Undulation versus Tsunami

And so we roll into day two.  Alarm goes off at 7am and we are greeted with gorgeous sunshine across the marina.  Spirits high, we make it down to breakfast, pack up the van and head off on day twos cycle just 15 minutes later than anticipated!

The route today, we are told, is best described as 'undulating'. Now if you look up the meaning of 'to undulate' in the English dictionary the definition is 'to have a wavy surface'.  I think its safe to say these 'waves' would have been any professional surfer's dream.  Tsunami comes to mind!!!!!

With just over 19 miles before our first 'pit stop' the group are riding well.  Its a straight forward little route through and out of Calais before hitting a open stretch of road.  George immediately took advantage and zoomed off out front, promptly followed by Matt.  The rest of us took a slightly less urgent approach, cruising through the French countryside.  With the sun shining,  this was beginning to turn into a beautiful ride.

Sunshine on Day Two

Now, a trip like this will always have its slight hiccups, and with a group like ours its near on impossible to run completely smoothly.  First pit stop reached, the group set off on the next 20 miler before lunch.  10 miles in, we cycle past Shaun who's videoing us all coming up hill and I quickly ask him if he knows where Matt is.

"He's way up ahead." says Shaun.
"Are you sure?" I say

Needless to say, Matt had missed a turning and was somewhere else entirely.  After a few phone calls, seven additional miles and 45 minutes later Matt rejoined the group just in time for lunch!

Shaun of Bespoke Tours with food !!

After a lunch of french bread, cheese, ham etc we happily set off to complete the last 27 miles (or so we were told).  At this point the group split, with George, Matt, Nigel and Keiron taking the lead, the rest hanging back ... and this is where we hit some serious "undulation".  One hill in particular felt like it would never end, winding round and round, up and up and UP! And then, just to put a smile on everyone's face, it started to rain! Typical!

The last part of the ride can only be described as a long slog.  Turns out we cycled a little further than originally planned, but we all arrived safely to our hotel just outside the city of Arras and now its time for dinner.

One last comical moment to leave you with has to be at the hotel when Antonio's bag made it off the bus but then disappeared.  We spent ten minutes trying to locate it, only to find Tony had stored it away in his room.  Cheeky monkey!

Photos coming later ...

Lisa

Day 1: What a day !!!

Day 1 of our challenge is over - well at least the cycling part is anyway. But what a day !! Hard, exhilarating, and ridiculously funny - all at the same time. A day where if it could go wrong...well it did.

We all got up around 6am and met for breakfast at 6.30am. The weather was at least as bad as we had been told: severe rain, strong wind and very cold - 3 degrees at 6.30am in fact. After a swift breakfast we went to the O2 where we were met by our ex Kili team members in Grant Lumley and Brian Harris (plus his wife Shelley) along with family members from the Payne, Rolls and Blay families.

Ready for the off

In incessant rain we set off at 7.45am - pretty much on schedule for what was set to be a gruelling 70 mile day. After 15 hard miles riding straight into the headwind, we stopped for a break at a local petrol station. This was hard: cycling in the rain is not much fun but starting Day 1 in a monsoon and a semi flipping hurricane was just not a good start !!!

Still we soldiered on. And on, and on and on. After 28 miles Matt said to me "Mate shouldn't we be going East??"" Of course I said - "Well we are going West" he said "And have been for miles." "Don't be daft" was my reply..............when Tony came up and said "We have a problem.........we are nearly back at the O2". Of course I laughed thinking they were joking, but in fact they weren't and upon leaving the 15 mile break stop the motorcycle escort had pressed "O2" on his Sat Nav and not "Dover" and we had just done a near 30 mile circle. In driving incessant rain. I kid you not.....................

Where's dover exactly?

So, undeterred we made a quick calculation that we had still done 30 miles and, if we made up time by catching a cab to Canterbury and cycling the last 20 miles we could still make the scheduled ferry in time and we would still have cycled 50 miles in the day. We would then have to make up the 20 miles over the next 13 days.

So that's what we did - and arrived a Dover at 3.30pm in time to get our 4.30pm ferry !! We all completed Day 1 save for Lisa who has a nasty cough and it was worsening badly in the rain. She took the sensible decision to rest up in the afternoon and preserve her body for the remaining 13 days.

