where am I going...

An oft' asked question believe me. And mostly unanswerable. That however is enough personal philosophy. I defnitely know this summer I'll be following the little blue line on the map below.

Starting at point A, a town called Saverne, I'll be heading south and slightly west until I pretty much run out of France at the western end of the Pyrénées, point B. I'll then screech to a halt and turn eastwards, wending my way through the mountains, oh dear God! Until that is I emerge the other side.

It's then a skirt round the sunny south heading near, but never near enough sadly, to the Côte d'Azur. Just before I slip into Italy, point C, I hang a sharp left and leap from col to col, across the Alps before racing, "racing!" northwards along the Swiss and German borders to the finish line, right back where I started...

Not allowing for getting lost and retracing my steps it all adds up to a neat 4070km or 2528 miles in old money. Hey so I exaggerated and said 2600 on the home page. You gotta sex it up a bit right? Anyway believe me I'll get lost!

Well actually I hope not. The route administrators are the excellent Stichting Honderd Cols Tocht. A Dutch organization who supply all the information necessary to undertake the challenge, and maintain the official list of finishers. Their website is here home.planet.nl/~honderd.cols/info_eng.html

The very kind chaps at Stichting thingummy send out to all their "victims" a neat pack which includes among other stuff the complete itinerary. This is a 34 page blow-by-blow set of directions, in Dutch of course, that includes all the climbs, all 188 of them! I've studied this little lot and attempted to work out just how long it's going to take me. Which leads me on to...

Basically any mountain pass worth it's salt is only open to traffic for a couple of months in the summer. At other times, skiers will know this of course, they are too treacherous to attempt to drive let alone ride, or just simply full of snow and ice. This little fact limits the window of opportunity to June, July, August. Coincidentally that's when I'm being allowed out of work and so that's when I'm going.

I've set my official start date as 19 June 2008. My estimate is to cover the distance in 33 days. I have had it on authority from the only other British nutcase I can find who has completed the challenge that you don't need rest days. I am not a cynical person by nature but I have a healthy sense of pessismism so I have added 6 days to my total, giving me 39 days say. Let's allow for what we accountants call "margin for error" and say six weeks. That's suitably vague.

It's all very well being vague and avoiding setting myself challenging targets but there's a serious side to all this planning, not least cancelling the milk. My actual plan for tackling the challenge is to take my car round with me. Now you might say that's sort of cheating, and you'd be right, but I won't be driving. I hope to persuade enough people to drive my car for me. This is the "how am I going to do it" bit...

how am I going to do it...

You can of course carry your luggage with you, the organisers in fact are very keen on this, they even tell you to ride to the start as a warm up! The other Brit I mentioned, John also did the vast majority of the ride under his own steam. You can read all about John's adventures on his excellent website here... www.alpinezebra.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/100_cols_home.htm

I however already have enough dead weight of my own without adding panniers full of socks, sun lotion and bandages to my bike. No my idea is to "invite" a relay of friends and relatives to come along for the ride so to speak and drive my car and luggage around. They get a few days holiday in the French countryside, eating French food, drinking French wine, soaking up French sunshine. I mean what's not to like? 

So the way  it's supposed to work is Relay team no. 1, let's call them Andy and Paul, just for example, they start with me in Saverne and spend six days on the road. According to my calculations I should be somewhere between St. Etienne and Toulouse. Andy and Paul say their goodbyes and fly back from Toulouse say to be replaced by team no. 2, let's call them Sam and Keith.

Sam and Keith take over the driving for the next five days say until I am south of Pau and moaning my way up a Pyrénéean pass. They in turn flies back from Pau and are replaced by team no. 3...

And so it goes on. I'ts a good plan, I think but it's going to take some organising, and I'm worried about the "gaps". Still can't sort everything out at once.

For those brave and kindly souls who are contemplating being part of the fun. The link below has my current day-by-day itinerary. I'm only just starting to work it out so please be aware we might have to be a little flexible.  

If you are contemplating joining in please get in touch with me as soon as possible. You can always contact me at kevin@the-big-grimpe.com