Bike to help fight against cancer

Ellie Casselden and Hannah Follett found the challenge was made even stiffer by the presence of 60 mph gale force winds, but thankfully they were generally blowing in the right direction and even provided a little help up one or two of the tougher hills.

Accompanied by Vinehall headmaster Richard Follett, the girls made good progress early on, with Ellie’s bike computer updating them every mile or so and this gave them a good boost that they were on track for a lunch stop near Battle.

They also knew that the early miles towards Vinehall were generally pretty flat along the marshes, with some big hills to come later on.

Twenty miles doesn’t seem a huge distance when it is talked about in the planning stages, but neither girl had ever cycled anywhere near that distance before, so they soon found out what it was really like.

The girls passed the halfway mark well before lunch, so decided to keep going and phoned in to the support team, who duly arrived at the Squirrel Pub just outside Battle to enjoy sausage baguettes for lunch with them.

After this short stop, they were back in the saddle and made fairly light work of the London Road between Battle and Vinehall.

The A21 is not much fun to cycle along, but the pair agreed that possibly the hardest section of the whole ride was the last few hundred yards, up the steep school drive.

Hannah and Ellie crossed the finish line just as they started it, side by side, and say they have been touched by the generosity of so many people who have sponsored them.

Before the ride they had a great amount of pledges from pupils and staff at school and their online Justgiving page has now reached almost £600.

The final total is expected to be near £750.

The girls would like to thank everyone who has sponsored them so far.

There is still time to make a donation through the website - visit http://www.justgiving.com/HannahandElliecyclechallenge