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Hi all

I decided this year I wanted to do something special for myself with regards to cycling and at the same time raise funds for a charity which needs all the support it can get. I decided along with 100 other totally insane people working for BSkyB to compete in this years Etape with myself being the only representive from Northern Ireland. This is a race that is organised each year on one of the rest days for the pro riders doing the Tour itself. There will be up to 9,500 riders taking part from all over the world which makes for a fantastic spectical at the start.

In celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Tour de France in the Pyrenees,  this year's Etape du Tour will feature the same celebratory route as one of the most crucial Pyrenean stages of the Tour de France 2010. The pro riders will ride this stage twice on two different days once in the direction I will be riding then returning from the other direction. This is why this stage is so crucial for the overall Tour winner this year.

The route I will be following is shown below. We will head out from Pau and cover the 174km (112miles) to the top of Tourmalet. Over the course of this ride I will climb Col de Marie-Blanque at 1,035 m followed by Col du Soulor at 1474m and then ride up the COL DU TOURMALET  for the mountain top finish at 2115m. If I'm still alive and kicking at this point I will have a further 30km to ride to get to the coach that will take me back to the hotel in Pau for a well deserved drink and rest. The good news is most of this will be down hill and will give me an idea of what the pro riders will face on their return journey over the COL DU TOURMALET.

The Charity that I decided to raise funds for is NSPCC as they do a fantastic job day in and day out for children in trying to protect them from cruelity and abuse from all sources that should not be happening in our so called society. Abuse and cruelty is happening  to the new born right up to children well into their teen years and they suffer in silence until it is high lighted. You only have to pick up the papers or listen to the news in resent months to hear or read of some terrible stories which has led to the death of some very young children with multiple injuries or being starved to death as a sense of punishment by their own parents. 

The big push the NSPCC  have is called the 1600.This is how much it costs £1600 to fully train up a new councillor to work on line. Before a lot of children would have rang the childline and spent half an hour talking on the phone on average but with children having more access to computers they feel they can express their fears and  concerns more easily that way. The draw back to NSPCC for this is that, the average time spent online is up to 1 hour which means more concillors have to be recruited to cover the extra 30mins used just to provide the same level of service. It would be good to be able to provide funds for two of these concillors to be trained but that depends on your donations.

So I'm asking you to give generously to this cause to help the NSPCC put a stop to cruelty and abuse to the most vunerable and defenceless in are society.

Below is what I have been doing or will be doing going forward to raise funds on their behalf. The target is £2,500 and so far I have £1304.38 including figs below towards that total so with your help and donations I'm sure I can reach the target set. so give generously. Online is still to be added.

2nd April 2010 completed a 5hr turbo cycle ride in Connswater shopping Centre Belfast raised £533.62

2nd May 2010 completed the 130 mile ride of the Glens of Antrim fund raising ongoing.

3rd June 2010 completed a 4hr turbo cycle ride at Sky Stand and raised £180.76

6th June 2010 completed the 3 Glens of Antrim 60mile ride fund raising on going

13th June 2010completed the Wicklow 200km ride in 8hrs + fund raising on going

20th June 2010 completed the Bangor Coastal ride 100km fund raising ongoing

4th July 2010 completed the Divis Mountain Challenge 160km ride in 7hrs 28mins fund raising on going

18th July the big and final one the Etape du Tour 2010 : PAU TO TOURMALET 174KM (112 MILES)

A further £300 will be donated to me by BSkyB on completion

Thank you for all your help and support so far,  lets make a difference to some childs life!

Regards

Daniel Magee