Click here to learn how you can support the 2010 Betfair LifeCycle Challenge, as the team cycles over 2000km from Venice to Manchester in 12 days.
In England, discussing the weather…
The 2010 Betfair LifeCycle Challenge is now on the last day, riding from Loughborough through the Peak District to the finishing point at the Old Trafford football ground in Manchester, after getting up at 4am, in order to try and arrive in time to be met by Sir Alex Ferguson at the finish.
Over the last two days, England has thrown the “best” of its summer weather (i.e. rain, wind and cold) at the team, and this has inevitably taken a toll on morale. There have also been many small mechanical problems, which is to be expected when putting even professional standard bikes through ten solid days of extreme punishment. Energy levels are low, and it is only the knowledge that the end is so close that is keeping everyone going.
Day 10, from Dunkerque to South Ockenden (near Thurrock), involved two water crossings. The first was of course the English Channel and the team made the crossing on an early morning Norfolk Line ferry. The second, after riding through the usually beautiful Kent countryside in freezing rain, involved shuttling the cyclists through the Dartford Tunnel in minivans while the bikes were taken through on the trucks.
Day 11 was another extra-long day with a 5am start – approximately 244km from South Ockenden to the centre of Loughborough in Leicestershire, where the challenge bedded down for the night in a secondary school.