Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On 20 July I will be taking part in l'Etape du Tour.  This follows the route of the penultimate stage of this year's Tour de France and culminates in the notorious Mont Ventoux - one of the most fearsome of all climbs used in the Tour.  Five days after we tackle it, Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador (and maybe one or two others) will be settling once and for all who will win this year's race.

The climb has history.  In 1967 Tommy Simpson famously died near the top from a combination of brandy, amphetamines and heat exhaustion.  His last words were "put me back on the bike".  In 1970 Eddy Merckx rode himself to the brink of collapse while winning the stage. He received oxygen, recovered, and won the Tour de France. 

Armstrong has never won there and has this to say on the subject:"Nineteen hundred meters up there, is completely different from 1,900 metres any place else. There's no air, there's no oxygen. There's no vegetation, there's no life, Just Rocks. Any other climb there's vegetation, grass and trees. Not there on the Ventoux. It's more like the moon than a mountain."

The whole route is just over 100 miles long, with about 3,500 m (over 10,000') of ascent.  The final climb up the Ventoux is 21 km long at an average gradient of 7.6% (a height gain of 1600 m), although the middle section includes 10 km at an average of 10%.  This will hurt.

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 Oxfam 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 Oxfam.

So please dig deep and donate now.