Bike with Jake

Last week I posted on Twitter about the amazing story of a 10 year old, Jake Phipps, who was cycling from Land's End to Dover to raise money for charity.

Jake is making the journey from Land's End to Dover, following the coast as closely as possible. The route is approximately 660 miles, almost 300 more than by taking the most direct route. He is making the journey with his mother, Nic, and a friend of the family, Philip. They are raising money for the charity, Action for Children.

A colleague of mine found the story on our local newspaper's website, and suggested I meet up and cycle with them when they came through the area. The newspaper article said they were due to come through Eastbourne/Bexhill on Monday 16th August, so I checked their blog, to see where they were.

I started following their progress on Endomondo and tried to work out when they would be passing through. It didn't take long to work out that it wouldn't be Monday, but it might have been Tuesday. In fact it worked out as Today (Wednesday).

I took the day off work and suggested to my 10 year old son, Thomas, that he might like to come with me. This morning I turned the computer on and checked Endomondo waiting for their tracker to start for the day. It started just before 10am so we got on our bikes and headed to where we thought they might be heading. After a few miles, I checked the tracker and noticed they were going north and not east! We decided to wait and see where they were going to turn east. After a some time they turned east along NCR2 so we headed north on NCR21 to find them. I checked the tracker after a few more miles to see if they were still on the NCR2 and they were, so we continued on to meet them. We got to the point of intersection and waited. After about 20 minutes, they arrived. I introduced myself and my son and explained that we'd been tracking them. They were excited to see us.

We headed towards Eastbourne seafront and I led the way, giving them much needed respite from map/route reading. We arrived at the seafront and then went in search of somewhere to have lunch. We had lunch and chatted about their journey in detail. After lunch we headed east towards Bexhill, their destination for the day. Along the way I continued to talk to Jake, his mum and Philip about their journey so far. For most of the ride, my son and Jake were riding together and getting to know each other.

Late afternoon we arrived in Bexhill where we proceeded to have tea and cake at the De La Warr Pavilion. After leaving the De La Warr, I showed them the way to Sainsbury's to stock up on provisions. We then bode them farewell as they rode the final few miles to the camp site. My son was tired at this time and we rode the short distance to the train station to get the next train home. My son and I rode just short of 30 miles in total.

I'm really pleased I took the time to find them as it was a great day for both me and my son. He can't stop talking bikes now and I think he wants to be like Jake. Thank you guys, you made our day!

Link: Bike with Jake Blog

Link: Jake's Virgin Money Giving Page

Jake, Nic and Philip outside the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea