Bike for Mike - Arder Ard Rock

What an amazing weekend everyone has had at the Ard Rock Enduro again this year, and this year I made it a little different. My mate Mike was diagnosed with Motor Neurones Disease over 7 years ago, up until this point he was super fit, regularly training and running but over the last 7 years he has gradually deteriorated so that he is stuck in his chair with a neck brace to support his head and his eye motion screen allowing him to talk. Motor Neurone Disease or commonly known as MND is a cruel disease that has no affect on the mind and brain but takes away the body, and is all the more cruel because still scientist and doctors do not know what causes it and so there is no way to slow it down, prevent or cure it. MND has become aware to a lot more people over the last couple of years after 2 famous rugby players became diagnosed with it, the late Scotland International, Doddie Weir and the Leeds Rhinos legend Rob Burrows. It is the latter of these whose team mate Kevin Sinfield has taken on some immense challenges to raise money for the MND Association, he started with 7 marathons in 7 days, then did 101 miles in 24 hours before his last big challenge which was to run 7 ultra marathons in 7 days and to date he has raised close to seven million pounds.

Around Christmas whilst me and my mates were sharing messages one of them mentioned about the achievements of Kevin Sinfield and in typical Mike fashion he jokingly commented that the difference between him and Rob Burrows was that he had a mate who'd do a challenge for him not like us lazy buggers, so with that in mind I thought it was about time I did do something to let him know we are always thinking of him. So when I thought about what I could do I thought of Matthew Fairbrother and his mad mission to ride between all the EWS stages last year and thought that maybe I could ride to Ard Rock. So after looking into it and seeing it was 360 miles and telling my mates, who all thought I was mad, I decided I'd give it a go. Also to make it a bit Arder i thought I'd do it on the bike I'd race, my Nukeproof Mega.

So the last few months I've had to get out and ride as much as possible, every mountain bike ride recently has been about training. Instead of a few runs at the local I've been lapping and lapping them without stopping to get the fitness increased, I've even got the road bike out for some mile munching on the road.

My aim was to complete the ride in 3 days getting to Ard Rock on Thursday night ready for a bit of practice on Friday and the big race Saturday. It was then at 6:30 am on Tuesday 18th, the day after my 48th birthday, that I started my journey. My wife and lad were my support crew meeting me at the end of day 1 in the Cotswolds and then following along with me along the way on day 2 up to Cheshire. Day 1 went well and the legs felt good, day 2 was a bit harder, an early puncture and some arguments with my bike computer got me frustrated but I made it knowing that on Day 3 I would be riding through Bolton and could go and see Mike for an hour on my way through. After getting up early and sorting out another puncture I made it to Mikes and had a good catch up before setting off for the last 95 miles over the Pennines and Yorkshire Dales before descending it to Ard Rock at 8:15, challenge completed, a smile on my face and a cold beer waiting. 362 miles completed with 22759 ft of climbing under my belt.

I had a little ride Friday to keep the legs ticking over before taking on the Enduro on Saturday. My aim was not to be the slowest man on the track and I was pretty chuffed to finish 117th out of 260 in my category, especially as somehow I managed to finish one place above some fella called Steve Peat.

It was a great weekend, and everyone I spoke to told me what I had done was great which was nice to hear, It was also made a little more special in the arena later when a woman came over to me to say thankyou for doing it as she had recently lost her mother who died after only a year of having MND.

The guys on the Nukeproof stand were very supportive and gave me a Sam Hill World Cup Jersey and signed jerseys from Elliot Heap and Corey Watson for me to raffle off which hopefully will raise a little more for the cause.

I suppose all that remains is to thank my very supportive wife and boy, as well as my local bike shop, Chasing Tails, who sorted me out with a tune up and some slicks for the challenge.

Plenty of people asked me how they could donate so it anyone is interested my Just Giving Page is

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jon-michelle-and-dylan-gammidge?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=jon-michelle-and-dylan-gammidge&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=48c2f85e290e4b1e9096a3779c11b802