We were delighted to be told that John and Lloyd were already well into their fundraising for us and Ambitious About Autism when they contacted us about their challenge bike ride over the weekend of 26th/27th June. The event went ahead as planned and the guys managed to further increase their fundraising amount on VirginGivingMoney.com to over £3.5k!

We asked if they could get some photos along the way and tell us about the ride and how it went.

“Me and my cycling buddy Lloyd Norton (both from Boldmere) have been training for the last 6 months to complete the Ambitious for Autism charity ride, raising money for autism charities in the UK, including Autism West Midlands.  My son is autistic, and autism charities have been very supportive to our family over the last few years.  The ride is usually from London to Manchester, but due to the COVID situation, this year you could choose any route you like – you just needed to complete 220 miles over the weekend of 26th/27th June.  We decided to get the majority out of the way on Saturday, and cycled 160 miles – starting off from Boldmere at 5am, arriving in Stratford at 7.15am (accompanied by our friend Paul Fielding to that point) before heading back up to Lichfield, and then loops around the Sutton/Coleshill area.  The final 60 on Sunday were a breeze compared with Saturday, and we were joined by some friends (Scott Neilson and David Doogan) to get us through.

Legs are finally starting to feel normal now…but the ride was really good, motivated massively by the sponsorship support we received.

Most importantly, we’ve raised over £3500 so far – but further donations are certainly welcome.  The link is https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/TheClaretandTheBlue.  Lloyd is a Villa season ticket holder – yuck! – whereas I have one for St Andrews, hence our name 🙂 “

Special thanks to John and Lloyd for their fantastic effort for us!