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I am taking part in three challenging events in memory of my friend, Mark Hill, who we lost 5 years ago. 

The first event was the Coventry Beer Festival on Friday 24/4/15.  I had done no preparation for this and it was tough going. After four hours at Coventry Rugby Club the rest of the day was split between The Broomfield Tavern and The Hearsall Inn. While hydration was not a problem the only nutrition came in the form of some  unnecessary late night Guinness. At over 12 hours this was hopefully the longest of the challenges.

The second challenge was on 31/5/15 and was Le Petit Depart retracing some of the 2014 Tour de France Route in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. it was a 6am start to get to Skipton by 7.30am.  The first 30 miles were pretty wet and included the Category 3 Climb up Kidstones Bank which averaged 6.3% with a nice 16% bit near the top. After the first Feed Stop, where Isotonic Pork Pie was on offer, it was 25 miles into a headwind including a climb up Newby Head.  We turned left just by the beautiful Ribblesdale Viaduct and then it was the a bacon batch and coffee at the Feed Station in Horton.  Luckily the wind was behind us as we were going up the aptly named High Hill lane out of Settle which started with a cobbled stretch of road leading to a 20% section which was quickly followed by a 24.5% bit which saw my speed top a breathtaking 2.5mph. I passed 3 people who were pushing their bikes and this looked much harder than trying to pedal up so I persevered and made it to the top.  It was then relatively easy back to Skipton.  In total it took 6 hours 19 minutes and 33 seconds which meant that I was in the "Silver" Category for finishing under 6 hours 30 minutes.

Having spent a week in Chamonix acclimatising to the 30c plus heat, altitude and stupidly high mountains we moved down to the Ecrin National Park for some more last minute training and to do some TdeF Col Collecting with Michael Halloran. I was feeling pretty good until we went to register at La Toussuire-les Sybelles on 19/7/15. We had to drive up the last Hill we would be climbing and it was 20k that seemed to go on forever. I got very little sleep that night before the alarm went off at 5:15. It was very chaotic at the start but Bin 13 set off about 8:50. It was a very short flat start before the 1,000m climb up to Col de Chaussy. Coming down there was an accident on a really nasty bend and we had to walk for about 20 minutes. On the next flat section I was nearly taken out by a cyclist cutting me up to try and high five a child spectator. They had put in a sprint section but I decided not to play and stuck to my 18mph on the flat game plan.

 The 1,500 metre climb up the Col du Glandon was brutal and took me 2:11:22! It was mayhem at the Feeding Station at the top. I got very grumpy with the rudeness of some cyclists and I had to have a serious talk with myself about not jacking it in. I had a headache and felt a bit nauseous. This was the King of the Mountains section and I was 6752 out of 9877.

Down a bit and then up to the Col de La Croix de La Fer and then a nice descent before the Col du Mollard. Saw a badly injured cyclist being tended to by the Paramedics and managed to overtake a Tandem on the way up the Col du Mollard. After a swiftish downhill to St Jean-de-Maurianne it was then the climb up to La Toussuire Les Sybelles. This took well over 2 hours but it seemed much longer with the last 3k being the worst of the day. When I crossed the finish line I texted Claire. She rang me straight  back  but I was physically and emotionally incapable of speech. There was a guy next to me dry heaving which was on the verge of being contagious. After a disappointing trip to the Pasta Party I returned to my bike and there was a guy wrapped in a foil blanket with Paramedics setting up an intravenous drip. 

I met up with Michael and we started the 20k trip back to the car but then the road was blocked and we had to go on a diversion which added another couple of kilometres giving a total mileage for the day of 101. The day proved the accuracy of the description on Etap du Tour website. It was indeed "Brutal". 

The stats were: 15,000 entrants, 12,092 starters, I finished 6,720 out of 9,877 finishers in a time of 9:35:39.

 Mark used to love coming to the Lake District and South Lakeland MIND came very close to closure in 2014 due to a lack of funds and needs to secure its long term future.  Please visit the SLM website for more details.

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