Story
On Monday 20th July Matt and I will attempt to cycle a mountain stage of the Tour du France. It’s called L'Etape Du Tour and it’s the only stage of the Tour de France that ‘normal people’ are allowed to cycle.
The plan is to set off at 7am in Montelimar (France) and whip up 4 little mountains before a mega 21.5km climb to the summit of Mont Ventoux, 167km later. The finish is at the top of the mountain and as long as we get there in under 10.5 hours, they promise not to kick us off the course. They might even give us a medal...
I can’t quite remember what made us sign up for it; I think it sounded like a fun thing to do back in October 2008 and Matt was making it sound easy as he’d done it the year before.
After 7 months of training including being sabotaged by protesters throwing carpet tacks onto the roads in front of us, cycling in the rain and wind, getting freezing fingers and sunburn, sometimes on the same day, I’m not sure ‘a fun thing to do’ is the right word to describe it now!
The least we can do is raise some money in the process - we’ve chosen the British Heart Foundation as their work has helped both our families. It would be great if you can donate whatever you can. The mountain at the end is renowned for being hard, windy, harsh and unforgiving so the fact we’re raising money will help us push through those final kilometres. This is what I’m hoping anyway!
Thank you very much from us and on behalf of the British Heart Foundation.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
So please dig deep and donate now.
Thank you
Catherine and Matt