Job done, 660.59km, lots of details if you scroll right down including my account of the adventure and the winners of the guessing competition........

  

My crazy ride this year is simple, to ride as far as I can in 24 hours. I'll be leaving my home village of Bellentre at 9pm on Wednesday July 27th and I'll keep riding until 9pm the following day.

To make it a bit more interesting you get to guess how far I get, with the closest guesses getting some seriously good prizes. First prize will be a cycling holiday with Alpine Cadence, Second prize at this stage is a ski course with New Generation Ski School in Les Arcs. Third prize will be a morning's private ski coaching from European Snowsports in Verbier. That's just for starters, lots more prizes on the way, let me know if you'd like to donate a prize.

I've decided to try to support the children in the aftermath of the recent events in Japan. I think you'll agree it's an important cause and I know my mentor in the sky, Ali Rainback, would approve. My target is to raise £5000 towards this charity.

When you leave a donation please remember to make a guess, in kilometres, as to how far I'll go. Be precise to within 100m, for example 328.7 km. When you leave a message with your donation make sure that you include your guess in the message.

This will be very much a mystery ride, all I'll let you know is the following:

I'm going to ride as far as I can and as far from home as possible, no circuits or backtracking, just riding away from home! I'll be riding a standard racing bike and I'll be riding on my own most of the way. A support vehicle will be with me all the way supplying me with food, drink and navigational help. Last year I managed 340km in 14 hours through mountainous terrain. The world record for 24 hour riding stands at about 950km, set on a time trial bike on a flat circuit near Grenoble (boring!). That's all the help you'll get, now guess away!!! 

Update May 25th

Training is going well, several rides of 4 to 6 hours and hopefully a 10 hour jobby coming soon. Hard to train specifically for something like this though. Very confident of completing it as I'm strong at pacing myself and eating/drinking properly. I'm determined to get as far as my body will allow me to go, exciting and daunting to think where I might be the next day

Update May 30th

The date is set at last, Wednesday 27th July, leaving the Cafe des Commerces in Bellentre at 21.00. Come and see me off and another chance to donate and win!

Update June 20th

I've decided to reveal more about where I'm going on this ride to try to get everyone to appreciate the scale of it a bit more. It's still going to be very much a mystery as to how far I'll end up going as it'll depend massively on wind, navigational issues and other surprises. Here's the rough route:

Bellentre, Albertville, Grenoble, Valence, Montelimar, Nimes, Montpellier, Narbonne, Perpignan, Spain.

That's enough info I think, please dig deep and support me.

Update 12 July

Support team all organised now, Martin driving and navigating, Carolyn feeding me and definately not navigating!! Derek will be my technical man, riding with me some of the way and fixing any problems. Many thanks to all of you in advance.

Update 18th July

Many thanks to European Snowport in Verbier who have donated a whole morning private ski lesson as a prize. This will be the prize for the 3rd closest guess.

Update 25th July

Weather not looking perfect, might have to postpone for 24 hours, eager to get the job done though, can't possibly get as wet and cold as I did last year can I ??!!

 July 30, Job done!!!!!

660.59 kilometres ridden

6 departements visited (Savoie, Isere, Drome, Vaucluse, Gard, Herault, Aude)

4 hours of riding in the rain

29 degrees max temperature recorded

134 my average heart rate for the 24 hours

2215 number of metres climbed (total altitude gain)

78 average cadence (pedalling rate rpm)

19103 calories burnt

3 seaside resorts visited (la Grande Motte, Narbonne Plage, St Pierre sur Mer)

10 litres of fluid consumed (fresh water, energy drink and coke)

28.3 average riding speed (km/hour)

0 number of punctures

6 rounds of sandwiches consumed (cheese, ham, vegemite, honey)

8 decathlon almond bars snacked on

full details of the ride at

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102685010

photos at

https://picasaweb.google.com/AlpineCadence/JohnS24HourRide#

Well, my ride is done, here's my account of how the whole thing unfolded. Lots of locals turned out to give me a great send off, I even got a mini firework display! As the church clock chimed at 9pm I was off. The first few kilometres were easy and I was relieved to get the thing underway after lots of anticipation and planning. The weather forecast was for occasional showers in the night but it rained constantly for the first 4 hours, not good. The only saving grace was that it was fairly mild, around 15/16 degrees for the first part of the night, so being wet was not a big problem.

I reached grenoble at about 1.15am and the rain was gone, fantastic. The main challenge now was traffic lights! I had ridden through the city a few weeks before and I knew the route well, the traffic light gods dealt with me favourably and the roads were so quiet it was easy to jump a few reds and avoid any stops.

