\n John Curtis set off on his Ride Home From Riga challenge on August 3, cycling from Riga in Latvia to Foxhall Stadium outside Ipswich in aid of East Anglia\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospices (EACH).\n<\/p>\n
\n The route took him through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands before he crossed into the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n John Curtis finished the challenge at Foxhall Stadium (Image: EACH) Mr Curtis said: “It feels surreal that the challenge is now over.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The planning, preparation and training has been a big part of my life for several months and is going to leave a bit of a hole, but I\u2019m aiming to try and keep my level of fitness up.\n<\/p>\n
\n “People have been so kind and generous in terms of their support. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll never forget, and I\u2019m so glad I managed to accomplish what I set out to achieve.”\n<\/p>\n
\n He arrived at Foxhall Stadium on Thursday August 14, in time for the Ipswich Witches\u2019 speedway meeting against Belle Vue Aces.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 57-year-old raised more than \u00a33,000 for EACH during the challenge.\n<\/p>\n
\n His longest ride was 131 miles, from Marijampol\u0117 in Lithuania to Bartoszyce in Poland.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Curtis is no stranger to endurance feats.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2022 he walked from Ipswich to Cardiff\u2019s Principality Stadium, and in 2024 cycled from Cardiff to Wroclaw in Poland.\n<\/p>\n
\n Both challenges raised money for the Speedway Riders\u2019 Benevolent Fund.\n<\/p>\n
\n John Curtis with wife Alison and daughter Jess (Image: EACH) This year he chose to support EACH, saying he wanted to give something back locally.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “To raise what I have feels amazing, and I feel proud and honoured to have supported a truly amazing cause.”\n<\/p>\n
\n A former speedway rider and mechanic, Mr Curtis remains closely connected to Ipswich Witches.\n<\/p>\n
\n He thanked promoter Chris Louis and the club for their support, describing his reception at Foxhall as “truly special.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Curtis set off on his Ride Home From Riga challenge on August 3, cycling from Riga in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-81885","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","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}