On July 5th 2008 I completed the Doyenne of cyclosportives, reputedly the hardest of them all - the legendary Marmotte in the French Alps. This one-day epic takes in some of the hardest and highest cols, a whopping 5,000m of climbing over 174km with a mountain top finish at l'alpe d'Huez. - 14kms of sheer murder after the massive climbs of the Glandon, Telegraph and the Galibier.

Just finishing the event for many Brits takes months of preparation, base riding, training camps and specific training. It was fairly hot again this year, but luckily a bit of cloud cover shielded the riders from the typical upper 20C to lower 30C temperatures found in the Alps in the peak summer months which not all of us Brits can prepare for!

A total of 658 Brits completed the course out of the 5,300 participants who made it to the top of alpe d'Huez (over 7000 riders started the day) - I was very happy with 266th Brit!

Check out the video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kldC4Mv_VeM

And photos at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marmotte08/

As many of you may know, my amazing younger brother Stuart  has Williams Syndrome - a rare disorder.  After many years of being miss-diagnosed due to poor awareness of the condition amongst healthcare professionals, Stuart was finally diagnosed with Williams Syndrome a few years ago. This has made a huge difference to Stuart and our family; Stuart is no longer searching for answers and everyone now know 's what we are dealing with and how best to support him.

Like Down's Syndrome, Williams it is caused by an abnormality in chromosomes, and shows a wide variation in ability from person to person. It is a non-hereditary syndrome which occurs at random and can effect brain development in varying degrees, combined with some physical effects or physical problems. These range from lack of co-ordination, slight muscle weakness, possible heart defects and occasional kidney damage. Hypercalcaemia - a high calcium level - is often discovered in infancy, and normal development is generally delayed.