"Ride the Night" with the night riders.

Saturday turned out to be very special - we were watching TV when we realised the 'Nightriders' were going past;

So we did what we did last year - grabbed whatever LED lights we could find and stood at the side of the road to wish them on their way.

Robyn had a balloon with an LED inside, I had a children's sparkly LED wand.

We were in good company;

Thousands of women were riding past - for the annual 'Ride the Night' event organised by 'Women v cancer to raise money for the three main women's cancer charities; Breast Cancer Care, Joe's Cervical Cancer Trust and Ovarian Cancer Action.

They were in for a long, hard night - the night ride started at Windsor Racecourse and was going to be winding its way through to central London and then all the way back in time for dawn.

That's a hundred kilometres or more than 60 miles.

The nightriders wear all kinds of LED's, there are lots of illuminated rabbit ears, pink tutu's, bikes lit up with strings of Christmas lights and, of course, lots and lots of angels wings

There's something inherently exciting about standing at the side of the road watching races like Le Tour de France or the Tour of Britain going past.

But nothing compares with cheering on the nightriders as they ride past into the night - each with their own story to tell and on track to raising £2 million between them for the three charities.

We were out there at the side of the road cheering them on and waving lights for two hours.

Afterwards I could hardly walk and I paid for it today when my back was agony again but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

The Night Riders; Women V Cancer 2016.

We went out on Saturday night to get a Chinese takeaway - we'd been promising it to ourselves all week but it never happened.

On the way, we saw lots of direction arrows on the sign posts - was it a bike race?

Then in the evening we realised it was a night ride!

And as the riders kept on coming we went out to cheer them on and wish them good luck.

I was waving my clockwork torch and Robyn had an LED disco light.

There were over 3 thousand riders, all women, raising money for the three major womens cancer charities. This was Women V Cancer 2016 and if you want to join next years ride you need to register now; they are on the web here;

http://www.ridethenight.co.uk/

They were cycling over 100 Kilometres and came in all shapes and sizes; with Christmas lights and angels costumes, silly pink wigs and Tutus, flowers and racing lycra .

They just kept on coming;

They started off from Windsor racecourse and we were just a hundred yards from the 10 kilometre mark. They were heading off to central London to ride round all the sights, then back to Windsor by a different route.

We ended up standing at the side of the road wishing them good luck for the best part of an hour and a half.

And Robyn took this rather fetching picture of me;

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com