Covid permitting, On August 13^th 2021 I will be taking part in the Silk Road Mountain Bike Race. It is a 1,800 km race through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. The route must be completed in less than 15 days, and has over 30,000 meters of elevation gain, following gravel, single, double track, and old soviet roads that have long been forgotten and fallen into disrepair. It is an unsupported race, meaning that the 200 cyclists, including quite a few professionals, will have to carry all their own camping and cooking equipment, and enough food for some lengthy distances (400 kilometres max) without any chance to get provisions.

The first Silk Road Race was in 2018, and quickly established a reputation as the toughest endurance cycling event in the race calendar.  Apart from the gruelling distances and elevation, temperatures typically vary from -8 degrees Celsius to +40 degrees, occasionally within the same day!

My aunt Sue Bourdaud’hui passed away at the end of last year from complications arising from a brain tumour diagnosed only two months previously.  Sue loved to travel, and had worked for the US National Trust before her retirement. I hope to raise money for Cancer Research UK in her memory. I have set a goal of raising £1,800 for the charity, one pound for every kilometre of the race. 

Covid-19 has caused a loss of income of around £160m for the charity in 2020, this is putting clinical trials at risk of cancellation and limiting future research. The NHS has put much of its routine cancer screening on hold during the pandemic and with the backlog of cancer patients waiting for treatment, it’s a charity I think can do a lot of good in the years to come.

For those who are interested, you will be able to follow each cyclist as all will be carrying trackers. More info at: https://www.silkroadmountainrace.cc/

Although I have done quite a lot of bikepacking, I have never done a race before, and have already started a supervised training programme, this page is linked to my Strava account so if anyone is interested you can see how I`m doing at the bottom of this page.

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