Hello to one and all,

 

Firstly I would like to thank you for taking the time to visit my justgiving page and  hope that you are not as tight as I thought you would be!! (chuckle, chuckle)

As you may already know I am a keen cyclist (and stand up comedian) and have taken up a sport that puts my weight to good use, especially when going down hill! The Etape challenge however, is a whole new ball game and was an idea devised probably drunkish by me when suggesting to my fellow cyclist friend Will that we too should have a go at the annual Etape du tour. For those of you that aren't so aware of the Etape du tour or the Tour de France it is the hardest stage of the entire tour of that year that amateur cyclists can enter and take part. this years event will be taking place on Sunday 18th of July 2010.

Knowing that the 9500 places fill extremely quickly, I hastely booked us 2 places thinking that it would all be fine and dandy, although having just experienced the coldest winter known to man and monsoon type weather (and too many beers and curries) the training has been more difficult than first anticipated. So far we have been rained on, snowed on, shouted at by people carrier drivers, attempted to be run off the road by white van men and still we continue our pursuit of Lance Armstrong like success........

The Etape 2010 is the 181km stage (112miles) from Pau to Col du Tourmalet. This encompasses cycling over 3 Pyrenean mountains ascending over 4000 metres. The road to the top of the Col du Tourmalet is 23km up hill and thats just a small percentage of the entire journey. Out of the 9500 entrants more than 2500 are unable to complete the challenge.

For Will and I we are in no doubt this will be the most gruellling physical challenge of our lives and would like to raise money for Help for Heroes to make all the training and numb nether regions (twernts) worth while.

So please dig deep and give a little for those who need that extra helping hand from homebased heroes like you and me.

Once again, thank you for visiting my page now go and get your bank card and give me your money fool!

 

Bunty & Toddy

 

NB I shall make every effort to update pictures of our trials and tribulations of both training and the actual event in July.