Sponsor Ciaran Doran at :  https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ciarandoranbeforethetour

www.ChaqueEtape.com

Antwerp to Huy finishing at the aptly named “Mur de Huy”.

Sint Niklaas, about 30mins from Antwerp, is a nice little town where we stayed the night and enjoyed hearty breakfast from 6.30am. Again not chances with nutrition so porridge, energy bars from Mule and hydration tabs which are tried and tested on many training rides are produced at breakfast time. Last thing needed on such a tough endurance challenge is to get sick from new foods. However, only a few weeks before the ride we were given “Stealth” gels from the Secret Training company and I have to say they were absolutely stunning. I’ve been keeping the berry flavour with caffeine and betane for special moments and not used it yet. I expect to use a few in the mountains!

This 2015 team of riders for Cure Leukaemia has come together extremely well in only a couple of days from never really knowing each other and from only ridden together once before. This is an incredible challenge and I feel tremendously privileged to have been accepted to join the team on its inaugural One Day Ahead tour. Thank you Geoff and Dan!

Today’s route was flat until the last 45km when the terrain turned upside down – gone are he flat lands of Netherlands and northern Belgium! Three category 4 climbs and one category 3 which was right at the end. The day was interrupted with disappointment as one of the riders front the crash yesterday rested up to help the wound heal but it was fantastic to see her back on form for the final couple of climbs and the incredible Mur de Huy. Well done !

I’ve followed the Tour de France since childhood but I’ve never analysed the route in as much detail as I have this time. It’s fascinating to see how the organisers have designed a route to test the riders and thrill the spectators and viewers. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the peloton breaks up over the final climbs of stage 3 and especially how they battle it out for the finish up the Mur de Huy.

I urge you to google this last 1 kilometre and see how obscenely steep it is. I love the fact that Wikipedia shows the location of the climb on a map – the only other thing of interest is O’Malley Pub at the bottom of the climb and that’s somewhere I should have picked up a triple! (sorry, cycling joke).

My family were on the final climb to encourage everyone which was fantastic – seeing Philip spencer half way, then Gillian Spencer, then Aidan and Alisha and finally in the last 200 meters my wonderful wife to spur me on to the finish. Can’t wait to see those photos as it must have looked like agony! The Mur de Huy is a killer of a climb, short, sharp, it really made me dig very deep indeed.

…and yes, this is where again I tell you that all of this pales to insignificance compared with being told you have Cancer and months to live like Geoff Thomas was and so many others are told.

Please dig deep yourselves and spread the word to help donations to find a cure for leukaemia.