100 miles? No problem. After all, Viceroys have done the Surrey 100 in Hurricane Bertha. Right? 6400ft. That’s 9 times up Box Hill! Our hardy Viceroys trio tackled Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance charity bike ride and encountered hills, a man hole and even a real ambulance…

Kevin Dargue was the first to arrive at Redhill out of the Viceroy Trio made up of Kevin, Andrea Whelband and Simon Tack. Whilst the latter two were busy getting dressed and assembling bikes, Kevin set of with an earlier group of riders who looked as though, ‘they knew what they were doing and where they were going.’

Kevin continues: ‘After 30 minutes two had disappeared at break neck speed, a few more stopped to adjust something or fiddle with GPS’s and the final group stopped for a loo break! So on my own I tried to navigate Surrey, Kent and Sussex. On the way some of the yellow signs with black arrows had been removed or turned round. This twinned with the fact I was reading the map going anticlockwise when in fact the route was clockwise meant it was only a matter of time before I was well and truly lost.

Eventually back on track, caught and passed an earlier group and then……..got lost again. After a few miles I came across a Rest/Food stop and they kindly told me I was going in the wrong direction! At one point I even ended up on the same road as the Hever Castle cyclists who were also following yellow signs with black arrows! As there were two 100km loops as well which formed a figure of 8, every now and again you would see a random, solo cyclist with a KSS jersey going off in a different direction.

Talk about mind games. Do you follow the cyclist who could be lost or following one of the 100km loops or the signs that could be pointing in the wrong direction? Simon decided to do one of the 100km loops. The loop he chose was the one with all the hills. Brave choice Simon and well done. I arrived at Marden, half way, just as Andrea was leaving. How did that happen? We also met up again at the 3/4 point. Half way and not feeling too bad and then the hills! 6000ft of hills. They were hard and seriously energy sapping. Apparently the organisers decided last year was too soft so changed the route to make it more of a challenge. By the last 20km it was snail pace and every minute hole or bump was sending shots of pain through the legs and up the back. I couldn’t even enjoy what few downhill bits there were.

At long last the final, flat 5km. Finally crossed the line in just over 8 hours. And Andrea? Andrea took a tumble a few km from the end. Hit a manhole cover at speed and took off. Fortunately she had been cycling with someone who got her an ambulance pronto and off to A&E. Thankfully no broken bones but bad road rash, cut, bruising and painful ribs. She was given the all clear and allowed home. I usually have a good idea about distance. I certainly have 750m and 5km sorted but 6400ft of incline did not register. That is the same as cycling up Helvelyn, twice! So it was just a typical Viceroy day out in the country!’