The Coast to Coast Challenge
Clevedon - Great Yarmouth - Clevedon, May 20th 2011
As a follow up event from the successful ‘2008 Ride Up Britain’ Hydro is about to undertake the ‘The Coast to Coast Challenge’ in aid of raising money for WaterAid. Teams of riders will be starting from Clevedon on the west coast of England, crossing the country, all the way to Great Yarmouth on the east coast. And then back again. At the same time a team will be starting the challenge from Great Yarmouth to complete the challenge the other way.
Teams
Team Wastewater 
TEAM DETAILS COMING SOON
David Johnson
Age: 23
Furthest distance on bike: 40 miles
Quote: "nothing great in this world has ever been accomplished without passion" Christian Hebbel.
Jack Burgin
Bio Coming Soon
Dave Jessop
Age: 51
Furthest distance on bike: 65 Miles
Quote: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
Why are you taking part: How better to balance the hours spent sitting in a car, than out in the fresh air, raising money for others?
Ollie Sheppard
Age: 19
Furthest distance on bike: 70 miles
Quote: One life, Live it
Why are you taking part: I love to cycle, and I love a challenge, Bring it on!
Maddie King
Bio Coming Soon
Adrian Hughes
Bio Coming Soon
Team Vortex
With two Englishmen, a Scotsman, a Cornishman, an Accountant and a Turk team Vortex are truly the cosmopolitan team, or the beginnings of a hilarious joke. Ranging in experience but united in one goal: to enjoy the ride, get back to Clevedon in one piece and raise plenty of cash for WaterAid in the process.
Marcus Mumford
Rumour has it that Marcus was designed in a wind tunnel after extensive testing to find the perfect shape for minimal drag. With a voracious appetite that belies his slender frame he is always keen to compete whether on the road, trail or on the water. Notable results include 6th in the 2005 Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling and Silver in the Inaugural World Championship Bog Triathlon.
Jim Spratt
I’m an accountant at Hydro’s Clevedon site, taking on the 500 mile coast to coast is certainly going to be a challenge. More used to riding my mountain bike off road, cycling 500 miles on the road day and night will test both mine and the team’s endurance. So if you want to sponsor this fish out of water then please support me through the Virgin Money Giving website.
Gavin Wells
Bio Coming Soon
Jay Koseoglu
Bio Coming Soon
Chris Perry
Bio Coming Soon
Scott Dunbar
Bio Coming Soon
Team Zuken
In 2011 a crack team was sent to cycle across the country for charity. They promptly escaped from the maximum security hire van. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as software engineers. If you have an electronics problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the Z-team.
Simon Langdon
The team’s self appointed ‘Mr Motivator’. Forces reluctant team members to fill Audax application forms at gunpoint. Has only been overtaken crossing the Severn bridge on three occasions, once by somebody with a better bike, once when he was ‘ill’, and the other time by Chris Hoy.
Kirsty McGaul
The main engine in the legendary Mumford-McGaul tandem locomotive. Having a support vehicle will be an unaccustomed luxury for the team captain, as she is more used to sherpaing her own paraphernalia and sleeping rough on the side of the road in cold places like Scotland.
James Munday
A recent convert to cycling having recently bought a posh new bike. The cycle to work scheme should ensure his latest hobby will be permanent and not one of his many 'fads'. Has promised to perform a jelly-legged street dance on Clevedon pier if we are successful.
Stuart Nash
Born with a rare condition that means he has to shave his knees three times a day, Stu has surmounted these difficulties to be the first dwarf to climb Kilimanjaro backwards. After spending some time in a Columbian jail where FARC had insisted he should be as he was too ruthless in his revolutionary aims, it was a considerable achievement to dig an escape tunnel with his monstrously proportioned elbows. The tunnel surfaced in Cuba where he now lives in a monastery having devoted his life to cheese sculpting.
Steffan Owen
Surely the most confident cyclist among us. No training for this man: "Cycling seems to get harder the more you do it. No cycling for me before the challenge itself". After five hundred miles and two days of cycling will he be the last one in the saddle, keeping us going with chivvying and Welsh language bantering that might be mistaken for sobs of despair? Only time will tell. He's a stalking horse with the pedigree of the Welsh mountains, with long memories of Glyndwr and claims to be able to "call spirits from the vasty deep". When the day is done and we are wiping our dusty furrowed brows on the seafront at Clevedon, Steffan will be there wanting to do it all over again.
Robert Stone
Rob was first choice for the Coast to Coast team. We're expecting Rob to turn up at the start line put on his aero helmet and charge relentlessly from one side of the country to the other until we can catch him with our specially prepared Very Large Net. Whilst he's temporarily immobilised other members of the team can pootle along the road pretending that they're doing their bit. Don't worry though, Rob, whilst you're stuck in the van we'll get a turbo for you to train on. Then we can release you back into the wild where you belong. The rest of the team can then sit in the van eating pies whilst getting a free tow on the back of a chain craftily attached to Rob's TT bike.
Five Men and a Little lady
TEAM DETAILS COMING SOON
Mark Goodger
Built for speed rather than stamina and relying on a latent natural ability rather than any structured training programme, expect to see Mark racing off into the distance early on. Building on the experience of the 2008 Ride Up Britain, Mark is hoping that he can avoid crashing and burning to make it (back) to Clevedon Pier in one piece.
Michelle Rudd
Bio Coming Soon
Andy Kane
Bio Coming Soon
Andy Nacollis
Bio Coming Soon
Alex Brown
Bio Coming Soon
Daniel Hawkes
Bio Coming Soon
Average Age About 50
TEAM DETAILS COMING SOON
Alex Stephenson
Bio Coming Soon
Colin Mackay
Bio Coming Soon
Doug Smith
Bio Coming Soon
Simon Thompson
Bio Coming Soon
Kevin Wicheard
Driver and Soigneur
Supporters
