Many of you will know that a few months ago we decided
(wine was probably involved....) to ride across the Pyrenees and, at the same
time, get ourselves sponsored and raise funds to help purchase a public access
defibrillator for our village, Hope, in the Peak District. You can read more
about the fund raising effort (and make a donation if you're feeling generous)
at https://www.givey.com/alixpaulchallenge
and you'll see what we're raising money for and why. At the time of writing
this blog post we've raised almost £1,700 so far against our target of £2k, so
a massive "thank you" from us to all our generous family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues who have already supported us.
So, back to the challenge, here's a brief description of
what's in store......it makes me sweat just writing the words......
We're going to ride from Hendaye on the french Atlantic
Coast all the way across the Pyrenees to Cerbere on the Mediterranean coast. We have to cover 720 kilometres, so that's about 100
miles each day for almost 5 days, go over 18 mountain passes, endure a minimum
of 3,000 metres of vertical ascent every day..........and we have to complete
the route in less than 100 hours.
As you can imagine, we've been doing some serious
training over the last few months. Doing longer and longer rides, finding as
many hills to climb as we can (not that difficult round here!) and trying to
get our bums used to spending 7, 8 or 9 hours in the saddle - we've been
spending a fortune on chamois cream and I can personally vouch for the healing
power of Sudocrem.
Our training efforts culminated in four long rides on
consecutive days over the last UK Bank Holiday in May. We rode between 65 and 85
miles each day and took in Holme Moss, a ride to Ilam and Thorpe, a blast along
the Via Gellia and out to Crich then Beeley Moor, and, as some of you can
imagine, Mam Nick/Froggat/Grindleford/Abney/Burbage and others all loomed large
(literally and on multiple occasions too!).
That long weekend ( and it was long.....) instilled a bit
of confidence. We didn't encounter any major problems but we know that, in the
Pyrenees, we are going to have to ride further each day, do more climbing each
day, add a fifth day and cope with weather that even the Peak District didn't
throw at us.........ok, I can feel the confidence ebbing away!
Actually, I think we're ready. Or at least as ready as a
half hearted (literally), drug taking (cardiac medication you understand, nothing
dodgy), 50 something and his time trialling, spin class devotee, salad eating,
non drinking wife can be. Well, 50% of the team sounds ready anyway....
Some more general posts will follow and we hope to
provide a daily update when we start the ride next week.
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