Cycling England's County Towns

Adam Sims

Raising funds and awareness for Mental Health in the UK.

Click here for the route

£5,000
GOAL
 
£3501
RAISED
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  • Cycling the County Towns

    Adam Sims

    I am raising money for Mind again aiming to cycle to every county town in England (pre-1974 counties) within one month. I previously fundraised for Mind in Autumn 2023 when I cycled the coastline of Great Britain. This was in recognition of the help I had received from Mind when Christina, my wife was ill. Fortunately for us Christina is now completely stable on medication. We are the lucky ones and there is still a huge need for funds to address mental health issues in the UK. There are so many problems and issues caused by not being able to access mental health support when needed. When I needed Mind they were there for me and I was immensely grateful. Therefore I am very keen to raise funds for Mind.

    This time I am aiming to cycle to all the county towns in England within one month. There are 42 and I estimate a mileage of just over 2,000 miles. For a full list and the route please visit my web page adamcycles.uk.

    I plan to start on 4 October from home in Angmering West Sussex and travel broadly clockwise around the England starting with Chichester then Newport(IOW), Dorchester and so on…

    I will be carrying everything I need on my bike. Christina will accompany me like the last time but this time she will be able to drive not use public transport!

  • Final thoughts – 3 days later

    Adam Sims

    Sorry for the delay in my final thoughts, 2,060 miles in 31 days cycling for some 163 hours giving progress at a steady 12.6mph. Over 90,000ft of climbing, the hardest day being 5,610ft in Cornwall and the longest cycling day was the last day at nearly 7 and a quarter hours. We have raised nearly £3,800 for Mind from 78 different people which of course is the most important statistic! Thank you to my co-conspirator Christina (after all County Towns were your idea!) for the immense role you played, as I have said before it is relatively easy to cycle for x hours and y miles following a map, for Christina she was researching where to stay each night, whether a bike could be accommodated as well as making it to every County Town to record the visit as well as taking many other photographs to hopefully make the blog more interesting and lifelike! Thank you to everyone who cycled with me, you company on those days was great – thanks especially to Rebecca for taking the wind for me on 4 different days! Thank you to Kevin for his unfailing IT support in the face of my absolute incompetence! Thank you also to everyone who followed the blog, its lovely to know people cared enough to follow so goodbye till the next time!

  • Day 31 Photos

    Adam Sims

  • Day 31 Home! 2,060 miles 31 days and 42 county towns

    Adam Sims

    Lewes was reached about 3pm today being the 42nd and final county town. Guildford was 41st again reached today. The journey home from Lewes was somewhat difficult due to punctures and a wet southerly wind of the Channel making progress quite difficult, still I arrToday was 93 miles so quite a long ride but well worth it to achieve the objective and set the record! I will add final thoughts tomorrow