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Day One London to Paris
Nigel Mansell and Team UK Youth surpass their own expectations on day one of the London to Paris Cycle Ride. Nigel, still feeling the effects from his concussion gained in the high speed crash at the Le Mans 24hr, showed no weakening in his resolve for the challenge ahead. This is the very first time the team, Nigel, Leo and Greg Mansell together with Ian Williams had got together for a full three day event of this magnitude. All were very excited about the forthcoming day especially with the challenge of the Capel le Ferne ahead, which proved to be hard on all of the riders and forged some great bonds between many as they tackled it.
Starting in Group 5, Nigel rode strongly and even helped and supported a number of riders up some of the steep hills. Team UK Youth worked together seamlessly throughout the morning. Leo and Greg Mansell had their own personal challenge, as brothers often do, with Greg beating Leo by the
closest of marginsover the sprint section and Leo beating Greg in the general push section.
Nigel pushed hard throughout the afternoon with his own challenge to get in front of Will Carling in group 5. At 10:30 the team pushed into group 2 as they were finding they had quite a strong pace and group 5 were not taxing them fully. Group 2 was tough, riding at 15 mph faster than group 5, averaging 40 mph. For a part of the morning, Nigel rode with John Salako who said in a video interview during one of the stops;
"I'm exhilarated and kicking, it’s brilliant to be back here, I'm absolutely loving it. I've been riding quite a bit with Nigel Mansell, and we jumped on the back of group 1 at one stage, but couldn't keep up with those. Then we dropped back to group 2 for 30 miles till lunch – considering his concussion he is very strong on the bike”
Magnus Backstedt, working as the Hot Chillies support rider, also joined the team and group 5 on the run to Dover was really pleased at how well the day went,
“Tomorrow will be another big challenge for Nigel as he is still suffering the effects of his concussion, which just highlighted how hard he is pushing to make a point about what he is doing for UK Youth and the Positive About Youth Campaign.”
At the end of Day One all Leo said was,
"My legs aren't bad, its just the neck. Sitting on a bike for six and a half hours is hard."
Referring to the days competition with his brother Leo commented,
"Greg's not happy about it, as its 1:1 officially, so that's good. I look forward to tomorrow"
After the days riding Stephen Roche, one of Britain’s greatest professional road cyclists and the 1987 winner of the Tour de France and World Championships, came to see the team and compliment everyone on their ability. Stephen was particularly impressed with Leo and Greg’s ability through the time trial and sprints, and commented on Nigel,
“You can see the same determination in his cycling as we saw in his racing against Prost and Senna. I have no doubt he will no only get round his challenge, but amaze everyone with how well he does.”
Stephen will be joining the Peloton at the Silverstone event on the 2nd August and will ride with the guys on the last day into London.
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Greg Mansell, Tour de
France racer, Stephen Roche and Leo Mansell
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