Woman on charity ride gets surprise marriage proposal – and says ‘yes’

A woman taking part in a two-day, 160-mile charity ride got a bit of a surprise as she cycled under a road bridge on the outskirts of Nottingham – her boyfriend was on top of it, holding up a sign asking her to marry him.

Alice Jones, a PA at Vision Express, was part of 40-strong team from the company undertaking a Ride4Sight challenge that raised £25,000 for the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust.

She was five miles from the end of the ride when boyfriend Michael Teft, with whom she has lived in Grantham for the past two years, popped the question from the A52 bridge.

“I recognised Michael’s car and couldn’t figure out why it was there,” she said afterwards. “I looked around, and then saw him holding a sign saying ‘Will you marry me please?’, but by the time I’d seen it I was almost underneath the bridge.

“So I gave him the thumbs up, shouted yes, and carried on cycling.”

Her fiancé had been waiting on the bridge for an hour and was worried the police might tell him to move on.

Alice joked: “Lots of people saw him with the sign – I want to know how many other yeses he got!”

Jonathan Lawson, CEO of Vision Express, said: “The last few days have been a personal challenge for many, and a great test of stamina for us all.

“It’s fantastic that we’ve managed to beat the fundraising benchmark from 2013 and we’re grateful to everyone who has donated and supported us along the way.

“I’d like to extend my congratulations to Alice and Michael, for giving us an extra special ending to this year’s Ride4Sight.”

Romance has been in the air in cycling circles over the past few weeks judging by some of our recent stories.

During last month’s RideLondon-Surrey 100, Gary Watson and Lisa Russell took a break from pedalling to get married at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, and began their lives as husband and wife by carrying on the rest of the ride to the finish on The Mall.

Meanwhile at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August, Scottish track cyclist Chris Pritchard got the result he’d most wanted – not a place in the Keirin final, but a ‘yes’ from partner Amanda Ball when he clambered up into the crowd to ask her to marry him, the proposal caught by TV cameras.

Last week, a survey published to coincide with National Bike to Work Day found that four in ten cycle commuters said their sex lives had improved since they began riding to work, and two thirds said their relationship had improved after taking to two wheels.