 100 cycling and rugby fans made the journey from Murrayfield in Scotland to Cardiff in an astonishing 4-man 520 mile bike relay.

The rules were very simple – one van – 4 bikes – 4 riders.

At least one of the bikes needs to be on the road for every mile, and they all left Edinburgh on the morning of Thursday 10th February with the match ball for the Cardiff versus Scotland Six Nations rugby match on the Saturday 12th February – so they couldn’t dawdle.

Our Editor asked Chris all about it after the weekend:

“ Talk about Monday blues....

The team have returned to daily life after a long weekend of what most would deem as insanity as we set out to cycle across the country, raising awareness and funds in support of Motor neuron disease and The Doddie Weir Foundation.

If you've not come across the ride, allow me to introduce it, a 520-mile charity cycle ride between BT Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in just 48 hours for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

The ride is led by Doddie’s former Scotland and British & Irish Lions teammate Rob Wainwright and we were a team of 4 amongst over 100 other riders who set out to deliver the match ball for the Wales v Scotland game on Saturday. How did we do it?

In our team the goal was simple... keep the bike rolling as much as possible. We achieved this by simply rotating the 4 roles. Ride - Drive - Nav - Rest.

It was vital that each team member took responsibility for their own fuelling, rest and motivation. The importance of this couldn't be stressed enough as each rider had stages to complete whilst keeping enough in the tank to be able to support each other and respond to incidents when they occurred.

I can honestly say, despite being a total mixture of abilities and strengths our team worked like absolute clockwork.

A well-oiled machine striving to achieve a shared goal, proving that anything is possible when you have the right tools for the job and more importantly a solid attitude.

On behalf of the team I'd like to say a huge thank you to all that have donated. The total pot now sits somewhere around £300,000 and is still rising! And our contribution has just passed the £10,000 mark - amazing and my deep gratitude to everyone.

Thank you also to all the amazing sponsors at The Sign Box, Document Direct, Progress Wrestling, Bathgate, Barron Financial Services, The Cross Foxes and Mersey Maritime and Northgate Van Hire.

Connaire also organises some amazing adventure days at www.wheelgoodtimes.com out of the Cross Foxes in Trawsfynydd.

Contact Chris at chrisw@beech-group.co.uk if you do want to help or donate.