Out the other side and onto a dark foggy road towards Romans. My lights on my bike worked brilliantly and I was able to ride at similar speeds as I would do in the day. Martin and the suport vehicle were behind me on this stretch to help light upthe road for me. A few near misses with hedgehogs, bats and deer but all in all things were going well.

An attempted short cut resulted in a bit of unplanned climbing, but we were quickly back on track on fast flat roads. Navigation on the trip proved to be tougher than expected, on some major roundabouts I would go round and round a few times until a decision was made. The important thing was that I kept moving and clocking up the kilometres, even if they were in the wrong direction!

As daybreak approached the temperature dropped to around 12 degrees, then in the Rhone valley, somewhere north of Montelimar, I looked left and saw the first signs of light. The sun came up quickly and I felt good. A quick stop to get out of soggy socks and change my jersey as I was off again.

By 9am, the halfway point, I'd completed 347.5km, well on schedule for a good result, but moving into unknown territory as to what my body and mind could do.

Derek from the support van jumped on his bike at this stage to ride the next 4 hours with me. This was fantastic. To have the company and someone who knew what they were doing to pace me was just brilliant. We enjoyed great scenery as we climbed the ridge from Bagnols towards Nimes, and enjoyed tailwinds a lot of the time. By the time Derek jumped back in the van I was going really well.

Then things got tougher! We had big problems getting through a town called Lunel, heavy traffic and dodgy signage meant us making a quick decision to ride towards to coast to keep me moving. I rode towards La Grande Motte, along the beach front, only to find that our anticipated onward road was 'interdit' for bikes. I had to backtrack to Lunel, not in a good mood at this stage, but I pedal fast when I'm not happy!! Another attempt at getting through Lunel was eventually successful, we were back on track, I'm never going back to Lunel or La Grande Motte ever again!!

Onward into to heat of the day, lots of crosswind, heavy trafic but generally going well. Passed by Agde and Beziers, places I know well, dreamed of stopping for oysters and a glass of Picpoul, but, no, another coke and sandwich passed to me from the car would have to do.

At around the 20 hour mark I was starting to fade, I hit the wall. My detours had not cost me distance on the bike, but had meant that reaching Spain would now be tough. Carolyn and Derek joined me on their bikes at this stage to 'nurse' me through the last 4 hours. I stopped, exhausted, had a cup of tea and reviewed the situation. I was feeling low and unmotivated. I decided to abort plans to go towards Spain and instead to ride a scenic coastal tour around Narbonne followed by a ride inland towards our accommodation for the night.

Once I had resigned myself to this plan, things changed, I didn't need nursing anymore, I started to feel very strong. My legs felt great and the only inhibiting factor on my riding was that my heart rate was limited to around 140 bpm. When I'm racing my heart rated is usually at between 170 and 180 for the duration of the race. My body was tired though, and it naturally starts to close down and limit what you ask it to do. So, the engine was running really well but top gear wasn't available anymore for anything more than 30 seconds or so.

I really enjoyed the last couple of hours, we reached our accommodation in Salleles and I still had 35 minutes to ride. I kept riding out out of town with the intention of cruising along and just filling the time. I felt bionic! Knowing that I was nearly finished must have spurred me on, I asked my body for one last effort and it didn't let me down. I 'time trialled' the last 30 minutes at an average speed of close to 40 km/h, great feeling, not sure where the energy came from but it was there!

I stopped at exactly 9pm, looked at my computer which said 660.59km, very happy. I had ridden more than enough distance to have got to Spain, but I'd ended up really enjoying my visits to a few new places in France.

In the 36 hours since I've finished I've never enjoyed food more! I have lost no weight on the ride, in fact I'm about a kilo heavier right now than when I started!

Many, many thanks to all of you who kindly donated to the charity and all the messages of support. Thanks so much to Martin, Derek and Carolyn who selflessly supported me in every way. I promise that if I do another challenge (which I will) I'll make it easier for you guys!! It's hard to write down how much your help means to me, quite emotional really.

Thanks too to Nick and Izzie for looking after us in Salleles at 'Les Volets Bleus', great place to finish with wonderful hospitality.

That's all folks, thanks for reading, will publish the guessing results later today,

cheers,

John

  

 The winners of the guessing game

1st  Ali Freeman (654km) wins a cycling holiday with Alpine Cadence

2nd Yann Allain (653km) wins a morning private ski lesson with European Snowsports in Verbier

3rd Paula from our village shop (670km) wins a weeks ski course with me as her instructor!!!!!!

I'll be in touch with all the winners to help organise your prizes, well done!!