Professor Whyte completes 1,000 mile ride
10 March 2010
LJMU Professor of Sports Science, Greg Whyte, has returned from a gruelling 1,000 mile cycle ride with seven celebrities to raise money for Sport Relief.
With Greg’s training beforehand and his guidance during the trip, David Walliams, Davina McCall, Fearne Cotton, Jimmy Carr, Patrick Kielty, Miranda Hart and Russell Howard cycled the length of the UK, day and night, in 82 hours. .jpg)
Cycling from John O’Groats to Land's End, they had to scale 1,000ft peaks, encountering icy blizzards and freezing temperatures on their way, but their journey was a great success, not only raising funds for Sport Relief but also increasing awareness of the charity.
To watch the team’s journey, see BBC 1 at 9pm on Thursday 18 March..jpg)
Last year Greg led a team of celebrities, including Cheryl Cole, to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro but he said the 1,000 mile cycle ride was an even greater mission.
He commented: “This was a huge challenge, with tough weather conditions and tough terrain. All this was made even harder by the fact that the team only had five weeks to train. The cumulative climb in height is four times higher than Kilimanjaro so it was not an easy challenge. They did really well.”
Greg sees the celebrities’ successful completion of such strenuous activities as meeting his own personal goals. He is also currently training Christine Bleakley to water ski across the English Channel. In previous years he has coached David Walliams when he swam across the channel and trained Adrian Chiles and Alan Shearer for their two-day cycle from Newcastle to London. He also coached James Cracknell when he travelled from the UK to Africa using only his own body strength.
