Well I went back to see my parents this weekend and to pick up a wheel so that I could start training again. While I was there I found an old route sheet for a local 75 mile cycling route, organised by a club about 10 years ago. In fact I think I rode it back in 1995.
Lovely route and all. Got to about 25 miles into it and followed the directions to the T. Unfortunately after a little while I realised that the directions were making no sense. So phoned Dad, who looked at an up-to-date map. Some fool had gone and built the A3 (T) road since this route had been written and I was miles out. By the time I got back onto the route at 35 miles, I had already done an extra 20 odd miles so decided to give up and cycle home before darkness set in.
To add to the fun, my cycle computer, heart rate monitor and rear light decided to stop working!
Apart from that, an excellent undulating ride and I did somewhere in the region of 90 miles so turned out to be good training.
Setting off on Le Tour - Brest, Brittany
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Ian (Left) and Matt (Right)
Hello and a very warm welcome to our blog.
We are two amateur cyclists who have decided to follow in the footsteps of our cycling heroes and ride the complete 2008 Tour de France route. This year the most famous cycle race in the world covers 3500km (2200 miles) over 3 weeks in July and takes in some of the highest mountain passes in the Pyrenees and Alps.
We will start two days after the professionals on 7th July in Brest, Brittany and ride the whole thing stage-for-stage, road-for-road, day-for-day as the pros will be. This will result in us arriving in Paris on 29th July, having averaged 100 miles per day. Please click this link to see what lies ahead of us:
http://www.letour.fr/2008/TDF/COURSE/us/le_tour_2008.html
Our aim is to complete the whole route and this means that we will not be racing round but riding at a sensible, sustainable pace. As a result, we expect to be in the saddle for 12 hours on some days.
Friends and family will be driving a support vehicle but we will not have the benefit of masseurs, soigneurs, chefs and team doctors that the pros have. And there will be no Testosterone, EPO or illegal blood doping going on in our Tour!
We hope to raise as much money as possible for two very worthwhile charities: Ian is raising money for CLIC Sargent and Matt for MacMillan Cancer Support. Please dig deep and support these charities via our justgiving pages on the right. Alternatively, please email us with your name, contact details and the amount you would like to donate and we will contact you after we complete our tour.
At this time, a friend of Ian's, Robbie Stuart, is fighting Leukaemia and is a supporter of CLIC Sargent's work. A link to his blog can be found here. Best wishes go to Robbie who is currently recovering from a bone marrow transplant.
Please tell you friends about our blog and what we are doing, and please send us words of encouragement and support.
We will update you with our training and we will be keeping a diary on here as we ride the event in July.
Best wishes
Ian and Matt
Sunday 27 January 2008
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