Blimey - honestly - you couldn't make it up !! The biggest rainfall day of the year; one of the windiest days for quite some time; the wind blowing unusually from the East and spending 30 miles going in a pretty much complete circle !!

Day 2 anyone ???

Emotions emotions.........

The last week before the off! What a strange, strange time it is. 

You get the "countdown buzz." The excitement. The realisation that another crazy but at the same time wonderful adventure is only days away. You get the dawning of reality: It is nearly here. What will it be like? Will we make it? Will it rain all the time? Can we cope? Will our bikes hold up? Have we taken on too much this time?

You get the adrenalin rush from the frenetic last minute activities: buying the equipment you haven't got; rushing to get the bike serviced; marvelling at Lisa's twitter and Facebook activities generating 30,000 followers in just about a week; listening to a great pod cast on us being broadcast on local radio; admiring people in Ireland generating posters for Ally to celebrate the event - even setting up a "www.honkifyouthinkimsexy.com website !!; setting up and managing things not done before by plotting the route down to street level on the tracker system so people can follow us. And to top it all the amazing realisation that this blog has now been read by over 2,700 separate IP addresses and is looked at over 100 times every day. Quite amazing really. 

You also get a feeling of immense pride as the team smashes through the fundraising target with well over £12,000 raised as I write. You kind of get a "self-reminder" as to why we do these things as you realise how far and wide these challenges reach: amongst literally a myriad of efforts by the team, below, for example, is the adoption of the challenge by a local school in Portugal who are having a "non uniform" day to raise money for our cause. It cannot fail to remind you of exactly why we do these weird "little" challenges! You get a sense of inspiration and motivation from it too.

But then you also get the doubts. You get administration doubts. Have we forgotten to organise something? Are all the flights booked? Are the hotel rooms reserved? You get physical doubts. Are we fit enough? Will my own knees (that are still very much swollen....) hold up? Have we done enough training? Will we be able to hold a peloton together? Will George be able to resist speeding off like an exocet missile! And you get a few selfish doubts: recognising the sacrifices the family makes to allow you to do these things.

But overall, you get a complete sense of immense satisfaction: regardless as to outcome. The overpowering and intoxicating cocktail of nerves, excitement, adrenalin and pride easily brush the more negative doubts to one side leaving a real sense of anticipation.

Bring on Sunday! Can't wait. 

I've done it again.......

Hi everyone,

Nigel here.

Do I ever learn?. I mean blimey I am 52 years old and you'd think by now I had a bit of common sense wouldn't you? But, no - alas I can be a real idiot sometimes: and for the second time I've been exactly that. What a complete plonker.

So. In true Hollywood style let's start "5 days earlier........". Drum roll and moody music please and rewind the clock to last Friday 13th April. My plan was to do 5 days of 60 miles each day to replicate the actual event and then relax for ten days before the real thing safe in the knowledge that "I was ready."  Good plan! 

So last Friday, I set off with Rob the trainer and did 60 miles averaging 13.4 miles per hour. To be honest it was pretty easy. No pain, no tiredness. Nothing. What a wonderful feeling. I was in love with this sport. I came back home Friday night exuberant: I was ready. I really, truly honestly felt a million dollars and I was ready.

Can't wait to get going !

So, Saturday morning bright and early I went to get Ally at Luton airport en route to George's where Lisa, George, Ally and I were fitting in two 60 milers over the weekend. Full of confidence from her successful Portuguese trip Ally couldn't wait to get going as you can see above.............. Even though it was bright sunshine at Luton, in true Nigel style we managed to plan to cycle in the only part of the UK that was wet that weekend.

 Greetings out of the way, we set off from George's house at 12 noon on Saturday (George armed with his super new wheels) aiming to do 60 miles or so. And boy at the start it was sure wet. Horizontal sheet rain wet. Undeterred, we set off on our "little 60." 

George's new Zipp 404 wheels

A few miles into the ride Ally said to me: Nigel you are going too fast - remember how you felt in Portugal. "Nonsense" I said, "I'm only averaging 12.5mph that's nothing." And so we went on and did our 60 miles. The rain stopped, it warmed up a bit - George had yet another puncture but all was good. Ally and Lisa however were quite sure that we  were going too fast and I kind of didn't agree. But hey that was cool.

After yet another superb dinner cooked by Bunny Rolls on Saturday night (George and Bunny are simply the very best hosts you could ever wish for where nothing is too much trouble) we all retired to bed around 10.30pm. We were pretty tired but not "dead". Sunday morning, after a photo on the lawn we set off again in better weather.

