king of the hills

This is Mark

 

You might remember him from former features such as Bag-on-the-Head:

 
  
Or maybe Speedos: The Final Frontier

Well, Mark's latest role is to become King of the Hill.

This hill in particular

In less than 3 months, Mark is going to be cycling the Etape du Tour in the Pyrenees. This includes the Tourmalet, which Lance Armstrong once described as a 'monster'.

The Etape is the toughest stage of the Tour de France open to non professional cyclists. For those not familiar with this particular stretch of the race, think 180km cycling, half of which is uphill with around 4100 metres of climbs. Or roughly 13 times the height of the Eiffel Tower if that's how you like to measure stuff.

(N.B this not Mark)

Around 8000 cyclists will start the race. In 2007, only 4000 of them managed to finish. Thankfully, there is a sweeper bus that follows you round the course at 17kmph so you don't get left on the side of the mountain. If the bus overtakes you however, you're outta the race.

Mark and 12 of his friends are undertaking the greatest challenge of their collective legs' lives to raise money for an excellent charity.

Until a few months ago, none of them had a racing bike between them and apart from the odd Sunday jaunt or commuting to work, none of them had done any real cycling either.

They did their first race last weekend and managed to finish without anyone crying.

According to their training schedule, April is all about practicing cornering, riding 100 miles in one day and eating a banana whilst slipstreaming

We'll keep you updated on his progress each month until the big day.

For now, here's a taster of what's to come

Comments

[A.N. Project]

Is Mark single? Could I have his number?

[sally]

no. but I am ...

[Bea]

Far out brussel sprout! He must have calves of steel.

[NickyC]

I'd do that easy peasy. If I could go downhill :)