West Calder based architect, Keith Vance, has helped raise over £787,000 for a cancer charity as he nears the finish line of the Tour de France one week ahead of the pros.
Keith took on the challenge of ‘The Tour 21’, an endurance challenge for amateur cyclists in which they must ride the entire route of the Tour de France to raise money for Cure Leukaemia.
Keith Vance, and 17 other riders, have so far covered over 2553 kilometres - completing 15 of the 21 total stages.
The team are just short of raising enough funds for Cure Leukaemia to meet their £1m goal.
Keith and seventeen other riders shot out of Copenhagen on stage one back on Friday June 24, as preparations were nearing completion for the Tour de France in the Danish city.
Three stages in Denmark got the challenge underway - before a rest day and transfer back to France - where the ride continued with a series of flat stages.
This included the brutal cobblestones of northern France and the infamous Paris Roubaix on stage five - well known for its extreme difficulty and chaotic Tour de France scenes.
The mountains got underway on stage seven with a steep finish atop La Planche des Belles Filles setting the tone for a succession of tough hilly and mountainous days in the saddle - this was broken up by the second rest day of the event, before heading into the Alps.
The Alpe d’Huez was just one of many mountain climbs to conquer for The Tour 21 riders.
Over the course of 48 hours last week, the team cycled up over 8,500m of elevation - the equivalent of 26 Eiffel Towers or 1,954 double-decker buses stacked on top of each other.
Cure Leukaemia Patron and co-founder of The Tour 21, Geoff Thomas MBE, had to step off the bike and withdraw after the first week due to injury, bringing his 2022 ride to an end.
Geoff Thomas said:“It was a really tough decision to stop but the brutal nature of the Tour has eventually worn down my body until my knee could take no more punishment.
“I know that the team out there is going to smash it though - there’s such camaraderie in that group and some really inspiring people who can motivate so many more to get involved in this event.
“Collectively we’ve raised over 70% of our target but there’s still a long way to go so we all need to keep pushing and spreading the word of the amazing efforts that each and every one of the riders is putting in day in day out.”
The second half of The Tour 21 presents plenty more challenges for Keith and the 16 remaining riders, each of whom have their own reasons for riding.
The stages include some tough tests in the Pyrenees before eventually rolling into Paris on Sunday July 17.
You can donate to The Tour 21’s fundraising efforts on the event’s Just Giving page here. (https://justgiving.com/campaign/thetour21)
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