No rain !!!!

The ride was good at first though George definitely screwed up the route taking us on a 4,000 feet elevation route and 70 miles not 60 but hey it was still good. We met the Thruxton Racing Circuit Stig (see below) and George had two further punctures (subsequently we noticed he had the wrong tires on really) but otherwise besides being a hard day it was good. 

Thruxton Stig (who didn't speak either)

That's two already....

We had to rush at the end of Sunday as we didn't factor in either George's punctures or the extra ten miles into the time frame but we still just about managed to make it back to Luton airport in time for Ally's flight. 

Personally, even though I knew Ally was right in saying that we were riding too fast for the "long haul" I still felt great. A million dollars actually. And so I got up Monday morning and cycled another 60 miles with Rob - 4 days on the bounce - and averaged 12.9mph which was great: faster than we need to go down to Monte Carlo. I still felt brilliant. No doubt then: I'd cracked it. I was ready. In fact I was smiling to myself to be honest.

And then came today: Tuesday April 17th. A day I will not forget in a hurry. In my slight defence it was wet (very wet), freezing cold and very very windy which at least tripled the effort required to move forward in many places. But regardless: today, out of nowhere, I literally died on my bike. 10 miles into today's ride,  I went from feeling great to literally devoid of any energy in about 30 minutes. I was totally and utterly shattered. Completely and absolutely nothing left to give. My bum was agony; my knees hurt like hell and swelled back up again; my thighs went from mountsins of strength to red hot pokers. To be honest I was in a complete mess and I physically had to stop more times than I care to recount. "How could this be?" I kept asking myself - but of course I knew.

Did I make it? Yes I made it back home. In a sense perhaps this was my best ever ride as I have no idea where the strength to get home came from. But I made it in a pathetic 9.7mph average and I am now pretty must laid out flat on my bed exhausted.  I'm typing this on my ipad lay on my bed flat out. Everything hurts and if this was the real thing, I would be in trouble tomorrow. Big time. 

So. From a million dollars yesterday to flat out zero today. All in the space of one day!! Why? Of course I know why. I'm not Superman. I'm pretty fit but not super fit. I'm 52 and I need to start perhaps to be a little bit more sensible. Simply and honestly, over the 5 days and 300 miles, I'd expended too much energy each day going unnecessarily fast and being a plonker. The cumulative effect had taken its toll. My 13.4 mph on Day 1 was unnecessary and I paid the price on Day 5. That's why. Lesson completely learnt.

I'm cycling right at the back, absolutely flat last in the real thing.  

A few tips ...

Over the weekend George, Nigel, Ally and Lisa cycled a whopping 130 miles in just two days.  I'm sure Nigel will update you with all the details of the two days but I wanted to send a quick update just to let my fellow cyclists in on what I learned over that time. 


Tip #1 - Aiding the uphill battle ... dig your heels in!
Seriously, hills can be an absolute killer.  We're hopeful that the road surface in France will make things a little easier than the rough, bumpy, pot-hole filled British roads, but nonetheless there will still be some hills that will test our physical strength and mental determination.  The key thing I learned this weekend, simply through trial and error was to 'dig your heels in'.  As soon as you start approaching a big hill, start really thinking about extending the leg and pushing your heels to the floor - essentially like trying to stretch out your calf muscle.  Honestly the amount of additional power I got on the upward pull was incredible and made even the toughest hills seem bearable.  

Tip #2 - Imitate a cat ... arch the back!
Maybe its just me, but I finish every ride with really bad upper back ache.  This weekend, whilst not completely fixed (I don't think this is possible), I found the pain much improved simply for the basic stretching I did along the ride, as well as changing my hand position frequently. Remember that stretch you learn in the gym where you're on your hands and knees and you have to arch and flex you back 'like a cat might'?  Well, imitate this on the bike and you really feel the benefit.  Equally, as I mentioned, changing your hand position frequently really makes a difference. 




Tip #3 - Bend your elbows
I have a tendency to hold on for dear life when going up hill.  I end up locking my elbows and really freezing my back into position.  This simply means I end up with far worse pain across my back and arms than is truly necessary.  By simply bending my elbows I released all of this pressure.  Simple, yet effective!


