Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.
A team of four from Tenos committed to the challenge of this year's Etape du Tour to raise funds for our nominated charity: The Children's Burns Foundation.
The 2010 Etape involved cycling what is regarded as the most gruelling stage of this year's Tour de France a few days before Contador, Schleck, Armstrong and Wiggins etc follow us through in the main event.
The event was on Sunday 18 July and all four of us successfully completed it.
We might have been a bit slower than the professionals doing it on 22 July but the Etape was still a massive challenge for each one of us and the other 9000+ riders who started on the day.
In one day it took us 181 kilometres and 11,500ft of climbing over three Pyrennean climbs, culminating after already 100 miles in the saddle and in 30 degree heat with the final leg breaking and morale-sapping 20 km climb to the finish at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet at 2,115m (6,940ft).
Thousands of spectators turned out to cheer us on and to pour cold water over our heads on the hottest and hardest parts of the climbs. Camper vans lined the roads on the mountains with the die-hard tour fans already having claimed their prime positions for the main event on 22nd July and they were instrumental in providing much needed encouragement with their shouts of "allez, allez!" as each of the km-to-go boards clicked by unbelievably slowly.
It is truly difficult to convey the full scale of the physical effort required but what brings it home is the fact that the 6888 finishers was somewhat less than those who started.
Our results in terms of total time (hr:min:sec), position, and Col du Tourmalet climb time are summarised as follows:
Mostyn 07:59:43 1217th CdT climb time = 01:45:59
Russell 10:11:28 4990th CdT climb time = 02:21:53
John 11:00:55 6278th CdT climb time = 02:55:40
Simon 11:06:01 6407th CdT climb time = 02:38:22
The photos on this page will give you an idea of the route and we have started to put up some photos of the event and will add to this over the coming days.
We are keeping this page open for a while in the hope of some further donations for the cause.
The Children's Burns Foundation does a fantastic job so please spare what you can to enable us to surpass our target and assist in rebuilding the lives of children who have suffered the physical and psychological effects of severe burn injuries. To find out more click the link on the left of this page.
