Well, we did it!!!!

Nearly 650 miles of hard grind. 20,000 metres of climbing (that's two-and-a-bit Everests). Cycling through heat, thunderstorms, hailstorms (in July!?), back pain, exhausted legs, sore bum and 6 hours sleep a night.

But 8 days later, we all rolled into Venice, completely knackered but elated that we'd completed a monster challenge. And all of us finished. Not one of us shirked or gave up.

Why I did it...

I did this for is Jigsaw South East. It was *entirely self-supported*, so any money you do decide to donate goes straight to Jigsaw, and not our beers and Vaseline.

Josh Taylor, an old schoolfriend, died last year, leaving behind a family having to deal with their loss. Nancy (Josh's sister) said how helpful Jigsaw South East had been in helping the family get back on track. It's a fantastic cause, and one I hope you will please give generously to. At our age (Yes, I've always been a cheery bugger), who knows when our families might need the same kind of support.

Here's a bit more on the ride we completed...

• total distance of 1024kms (636 miles)
• 22 major climbs
• over 20,000 metres of climbing
• 
  
• the biggest climb was 24.8 kms at a 7.5% average
• 2 of the days were over 170 kms.

Bloody ridiculous...

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