Tip #4 - Stretching is key
I can't stress this enough.  Stretch stretch and stretch some more.  Whenever we stop for a break, just stretch out your quads and calves ... then at the end of the day, make sure you spend at least 20 minutes stretching every part of your body.  Cycling doesn't just affect your legs ... don't ignore the rest of the body!

Tip #5 - Get cold 
This weekend I tried the 'ice bath' theory for the first time.  Whilst the idea really doesn't appeal it actually wasn't as bad as I thought.  Fingers crossed we'll have baths at every place we stay.  Basically half fill the bath with cold water (try to avoid putting any warm water in - the colder the better) then lower yourself in so that your legs are covered.  Try to stick it out for around 10 minutes.  Its amazing the difference I found this made to my muscle movement both later that evening and the following day. 


That's it from me ... less than 2 weeks to go and I have my last full on training session this afternoon.  Then its rest and recuperation ... oh and a quick sports massage!  Bliss! :) 


Lisa x

Thank you Lee!

Hello all!

Ally here, a sore Ally that is... Slow down George!!!! :) 

 

Just dropping by to show you my fab poster that one of my work colleagues, Lee Rafferty, here at Sportingbet so kindly put together for me :) I love it! Going to stick them absoloutley everywhere in one last push to raise more money! Onwards to 15k as Matt says ;)

 

Back soon!

Ally "Sorry, Can't talk when cycling up big hills" Gormley :)

Redefining the word "Challenge"

Hi everyone, Keiron here. 

A few months ago, in what seems now like a distant memory, I remember Nigel saying to me:  “Come and cycle to Monte Carlo” .. “It’ll be an awesome challenge”. Well self-evidently, I agreed, joined up and started to train – but little did I truly realise what a challenge it was going to be.

Martha Blay

Just as my training was beginning to get into full swing, my wife Polly gave birth to our beautiful new baby girl Martha a little earlier than anticipated on 11^th February. That of course was going to stop any training for a short while anyway. But the "challenge gods" weren’t finished with me just yet! 

On Saturday afternoon when Mum and daughter arrived home from hospital, we were all upstairs resting when I heard a strange noise coming from downstairs. Initially I ignored it – and it was not until my two boys asked if they could go downstairs to play that they came running back upstairs and told me that there was loads of water in the house. Still unperturbed, after all boys do tend to exaggerate don't they.....and just how bad could it really be....I went to investigate to find that my entire house was flooded !!! And the water was rising up above ground floor level !! We were trapped upstairs: me, my wife, my brand new baby girl and our three other children.  Trapped. The stuff of absolute nightmares!

Outside our front door

A few calls to the emergency services and lots of worrying later, we were rescued and we discovered that the Thames Water mains supply had ruptured outside our house and flooded the house, garden and just about everywhere. But my bike was safe as it was hung up in the garage!

Our garden

So my "challenge", initially a Cycle to Monte Carlo, had grown in one weekend, to a cycle ride, a new baby girl, having to evacuate our beautiful home, find somewhere else to live, move out, rent a load of new belongings and deal with the nightmare that is the Insurance Company. 

Needless to say I’ve been a busy boy the past few weeks sorting everything out. But, whilst still a mess, we are gradually getting on top of things and I’ll be there at the start line on the 29th raring to go. Maybe not quite as prepared as I’d have liked to have been – but I’ll be there!

Compared to what I’ve been through the Alps will be a doddle - I hope J

Our friends are still going !!

Spirit never dies

Slightly off topic this, but isn't it great to see other members of the Kili team who sadly can't join us this year on our epic cycle ride still hard at it doing other things! Dan Radley is running the Milton Keynes marathon on Sunday 29th (the same day we start) and Jane Kerindi is running the London marathon on 22nd !!

The photo above is of Jane in training a few days ago after 18 miles of the Oakley 20 mile run. It was by all accounts both very hilly and windy and as such great preparation. Interestingly both Dan and Jane have pretty much stopped full on training now and are tapering down. Be warned team !!! We need to be doing the same.

It anyone would like Dan or Jane's phone number to wish them well then contact Nigel and I'll pass it on.

Lisa's back!

That's right ... I'm back!  That's not to say I actually went anywhere, but I think my spirit took a bit of a knock the last couple of weeks and I wasn't my usual lively self! 

