This is us

This is us!

Thanks for joining us!

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.” — Ernest Hemingway, US author

We are just a couple from Canterbury, (originally from Aylesham) who love adventures and the odd challenge. We got together in 1987, and married in 1996, and shared the same passion for sport and keeping fit, as ex rugby players we needed something to keep us fit. When we first met we used to cycle together, including cycling to Belgium in 1988, and the odd sportive including London to Canterbury in 1992. But rugby was our main sport until we both retired, we took up running and have both completed the London Marathon, and then we found the bike again, Tim first and then eventually me. And as they say the rest is history!

Tim was (is) the blogger. He was first invited to do a cycle from Durness to Dover in 2012, and wanted to raise money for a charity very special to our hearts. No one else in the group seemed bothered about raising money they were doing it for their own reasons. But Tim felt very strongly about this, so, natually he wanted to keep people updated, so ‘Tims Big Bike Challenge’ was set up in 2012. Inevitably, the blog did include other people but it was set up to tell Tim’s story, in order to raise money for the Charity, and Suzanne promoted the blog daily via Facebook and Twitter to drum up interest. Futures for Dogs even came to the finish in Dover to welcome Tim back and to thank him personally for the fundraising.

Reaslising people found the blog amusing Tim continued to write the blogs for subsequent tours based on his own experiences of the tours:

Barca 10, (Barcelona 2013)

8 in 8 (Croatia 2014)

The final tour Swiss Elevation (Geneva 2015) was actually written by Suzanne using Facebook, as Tim had broken a number of bones from a cycling accident a few weeks before the tour started.

We then ventured off on to our own unsupported cycling holidays! American Adventure 2017 and Cycle Taiwan 2018.

Cycling continues to be our thing, but as you will see we do other things too.

Wolfie & Finley, our two dogs – they came from a charity ‘Future for Dogs’ and they are our world

In March 2020 we fostered another rescue dog from the same charity, her name was Princess and she was only meant to be with us for a few weeks, but then Covid lockdown happened and we fell for her absolute charm. The name didnt work for us so we changed her name to Mabel and she is now part of our family.

She has the biggest heart and just needs so much love

In December 2020 Wolfie started to act very differently, and after several visits to the vets we learned he had dementia and there was nothing we could give him to help him. Despite being physically fit he changed from being a confident loving dog to being anxious, upset and very needy as well as very vacant. It was heartbreaking and we did everything we could to help him but by April we were advised that it was his time and we made that awful decision, and we lost him on 13th April 2021 aged 13. There isnt a day that goes by when I dont think of him he has truly broken our hearts. RIP Wolfie