The day I met Chris Hoy (and the other cyclists)
On 13 May I met up with the other riders for the first time at the HSBC UK National Cycle Centre in Manchester. I’ll do a couple of posts on this as it was such an amazing day.
The thing that really hit home was how much effort HSBC and Fuse are making. Fuse are a PR company that HSBC are employing to handle the PR and the logistics and support for the ride. We all got filmed, photographed and interviews – the output will be put on the internal HSBC website and on the internal Cycle Hub app.

The highlight of the day was obviously meeting up and riding with Sir Chris Hoy. I know it is a bit of cliché but he seemed a genuinely nice bloke. If I’d won 6 gold medals, I’d probably not be as grounded. I’m not sure what he thought of the bamboo bike but everyone seemed genuinely interested in it. Fortunately, it functioned well on the 15 mile ride and I was pleased that I’d fine-tuned the gears (as best I could).

Me and Sir Chris - clearly impressed by my bamboo bike (er, probably)

Chris gave us some really useful advice:
Imagine your future-self at John O’Groats – they’d give us one piece of advice: spend more time on the bike before you start the challenge.

The other riders

I’m hoping the fact that I ride 20 miles a day to and from work will stand me in good stead – Chris seemed to think that this would really help me. 

My fellow riders seemed generally as unprepared as I am - obviously that won't help me but it gave me the kind of reassurance I used to get when I went into an exam and suspected that my class-mates haven't read the text-book either.

I thought the above photo is interesting. OK, Chris just about wins the thigh muscle contest (!) but I think I have the edge on the calf muscle front. Surely that's got to help at some point?

How you can help

To sponsor me: please go to https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EdThompsonLEJOG

For regular updates on my preparation and the ride itself, please follow me on twitter: @BambooLEJOG


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