Save yourself, save yourself…

No, that’s not a line from Saving Private Ryan, it’s Ben (but it sounded like Jim Bowen in my ears with that northern accent): “OK, phase 1’s in the bag. That’s safe, save yourself son, that Puig Major’s a bugger, it’s spit me out so many times – I’m pacing myself today”.

Look - no hands!

Within that breath two pro cyclists went spinning past –WHOOSH – WHOOSH – WHOOSH. Hold on what’s Ben doing chasing them?

Imagine Ben & Jerry, oh no that’s an ice cream, I mean Tom & Jerry (Ben being Tom – hold on that’s getting too confusing!).

Anyway he’s off chasing like a maniac, I’m doing 50km and can’t get anywhere near them… he must be up to 65km down that hill. To say Ben’s competitive is an understatement. Well that pretty much sums up his character and determination, that’s why he’s ready for the “ride of his life” in 10 days, and that’s why I’ve enjoyed training him.

Saturday we cycled 135km of mountains, the toughest route in Mallorca, as difficult as Ben will experience on his journey. But we did it with comfort. For the first time Ben enjoyed that route, he’s confident, ready – in fact we stopped off to admire the scenery and have a coffee & sandwich instead of head down pure training!


We started out 12 months ago as complete strangers – trainer & client – and we rode the 135km on Saturday as mates – chatting, laughing and just enjoying each other’s company.

I’m not saying it’s been an easy journey. For both of us, so much has happened but those events have made us both so stubborn & resilient and strong enough to tackle the journey. A great example was Sunday. Ben was due to ride so I wished him luck by text. I could tell by his reply he wanted some downtime to chill with his family. I nagged him (if you can nag by text?!), his reply was “I’m all lycrad up”. I got another text 3 hours later, after getting another 90km under his belt “I hate you”. I laughed out loud – that’s the kind of relationship we have, I’m not his trainer, just a mate who happens to be a fitness trainer.



Bring it on!



Are we ready? Too right we are! This is not just a fitness challenge but a mental challenge. I guess we’re pretty mental to take this on, I mean mental as we’re both quirky characters, quirky but mentally very tough. 

As Ben always says “How do you eat an elephant – a chunk at a time”. That’s how we tackle this, a chunk of road every day until there’s no road left, nothing will get in our way.

Let’s go and eat some road matey!

Ben’s Blog by his mum

Big thanks to Jaime Schubert for doing the Spanish translation for the BENSMILES website. No small job. Jaime decided in the end not to charge Ben the 140€ she had originally asked for, and instead to do it for free.

What I can also tell you is that Ben paid the 140€ himself, but not to Jaime. He put it into the BENSMILES funds. Ben’s quite careful with his money, so I was particularly impressed. This boy never ceases to amaze me – and I’m his mum!
Margaret Whittaker

Ben’s post-race blog

Oh my God!!

Wow, wow, wow!!!

This is an amazing feeling....

I’m over the moon that I finished the ride. It nearly killed me, and there were a lot of ups and downs along the way.

I’ve never done a race before, I’ve never felt pain like it, I’ve never been so tired in my life. But I’ve never - and I mean never - felt so good in my life!!

The amount of support I’ve received is just amazing! Every comment means everything and helps so much. I could hear my phone binging every two minutes with another message. I couldn’t read them because I was riding but I could hear them coming in.

At 220kms I hit the ‘wall’ that endurance athletes talk about. I was thinking of reasons to quit, knowing that everyone would be proud of me for what I’d done anyway. Sitting at the side of the road, feeling exhausted and lonely in the middle of nowhere, I started to read some of the messages of support. Well... I couldn’t get back on my bike fast enough! I wasn’t alone out there, I had a load of support and people thinking of me.

Every message boosts you more than you can believe.

I didn’t want to let you – or myself - down. I wanted to prove to you and to me that I am man enough to take the pain, man enough to keep pushing, man enough to finish what I have started. The fear that I was all talk and no action scared me to death.

When I came through the finish line, if I’d had any water left in my body I would have cried!

IT WAS THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD!!!

Two days on, hearing all the congratulations, I can’t remember the pain. I just remember that I did the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. As my big sis Claire says: ‘Welcome to childbirth’!

I am now on nitrous oxide overdrive to get better and ready for the Gibraltar to Nordkapp ride next year. I’m going to train like no one has ever trained before! (Hope Dave doesn’t read that bit!)

I have the best team in the world, all based on the standards set by my family, Slimming World and Dave Bladon. We have the foundations and the building blocks to go all the way and take Europe by storm.

So we now need to get serious and remember why we’re putting massive effort into all of this, the reason why ‘The Ride of My Life’ started. The reason I’m going to train like I’ve never done before to pump out 200km a day for 6 weeks and ride the full length of Europe! We want to impress the socks off everyone, of course - but most of all so that we can raise some serious money for kids.

Everyone in the team is doing this for free. It’s costing me not just a fortune but also a year and half of my life. My wife is taking care of me and the baby - very one-sided and not fair for her but she’s doing it because she knows this is a once in a lifetime push, to raise as much money as we can.

If you donate £1 or £10, you know that every penny of your money is going to the kids, not to me, not to the bike or any support. We are paying for that so your money goes to the right place.


The team are still working like demons on this and the donations link isn’t live on the website yet - it will be soon. Keep coming back, keep reading what I’m up to, how the training is going, what Dave Bladon my trainer has written in his diary on my blog and I’ll keep posting words from my heart too!

So come one everyone, please support me in every way you can. Tell your friends, family, colleagues and anyone you know AND LET’S ABOLISH CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT FOR EVER!!!!

Thank you to everyone from the bottom of my heart.

I love you all.

Benj