Alison Shelton, LV Streetwise manager and one quarter of the ‘LV Streetwise Synners’ Velo Vosges charity bike ride team is delighted to announce that their team raised over £6,500 in their amazing 3-day adventure in France last year.

With all the monies now in, both Alison and Maria Tidy of the Lewis Manning Hospice were each delighted to receive cheques for £1,600 their charities.

Event organisers Challenge Adventure Charities chose Cancer Research UK and Wessex Heartbeat to benefit from the remaining £3,300.

 

 

 

The ‘LV Streetwise Synners’ were one of over seventy teams of four cyclists that entered the 2008 Velo Vosges Challenge. They all cycled over 500 miles in three days riding in relay from Arras near the English Channel over the formidable Vosges mountains to the fairytale village of Riquewihr.

The team comprised Alison, husband David Shelton, Finance Director at Charles Trent Ltd; and Synergy Housing Group friends Nick Fry, East Dorset Housing Association's Managing Director, and Sonia Ellingham, Synergy Group Finance Director. They covered their own entrance costs to ensure that the charities benefited fully from money raised and Alan Butler from On Yer Bike in Charminster very generously donated a road bike in support of the team’s equipment.

Alison said “We battled rain, wind and hail on the first day as we followed part of the Western Front, cycling through the battlefields of the Somme, passing moving memorials to the fallen youth amid the poppy fields, through miles and miles of vineyards emerging to brilliant sunshine and blue skies for the remaining two days. The flat exposure of the Chalons plain contrasted with the challenges of the magnificent mountains - where we not surprisingly discovered that what goes up also comes down ... just much faster!”

Alison continued, “Three hundred cyclists and their support vehicles swarming through the French countryside was a sight to behold. Throughout there was a real spirit of fun and adventure with the best cyclists supporting those less able – frequently stopping or slowing to watch and clap and spur them on with shouts and claps of encouragement.”
She added, “It was an honour to be part of such an amazing adventure and I am so proud of my team mates for helping to raise so much money for the charities.”

Visit the Challenge Adventure Charities website for more information about the Velo Vosges 2008 event and view some of the riders’ photographs.

STOP PRESS:
After a year to recover the team hope to be back in training to face the 2010 challenge (allegedly!).