”The Pogi Challenge”

As many of you will know, last October, completely out of the blue, I was diagnosed with Stage IV kidney cancer, which had spread across my lungs and to my brain. On 7th January I had radiation therapy on the brain lesion, and on 17th January I started a 2 year course of immunotherapy.

Just 2 weeks and one day later, I went to the gym by my flat and jumped on an exercise bike. As I started to pedal I took a photo. Because I had a crazy idea. A crazy cycling idea…

And I sent my idea straight to the top!

To a man who, at only 26 years of age, is well on course to become the greatest cyclist of all time, Tadej Pogačar.

Now, this man is a talent like no other. In over 30 years of watching cycling, I’ve never seen, nor thought I would ever see, someone this good.

World Champion for 2 years running, already a 4x Tour de France winner, and he can hold 340 watts for 5 hours without pushing his heart rate beyond Zone 2. Which is unheard of. This bears relevance as, tongue firmly in cheek, I tagged him in my instagram story, telling him:

“If I can eventually get to 340 watts, and one day climb Alpe d’Huez with stage 4 cancer including 20+ metastases across my lungs. Then I’m the cycling G.O.A.T, yeah?”

And just under 3 hours later I saw my phone light up. Not only had he liked my story, but he actually replied. “Keep going! The GOAT is you!”

What a guy!

Now, as surreal as that was, this is where it really gets crazy:

Not only have I kept going, but this October, almost a year to the day from when my cancer was discovered - I will be traveling to Slovenia to race Tadej Pogačar up his favourite climb!

I’ll say that again, I, a Stage IV cancer patient, will be racing the world’s best athlete on the terrain on which he excels the most.

(***SPOILER ALERT***: I lose!)

The 1600m Krvavec climb is one of Slovenia’s toughest, with an elevation gain of 1189m over just 14.9 km.

And one person for every metre of elevation gain (plus Tadej) will be participating in the “S KLANCA V KLAN'C” (Climb to Climb) event.

We, the GOAT’s prey for the day, will get a head start. And then the greatest cyclist of all time, at the peak of his powers, will chase us down…

I’ve never climbed a mountain before. Only hills around Derry, the highest of which was 300m. So this is new territory. And a tester for Alpe d’Huez in 2026. Yes, that crazy idea is still part of the plan (sorry Mum).

I will be riding to thank Tadej for his support back in February and to fundraise for Cancer Research UK. If you’re able to donate, please do. I’ll be eternally grateful. Any amount is more than welcome.

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And don’t worry, my oncologist has okayed this.

When my cancer was discovered last October I had to wait 15 days to see that oncologist. I spent those two weeks thinking they were just going to telling me I had a few years to live. The idea of racing Tadej Pogačar a year later, was beyond the realms of fantasy. I didn’t think I’d live to see the end of his career. But now I get to be a part of it. And what an honour it will be to share a road with that man.

Naturally, with events like this, there’s always the risk of injury or even a puncture on the day, preventing participation. If anything stops me from getting up that climb I’ll replace it with an ascent of Mount Ventoux, along with Alpe d’Huez in 2026.

Oh, who am I kidding. I’ll do that regardless.

‘Keep going!’, as a wise man once said. And besides, I can’t have the G.O.A.T calling me the G.O.A.T for nothing now, can I?…

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