Team Farrell took a major step forward in the fourth day of their arduous cycling tour from Copenhagen to northern England. As the family painfully rode the 126 kilometres between Hamburg and Bremen, they received further donations for Epilepsy Action, the British charity the Farrells want to raise £10,000 (94,888 kroner) for by cycling through Europe.
They currently stand at 62 percent of their stated goal, having collected £6,216.65 (59,085 kroner).
Once again, the group's lead cyclist, Nathaniel ("Tan") Farrell, his girlfriend, Regitze, and his father, Kevin, successfully concluded the day's leg of the family’s journey. They were joined by Tan's younger brother, Sebastian, who rode along on what described as a "modest thirty miles [48 km]" on the family's blog.
The weather was, once more, a major vector of difficulty in the riders' path. After the scorching heat of the previous days – which was equally problematic at night, keeping the group members awake and sleep-deprived – came heavy rains.
These unforgiving skies gave wings to blog writer Sebastian Farrell – both physically and lyrically. As he rode in thin, soaked shoes under the relentless rain, he gained courage and was revitalised. "I felt like Tim Robbins [portraying Andy Dufresne] at the end of Shawshank Redemption," he wrote, getting the "sudden urge to start shouting into the rain and wind".
Yet, despite this "monsoon weather", the cyclists got through the difficult stage; Tan even pulled off an impressive physical prowess, reaching speeds close to 50 kilometres per hour, and stunning his brother.
"Should there have been any doubt at all of my older brother's determination to complete this event, it was shattered in that one moment," Sebastian confessed.
The next leg of the journey promises to be even tougher. The Farrells will leave Bremen and ride 135km westward to reach Lingen, near the Dutch border. Tan branded this "the longest day".
“Bringing Home The Bacon” is the Farrell family's plan to cycle its way to northern England in order to raise £10,000 (94,888 kroner) for a charity raising awareness of epilepsy. The project, set up by Nathaniel “Tan” Farrell, was inspired by the tragic death of his younger sister, Felicity, who succumbed to epileptic seizures in 2008. Donations can be made on this link.
