Read on..it might change a life!

Hello.

This is my first post.

What is this blog about?

Mainly.. me, L'Etape and cycling..

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For starters, let's get the personal stuff out of the way.

I'm 47, I live on the Isle of Wight, near England.

I'm married to the lovely Mrs C who puts up with an awful lot.

We have two children, 2 cats, a dog.

We've lived here for 14 years after moving from Liverpool.

I am a Consultant Radiologist at St Mary's Hospital here on the Island.

I've got loads of things in my life to keep me busy...... I play guitar in a band called Riptide (yes, I know, crap name.... but you try and come up with a better one). I still play football despite my antiquity, for Ryde Saints FC. I kitesurf, well I did until the wind died. What else. I've dabbled with a mountain bike for many years. I ride a motorbike. I help with my son's football team. I have a boat and use it to fish and wakeboard. I go to work. I look after the children sometimes. The usual sort of family stuff.

When this started I didn't even own a road bike. Now, I'm cycling for hours, over a 120 miles every week. I need to get super-fit, quickly.

Back to L'Etape..what's it all about? The story goes like this.

I received an email in March from two blokes who I have known for a couple of years, initially through work, Simon and Steve. They are keen cyclists and are involved with a team called F P Mailing. I would now consider them to be friends, although we live miles apart and hardly ever meet! Anyway, the email was pretty simple. ' Did I want to join them and do the Etape this July?' My answer,'Yes'. Then I clicked on google and did some research about this event. Scary.

What is the Etape?

It's an endurance cycling event in France which is staged every year by the organisers of the Tour de France. The pros have a rest day, so while they've got their feet up, they let 8500 amateurs have a go at one of the stages. They choose a different one every year, and have tended to make it more and more difficult so that the riders get a real sense of achievement if they can complete the route. To make it more difficult, they impose a time limit, and have a 'broom wagon' drive along at a certain speed behind the last riders. If it catches you up, you're forced to give up, they strip you of your transponder and number, and have to suffer the ignominy of being slowly driven along in the lorry to the finish.

This year the route is horrendous. It's 125 miles long, in the Pyrenees, and there are 5 mountains to climb. That's over 4000 m of vertical height to get up. The weather can be either blazing hot and windless, or cold, misty, raining, sleeting etc. You just have to deal with it.

The problem is my utter inexperience. This ride is going to take at least 9 hours.The longest I've ever ridden is about 90 minutes. I've got 19 weeks to go to get my strength and stamina together, and learn how to take on board food and fluids on the road. I bought a road bike this weekend (I've already had a mountain bike for many years) . I've got a long long way to go.

One more thing. I'm raising money for Prostate Cancer. A lot of money. A £1000 at least.

So, please enjoy my blog, and 'join' me on my ride.