Carry On Up The Alpe! A blog about an attempt to cycle up and down Alpe d'Huez 10 times in 24 hours...hope to do it either Tuesday 18th or Wednesday 19th July 2018!
This entry is cobbled togeth- sorry, lovingly crafted in the aftermath of Croatia knocking England out of the World Cup. Any remorse that I may possibly be experiencing is in no way connected to the fact that I drew England as my team in my 'work' sweepstake. D'oh!
Keef & Patti as pictured before the match: glad the FA went with Southgate though!
That aside, I really thought England could beat Croatia and the players, management and staff all can look themselves in the mirror and know that they tried their best. Hell, they surpassed everyone's expectations by even reaching the last four! The future's bright, as long as they keep Southgate...
Nah, wouldn't wish that on the bloke!
On a purely selfish note, I was kinda looking forward to watching the final against France, in a bar in darkest Provence, enjoying magnificently indifferent levels of Gallic customer service, hah-hah! That aside, England may have done me a good turn inadvertently as my bike *might* have attracted a little unwanted attention from the locals if France had faltered.
Sacre bleu, zut alors, Les Rosbifs etc.!
As it is, on Saturday we'll be legging-it from Reims to Malaucene in time to see the utterly meaningless Third Place Play-Off between England and Belgium. Would be nice to see them sign-off with a win, right?
The 'plan' for Andy and myself is to warm-up for The Alpe by spending Sunday revisiting Mont Ventoux. He thought it would be a bright idea to go for The Cingles, which is the name for cycling up from all three sides in a day. The old boy must be losing it a bit because he appears to have forgotten that we've done La Bicinglette already, hah-hah! We'll just humour him, eh?
Hello my old friend, it's not all that good to talk with you again...
Dunno what the collective for a lot of different sporting events is- a shedload, perhaps- but there is a fair bit happening elsewhere: Wimbledon, ODI Cricket, Open Golf and the Tour de France of course. The spin-off for us is that any roads that Le Tour use are invariably smoothed over with fresh tarmac: it's almost worth going there just to find out what it's like not to cycle through potholes every 20 yards...
Warning the appreciate.
Okay, so that's the lead-up to the challenge taken care of. The dirty deed will be attempted either next Tuesday (start midnight Monday) or the day after, with Le Tour speeding-up it on Thursday. The good news is that the fundraising is going well with 50% of the target of £2100 met. This is a massive boost for this terrified individual, so a massive thank you on behalf the Fantastic Five causes!
Good on you!
Okay then, time to finish packing/slinging a bunch of tat in the back of the motor...I'll bother you with more of the usual during the weekend. There- that's cheered y'all right up, hah-hah-hah!
