onionbagblog

Published as part of the Keep Colchester Cycling project.

Cycling itself is a lovely activity – we all know that. It gets us from North Station across to the Cultural Quarter, long before the bus has the chance to navigate the Westway roundabout.

But sometimes you just need that extra kick to get you off the settee and out cycling. Sometimes you need the challenge of a sponsored bike ride. Which is exactly where Cycle Round Essex 2011 comes in – brilliant!

Taking place over a three day period in late July, the (deep breath…) 335 mile circuit covers all the great and good of our fine county – which is pretty much every square mile, starting off at Stanstead, then Basildon, Mersea, Halstead and then back down towards Stanstead.

It sounds like the best way to find out more about your own backyard, all from the thrill of riding a bicycle. Keeping with the #hyperlocal theme is the chosen charity for this year – the Essex Air Ambulance.

Here at Keep Colchester Cycling and we positively encourage a cycling lifestyle around our fine county. Let it be said however that this probably isn’t the best suited opportunity for a casual cyclist to get an old bonkeshaker out from the back of the garden for the first spin of the year.

That’s our excuse, anyway.

Entry is £150, with a pledge to raise at least £250 for the Essex Air Ambulance. Being the inaugural Cycle Round Essex, the ride is limited to fifty riders this year. The organisers hope to build the pelaton up to two hundred for 2012.

Training starts NOW for Team Keep Colchester Cycling for the 2012 challenge.

Chapeau!

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