Team Katie Phythian take on the Tour De France start to finish again.
I’m writing this on my third train of the day as we head to Portsmouth harbour. It was around 6 years ago when I came up with an interesting fundraising idea. Would it be possible to cycle from the start line of the Tour de France to the finish line, direct of course. The first time was from Leeds where I rode solo until I joined a London to Paris group. Since then I’ve been joined by one or two friends and Katie of course. This year the start line is on a small French island called noirmoutier After this train there’s a ferry, a train and a bus to the start line in North West France. Then it’s an unsupported 400 mile ride across France to Paris. Hopefully stopping off to cheer on the French in the World Cup Final on Sunday.
All that sounds like a wonderful adventure and I’m sure it will be. We won’t be sitting in a tight bunched peloton like Froome and his gang. It’s usually a leisurely pace with lots of waiting at roundabouts for Katie. Not because she is a slow rider, far from it. It’s because she’s constantly stopping to admire some gift shop, cafe or chateau. The fields of sunflowers, market towns and historical buildings. These influences will always find their way into her designs further down the line. So after years of fundraising for a charity we are passionate about we thought we’d give all our friends a break. We are not fundraising this year but we would love you to check them out. A lot of our customers are in stationery and this charity have an incredible scheme called Smart Start. It helps young people who come from financially challenging circumstances turn up for school looking, well smart. To be just like everyone else on their first day at school. They are keen to accept stationery items and school uniform donations. They can explain it all much better than me. Please drop by their website here. Enjoy the break, we’ll be after your cash again next year. In the meantime a million thanks to everyone who has supported us and Wood St Mission.
Where’s Katie?
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