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Craig Harrison

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Help me reach my goal of £3,000

Le Loop and the William Wates Memorial Trust

"Le Loop" follows the official route of the Tour de France, one week ahead of the professionals, and finishes in Paris after 21 stages.

On Saturday 27th June 2026 around 100 riders will gather in Barcelona for the 'Grand Depart'. Riders tackle one of a selection of "Loops", riding anything from 2 to all 21 stages.

Riding even ONE stage of the Tour de France route is going to hurt... I'm attempting the "Grand Loop" and all 21 of them! Please reward my pain by giving generously.

Every participant commits to raising a minimum amount for the William Wates Memorial Trust (WWMT). The fundraised money is entirely separate from the participation fee - donations do not pay for my Tour. 

All monies raised go directly to 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.

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.

Merci!

Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

£1,213 + £53.22 GiftAid

My Goal

£3,000

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My Achievements

My Updates

Easy Week into V02uesday trepidation...

Thursday 26th Feb
I didn't feel like I'd had that great of a recovery/ easy week and was a bit nervous heading into Tuesday's workout being "V02uesday".

Thankfully, it seemed my legs weren't as unrecovered as my brain, and although it was a tough workout I was pleased and surprised to get through it!
https://www.strava.com/activities/17509255085

Another Build Weekend

Saturday 14th Feb
It's the "big week" again of another block (already!), and the plan has a combined 6-hours for the weekend.

It was actually sunny today for the first time in an eternity, so I probably could (should?) have headed out for a real ride, but I know it would be proper grotty as soon as I got anywhere interesting, so I ended up on the turbo again for 3hrs 15m 🙃

Staring down another 3 hours tomorrow, but thankfully the winter Olympics is on, so at least there's some good watching!

Travel Arrangements

Saturday 7th Feb
Bumping up the duration as usual this weekend, but the weather is still incessant rain, so it's been grinding out hours on the turbo trainer. 3 hours down today, and probably another 2 tomorrow.

On a positive note, there was much administration taken care of today. Various trains have been booked to get to London, Paris, and Barcelona, then back from Paris to London and Devon. Also submitted the passport renewal. Fingers crossed the photograph is acceptable!

It's a relief to get these bits organised, and off the mental pile of "things I need to sort out".


Back into it

Thursday 29th Jan
This week is the start of the next 3-week block.
I can feel the easier week disappearing into the rear-view mirror with every interval 😂

First 'Build Week'

Sunday 18th Jan
The plan is to work in 4-week blocks, progressively increasing duration/ intensity for 3, followed by an easier recovery week.  

After the recovery week, we start a new build up, but based on the middle week of the previous block, so we kind of gradually "saw-tooth" our way upwards in duration/intensity and (hopefully) fitness.  

This was the first "3rd week", so the hardest of this initial block. In total it was a 9-hour week, 5 of which were in the Saturday (3hrs) and Sunday (2hrs) "long rides". Not groundbreaking by any stretch, but fingers-crossed, we're setting a good base!

Training Plan

Saturday 10th Jan
My training plan is fairly straight forward, and based on the experience of preparing for last year's LEJoG...

Do the shorter sessions after work during the week, the overall duration of which will probably remain pretty constant the whole time. Generally:

- Monday: Very easy/ active recovery. 😁
- Tuesday: Very hard, V02 session. 🥵
- Wednesday: Endurance/ miles. 😊
- Thursday: Tempo/ threshold. 😰
- Friday: Nothing! 😁

Once it's light (and hopefully dry) enough in the evenings to get out and ride, the Wednesday session should get a bit longer.

The plan for the weekends is just to slowly build up the cumulative duration!

Even though I've been consistently riding, I've not paid too much attention to how long for. This weekend is the first where I feel like I have to make sure I hit the goal. It's not more than I might have done anyway, "only" 4 hours total, but also I might not have! 😂

...Welcome 2026!

Friday 2nd Jan
Happy new year to everyone!

It's 2026, and it feels like we've actually started the run-up to Le Loop now that it's "this year" and not "next year"!

So far, autumn and winter has been mostly endurance maintenance with a couple of interval sessions per week. Usually on Zwift due to the weather, but occasionally outside.

I will endeavour to add updates fairly frequently so anyone interested may keep up with how things are going, and hopefully it will provide some things to look back and reflect on in time.

Goodbye 2025...

Friday 2nd Jan
I completed my biggest cycling adventure (so far!) in 2025, and made some amazing friends doing Land's End to John o'Groats in July, some of whom I will hopefully be reunited with for Le Loop. It was an unforgettable experience (and also the source of my photo for this fundraising page).

It was also a huge year "stats wise". While I think it is hard to compare distances year-on-year with the mixing of real and virtual miles, we can easily compare just straight up riding time. In 2024 I logged 334 hours riding, and in 2025 that increased (by 40%!) to 465 hours. That works out to be roughly 1hr 15mins of riding per day, on average!

Let's see how 2026 shapes up!

2026 Route Announced

Friday 24th Oct
3,333km and 54,450m of elevation gain.

The official tour route details: https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route
Le Loop route details: https://rideleloop.org/the-route/

Thank you to my Sponsors

£1,000

Elaine Harrison

Love, mum! xxx

£53.32

James Horne

You can do it! You’ll smash this!

£53.32

Craig Harrison

£52.12

Chris Lewis

Merry Christmas Craigo.

£27.05

Gill Barnes

Good Luck Craig

£27.05

Simon Scholfield

Best of luck Craig !! I’m very jealous. Sadly I can’t join you - might see you at the final though !!! Cheers, Simon 👊🏻 💪🏻 😎