The Complete Route Map & Pictures
It’s now a week after the event finished and having started the adventure heading to Rome three weeks ago, it seems appropriate to be writing this as I head back there, for a week in Tuscany, before turning full circle and heading back to Malta.
Looking back it’s hard to imagine what we have achieved. We cycled 2,050km on a mountain bike from Venice to Manchester over twelve days, traversing eight countries in the process. 43 riders started the challenge and two, sadly, had to drop out due to injury. So, an incredible 41 riders saw the event through. Both Alan and some of the riders with “previous LifeCycle form” will tell you that this was one of the hardest yet, making it all the more impressive.
The team are likely to hit the target of raising a phenomenal €200,000 this year for the renal unit and Team Betfair also reached its own fund raising target. Thanks to the generosity of all of my friends and family, together with corporate sponsorships I was able to raise just over €13,000 – A big “Thank You!” to everyone who supported me.
Personally, as well as clocking just over 2,050km I spent 94 hours riding and took around 105 hours to complete the challenge (Official times to be confirmed at the Welcome Home Dinner). In contrast, I slept only 76 hours, averaging 6 hours a night! I burned 74,500 calories and turned my pedals around 450,000 times. . At a guess, I’d say I also ate around 5 jars of Nutella.
I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing things that I’ve ever done. The commitment to prepare for such an event, followed by twelve of the toughest consecutive days I could imagine, pushing myself beyond anything I’d ever done before. I didn’t really believe that our training would prepare us to ride an average of 180km a day consecutively when we’d never done two days in a row before, but somehow it did. Every day those legs kept moving completely against all logic.
It was a real test of character in many ways, not only dealing with the physical challenge, but also being in that situation with a team of relative strangers, all having to deal with less than perfect living conditions on top of everything else. Amazingly, that was never an issue for anyone. Looking back, the pride that I managed to complete it is almost as strong as the relief I felt once I realised it was over, and that I’d made it!
When you tell people that you’ve ridden from Venice to Manchester, it’s so difficult for them to visualise the length of the journey by bicycle that you can physically see the lack of understanding cloud their faces. I mean, most people will know how long it takes to get from London to Brighton (or St Julians to Sliema) by car, and will realise that travelling by bike must take a bit longer, but beyond that simple acknowledgement, there is no real frame of reference for people to hang an informed response on.
The most common “Really, that must have taken a while, were you tired?” response could get you down if you let it – but you accept it takes a good deal of internal calculation to compute what you’ve just said, which time doesn’t allow for as part of a cursory “How’s it going?” chat. If it was that easy to appreciate, it would probably mean that it hadn’t been that tough after all wouldn’t it?
So, the few people that can truly appreciate what just happened are the team themselves, riders from previous years, the families who have suffered with us all the way through and the few cyclists who know how tough a full day in the saddle can be, let alone 12 consecutive days.
So, how do I feel now?
Well, physically I feel pretty good actually. I could have quite happily got back on the bike on Saturday morning without any problem at all. My legs were in good shape and, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know, so was my backside which seemed to improve as the two weeks wore on.
If anything, the lack of strenuous exercise since has caused more problems with aching joints, and a serious number of night time cramps in my calves and hamstrings than the ride did – I’m guessing from a lack of circulation now I’ve stopped.
Mentally, the weekend relaxation and watching United was a great way to take my mind off everything that had gone before, and diving straight back in to work has made sure I’ve hardly thought about it since until now. My mind though, is less keen to forget, and I have dreamt LifeCycle and LifeCyclists every night since – God, I hope that doesn’t last long!
I’ve now got a week off with Claire in Tuscany where I can forget about work and LifeCycle and just totally relax and let my body recover. No doubt that will also include putting on a few of those missing kilos. On the ride I was determined not to lose any more weight during the event and gave almost as much attention to eating like a horse as I did to the ride itself. I thought I’d done ok, but Claire quickly showed me the error in my thinking and the truth is I probably lost another 5 or 6 kilos over the two weeks. So I can now look to enjoy all that Tuscany has to offer and, with my upper body seriously emaciated, will no doubt look like a Weeble or Baba Papa in a weeks time!
It’s difficult to pick out the highlights of an event like this because there were so many each and every day.
But I loved the first two days riding on the route alongside the Italian lakes. The novelty of what we were doing, actually getting the show on the road, the lack of pressure to be somewhere else for once, combined with the fabulous weather and scenery will be hard to forget.
The fantastic team spirit was also a treat for me because I wasn’t expecting it to be that good. I expected small teams to stay small throughout the two weeks and thought that the pressure and stress may cause all sorts of problems, but that didn’t happen at all. Instead everyone seemed to pull together more as the days went on, and some great friendships were formed. Each day’s end brought some really entertaining and enjoyable evenings laughing at the day just gone.
