We will then make sure your branding and links are set up on the live tracking for that stage.

Marketed as the Hardest Sportive in the country – The Fred Witton didn’t fail at that title.

I left home at 4 in the morning to join the convey of 1700 mad cyclists, driving through the Lake district Villages to swamp Coniston Leisure Centre by 6am. It was an amazingly well organised event, with groups of riders heading over a well marshalled 112 miles, covering the toughest roads in the Lake District.

After seeing Phil Jones speak at an event recently he talked about when he rode the event, the terrible weather experienced and how his chain snapped causing all sorts of challenges for him.  This played on my mind, so I acted, getting a new chain and block fitted before the event. Ha Ha… not going to happen to me.

That said 2 miles into the ride, my chain unshipped, snagged and bent in two places making it impossible to go round. I went straight into possibility mode, and thought sod it, i’m going home, but after consideration, set about removing the links, piecing together something shorter.  Thankfully, Neutral Service came to my rescue and soon had my bike on a stand and a new chain fitted.  After a few miles of challenges messing about with the chain stops and a sticky link, 40 minutes lost in total, I was back on the road, riding with caution, but onwards and upwards.

The event was so well supported, people were out cheering us on, marshall’s on every road, and every descent, which i thought was a bit over the top until the first casualty was found on the drop down from Honister Pass.  The descents were lethal. I’m normally a brakes off, drop like a stone on descents guy, but on this event, i’ve worn out my brake pads.  It was so slippy, mainly due to the horrible weather which came in from about 11am.

The rain, wind and cold weather was extreme, especially over so aptly named, “Cold Fell”. I thought it might be just me, but when I stopped at the checkpoint in Calder Bridge, it was like a war zone. Bikes were strewn all over the car park, a mass of riders shivering under silver rescue blankets.  One room had all the heaters on, with riders stacking in there, to try and warm up.  I have never seen so many cold and wet people in one place, actually some were in a real bad way, either not prepared enough, or just quite simply caught out by the extreme weather

I managed to get a couple of hot drinks down me, hammered the Jam sandwiches and flapjacks, and then took the decision to crack on.  Its a horrible feeling when you sit in a warm environment in wet cycling clothes, to then have to face the outside elements again, so i didn’t hang around too long, better to get out and do the last 30 miles. it certainly wasn’t going to get itself done.

It was a steady plod along to what was facing us. Hardknott Pass and Wrynose Pass.  I’ve ridden some steep hills before, but seeing Hardknott Pass, was a joke.  Pictures wont do it justice – believe me its steep. Nearly all the riders had to walk. What surprised me was it was not just a short sharp climb, it was in fact damned long, winding up and over a big ridge and then dropping down a zig zag path with brakes on full most of the way down.  Some were too scared to ride and were walking down it, and a car on one of the bends was stuck, just wheels spinning.  Unbelievable road.

I thought it was all over until Wrynose pass then reared up, being fair not as bad as Hardknott, but still tough.  Descending again needed a great amount of concentration and caution, with the wind and rain lashing us. Unfortunately a rider in front of me, lost control, crashed into a boulder at the side and rolled into the road.  A couple of us, first to the scene helped and used the survival blankets to keep some warmth in him, before the marshalls soon got to him.  You’ll be glad to know he was OK, his helmet was smashed but saved him.  He was taken to hospital for a check up. The key question though – the bikes actually alright, just needs some handlebar tape and brake lever.

Would i ride it again. For sure, but not in those weather conditions.  Its a great route, but for me, i’ll be picking a good day to head out there.

My time logged on the system was 8:59:30  Due to the chain issues and accident I lost a lot of time. Actual riding time on Strava was 7:40:02

Just done some quick and rough calculations.

The Course this year will start in Corsica and then covers 3479 kms (2161 miles).

• 7 flat stages
• 5 hilly stages
• 6 mountain stages with 4 summit finishes
• 2 individual time trial stages
• 1 team time trial stage
• 2 rest days

I looked at the stages and added up that the mountains and hills – climbing element only, will cover almost 250kms, of which this gains an elevation of about 43,000 metres.

I’m off carbo loading now.

In case you’re not aware, cyclists in the competitive sense tend to shave their legs.  So is my event classed as competitive, and should I shave my legs?  Well being fair, when I used to race I did, and it’s amazing what a difference it makes to how you feel, and dare I say, how you look!  A cyclist with two big thundering hairy legs is nowhere near as stylish as a clean shaven pair. In my opinion anyway (and my wife’s.)

In order to make life easier, I decided to go down the waxing route for this event. OMG, you women have got a high threshold of pain if that’s anything to go by. I think the beautician enjoyed herself, putting more wax on and really ripping the suckers off. Clumps of precious hair ripped mercifully from my quivvering legs.

Oh well, the result is that I’m lighter - well I feel lighter at least - and it should make looking after them a much easier process while on my event. The rationale is that it’s better for massage, better if you get any road rash from crashes and it looks better, if you’re wondering why I put myself through this. The picture shows half the legs done by the way - (I needed a break halfway through but they have been completely waxed!)

Chris, Chris, Chris and Pete decided to give “vadering” a go.

Training is going quite well – I have a plan and follow it quite well. General life does get in the way sometimes but I have great support from home to allow me to get valuable time in to get fitter.  At the moment I’m riding around 250 – 300 miles a week, and pushing hard, not just riding.  It’s a mixture of base miles to burn fat and more intensive sessions. I have a 1-mile long hill where I go and ride up and down it for 2 hours, just to give some sort of feeling of long hill climbs, nothing like the French Mountains though. Once a week before work I am getting a Llangollen / Horsehoe Pass run in, which is really helping – 62 miles in then ride home at night.

Last Sunday, I rode with a friend of mine. We did an event last year and all year our heart beats were pretty much the same while training.  On Sunday, it was noticeably different – mine were 15 – 20 beats per minute lower than his. It was amazing to see how with his level of activity dropping a little and mine increasing, that in 9 months there was a massive difference in the average heart beat while cycling.

Thanks for following and if you can support me please do so at:

http://www.bmycharity.com/AdriansTourDeFrance

Every bit helps – companies can get involved to sponsor a stage from £250 – £1,000 where you can have your message on my live tracking page for that day. Please get in touch if this is something you’d like to do.

Or you can support me as an individual by donating on my fundraising page – I really do respect every penny.

http://www.bmycharity.com/AdriansTourDeFrance

Thank you.

We’ve worked with the Venda ecommerce platform for several years, most notably in our projects for Laura Ashley such as building a system that handles made-to-measure products like furniture and curtains. This allowed Laura Ashley to seamlessly offer those products to customers without them feeling like they were switching between two different sites. We achieved this by working closely with Venda to integrate design, functionality and the customer basket.

Rob presented this case study to the audience and also stuck around to learn what he could from the other speakers on the day. We’re continuing to work closely with Venda and further strengthen our expertise in this area.

The talk was particularly relevant to second year students looking for placements and the third years who will soon be graduating and looking for their first job.

The course is quite varied, covering all aspects of graphic design, so Chris was there to talk about careers in digital, a little about his own path into the industry and to show off a bit about the great brands that we work with at Blueleaf.

As well as helping students decide which area of the industry they want to go into and hopefully inspiring the next generation of web designers, we’ve got one eye firmly fixed on future recruitment.

Chris has offered to help the University with other presentations and to input into their degree course syllabus, helping ensure that graduates have the skills that employers are really looking for.