But this weekend, thanks to fellow cyclists Ren, Tony and Nigel, along with personal trainer, Rob, - or should I just call him Superman (what? he's had other superhero titles in this blog ... Ironman ... Batman ... why not Superman??) :) as well as my best mate Caz, her brother George, and a whole host of children I am, as the title suggests, BACK! 

So a quick explanation ... as you can see from Tony and Ren's blog entry I joined them for a little saunter along the country roads in Milton Keynes on Saturday, and as they say, we learned a lot!  However they missed off one important lesson ... 

Always ensure that you are ahead of Nigel.  That way, when he starts singing 'I Feel Good' you can get away quickly! :) 

Thanks guys for a great day cycling.  Sad I couldn't join you on Sunday but Easter Egg making, rolling and hunting with 100 children (!!!) was on the agenda instead!!

And then came today.  Joined by my best mate's brother who lives down the road from me, we set off in the rain to cycle the 26.6 miles to my best friend's house.  Within 30 minutes it was clear that anything claiming to be waterproof by brand is lying and we were soaked right through.  Nonetheless we persevered, taking in the "delights" of Harringey, Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield before hitting the slightly more rural are of Waltham Cross, Harlow and finally Sawbridgeworth. 

A short lunch - Thank you Caz - then I set off alone for the 26.6 miles home again!  And whilst the rain had stopped (momentarily), the wind had certainly found its strength.  It was like cycling uphill the entire way!  Really very unpleasant!  I hope we don't have crap weather on the actual trip ... cycling in sunshine sounds so much more appealing! 

And so, this weekend I have totalled just over 100 miles ... 

Given this blog seems to be about lessons learned, here goes:

1) waterproofs are not waterproof

2) chaffing, sadly, isn't a myth and really does exist (too much detail??) :) 

3) I need to get some better socks and some overshoes ... my feet are consistently cold on these cycles

4) I have made some amazing friends on this trip (and Kilimanjaro of course) ... thank you all for putting up with me these last few weeks

5) Nigel needs to find a new arrival song for this trip. There's only so much of 'I'm feeling good' one can stand ... 

6) Rob, aka Superman, Batman and Ironman all rolled into one ... having now met you in the flesh you look nothing like the guy withe the fridge on his back in Nigel's earlier blog post.  Are you sure its you?  I'm not convinced ... I think we need more photo evidence! ;) 

Over and out ... oh and Happy belated Easter! :) 

Steady pace finishes the race....

Hello to all

Ready to go on saturday morning

Tony and Ren here. We hope you had a productive Easter training. Ren and I spent Easter Sat/Sun cycling with Nigel and Lisa. Adorned in our snazzy new London to Monte Carlo gear, we met at Nigel's house on Sat at 10.30am for a nice training ride where we were met by Nigel's strapping personal trainer Rob, who is an "Ironman" and as the name suggests is a bit of a superhero, with a body like Batman!

Rob helping out as he does

Ren, looking at me with a face like a smacked arse, suggesting "shall we push the trip back to 2014, because my legs aint gonna look like that in 3 weeks!". Regardless, after we got over the initial shock of our Ironman welcome, we reluctantly mounted our bikes and began our Easter training.

Anyway, even though it was early morning - as my body language shows ..... aided by Rob the trainer, we set off on our weekend "little jaunt".

Awake and ready....

I'm coming stop hassling.......

We cycled just under 50 miles on Saturday and followed that with a further 25 miles on Sunday. We managed the distance pretty comfortably to be honest and really enjoyed the training. But this was only because of one key thing ....... we have totally realised one very important lesson over the past 3-4 weeks as our training has intensified and this weekend's rides completely reinforced it, and that "it" is STEADY PACE FINISHES THE RACE!!

The difference between maintaining a constant 11.5 to 12 miles per hour versus increasing and decreasing speed en route as others scamper away and we play catch up is HUGE. Rob our trainer continually told us we had started too fast and forced us into a steady constant sustainable pace. He explained that the thing about endurance cycling we all must acknowledge if we are to complete our journey is that if we do not hold our speed and resist the frequent temptation to increase the pace and race, we will simply never finish. Rob explained that by not regulating pace you will use larger muscles and burn your energy up far too quickly to last out an endurance event. In our opinion we really must continually remind our selves whilst riding especially in the first 4-5 days when excitement levels are greater that it is a marathon not a sprint.

