Nigel Mansell and Team UK Youth surpass their own expectations on day one of the London to Paris Cycle Ride

Press Release

Nigel, still feeling the effects in the morning from his concussion showed no slight 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 hill later in the day, which proved to be hard on all of the riders and forged some great bonds between many as they tackled this feat. Nigel was riding strong and even helped and supported a number of riders up some of the steep hills. It was said that he may have even put his hand on a few rider's backs to help along.

Team UK Youth worked together seamlessly throughout the day, with Leo and Greg Mansell having their own personal challenge, as brother always do.

Nigel pushed hard throughout the morning with his own challenge, to get in front of Will Carling. At 1:30 the team pushed into group two as they were finding they had a quite a strong pace. 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 ***, its brilliant to be back here, I'm absolutely loving it." "I've been riding quite a bit with Nigel Mansell, 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 and then we just had a nice little steady ride with our mates in group 5 down to Dover." Magnus Backstedt also joined the team and group 5 on the run to Dover and Nigel was also really pleased with how the day went, as he managed to get in front of Will Carling too. Tomorrow will be another big challenge for Nigel as the seas on the ferry crossing didn't bode well for him and the residues of his concussion, which just highlighted how hard he was pushing to make a point about what he is doing for UK Youth and the Positive About Youth Campaign.

Leo and Greg Mansell had a great day challenging each other. On the Sprint section, Greg smashed everyone in group 5. But they ended they Day one all as Leo said "My Legs aren't bad, Its just the neck, sitting on a bike for six and a half hours is hard." Greg through in some great banter in about their day with Leo replying "Greg's not happy about it, as its 1:1 officially, so that's good. I look forward to tomorrow"

To track their every movement you can follow the teams from the L2P website; ww.londres-paris.com, through mapmytracks.com and watch the video interview provided by Cyclevox and Hot Chilee from the home page.

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For more information go to www.nigelmansellcyclechallenge.org or www.positiveaboutyouth.org

or contact the UK Youth PR and Comms team directly.

Anouska - Email: Anouska [at] silverbackmedia.co.uk

Steve - Email: steve [at] silverbackmedia.co.uk

For information on London to Paris please contact their PR agent:
Sybil Ruscoe -
Email: sybil [at] sybilruscoemedia.com
www.londres-paris.com