my Ride on nelly 2020 – dj martin smith

Ride On Nelly 2020 #ride4hayden

My Ride On Nelly 2020 Full Monty 100 mile ride in memory of snowboarding friend Nelson Pratt and my son Hayden who both took their own lives. COVID-19 difficulties meant that the memorial event that we’ve ridden for the last 7 years had to think outside of the box for it’s 8th edition.

With everyone taking on their own favourite ride no matter how short or long a route and clad in this years special ‘Ride on Nelly’ cycling jersey sponsored by Vans. All the proceeds from the jerseys goes to CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably, a charity that helps so many people to avoid taking their own lives.

One of the extra bonuses of this years event was the release to us of Nelson’s mum Edie’s secret recipe for the chocolate Brownies we would normally have to fuel us at the feed stations along the route. I took on the task of making our batch, and I’ve never baked brownies before, ever. Amazingly they turned out rather well!

My route was a loop of 100 miles starting from my home in Torquay and out to take on a few of my favourite climbs on Dartmoor before heading over to the South Hams and a lumpy coastal ride back from Kingsbridge via Slapton and Dartmouth.

I was joined for the South Hams part by another long time pro-snowboarding and cycling friend, Juliet Elliott. I’ve managed to cobble this video together using phone footage as my GoPro battery decided to die before I even got to film anything. Luckily Juliet was also filming for her channel so will have a way better video for you to watch soon!

You can donate to CALM [Campaign Against Living Miserably] via my fundraising page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraisin …