Swift Centre Cycling Marathon

Five young cyclists from The Swift Centre in Plaistow, part of the youth work of The Memorial Community Church are cycling from London to Barcelona, to Bilbao and back to London via Portsmouth this summer. A total of about 1600 miles.

Daniel Crisp, Paul Clewett, Simeon Burnett, Matthew Crisp and Kevin Kiruthi make up the cycling team, supported by John Roff (in the van).

They cycle between 50-75 miles per day and camp at local campsites along the way. They began on 2nd August and will return on 8th September.

"Bike Europe" was the idea of one of the cyclists, Paul Clewett and all of the team have worked together in the training and fundraising for the event. The team are being sponsored to raise funds for the youth work at The Swift Centre and for an international work camp in Dominica in August 2008.

This is the flagship event of a programme at The Swift Centre to increase cycling amongst young people. It also involves cycle maintenance, road safety and several cycle/camping expeditions over the next year. The team are planning a larger, and less arduous event, in The Netherlands for late 2008.

You can follow their progress at http://www.bikeeurope.org.uk