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RIDING FOR UPS 'N' DOWNS 2024
SUNDAY 14TH JULY 2024
Register to take parthttps://bit.ly/riding24
Join us for our annual charity fundraiser for Ups 'n' Downs, on Sunday 14th July. Every pound raised will make a huge difference to children and adults with Down’s Syndrome. Come and help join us celebrate the Riding for Ups n Downs 10th anniversary ride, with over £100,000 raised for the Northamptonshire charity since we started. This year promises to be even bigger and better, marking another milestone in this charitable endeavour.When we started in 2015, there were only 34 of us, and we rode 90 miles. Since then we have gradually increased in number, and encourage as many riders, of all abilities, to come and support us, but most importantly, to enjoy themselves.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us at Earls Barton Cricket Club (The Grange Sportsfield, Northampton Road, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, NN6 0HF) for our annual charity ride, on Sunday 14th July, now comprising of 3 amazing route options (100, 50 and 25 miles) starting and finishing at the same location.In the week before the ride, we are also staging a virtual event - take part wherever you are in the world and log your cycling miles.Riders, get ready to be greeted with a warm welcome as we celebrate your arrival back at the Club. Indulge in a scrumptious BBQ, be entertained by live music, and participate in a variety of activities suitable for the entire family to enjoy!
CURRENT EVENT SCHEDULE
- 100 mile riders turn up at 7.00am for a 7.30am start.
- 50 mile riders turn up at 10.00am for a 10.30am start.
- 25 milers, it’s 11.00am for an 11.30am start.
There is also a virtual ride option where you can take part wherever you are and cover as much or as little distance as you like,
WALK OPTION
We have also been asked for a walk option this year. Our walk will also leave at 11.30am for a walk (approximately 4.5 miles) to and around Sywell Country Park. The drinks stops (100 and 50 miler only) will be released nearer the time. Volunteers from the charity will be manning the stops, so please say hello. Also keep a look out for subsequent messages here, as well as the WHATSAPP GROUP (PLEASE sign up to this group as it’s the quickest way to get urgent messages to all riders) email and social media, as hot weather (hopefully will not be brutally hot like our 2022 ride) may mean that we bring the start times forward. In 2023, we also had to alter the long route 3 days in advance due to unforeseen roadworks, so keep your eyes peeled and keep in touch.T shirts for riders will be available for collection upon registration on both the Saturday and Sunday. We will have enough for all riders who book before 24th May but cannot guarantee T shirts after that date. Last years sizings were very generous, and we are using the same supplier this year, so we recommend ordering a size smaller than you would normally choose.
Sizing Chart
The shorter Routes will be clearly signed, however the 100 miler will NOT (long riders are expected to download the route onto their cycling computers). These routes will be available below nearer the time, and will also be on the WhatsApp group.
PRICING:
Ride
100 mile ride - £40
50 and 25 miler - £30
All these options include a guaranteed T Shirt in your size, if ordered before the 24th May
Virtual Ride
Virtual riders - £10 (virtual family £20)
Walk
Walkers - £10 (family £20)
WHY TAKE PART?
Riding for Ups 'n' Downs is the perfect opportunity to come together and make a difference while having fun and getting active. Whether you're an experienced cyclist or just looking for a leisurely ride with friends and family, this event is open to all abilities.We are really looking forward to the event, please feel free to invite friends and family to join the ride, or the drinks and BBQ and raffle from 12.30pm onwards back at the Earls Barton Cricket Club.
For more information about the ride, please email Farah:
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The Easter Bunny has paid a visit!
Huge thanks to the wonderful staff at GXO Logistics, Wellingborough for their generous donation of Easter eggs and £200 in cash for our lovely charity members. A special shoutout to Lee Whitehead, who works at GXO, for his ongoing support. We're incredibly grateful for the kindness and generosity shown by GXO. Happy Easter to all!
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Last month, our UpsnDowns Summer Social 2021 took place at Wicksteed Park, Kettering, home to our annual UpsnDowns Charity Dinner.
Lots of families, including some new faces, joined in the fun at Wicksteed. It has been a very long time since we were able to get together face to face, and we certainly made the most of it.
Families met up at the park and enjoyed a picnic together, followed by an hour of crazy bubble-mania with our wonderful drama teacher, Karen Harvey. The children loved it as you can see from the photos!
