WHEN cyclist Allan Pond set out on a 160-mile charity bike ride to Skegness and back, he never dreamed it would end how it did.
Things went spectacularly wrong when he took a wrong turn after a stop-off at Louth.
It was a mistake which would see Allan, 60, of Saville Road, Gilroyd, forced into sleeping in Skegness bus station, being picked up by a passing ambulance and taken to hospital in Cleethorpes and cycle a total of 237 miles.
"It's quite a story, unbelievable really. I got to a pub in Louth and phoned my friend to say I was only 20 miles away and that I should be in Skegness about 8.30pm.
"I set off again and apparently there was a bypass I should have taken but I didn't notice it, I was pedalling into next week."
After finally arriving at his destination at 10.30pm, he was unable to find anywhere to stay the night. So after spending five hours in the bus station, he decided to head home. But disaster struck again when he sheltered under a bridge and he was picked up by the passing ambulance and worried paramedics insisted on taking him to hospital in Cleethorpes.
He was checked over and sent on his way, and he planned to catch a train home but with no money for the fare, Allan took to his bike again.
After calling into the police station at Immingham for directions, officers took him to the YMCA in Grimsby where he spent the night.
Allan finally returned home at 6.30pm on Monday.
** The full story appears in the Barnsley Chronicle, dated August 22. **
