It’s June 2010. The hottest day of the year so far and less than one week until the 112-mile Marmotte cycle event in the French Alps. On something of a whim, we’d decided to ride from London to the start line, below the iconic 21 hairpin turns of Alpe d’Huez in the town of Bourg d’Oisans.
6-days later, with close to 1000 miles of cycling behind us, we were sitting on the train home. As the mountains receded onto the horizon, we were both lost in thought (and intermittently asleep) – how far could we go, and in how little time? How much could we pack into a 2-week European adventure?
Soon we were reaching for the map and plotting routes through countries, over mountains and across lakes. The Accelerace Challenge 2011 was born.
The ethos was the same as before, with adventure and endurance at its core, but now we were combining sports – running, kayaking, mountain biking and road cycling. This smacked of something epic…
- Stage 1 – Road bike from London to Scuol in eastern Switzerland (650 miles in 3 days)
- Stage 2 – Mountain bike across Switzerland from Scuol to Lausanne (450 miles in 4 days)
- Stage 3 – Kayak across Lake Geneva (50 miles)
- Stage 4 – Road bike from Geneva to Livorno on the west coast of Italy (440 miles in 2 days)
- Stage 5 – Kayak/ride the east coast of Corsica (100 miles)
- Stage 6 – Run the infamous GR20 mountain trail from south to north (112 miles in 3 days)
All in, we’ve set ourselves just 14 days to reach the end of the GR20.
Neither of us bring any particular expertise or sporting prowess to the challenge; both working in desk-based jobs in London, neither having any particular record of national or even regional athletic/running/cycling or kayaking honours. We’ve done a few marathons, a bunch of Ironmans, a range of other varied endurance challenges, and quite a bit of cycling. This is something quite unique though. Fortunately, what we lack in natural athletic ability is adequately mitigated by an abundance of bloody-mindedness, grit and determination.
Needless to say, when we are able to escape the desk, we’re packing in as much training as possible, and we’ve set a few key “acclimatisation sessions” or pre-challenges, if you like, some of which stand alone as hefty feats. Le Tour du Mont Blanc Cyclo, Bontrager TwentyFour12 Solo, and a self-organised 450-mile road bike weekend into Belgium, France and Germany form the backbone of our cycling training over the next few weeks.
Comfort is obviously a critical factor in ensuring that the challenge maintains a bearable level of pain, and thankfully the guys at Alwaysriding have been massively supportive on the kit front. Last weekend we took the Craft Elite Bib Shorts, Craft Compression Arm Coolers and Craft Elite Jersey for a test ride in the 88-mile Duncton Sportive. Like a lot of you, I have a specific drawer of cycling kit, accumulated over the years – all fairly ill-fitting, stretched, embarrassingly thin in places and, importantly, lacking any crucial padding/support. Ride to work, ride the sportives and train in the same gear – it’s only when you experience well fitting kit that you realise just how comfortable cycling should be. Strike a line through all the usual annoyances – constantly having to pull the jersey down as it rides up your back, pockets sagging over your saddle, hemp-like stitching and poorly sewn labels, no ventilation – and enjoy riding your bike. This Craft gear is undoubtedly the best kit I’ve ridden in and hell, if it hadn’t been for a puncture, we would almost have been the fastest round the 88-mile course.
Our Challenge kicks off in August, but you can follow out progress on Facebook or at www.acceleracechallenge.co.uk
Thanks for reading.
--
About the ride...
Ross and Chris are preparing for the Accelerace Challenge: a 2000-mile epic endurance adventure from London to Corsica over just 14-days, involving running, mountain biking, road cycling and kayaking, to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer in the UK
Bike Tart
alwaysriding
