The inaugural unsupported pan-European bike race ‘The Quick Energy Transcontinental’ takes place this summer. It will be the longest, toughest, unsupported cycle race in Europe, beginning in London on the 3rd August with a race finish in Istanbul. This race, as the organisers (www.theadventurists.com) have put it, will be ‘injecting a bit of Adventurism into the cycling world to shake things up a bit; away with boring stuff like routes and support teams, instead we’ve got Find-Your-Own-Way and Sort-Yourself-Out if there’s a problem’. 

You can find the event website here: www.transcontinentalrace.com

And that is exactly what it is; the route is down to each individual of the 46 riders taking part.The only obligatory waypoints beyond the start and finish line is the infamous Stelvio Pass, the second highest pass of the Alps and famous route of the Italian Giro d’Italian, and the Muur Van Geraardsbergan, a 1000 metre cobbled section of road with a gradient reaching 19% and often featuring in the Tour of Flanders. 

One of the riders competing in the race is 26 year old Nicholas Longworth, an events organiser in London, who has quit his job for a few months to pursue his passion of cycling. Under the ‘team name’ NoMoreExcuses, Nicholas has teamed up with Garmin, a global leader in GPS technology, and Optimum Nutrition to find his way across Europe but also to embark on a few detours to take in some of the legendary climbs of the Grand Tours.The route is over 2000 miles and I have set a target of over 225miles everyday - for 14 days - to take on some of these famous climbs.

During the month of July & August you can follow Nicholas on Twitter @NWlongworth (UK2Istanbul Cycle) as he tries to raise money for sports injuries through the Irish Rugby Charitable Trust (in memory of fellow school pupil Stuart Mangan) and the World Wide Fund for Nature

Thank you for taking the time to visit my justgiving page. I hope the description of the challenge above really brings across the scale of the race ahead - and as such I hope you will dig deep and donate to a great charity. Please look out for my blog along the way as we build up to the start in less than 1 months time.