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Julia Robson

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My most challenging adventure yet: Le Loop.

Le Loop follows the official route of the Tour de France, one week ahead of the professionals. It starts with the ‘Grand Depart’ which in 2022 will be in Copenhagen on Friday 24th June and finishes 21 stages, some 3,400kms later on Sunday 17th July in Paris. Some cyclists choose to ride just a few days, others further. I will be taking on the ultimate challenge of riding the full tour!

The purpose of this challenge is to raise money for the William Wates Memorial Trust whose mission is to help the most disadvantaged young people keep away from a life of crime and violence and fulfil their potential. This is achieved by giving grants to charities that engage young people through the medium of sports, arts and education.

It's been a tough couple of years, particularly for young people. This is my chance to give something back and help support young people who aren't lucky enough to enjoy the advantages in life that most of us take for granted.

Le Loop is no small undertaking. Riding even ONE stage of the Tour de France route is going to hurt! Please reward my pain by giving generously.

Merci!

 

 

Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

£2,978 + £665.10 GiftAid

My Goal

£3,000

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My Achievements

My Updates

New Shoes

Thursday 26th May
Another type of shoe for my collection: proper road bike shoes - an upgrade from the touring shoes I have been using until now. Fortunately, I don't have expensive colour taste and this funky chameleon colour was cheaper than the white version. Although part of the reason for the upgrade was the extra stability of the road cleats, I was a bit scared by how much stiffer they were to clip in and out at first but a ride across London with numerous traffic light stops soon got me used to them.

6 weeks to go!!!

Friday 13th May
Still plenty of training to do before then and in the background, I'm still having to make sure everything else is prepared & tested to: bike, kit, nutrition, etc. At least the weather is warming up, making training rides even more pleasant - and allowing me to test my new LeLoop Jersey.

Alpine Training

Monday 9th May
In April I was lucky enough to spend some time in the mountains of the Southern Alps. And even luckier to have a boyfriend who let me take my bike and disappear off on some bike rides. It meant despite only covering 930km horizontally in April I managed over 8000m of ascent and lots of hairpin practice so I'm ready(?) for Alpe d'Huez.

March Update

Tuesday 26th Apr
Good job this is a cycle challenge and not a blogging challenge as this is rather late for a March update. Greatest monthly distance covered so far: 1318km. Also managed to get my ascent up to about 8000m - largely thanks to some hilly rides in the Cotswolds reminiscing about walking the Cotswold Way and the bonus of catching up with family and friends nearby.

Blown off course?

Friday 11th Mar

The spring flowers are starting to appear and giving me cause to smile during my rides. However, the weather in February did not generate smiles. The storms and their associated winds made me decide some of my planned rides were too dangerous to go ahead with. Although I made it up with some time on the turbo trainer, the distance covered in the month (800km) was down on where I hoped to be and my first 100miler of the year had to wait until March.

Hill Training

Tuesday 15th Feb
Living somewhere as flat as the Fens, there aren't any hills to train on which makes training for the mountains even more of a challenge. To put it in perspective in my 1200km of training in January, I barely broke 4000m of climbing which will be a day's climbing on some days of Le Loop!
To address this short-coming of my local terrain I've been to do several interval sessions each week which if nothing else trains the mental strength to keep pushing. I've also made sure to not shy away from training in headwinds and the extra resistance they provide. However, nothing beats a weekend away and some real hills particularly when it's combined with visiting friends.

Too busy cycling

Friday 21st Jan
Belated Happy New Year to all my supporters!
I saw 2021 out with even more miles on the bike managing to break the 1000km mark in December. One ride in the Surrey Hills ensured I got some climbing in but that one ride was almost half my climbing for the month. I was lucky enough to enjoy some one way cycle rides with the tailwind - I'm hoping the stages of LeLoop are also wind assisted.

Autumnal Cycling

Monday 13th Dec
I've been starting to increase my mileage by enjoying some crisp autumnal mornings. The colours down the country lanes have been impressive and admiring them has whiled away the miles.
In total in November I logged 941km on the roads and 4hrs30min simulating hills on the turbo trainer. I'm going to need to cover plenty more to prepare for Le Loop.

2022 Calendars: Gifts that give!

Saturday 27th Nov
As part of my fundraising I have produced a 2022 wall calendar to bring a bit of the beauty of Great Britain into your house or give as a gift 🎁!
The calendar opens to A3 and each month has a different photo from my adventures in the Great British Great Outdoors. They are just £10 each.
Contact me directly to order, or make a £10 donation and reference them in your message and I will be in contact to organise delivery.

