Cast your minds back to the Golden Summer of 2012 and the first few days of the London Olympics. Lizzie Armitstead had already bagged a brave silver behind the peerless Marianne Vos in the women's Elite Road Race and Mark Cavendish was odds-on to go one better in the men's, having got bragging rights in the warm-up London-Surrey Classic the year before.
All that lay between him and his Olympic Dream were seven more ascents of Box Hill and a rush into London. Sadly it was not to be, the gold that day snatched by soon-to-be-retired Vinokourov as he did the most obvious double-take of all time on poor Bertie Uran and sprinted off before you could say 'blue goldfish'.
Box Hill, for all its iconic status, is like the paracetamol of cycling climbs - relatively harmless in small doses, but potentially ruinous at higher concentrations. Some say Cav could never win that day as he was the most marked man in cycling; no other teams would work with GB to chase down breaks. I just reckon he was sick and tired of trundling past Smith & Western without the remotest chance of popping in for a rack of ribs.
It's Box Hill's alpine properties that appeal so much to cyclists in the South East of England - the constant gradient and, dare I say, switchback hairpins. These combine to give you a taste of proper Tour de France categorised climbs like Alpe d'Huez. Coincidentally, nine times up Box equates to roughly the same height as The Alpe, and approximately the same number of hairpins (if you count the third bend on Box as a half) so you can see why they did it back in 2012.
Which brings me neatly (ahem) to my desire to do this climb nine times in a day. Not because I want to emulate British Olympic cycling's greatest anti-climax, but in support of another heroic venture happening on the real Alpe d'Huez. In 2013 a guy from London rented a Boris Bike, drove to Provence and rode it up Mount Ventoux - and then got the bike back to London in less than 24 hours.
The guys from cycling clothing brand Huez Apparel are going to take a team on 24kg TFL ("Boris") Bikes to Alpe d'Huez next month with a similar aim, in the process raising as much money as they can for The Stroke Association and The National Brain Appeal. You can read about the challenge in their own words here.
I wouldn't want to upset their attempt with my near-glacial climbing speed, so instead I decided to mirror their efforts on the same day on Box Hill. Besides, anyone who has spent 24 hours in my company would attest to the fact I'm unbearable and would probably be shoved out of the van somewhere south of Paris.
But I don't want you to sponsor me to do it - no. Go to Huez's VirginMoneyGiving page and pledge there instead.
Or buy one of their fabulous Huez Mind Over Matter cycling jerseys and go and climb something on the 28th or 29th of April.
Even if you don't ride, the guys are sure to appreciate every email and tweet of support. Many of us are affected by strokes and brain trauma, and these charities do amazing work in research and support, not just for the victims but for their families and friends.
0 Comments