<p>To donate, please go to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.justgiving.com/teams/santitdfcustmf/">http://www.justgiving.com/teams/santitdfcustmf/</a>&nbsp;after you read the update.</p> <p>So, day 1 started at 6.15 am with a drive to Bristol Airport, followed by a flight to Geneva and a bus from the airport there to Grenoble. Once at Grenoble, I decided to take a bus from there to Bourg D&acute;Oisans, and to then climb from Bourg D&acute;Oisans to the apartment at Les Deux Alpes (Les Deux Alpes is a first category climb which entered cycling legend when Marco Pantani attacked in Galibier in 1998 and arrived at Les Deux Alpes, after an incredible climb, with 9 min advantage over the race favourite, the German Jan Ulrich. Pantani went on to win the Overall Classification on the Tour de France, completing the quite unusual Giro de Italia/Tour de France double that year). To see how to really climb Les Deux Alpes, watch Pantani do it here:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msyGFKPPhTk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msyGFKPPhTk</a></p> <p>I got to Bourg at 6.00 pm, put my bike back together, dumped my cardboard box, hooked up the paniers and set off at 6.30, on a beautiful evening, relishing the 6 kms of flat before starting the climb. Carlos, Chema and Nacho, who were coming back from climbing Lautarets, decided to wait for me at Freney, 12 km into the ride, and, after some effusive hellos, we climbed the col together, until 3 kms from the end Chema and Nacho decided to go ahead, whilst Carlos stayed with me helping me pace the climb whilst carrying the luggage.&nbsp;</p> <p>For those of you into cycling, I got to the top in 1h 27 min from Bourg, spending 45 min on the final 8.9 kms at 7.4% average incline. The average speed for the ride was 16.8km/h. Details of the ride can be seen here:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/57284490">http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/57284490</a></p> <p>And you can see some photos from the day on the left.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>