It's hard to make yourself cycle slower at times when you feel energetic in the moment and maybe a little slow, yet we have to preserve our fuel tanks for latter days, as none of us have cycled more than 4-5 days back to back covering 60-65mls per day. One technique that Rob got us to do was proper "peloton" riding where we all start off in a line then after say a mile, the front person peels off and slowly goes to the back. By constantly doing this, everyone got a turn at the front, it became far more interesting but most important of all it forced everyone to keep the same pace as the guy at the front went to the back every mile or so. This technique really worked and we will be strongly encouraging George to try it out again next weekend. It enabled the four of us to cycle as a team, at a constant pace and we loved it. Really loved it. 

To be honest, having seen now what we've seen, Ren and I will be plodding at 11.5 to 12miles per hour throughout regardless of what goes on around us, as we want to finish, we want to do the whole nine yards and we know its the only way. With the peleton technique this is absolutely possible. 

Thanks to Nigel and Paula for their hospitality and to Nigel and Rob for an invaluable lesson this weekend. It really was brilliant. We've got the bug, we understand what we have to do and we are "on it" big time.

See many of you at George's next weekend and the rest very soon in Greenwich for an adventure none of us will ever forget!!

Ren and Tony xx

Noah's Ark in Portugal !!

"We haven't had any rain since November" said Antonio's wife Claudia when I booked a week's training in Portugal. "It's been 25 degrees or more for weeks if not months" she said. "Come and do some training with Antonio in early April. The weather will be beautiful."

And what she had said of course was true. There hadn't been any rain for months. And the weather had been beautiful - pretty much since last November. What is also true however is that I seem to have an incredible ability to bring rain nearly every time I go to the Algarve - so much so that I even now get emails from the locals when it does rain asking me if I've just arrived! 

Still raining.......

Believe it or not he then put on yellow marigold gloves too !!!!!

This is a big tree to be blown nearly in half

And so, encouraged by Claudia's enthusiasm, Antonio, Ally and I met up to cycle for 4 or 5 days in the "sun" last Thursday. Sun? Hmmm. Well not quite: wind, storms and rain: yes. But sun? Well very little. But it did not "just" rain this time: oh no......this time the sea tipped upside down and dropped its contents on us. We had ocean's of rain. And masses of wind. The wind in the picture is blowing a 20 foot high palm tree in my garden in half !!

In fact there was so much rain that in a short space of 5 days my iPhone broke through water damage; my swimming pool overflowed; my SKY TV system rarely worked as the satellite signal couldn't get through, the remote controllers for the electric gates broke (all 3 of them) through water damage, water got into the heating and air con system dripping in the house and parts of my bike went rusty !!!!!!! Lovely.

It wasn't all rain: during the 5 days I was there (Ally was there for slightly less) we did eat outside at lunchtime twice and we did cycle once out of our five training sessions in the dry. As indeed the picture below shows. On the whole however it was ridiculously stupidly wet. 

The sun does shine occasionally....

But you know in many ways that was a good thing. Because on the actual trip it might well rain every day too. So what better way of testing out the equipment? And we learnt a great deal: we learnt that overshoes, whilst essential in that they work a bit, absolutely do not keep your feet dry and thus on the actual trip more socks are needed. We learnt too that the pockets in waterproof coats are not waterproof at all and ziplocked plastic bags are essential to protect money, phones etc. We learn't that without mud guards you get filthy dirty all over your back very very quickly indeed.

And we learn't something else and even more important too. We learnt that the rain just didn't matter: because we loved it. All three of us loved the entire five days training that we did. We rode 400km (Nigel, Antonio) and 300km (Ally) and we loved it. We had a fantastic time. Was it hard? absolutely. Did it hurt and tire us out? Of course. But it was wonderful nevertheless.  

We also learnt more about each other: we learnt that Antonio rides sometimes like a duck (see above);

We learnt that the Portuguese men seemingly can't resist blonde haired Irish girls (see below);

And we learnt that Antonio is slightly like a ballet dancer when he's limbering up (see below) 

And we learn't much about ourselves from a cycling viewpoint too. We learn't that doing 100km in a day is massively more than the 60 km training efforts and we all need to try hard and do more longer rides in training; we learn't that energy conservation in terms of speed and replenishment is utterly vital; we learn't that going too fast is so very counter productive and we learn't that muscle conservation through appropriate "easy" gear selection is also very important.

All in all however we learnt that this is one hell of a challenge - but one we can't wait for! Bring it on !!