King’s School Bruton – Sherborne to Paris charity cycle ride

  • 12 years ago
  • News
  • 1

The Headmaster and Examinations Officer of King’s Bruton enjoy champagne picnic in Versailles after completing Sherborne to Paris charity cycle ride

KIng's School Bruton cylclistsThe King’s Bruton Headmaster, Ian Wilmshurst, and Tim Walker, Examinations Officer and Maths teacher, completed a sponsored bicycle ride from Sherborne to Paris at the start of the summer holidays, celebrating the feat with a champagne picnic in Versailles. Former Head of Modern Languages at King’s, Ed Tickner, the father of two international runners, was also a member of the six strong team raising money for medicin sans frontier, Asthma UK and Cyclists Against Cancer.

The team left Sherborne on 7th July, returning four days later.

Mr Wilmsburst said: “I decided to take up the challenge because a year ago my 10 year-old daughter accused me of being overweight. I told her that she could not say that and she replied: "I can, I did and you are". Looking critically at myself in the mirror, I concluded that she had a point. I decided last August to buy a road bike to get fit.

“The ride could not have started in much worse conditions with heavy rain, flooded roads, strong winds and spray affecting us all the way from Sherborne to Portsmouth. Thankfully the weather improved as we started Day 2, in France, and we were lucky to have mild conditions and a following wind for the next three days.

“I was grateful that I did not injure myself when I clipped the wheel of the cyclist in front of me, on a straight road, and came off at reasonable high speed but I managed to ride all the 350 miles over the course of four days to Versailles. The trip was a great experience and we managed to raise over £2000 for charity.”

The picture shows, from left to right: Ian Wilmshurst , James Mann, Tim Walker, Liz Long, Ed Tickner, Rita Sibson

Compare listings

Compare