Tour De Force 2

Tour De Force 2

The Final Week

Well it’ll be quite obvious now that as usual my blog wasn't updated regularly during my time in France, even though the blog is now fixed and I would have been able to.

The problem was, I had hardly anytime to do it. The workload and timings involved were unbelievably hectic. I was surviving on 3 or 4 hours sleep a night. This was one of the busiest support roles that I’ve worked on, quite similar in many ways to the RAAM.

If anyone is interested in reading the official website for this superb challenge, here is the link; www.tourdeforce.org.uk there is a superb blog on the site.

For me as usual my role was in support of the riders. I provided my usual level of mechanical repair & service, and covered many hundreds of miles of support vehicle driving. During which I met some fantastic people, both riders and other support staff. Namely Andy Norris, Becky Wood, Holger the doctor and Jo Gough whom I look forward to working with hopefully in the future.

During the three weeks of the Tour De Force there were in excess of 100 participants coming and going at all times. Some of whom only completed one or two stages, others far more. However I want to hold my hand up to the twelve guys and one girl that completed the whole route. This was a fantastic achievement and its safe to say that most cyclists will probably never ride such distances over a three week period, ever in their lives!

For those wishing to, well here is a link to a friend of mine Phil Deeker who arranges extreme cycling trips & challenges in the Alps & Pyrenees; www.centcolschallenge.com 

Why not sign up to one of these, you never know you may even see me driving a van or fixing your bikes on one of these trips!

Well just before I sign off from the Tour De Force, I’d like to mention the Wates family. This charming family through their own personal tragedy, have managed to bring together a fantastic bunch of people all with the purpose of raising funds for their own charity, set up in memory of their beloved William. In doing so, I could clearly see that there was some special bond with these participants and needless to say some lifelong friendships have developed.

I was in awe of the amount of family support involved from this wonderful family, and ages ranging from around 5 or 6 years old to Andrew Wates, a fine senior family member still cycling in his 71st year.

I was extremely proud to provide my services to ‘The William Wates Memorial Trust’ www.wwmt.org and I can safely say that if this event is organised again in the future, I will not be providing my support services. Why, because I’ll be participating with the intention of riding the whole route!!

Bye for now.