About

Hello! I’m Ben. Pleased to meet you.

A few years ago, some threads started to come together in my head. I realised I had a Big Birthday coming up and it was one of those which, without meaning to be too morbid, does make you start to think about the long process of inevitable physical decline. Hey, it’s a fact of life. So I thought I would try to do some sort of physical challenge to mark this birthday whilst I still could.

Whilst I was thinking that, there were political and social debates about our national relationship with our continental neighbours. I cast no judgement on that, but it did make me think that I don’t know my own continent as well as I might.

During this time, my mum died from early onset Alzheimer’s.

An idea was born: to cycle from my home in the UK, across Europe to Istanbul, right at the edge of our continent, and to do so in my mum’s memory and to raise money for causes close to me. If and when I get there, it will have been twenty years since my last visit, to watch Liverpool win the most amazing Champion’s League final ever with my dad and my brother in 2005.

A cycling challenge made sense for a number of reasons. It’s easy to carry stuff. Plus, I’ve cycled all my life either to school or work. I even had my bike shipped to Khartoum, where I worked for a year or two. My colleagues thought I was crazy to cycle in +40c heat. I’ve done a few multi-day rides through the UK, Spain, and once even in the Himalayas. But nothing of this distance yet.

Those of you with a young family will realise that this is all rather self-indulgent and I won’t actually be the one doing the hard work whilst I am away. I am totally in debt to my wonderful wife Jenny, who will hold the fort in my absence. Still, she’ll be picking up a big lead in the marriage points tally chart, which I fully intend to pay off for years to come!