\n John Curtis, 57, will pedal 1,200 miles from Riga to Suffolk’s county town in just 12 days.\n<\/p>\n
\n He will set off on August 3, a day after the Latvian Speedway Grand Prix, and aims to arrive at Foxhall Stadium in time for Ipswich Witches\u2019 meeting against Belle Vue Aces on August 14.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Curtis said: “I\u2019ll be riding solo and unsupported, and this is my biggest and toughest challenge yet.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I\u2019m excited and nervous in equal measure, and sure there will be some hard times, both physically and mentally.\n<\/p>\n
\n “However, as odd as it sounds, part of the enjoyment is the pain and suffering which make the challenge more rewarding, knowing it hasn\u2019t been easy.”\n<\/p>\n
\n John Curtis (red helmet) during his time as a speedway rider (Image: Stephen Waller) A former speedway rider and mechanic, Mr Curtis remains closely connected with Ipswich Witches and is raising funds for East Anglia\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospices (EACH).\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “I saw this as a great opportunity to support EACH, particularly as I know all about the proposed expansion plans at The Treehouse.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Hopefully, I can raise as much as possible.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Being saddle sore or having tired legs is nothing compared to what families being supported by the charity have to deal with every day, which will help me keep things in perspective when things get tough.”\n<\/p>\n
\n John Curtis, during his 2022 walk from Foxhall Stadium\u00a0in Ipswich\u00a0to the Principality Stadium\u00a0in Cardiff (Image: Supplied) Mr Curtis is no stranger to endurance challenges.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2022, he walked from Foxhall Stadium to Cardiff\u2019s Principality Stadium, and last year, cycled from the British Speedway Grand Prix in Cardiff to Wroclaw in Poland for the Polish Grand Prix.\n<\/p>\n
\n On both occasions, he raised funds for the Speedway Riders\u2019 Benevolent Fund.\n<\/p>\n
\n His route will take him through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands before reaching the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n He has already booked overnight stops in cities including \u0160iauliai, Gda\u0144sk, Szczecin\u00a0and L\u00fcneburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Curtis, 57, will pedal 1,200 miles from Riga to Suffolk’s county town in just 12 days. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-195735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114707151181973481","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}