This June, I will be joining 16 riders to take on the mammoth cycling challenge of ascending Mont Ventoux three times in one day! It will be more vertical than I have ever climbed in one day and being 95kg it's going to hurt. A lot! A lot more than a lot! I'll give it my best shot, it might defeat me, it might not. I might only make one ascent, maybe two, hopefully all three. But I promise that I'll put 100% effort into the ride.

To put it into perspective:

There's nothing I can write to add to what's already been written about Tom Simpson's life and tragic death. Some facts are simple enough. He was Britain's greatest cyclist, a world champion and Olympic medallist. He won three of the one-day monuments (the Tour of Flanders, the Giro di Lombardia and Milan-San Remo) and the world championships as well as the Paris-Nice stage race. He was one of the favourites for the 1967 Tour de France.

He collapsed on this climb, ascending Ventoux via the Bédoin route racing that Tour on July 13, was put back on his bike at his own request, collapsed again a few hundred metres further along and died of heat exhaustion.

Now Tom only had to get up the mountain once, I've got to do it three times!

In all seriousness though, I'm raising money for Cure Parkinson's, a charity set up by my old school friend Tom Issacs. We were in the same school year until I was moved to be with kids of my own age (I was a year ahead of my peers age group for some reason). He was in the the Welly Pot Bellies and I was in the Dossers, two out of school groups full of laughter and fun.  

Tom's lasting legacy is Cure Parkinson's. Cure Parkinson's is no stranger to a challenge. Driven to cure, this agile charity funds cutting edge Parkinson's research and unites the worlds leading experts under one cause. Cure Parkinson's can only continue to have this impact with the support from people like me and you. The last two years have been incredibly challenging for Cure Parkinson's and they receive no government funding. But, with our help we can keep them on the course to Cure. By donating to my page, you will help to fund Cure Parkinson's research with potential to slow, stop or reverse Parkinson's. Thank you, Ride On, Gareth