Dear Friends and Family,

As some of you may have already heard I'm attempting to cycle from Santiago De Compostela in North West Spain to Constanta on the Black Sea in Romania.

The challenge is called the Transcontinental Race.

So what's the challenge? It's approx. 4,800km, over 19 days (back to back), approximately 60,000meters of climbing, 7 or 8 Countries (depending on my final route Spain, France, Italy, Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo(?), Bulgaria and Romania...) and about 250km a day, every day, all unsupported.

There are 5 mandatory check points with cut-off times, Just planning the route takes around 70hours and there are hundreds of KM's of Gravel.

I will be doing a combination of Bivvy Bag sleeping and hotels/pensions when I can get them and I will be carrying all my stuff.

It is organised by a company called Lostdot.cc

https://www.lostdot.cc/race/tcrno11

Approx. 300+ people do the event and the completion rate is circa 50%+, but hopefully with a lot of luck, a half descent route and a great set of kit I will make it to the end.

It will be about 12-16 hours cycling a day and I'm practicing in the UK not getting off my bike for 8 or 9 hours in a go - yes crazy!

I know there is a lot of requests for sponsorship these days but as many of you will know I lost my wonderful Brother Adam to Pancreatic Cancer in 2020 in a matter of a few weeks. He leaves his wonderful family Marketa, Tom and Emily behind and we need to do all we can to stop this tragic illness, which also took another dear friend Rod.

So here is a bit about my chosen charity.

We are Pancreatic Cancer UK.

We go above and beyond for everyone affected by this disease. Right now, half of people with pancreatic cancer die within three months of diagnosis. Families are left with only hope to hold onto. They need more. So, we do more.

We bring more breakthroughs through research, more change through campaigning, and more support through our expert nurses. We make more noise because people have gone unheard. We are relentless because the disease is ruthless. We care more because people feel forgotten.