Training has started!

Sunday 21st Nov
I'm still working on my morning motivation to get some longer rides in before work but weekend rides are being motivated by seeing friends and cake(s) or other tasty treats :-)
I even found myself at the same cafe, The Pallet Cafe, twice in three weeks. Their milkshake was just the burst of energy I needed to help get me home.
(Thanks to Gibbo for the company and the picture.)

Thank you to my Sponsors

£215

Joe Parry

Good luck!

£212

Celia Monteiro

Here's 10p per mile. We hope it's some motivation when things get tough! Good luck for the adventure. Xxx

£200

Helen Burnham

Attagirl! Good luck with the training!

£200

Patricia Gardener

£108

Anonymous

£100

Irene & Tony

Wishing you every success and a wonderful trip

£100

Kaush Kotak

£100

Anthony Bosanko

Good luck Julia!

£100

Pollie Boyle

This will be an amazing experience! 170km a day - wow! I reckon I could manage that for a day or two but three weeks... Good luck and enjoy the extra food!

£96.50

Cambridge Intelligence Ltd

Good Luck!

£54

Tom Fisher

Happy pedaling!

£54

Anonymous

Have a great ride!!!

£54

Hisako

£54

Johan Dreyer

What an incredible challenge for an incredible cause. You're an inspiration to many of us Julia. Have a great adventure!

£54

Hk

£50

Austin Benson

£50

Katherine Abell

Keep going and have fun, Julia.

£50

Alan And Hilary

Wishing you good luck with this impressive challenge!

£50

Anonymous

£50

Richard Sworder

£50

Jill Patterson

Fantastic challenge. Hope you enjoy it

£50

Anonymous

Awsome

£43.20

Julia Robson

£34

Phil Rodgers

Good luck!

£32.40

Nigel Turner

What a massive challenge! Hope the training goes well

£27

Amalie

£27

Valdis Lusis

Great challenge Julia! Very best wishes.

£27

Steve Woolcock

Good luck on this epic journey. Well done so far with the training during those cold December, January and February days.

£27

Jim Indield

You are very courageous to take on such a tremendous challenge. Wishing you every success, good luck and remain injury free !

£27

Bente Dignam

£27

Jessica Berrisford

Good Luck Julia, hope you enjoy it too!

£25

Anonymous

£25

Corey Lanum

£25

Jonathan Castell

Good luck, Julia!

£25

Karin Cotgrave

Good luck on your adventures

£25

Linda Cotgrave

£25

Andrew Disney

I look forward to cycling around France vicariously through photos on Slack!

£25

Jake Reich

£25

Jon Glass

Good luck - a very impressive challenge!

£25

Catherine Kearns

Good luck Julia!

£25

Adrian Fraser

Good luck Julie - that's quite a big effort.

£25

Nusrat Hamid

Good luck!

£25

Toby Faber

Part of me thinks you're mad; another part is a little bit envious.

£25

Jonathan Murphy

Good luck with the ride

£25

Adrian Brown

£21

Becca Downing

Good luck Julia! We think you're crazy, but it's super impressive! Can we follow you or get daily updates? love Becca, Chris, Amelie and Lucas xxxx

£20

David Egbue

Cookies and brownies brought me here ☺️

£20

Amy Kingston

Amazing challenge, hope it goes well :-)

£20

Dan

Good luck!

£20

Evie

Good luck!

£16.20

Nicola O'clarey

Doing the Full Loop - Wow you must have a big heart physiologically and emotionally xxx

£16.20

Andrea Walker

You are unstoppable Julia! Best of luck with this impressive challenge xx

£15

Jack

Good luck!

£15

Ray

£15

Warren

Good luck!

£15

Mike Gatfield

£10.80

Carla Velterop-martin

Good luck, Julia!

£10.80

Grant Chapman

Good luck mate

£10.80

Anonymous

£10.80

C Donald

Getting one more calendar for a friend that really liked your photos 😊 Good luck Julia 🚴‍♂️

£10.80

Carolyn

£10.80

Owen Michael Wyatt

Good cause dont ever stop

£10.80

Joanne Brand

£10

Anonymous

£10

Alex Finch

£10

David Cotgrave

£5.40

Manny Gatt