Every year a team of colleagues from Cambridge, calling themselves the Red Pouches, set themselves an energetic challenge to raise money for local charities.
This year the team came from beyond Cambridge, so they became the Anglia Red Pouches (with a couple of other regions represented as well).
La Tour de Paris
Their challenge was to pedal fromCambridge toParisover four days – a trip of 273 miles and around 22 hours in the saddle, and they left on Monday July 12.
The journey took them fromCambridge mail centre toGreenwich inLondon. From there they travelledl to Newhaven for an overnight ferry crossing toDieppe. Then it was on to Cergy Pontoise St Martin and finally into the centre ofParis, finishing beneath theEiffelTower.
Quel effort
The team:
- Chris Welsh (team leader from Cambridge mail centre)
- Phil Barnard (based at Cambridge mail centre) and son Corbie
- Eddie Thompson, Paul Blacktop and Peter Reynolds (from Cambridge mail centre)
- Phil Standbridge and Robert Allsop (from Cambridge delivery office)
- Wendy Walker (from Oakham delivery office in the Midlands)
- James Tully (from Ipswich mail centre)
- Richard Baronowski (based at Peterborough mail centre)
- Alec Pybus (Royal Mail Anglia regional operations team)
- Steve Ratcliff (formerly at Royal Mail Anglia, now based in London)
- Simon Crow (not a Royal Mail employee but a long-time member of the team)
- Brad Sayers and Chris Clingham providing support vehicle back-up.
The team was supporting two Cambridge charities – East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices and the Arthur Rank Hospice charity. It has previously conquered the ThreePeaks and a Coast to Coast ride, and has raised almost £46,000 for these charities and other good causes.
Chris Clingham said: ‘All home safe and well, but significantly tired.’