GAP Wales on their latest Cycling challenge

The guys from GAP Wales recently caught up with our Lamsie on a new episode of the Newport City Radio show to talk about their newest cycling challenge which sees Ben travel from Newport to Bethlehem.

“In Persian culture, Naruz is a very big festival. It happens in the spring equinox. It’s the New Year celebration. Big cultural event for many Iranian people and other people throughout the Middle East. And so we kind of felt… Why not pick the Equinox, do it on?

They reveal that Ben’s background and faith played a huge part when it came to choosing the location of the challenge.

“So it reflects Ben’s cultural background a little bit. Obviously, 12 hours of day gives him more time for riding than maybe some other times of the year. 

“Ben has quite strong faith. and we wanted the ride to be somewhat symbolic, and Bethlehem is Bethlehem. This particular ride is quite a distance. It’s 250 kilometres, so it just ties in very nicely. We could have done a 250 -kilometre loop anywhere, but the fact that it’s to Bethlehem and back seems quite apt.”

They explained why they decided to take that specific route

“Yes, basically because that route has lots of hills and challenges, Sam took that route for me. and I asked him to make it more challengeable as much as we can. So, yeah, it’s quite symbolic, as he said, and I’m really keen to do it. The first time that we wanted to start this project, it started from the… A person tried to donate, but in my opinion, the way that he wanted to donate us some money was in a good way. So basically I start asking him, can I do something about it? Can I help with that? And he said, your time is enough. But as you know, I was keen about it. I said, I can make this project happen. I can do this. I asked Sam and he was thinking about it. He said, I don’t give you a right answer, but I’ll think about it. And it become this project that we call it Wales in a Day.”

Click the link to listen to the full interview now 

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/from-refugee-to-cycling-champion-a-journey-of-hope-and-resilience–67530423