Team members of the GM Fundraising Border2Border (B2B) Cycling Challenge sponsored by Deceuninck, got the first collective taste of just how tough next year’s Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico ride will be when they took part in Yorkshire’s 2015 Dark Peak Challenge. While the landscape and the climate may be continents apart, the challenge was a great taster for the team, covering some 65 miles and scaling heights of 1640 feet.

The ride was officially started by Former World Champion Yvonne McGregor MBE, Cycling Manager on the Border2Border Cycling Challenge, and B2B team members taking part included Matthew Glover, Darren Lloyd, Andrew Glover, Mike James, Alan Sadler and Nigel Barrett. The ‘West Yorkshire Windows’ team line up was completed by, James Elston and Andy Ibberson.

Gary Morton comments: “Taking place over 11 days next June, spanning 2,016 miles between Vancouver, Canada and Tijuana, Mexico, offering up 92,295 feet of climbing and temperatures in excess of 40 degrees, the GMF B2B ride is being described as the ‘Toughest Yet’ for good reason. Without the necessary advanced training there is no way even an experienced cyclist would survive the B2B challenge. That’s why the 18 strong riding team are already starting a regime of planned training of the 2,500 miles target prior to the ride, including 75,000 feet climbing and at least fifteen, 70 plus mile rides over the next 12 months.
“Riders commented that this Dark Peak challenge really proved how essential this training is as many of the days on B2B are far tougher. It was the first of many such training weekends with more to follow including Wales, Mallorca & the Peak District.”
Look out for links to meet the full team via social media in the coming weeks.

To follow the progress of the team during their 12 month training visit www.gmfundraising.co.uk/border2border, like us on Facebook or follow: @gmfundraising on Twitter, and look out for the hashtags #GMFB2B for regular updates. Most importantly the fundraising starts now and each of the team has their own profile pages on the website, with links to their fundraising pages on JustGiving.