History
It all began October 2000, following the death of our dear son Chris, John Lee, the father of Gavin, one of Chris's best friends wanted to help us fundraise. John initially wanted to cycle from Edinburgh to Tynemouth Priory in one Day!
John was fit but he had not cycled around the block for some years!
John said we could all have a drink at Tynemouth to celebrate that same evening!
I was really worried about him so I said how about Seahouses? It was a lot nearer since Edinburgh is not all down hill !
And to cycle such a distance in a day was far too much. So to cut a long story short Chris' best friends in alphabetical order - David Moncrieff, Gary Ross, Gavin Lee, Stewart Lamb, , and one of our dear friends Brian Giles, now our Chairman of the Trust, and of course John Lee, cycled from Seahouse to Tynemouth Priory October 2000, they raised £2,000 from sponsorship, for the Chris Lucas Trust. So only 6 cyclist's started the GREAT NORTH BIKE RIDE.
Year 2001, 58 cyclists took part, 2002, 300 cyclists took part, 2003, 600, 2004, 700, 2005, 921, took part, and it's rising each year!, Everyone said they enjoyed cycling as near as you can possibly get to the coastline, apart form cycling along the beach of course!
So I decided since a lot of cyclists said to me they enjoyed the 'bike ride' and a lot said it was 'great', and I agree it's such a beautiful part of the 'North'-East, I thought THE GREAT NORTH BIKE RIDE was the most appropriate name, I hope you think the same when you do the bike ride, we are sure you will agree!
Maybe your wondering why Tynemouth was the finish! Chris was attracted to the Tynemouth Priory, it's such a lovely area of coastline, he used to go to the Priory and sit by himself, or with his friends Dave, Gary, Gavin, Stu, during the good times, and sadly, he would take off for hours by himself, during the bad times in his short life.
by Lynn Lucas
Chairman Chris Lucas Trust