Purely because of the uphill challenge it presented, and because of the amazing descent that followed, I’d have to pick St Gotthards in the Alps too – without doubt the single most physically challenging single thing I’ve done. The exhaustion and the satisfaction when I reached the top were competing for strongest emotion, and even now I wonder just how I managed to get to the top of that ridiculous climb. No picture I’ve seen of the Pass has yet done it justice.
And finally, the easiest pick of the bunch would be that final stage of the Challenge – the ride along Sir Matt Busby Way and reaching Old Trafford to celebrate the end with everyone. The personal feelings of joy, relief and satisfaction at knowing I’d done it, and in seeing Claire again, mixed happily with the jubilation all the riders shared at finally achieving our goal. It’s an abiding memory that will undoubtedly stay with me for a long time to come.
Personally, as well as clocking just over 2,050km I spent 94 hours riding and took around 105 hours to complete the challenge (Official times to be confirmed at the Welcome Home Dinner). In contrast, I slept only 76 hours, averaging 6 hours a night! I burned 74,500 calories and turned my pedals around 450,000 times. . At a guess, I’d say I also ate around 5 jars of Nutella.
I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing things that I’ve ever done. The commitment to prepare for such an event, followed by twelve of the toughest consecutive days I could imagine, pushing myself beyond anything I’d ever done before. I didn’t really believe that our training would prepare us to ride an average of 180km a day consecutively when we’d never done two days in a row before, but somehow it did. Every day those legs kept moving completely against all logic.
It was a real test of character in many ways, not only dealing with the physical challenge, but also being in that situation with a team of relative strangers, all having to deal with less than perfect living conditions on top of everything else. Amazingly, that was never an issue for anyone. Looking back, the pride that I managed to complete it is almost as strong as the relief I felt once I realised it was over, and that I’d made it!
When you tell people that you’ve ridden from Venice to Manchester, it’s so difficult for them to visualise the length of the journey by bicycle that you can physically see the lack of understanding cloud their faces. I mean, most people will know how long it takes to get from London to Brighton (or St Julians to Sliema) by car, and will realise that travelling by bike must take a bit longer, but beyond that simple acknowledgement, there is no real frame of reference for people to hang an informed response on.
The most common “Really, that must have taken a while, were you tired?” response could get you down if you let it – but you accept it takes a good deal of internal calculation to compute what you’ve just said, which time doesn’t allow for as part of a cursory “How’s it going?” chat. If it was that easy to appreciate, it would probably mean that it hadn’t been that tough after all wouldn’t it?
So, the few people that can truly appreciate what just happened are the team themselves, riders from previous years, the families who have suffered with us all the way through and the few cyclists who know how tough a full day in the saddle can be, let alone 12 consecutive days.
So, how do I feel now?
Well, physically I feel pretty good actually. I could have quite happily got back on the bike on Saturday morning without any problem at all. My legs were in good shape and, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know, so was my backside which seemed to improve as the two weeks wore on.
If anything, the lack of strenuous exercise since has caused more problems with aching joints, and a serious number of night time cramps in my calves and hamstrings than the ride did – I’m guessing from a lack of circulation now I’ve stopped.
Mentally, the weekend relaxation and watching United was a great way to take my mind off everything that had gone before, and diving straight back in to work has made sure I’ve hardly thought about it since until now. My mind though, is less keen to forget, and I have dreamt LifeCycle and LifeCyclists every night since – God, I hope that doesn’t last long!
I’ve now got a week off with Claire in Tuscany where I can forget about work and LifeCycle and just totally relax and let my body recover. No doubt that will also include putting on a few of those missing kilos. On the ride I was determined not to lose any more weight during the event and gave almost as much attention to eating like a horse as I did to the ride itself. I thought I’d done ok, but Claire quickly showed me the error in my thinking and the truth is I probably lost another 5 or 6 kilos over the two weeks. So I can now look to enjoy all that Tuscany has to offer and, with my upper body seriously emaciated, will no doubt look like a Weeble or Baba Papa in a weeks time!
It’s difficult to pick out the highlights of an event like this because there were so many each and every day.
But I loved the first two days riding on the route alongside the Italian lakes. The novelty of what we were doing, actually getting the show on the road, the lack of pressure to be somewhere else for once, combined with the fabulous weather and scenery will be hard to forget.
The fantastic team spirit was also a treat for me because I wasn’t expecting it to be that good. I expected small teams to stay small throughout the two weeks and thought that the pressure and stress may cause all sorts of problems, but that didn’t happen at all. Instead everyone seemed to pull together more as the days went on, and some great friendships were formed. Each day’s end brought some really entertaining and enjoyable evenings laughing at the day just gone.
