The Team
Marc
“After a tricky period of trial and error, narrowly avoiding a spell on stabilizers, Marc has now mastered the art of cycling with some style.
Like his general attitude towards life, Marc always faces up to conquering the challenging uphill’s and his adrenaline seeking personality means more often than not he will sliding sideways on the edge of control down the downhill’s.
This probably explains the one thing we all know for sure about Marc….that is his uncanny ability to either break himself or his bike. *
With this in mind the support team will be packing plenty of spares for the bikes and for Marc too”
* see the news section for the latest on Marc
Jason
Some say that he's seen more teachers since he left school and that all his legs are hydraulic...
...All we know is, he's called Jason!
Jason began cycling following a mountaineering accident at the end of 2006. Eventually he progressed from exercise bikes as a form of physio, through stabilisers and onto his very first road bike. A succession of bicycles and miles ridden since mean that Jason now ranks as the most experienced road cyclist on this trip; however, even to this Chris Hoy wannabe lands end to John o'Groats is a daunting experience.
Both on the trip and during training Jason will also be occupied as the team mechanic, attempting to provide mechanical knowledge to the group (or more correctly repairing Marc's bike when the peddle falls off/chain breaks/wheel falls off etc. etc. etc....). In this capacity his motto's are 'P for Plenty' and 'Brute force and ignorance will win the day'.
His eating ability is legendary amongst many of the Zulu tribes of this native South Africa (the same can also be said of his red wine drinking abilities!). During the trip he will be consuming up to 4000 calories each day to maintain the physical effort; to ensure he is capable of this he will be rehearsing this task each day prior to event!
In the real world Jason is employed as a fridge repair man for a Worcester company.
Chris
Chris is the kind of guy you would usually find sprinting across the river squashed into a rowing boat but, after getting his hair wet and throwing his dollys out of the pram(boat), he decided to flee to dry land and try his luck on a bike… with the promise of bus shelters every 500 meters!
Chris first had the idea for the trip last summer when his father was diagnosed with multipul myeloma which is a Cancer of the bone marrow. He is currently responding well to treatment which he is receiving at the Royal Shewsbury Hospital.
Chris then bought his shiny cycling machine to follow through with his crazy idea!
Ging (Paul)
Paul (AKA Ging) is the ginger warrior of the group.
We managed to convert Ging from his enjoyment of mountain biking to road cycling and recruit him into LEJOG 2009 without too much fuss.
One of Gings main attributes is that he is probably one of the most laid back blokes you will ever meet. In fact he has fallen off the back of his bike for this very reason! Luckily he was caught in Jason’s shopping basket on the front of his bike so don’t worry, no ginger warriors were harmed during that ride!! He also likes to eat his food faster than Mr Bolt runs the 100metres.
As for training, this can be a bit of a nightmare, ‘Ging somehow defies momentum’, one source close to the ginger ninja states, although it has to be said that this bears no detriment to his fitness, on the contrary, he is one of the fittest on the team, he just can’t be bothered to change gear - One speed does all!
When he’s not spinning his legs on the bike he spends the rest of his spare time fighting for Ginger rights with the Territorial Army (RMLI in Hereford) and has endured a tour in Iraq, without the bike!
So all in all, Ging is probably the most dependable character out of us all, even if he is laid back!
Ant
Some say that he's has the shortest legs and the longest arms in the world and that he loves bananas...
...All we know is, he's called Anthony (or Fat Tony if your being rude)!
Anthony decided to join this trip as soon as he heard that Victoria his girl friend was leaving the country for 6 months to travel the World. For him it was either a choice between pain on a bike or cosy nights in with his house mate. He did debate the nights in for a while, but finally decided that the bike was the lesser of two evils and has been training hard ever since. Hopefully when Victoria returns in the spring Anthony will continue his training and Victoria will become part of the support team.
Anthony’s never stop never give up no matter how slow you are going up hill has earnt him the nickname “Granite Tony”. On a hilly training section he maybe found at the back looking like death itself, but he never gives up and always makes it to the top!
In the real world Anthony does something that involves fixing things no one really knows for sure though.
George
Recipe for making a George:-
Add two table spoons of crazy dude, a bucket of Welsh blood, a gallon of ginger ninja, a pinch of mountain man and buy a 20+ year old VW golf. Mix them all together and you can make your very own George.
George is probably our most competent cyclist and the latest edition to the team making the total up to 6 crazy people. If you have good enough map reading skills to be able to find Georges house (Kerrys Gate is 2 houses and a post box) then you will either find him swearing and sweating on his turbo trainer or at his desk working on his photos. Just to clarify George is a professional photographer, which is why he spends so much time in front of his computer.
I have run out of things to say now.....
Matthew
Matt's profile will be added once George gets his ass in gear and writes something!!!
