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Despite strong winds and rain, over 160 riders turned out the the recent Trail Break Evans Ride at Kingsclere. The event was particularly notable for the grand RUSS Appeal cheque handover. If you’re not familiar with the RUSS Appeal, here’s a quick summary: MTBer Russ Pinder had a huge crash in Wales that broke his back. He’s now in a wheelchair, but were it not for the Air Ambulance service he’d quite probably not be with us. The RUSS Appeal is an umbrella for various bike-related fundraising efforts putting money in to particularly MTB-relevant charities, the Air Ambulance being chief amongst them. Last year the Appeal raised a huge £21,000 and it’s that cheque that Russ presented to Nigel Dumbrell and Nadine Egan of the Air Ambulance Foundation.
A large chunk of that came from the Trail Break-organised Ride For A Flight weekend, and it’ll be back for 2004 in a freshly-expanded form on 6-8 August at Checkendon. There’ll be a night-time navigation event on the Friday night, with Saturday seeing an Evans ride and something called One Way Ticket – a downhill event where you can do as many runs as you want as long as you make a donation for each one. You’ll get bigger time bonuses the more your bike diverges from downhill-specific, so that old butcher’s bike could be a winner…
There’ll be sundry entertainments laid on on Saturday night, and Sunday will feature a full navigation event plus the pay-per-lap Ride For A Flight main feature. Trail Break’s Phil Harrison says, “We’re not only looking for riders to attend, we’re also looking for sponsors and trade partners. We aren’t asking big bucks but we do want contributions to the Air Ambulance. Our aim is to beat last year’s fantastic total and show the UK just how responsible and generous mountain bikers really are.”
Trade enquiries are welcomed – call Phil on 0118 976 2491. Further details for riders will be along shortly – keep an eye on the Trail Break site for updates.
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