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Matthew Porter

Manchester to London - 2025

Help me reach my goal of £4,000

My Activity Tracking

1,818
mi

My target 220 mi

Please support my 2nd Ambitious Challenge!

One More Time, as the French robots said. And I will riding from Manchester to London One More Time on 22nd June this year.

As before, the ride is in support of Ambitious about Autism, a fantastic charity working with autistic children. I will be cycling 350 kilometres in a single day. Starting early in Manchester and finishing late in London, I'll be leaving my limits behind to raise vital funds for this awesome charity.

This will be my second attempt at the ride... the first time was clearly not punishment enough! 

See here for the story of my first time: Ambitious About Autism Manchester to London. What a day! | Ride | Strava

Ambitious about Autism is the national charity standing with autisitc children and young people. They champion rights, campaign for change and create opportunities for autistic young people and their families. 

You can follow the event tracker on the day:

https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/rapha/m2l-2025/


Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

£5,125 + £902.50 GiftAid

My Goal

£4,000

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£
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All donations in GBP

My Achievements

Shared page

Self-donated

Added a profile pic

Added a blog post

Received 10 donations

25% fundraising target

50% fundraising target

Fundraising target reached

50% distance target reached

Challenge complete!

My Updates

That's a wrap

Wednesday 25th Jun
All over!
Sunday was a tough day. I left Manchester at 5:30am and got back to London just after 7:30pm. Average speed of 28kph. 
I spent the day with a great group. 10 of us, well organised and sharing the work. 
Though I really struggled from around the 250km mark. At the final feed stop (280km) I knew I was not going to be able to keep with the pace of the group to the end. I did make it to 330km though, before falling off the back (my choice - the group were super-supportive).
Still, I finished 27th (out of ~200). So very pleased with that. 
Now... recovery!

Thank you all! (and a tracking link)

Saturday 21st Jun
Many thanks to everyone that has sponsored me for the ride. I have beaten my target, which is amazing!
Preparation has not been as smooth as hoped... having my bikes stolen with 2-weeks to go was far from ideal. Anyway, I am now all set and about to head to Manchester. 
For anyone that wants to follow my progress, the event tracker is at:
https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/rapha/m2l-2025/

Training is harder without a bike :-(

Monday 16th Jun
My training had been going well. I managed to keep consistent riding, right until last Tuesday. 
I went to the garage to get my bike out for the evening club ride, only to find all my bike were gone. 5 bikes stolen from my garage. I did try to get on the turbo, but my heart was not in it.

Anyway, I found a second hand bike for sale which I am picking up tomorrow. So will be doing the M2L ride. Let's hope the bike fits... 350km on a badly fitting bike could well hurt!

Getting Close

Friday 6th Jun
The ride as gone from "ages away" to "about to happen" in a disappointingly short space of time. Something "ages away" is a lot less daunting.
Still, I am committed and the training has been going OK. I managed 280km last week, which I felt great about. Then I remembered that the ride is 350km - so more in a day than I've done in my biggest week in years.
Anyway, I have a bit more than 2-weeks to go. The final week is all about tapering (rest!), so not a lot of training time left.
I have been sorting my bike. I have a new front light and it is nice & clean, as well as some new tyres to go on. 
I can genuinely say that I am looking forward to it, even if I know it will be very tough. 

Less than a month to go

Tuesday 27th May
I started training consistently in January. I then stepped it up a fair bit once I committed to the M2L ride. 
And you know what? 
Consistent training works. 
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But I feel stronger on the bike and I have lost ~5kgs this year. It it also great to be able to keep up on the CC Ashwell Chaingang again.
The organisers have asked us to give them an estimate of our speed for the ride, which they will use to assign us to a start time & ride group. 
This is seems to be a very difficult question for me... Choose too fast, and I will be dropped and left to day riding on my own. Too slow, and I will just annoy my fellow riders by pushing off the front.
Maybe I am overthinking this though? Perhaps get back to worrying about training instead?

Thank you to my Sponsors

£150

Laura Malvaez

Go Matt! Si se puede!

£150

Ian Clark

Good Luck

£100

Robin Thompson

£100

Fabrice Perissinotto

£100

Dan A

Good luck Matt!

£100

David Leach

Hope the wind is behind and the roads downhill all the way!

£100

Paul Edwards

Well done Mat - have fun?1?

£100

Paul Dixon

Fantastic! Pedal on.

£100

Joseph De Sousa

Good luck Mat!

£100

Jamie Armour

Plus a little extra for the drizzle - great cause and best of luck!

£100

Martin

Remember, pain is just weakness leaving the body!

£100

Martin And Barbara

Good luck. Hope the wind is behind you.

£100

Matt Lynn

Shut up legs!

£100

Dan Broderick

Chapeau Matt! Don’t forget the chamois cream : )

£100

Matthew Porter

Getting this started!