Purely because of the uphill challenge it presented, and because of the amazing descent that followed, I’d have to pick St Gotthards in the Alps too – without doubt the single most physically challenging single thing I’ve done. The exhaustion and the satisfaction when I reached the top were competing for strongest emotion, and even now I wonder just how I managed to get to the top of that ridiculous climb. No picture I’ve seen of the Pass has yet done it justice.
As for the lows, I’m lucky that there weren’t that many for me. No real injuries beyond expected aches and pains and a bit of saddle sores. No real bike issues that fellow rider Evan wasn’t able to fix for me either. Just those odd days when the wind was so strong that no one in their right mind could enjoy being outside at all, let alone be cycling in it for 12 hours! And even then, it wasn’t the whole day – so I’d pinpoint the section in Belgium that preceded Team-Talk-Gate (See blog "Wet" for details) as the least enjoyable 20km of the whole ride.
But that would fall into second place behind the end of the first day in the UK - waiting at the road side in Dartford in the freezing cold for a lift to the accommodation, and getting so so cold is something that I hope I never have to repeat. So, not bad really all things considered.
The whole ride already seems more like a dream than a reality and my mind is already blocking out the difficulty, leaving me with the ability to express how much I “enjoyed” it, and thinking that I wouldn’t immediately write off doing it again, as long as the route was a good one!
It seems that I’ve already forgotten that the commitment and challenge of the training and preparation was almost more demanding than the event itself and how many times I said “Never again” during those final weeks.
I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all the support I had from my family who put up with an increasingly obsessed non-existent husband/dad for over four months. Without their support, encouragement and acceptance of what it meant to our family I could never have done it.
I’d also like to thank a few other people while I’m at it. Firstly Alan, and the rest of the Committee, for their tireless efforts in putting the event together. Believe it or not, they met the week after last year’s event to start planning the ride and I believe they met again last week to start preparing for next year’s - incredible!
Second I’d like to thank the back-up teams, who got us across Europe, for their amazing support and encouragement during the event. Without a doubt we couldn’t have done the ride without them – the combination of experience from previous years combined with the enthusiasm of new team members to make this year’s event support brilliant for the riders.
So, other than next year’s “really good” LifeCycle route, and being a better husband and father for a while, what’s next for me? Well, that conversation started even before the Challenge was finished, and has carried on since. I think most of us have really enjoyed the experience of cycling and would love to carry it on, albeit in a slightly less extreme manner.
I’ll definitely be looking to get hold of a road bike so any distance should become a little easier to tackle. I’d like to have a go at the London to Paris ride next Summer, and have been checking out the Etape Du Tour – a stage from the Tour De France that is opened up to the public once a year. Surely a single 200km day will be a walk in the park after this?? There’s already a good long list of Betfair riders interested and, who knows, maybe some of this year’s other LifeCycle riders will give it a go too.
But that would fall into second place behind the end of the first day in the UK - waiting at the road side in Dartford in the freezing cold for a lift to the accommodation, and getting so so cold is something that I hope I never have to repeat. So, not bad really all things considered.
The whole ride already seems more like a dream than a reality and my mind is already blocking out the difficulty, leaving me with the ability to express how much I “enjoyed” it, and thinking that I wouldn’t immediately write off doing it again, as long as the route was a good one!
It seems that I’ve already forgotten that the commitment and challenge of the training and preparation was almost more demanding than the event itself and how many times I said “Never again” during those final weeks.
I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all the support I had from my family who put up with an increasingly obsessed non-existent husband/dad for over four months. Without their support, encouragement and acceptance of what it meant to our family I could never have done it.
I’d also like to thank a few other people while I’m at it. Firstly Alan, and the rest of the Committee, for their tireless efforts in putting the event together. Believe it or not, they met the week after last year’s event to start planning the ride and I believe they met again last week to start preparing for next year’s - incredible!
Second I’d like to thank the back-up teams, who got us across Europe, for their amazing support and encouragement during the event. Without a doubt we couldn’t have done the ride without them – the combination of experience from previous years combined with the enthusiasm of new team members to make this year’s event support brilliant for the riders.
So, other than next year’s “really good” LifeCycle route, and being a better husband and father for a while, what’s next for me? Well, that conversation started even before the Challenge was finished, and has carried on since. I think most of us have really enjoyed the experience of cycling and would love to carry it on, albeit in a slightly less extreme manner.
I’ll definitely be looking to get hold of a road bike so any distance should become a little easier to tackle. I’d like to have a go at the London to Paris ride next Summer, and have been checking out the Etape Du Tour – a stage from the Tour De France that is opened up to the public once a year. Surely a single 200km day will be a walk in the park after this?? There’s already a good long list of Betfair riders interested and, who knows, maybe some of this year’s other LifeCycle riders will give it a go too.
Thanks for reading!