Everyone was issued with park bands to enable them to enjoy the rides and the animals, if they wanted too.
Despite the weather being slightly chilly (typical August), everyone had a brilliant time. All children left with a goody bag containing a teddy, a hat, a fidget popper, biscuits, and sweets.
Thanks goes to Donna McAvoy and Karen Smith for organising it all.
Special thanks go to Kim Good, Kinga Waksmundska and Louisa Digby who all trekked to the summit of Kinder Scout, raising lots of money for UpsnDowns so that we could organise and enjoy a charity day out.
We look forward to the next get together soon.
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From the 9-18th July 2021, we invited cyclists to join our second virtual cycling sportif to support and fundraise for UpsnDowns. With last year's virtual sportif being such a huge success, the pressure was on!
With a lot of uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 restrictions and government guidelines, the sportif organisers opted to stick to the virtual format again this year, inviting individual cyclists, families and children to join us and cycle some miles for UpsnDowns.
The weather was very warm as was the competition against other cycling events taking place at the same time. However, we managed to raised a record-breaking £12,000 this year with 98 riders, some incredible fundraising and some very generous sponsors.
A special mention goes to the following people:
- Charlie Cockburn and his family cycled 74 miles and raised £1200.
- ATA Garryson employees cycled a combined 1400 miles raising over £1400.
- Donna McAvoy, one of our parents, cycled 200 miles on her training bike. She has never cycled this far in her life, until now!
- Steve Hunkin, another parent, raised £1140 and cycled 335 miles.
- John Hewitt raised £1730 and cycled 359 miles.
- Team Fighting Fit raised over £300.
Special thanks goes to our incredibly generous and loyal sponsors:
Steve Holliday, Ki-Tran, AFP Services, Higgins, Howdens, Snowdon Homes Ltd, ATA, Gibbs & Dandy, DCS, & Harlow Timber Systems.
The biggest 'thank you' goes to the wonderful Riding for UpsnDowns Committee, who dedicate many hours of their free time to organise this hugely successful annual fundraising event. We are eternally grateful for your support.
We look forward to 2022 when hopefully we can revert back to our one-day sportif, starting and finishing at the Earls Barton Cricket Club.
If this has inspired you to organise a fundraiser for UpsnDowns, please get in touch with
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Sadly, our annual Riding for UpsnDowns cannot go ahead as planned this year due to Coronavirus. This is usually one of our biggest fundraisers of the year and particularly important for our charity.
This year, we have had to adapt our annual cycling sportif so that it can still go ahead.
We need your help from Friday 17th July to Sunday 26th July to take UpsnDowns ‘around the world’.
We aim to build a team of cyclists who will join together this summer to ride around the world in 10 days. So whether you are out on the roads, on the MTB trials or at home on your rollers or turbo, we hope that you will join us over these 10 days and help us achieve this goal.
The more people that sign up, the more likely we are to make it around the world. In a year when the coronavirus pandemic has put pay to a majority of charity events, this is a great opportunity to support the charity’s income which is wholly dependent on fundraising. Our events have usually taken place in the form of a group ride, with an incredible 160 riders taking part in 2019.
We will start our epic journey on Friday the 17th of July from a virtual Earls Barton and we will be travelling around the globe over the next 10 days around the 52nd parallel, hoping that we cycle enough miles to get back to Earls Barton on Sunday the 26th of July. We will go via Germany, Belarus, Ukraine, China, Russia, Alaska, British Columbia, Ontario, Ireland and Wales to name a few of the countries on our route.
This event is not only for keen cyclists, we would love lots of families to join in too.
If you would like to enter as a family, you can do so. All you need to do is to register once on UltraBritain and then upload daily miles onto Strava (app) as a group. The entry fee is £10 for an individual cycling alone or families.
Throughout the 10-day event we will be publishing the progress of ‘miles cycled’ each day on social media. We will be giving out various voucher prizes during the event (we have over £200 worth of vouchers), with individual prizes of upto £25.
Once registered, you will receive an email that gives you all the details on how to set up a JustGiving page for people to sponsor you.
Please note, we have changed our event to enable full support of the government's current guidance regarding Coronavirus. We would encourage everyone to ensure that they follow any government guidance in relation to recreational activities including cycling.
PLEASE SIGN UP HERE… https://www.ultrabritain.com/events/ups-and-downs/ups-n-downs-go-around-the-world
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