A Penrith man who aimed to cycle 250 miles around the perimeter of Cumbria in under 14 hours raised £2,645 for the Great North Air Ambulance Service — despite things not quite going to plan.
In heavy rain, 57-year-old Robbie Ferguson set off on 26th May at 5am from Brampton. He takes up the story: “Probably adrenalin powered, I went a little too fast early on but felt really good.
“I arrived at the first feed stop at 90 miles ahead of schedule after some friends agreed at the last minute to shadow me from Alston to Crooklands roundabout; continued round to the second feed stop at 145 miles starting to feel a long-standing arm injury, but overall still feeling very confident.
“On reaching Whitehaven the pain was increasing so I was trying to ride to one side of the bike, but was unable to retrieve food from my back pockets at this point. However, thinking I had easy, flattish roads left to go, I thought I should be OK.
“At Maryport, going towards Silloth I was starting to slow with the arm pain and the uncomfortable riding position. I didn’t have control of the bike going over the cobbles in Silloth at 190 miles and, as I came off the cobbles, I also came off the bike. I took an impromptu stop to clean up the blood and sweat (the back-up team wanted me to stop at this point) but I was not going to give up without a fight.
“I managed to battle on for another 25 miles but it was obviously too dangerous to carry on. I would definitely have come off again and was close to the busier roads round Carlisle so might not have been so lucky.
“On 31st May, with the arm feeling a little better, I decided to finish the rest of the route. I know this isn’t what I had planned, but I needed to do it for my own peace of mind to complete the lap. All went well and I nipped into Gretna just to add a little foreign soil to the trip, then across to Longtown and back to Brampton.
“I finished with a cycling time of 13hr 30min for 250 miles, having passed through Northumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire and Scotland. I am extremely grateful for all the great support I had on this adventure.”
Robbie, who is a quality lead operator at door company JELD–WEN, Penrith, who contributed towards the total, is married with two children and one grandchild, and has a strong sporting pedigree. He is the youngest ever winner of the Egremont Cup (1975) — a 100m race which is part of the annual Egremont Crab Fair — and the first ever first year pupil at Penrith’s Ullswater School to win the Bennison mile (1979). He was county 800m champion every year until he left school at 16 and joined the Royal Navy, which he represented many times at athletics, with memorable wins up the Rock of Gibraltar and in the southernmost 10k in the world, held in Antarctica.
On leaving the Royal Navy he played football for local teams and “played golf badly” for about 20 years. He also spent a few years coaching rugby union and rugby league locally, and over the last couple of years has taken up cycling.
The Great North Air Ambulance Service is the JELD-WEN charity.
