Surprisingly ETA committee member Andy Cook won’t be on our bus to Hampden for the crucial qualifier against England instead as we board the bus he will be in Annandale not far from the English border climbing onto his bicycle for the last leg of his charity bike ride. Andy and a team of riders are cycling the 458 miles in 5 days from Wembley to Hampden to raise money for the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal. This an amazing challenge with some incredible climbs and 3 days where they are on the bike for 100 miles. There is a route map on their website http://www.tasabikeride.co.uk/ which includes profiles of all the hills as well as a page with a bit about the riders and links to the donation pages.
The TASA team in Training
Andy has been a member of ETA for a good number of years now so at Wednesday night’s meeting the committee agreed to sponsor Andy £450 which is about £1 per mile. TASA is a charity we have supported before and has made a donation at every Scotland game since 2003 so well worth every penny. Andy was well chuffed with that and asked us to pass on this message “I would like to say a massive thanks to ETA for such a fantastic gesture in sponsoring me a £1 a mile. It really is a significant amount and will make such a difference to the Tartan Army Sunshine appeal. With less than 2 months to go the training rides have been getting harder and longer so to receive such a generous donation at this stage has given the whole team a lift. It certainly made my getting up 6am for some training miles before work that bit easier this morning”.
Andy has already passed his £1,000 goal but there is still plenty time to sponsor him or one of his team as they hope to reach £10,000. You can sponsor on their mydonate page or check out their website and Twitter feed @TasaBikeRide17. Everyone at ETA would like to wish Andy and the team well for the cycle and we’ll see you for a well earned pint in the Clockwork on match day. Good Luck!
Andy also cycled from Edinburgh to Dublin ahead of the Republic of Ireland match in 2015