£100

Leon Douch

Best of luck and hope the wind is at your back.

£100

Corbemic

Good luck Mr P. A great charity. I’m sure you’ll smash it (erm, the distance, not your bike).

£100

Raj Alam

Best of luck

£100

Giri Singh

Good luck Mat! You're a glutton for punishment...

£100

Mark Versey

Top tip: start really slowly and then gradually get slower and slower- best of luck

£100

Nick Tranter

Good luck mate on both rides - not that you will need it! and a great cause - be safe

£100

Komar Subramanian

Best of luck Matt!!

£75

Anonymous

Good luck, Matt!

£75

Rob Portr

£50

Frosty

Allez !

£50

Andrew Berman

Good luck - enjoy the ride.. Andrew

£50

Karen Palmer

Wishing you the ver best of luck. Hope all goes well.

£50

Angela Jung

Good luck Mat!

£50

Neil Souten

Best of luck Mat, fingers crossed for a tail wind!

£50

Kyrylo Sukhanenko

Good luck Matt!

£50

Tian Jiang

Hopefully no mechanical this time, good luck!

£50

Aziza El Amrani

£50

Paul Stanworth

Best of luck Mat!

£50

Jon Rickert

£50

Toby Clark

Congrats Mat. Incredible effort.

£50

Ian Barnes

Go Matt!

£50

Richard Ratcliffe

Good luck Matt

£50

Will Jones

Enjoy, Mat Best of luck

£50

Annalea O’halloran

Well done Mat, all your training is paying off for a great cause!

£50

Anthony Philbin

Good luck Mat!

£50

Giles

Good on you for doing this ride and exceeding your fundraising goal. Gutted to read about your bikes being stolen.

£50

Lesley Caslin

Good luck Matt

£50

Anonymous

£50

John Cordey

Good Luck Mat !

£50

Od

well done...hope to see u soon in Bxl !

£50

Simon

£50

Patrick K

Great cause! Good luck and take a foam roller with you!

£50

Marc Baylis

Good luck! Impressive (and perhaps slightly mad!) challenge. I assume you need to be quicker than the first time….

£50

Olly Smart

Good luck Mat! - Push the pace at the front!

£50

Carl R

You are a star. Mad as an olive in a fruit salad - but hats off to you. Good luck Mr Porter.

£50

Kirsten Clear

Best of luck Mat! Hope the weather holds out for you!

£50

James Lett

Well done Mat. Incredible achievement, particularly given the circumstances.

£50

Ed Molloy

Best of luck Mat. Hope the weather and wind behave.

£50

Neil

On ya bike Mat! Good luck

£50

Ian Britchfield

Best of luck Mat.

£50

Sohail Khan

£50

Carlo Elsinghorst

£50

Laurence Archer

Good luck!

£50

Stephen Lee

Best of luck Mat

£50

Stephen O'kane

Good Luck - ride like you stole the bike!

£50

Avi Shown-keen

Best of luck Mat!

£50

Colin Frearson

£30

Jonathan Nicholas

£30

Ben And Katie

Good luck Mat!

£30

Sarah

Good luck, great cause!

£30

J H

Good luck Mat!

£30

Gregg Delforge

£25

Ian Shaw

Well done. That is a huge day out 💪💪💪

£25

Ben Marten

Best of luck Mat!

£25

Aiden J

£25

Maurice Butler

Good luck Matt, great cause, enjoy the ride.

£25

Kasam B

£25

Chris Porter

£25

Pete D

Good luck today! Hope the saddle sores aren't too debilitating!

£25

Sophie Peterson

Good luck - I hope the wind will be behind you!!

£25

Ciaran Gallogly

£25

Adam Cash

All the best Mat and have great ride :)

£20

Ross Stevenson

£20

Kjeld

£20

Hugo Elsing

Good luck Mat!

£20

Abbie

Good luck!!🚴🚴

£20

Tori Corser-sproson

Good luck Mat! Brilliant work.

£20

Anthony Tugwell

Great work Mat, particularly on a new bike!

£20

Stefan Cca

Have a great ride, an amazing challenge!

£20

David Reeves

Best of luck!

£20

Anu Ralhan

An excellent cause! Hope it goes well.

£20

Doug Livingstone

Good luck Matt

£20

Richard Croft

£20

James Wright

£20

Winnie

Good luck!

£20

Maria & Ollie Robinson

Good Luck Matt, and well done! Ollie & Maria

£20

Emma Poulson

Good Luck Mat!

£15

Tim Wouters

Good luck, Mat!

£10

Martin Lawless

£10

Anonymous

Best of luck!

£10

Adam Ellis

Congratulations, great effort!

£10

Chris Laughlin

£10

Siobhan Burke

Best of Luck Mat, a great cause!

£10

Sinead Cronin