Captain Havoc's cycle for charity 2013

Captain Havoc

Hi guys,

Rather than have you read the below I'll start with the questions:
1. Would anyone like to recommend a local charity to me to raise a few quid for next year (via PM if you like)? I estimate it will be about a grand. Also it'll be done via mycharity or similar website as cash donations end up being minimal, noone can accuse me of skimming and I don't like chugging.
2. Would anyone be interested in joining me on the trip? Costs are split evenly

As most of you know, the last three years I've set myself a cycling challenge and raised money for the Susie Long Hospice fund. Last year I completed the Raid Pyrénéen which is one of the most difficult multi-day challenges in Europe (scraped it with only 20 minutes to spare). Next year I will be doing another cycle, although I'm thinking about leaving the challenging aspect out of it.

In order to justify a back up vehicle, there would need to be 10 people paid up. I was thinking of doing a route around a week or two long. The routes would generally involve 100km - 200km per day (average would be about 150km). I have a few routes in mind but I won't make any decisions until next month. To be honest I don't see a huge uptake from the cycling forum this year so it might have to be the simplest option (route 1).
Here are the ideas:

Option 1. Kilkenny to Moret-sur Loing
Sail to Roscoff, get in a little bit of Brittany and straight across, 600km in 5 days. Would be a leisurely tour done over fairly flat terrain. This would be done the last week of the Tour de France, the idea being to head up to Paris to watch Cav grab another sprint. This would be more of a fun tour for the more experienced and a good chance to get introduced to multi-day touring for other people.

Option 2. Tour of Switzerland (and north Italy with a bit of Austria and France also).
It will take eight days and the highlight of the tour would be the Stelvio pass. I can also assure you of awesome scenery. We would need 10 people to go on this to cover the approximate €2,000 to get a back up van for the week. Trip would take eight days to cover 1,200kms. The route also goes through all four language regions of Switzerland. The route is difficult and I would plan on doing in June during the Tour de Suisse, a note of warning is that Switzerland is very hot in the summer.

Option 3. Randonée Alpine
Nice to Lake Geneva, 740km in 6 days, loads of climbing including the Col de l'Iseran and the Cime de le bonnet.

Let me know if you're interested.

biffontour

Did you put this post up on the cycling forum Mr Havoc, would get a few takers there I'd imagine

Captain Havoc

biffontour wrote: »

Did you put this post up on the cycling forum Mr Havoc, would get a few takers there I'd imagine

I did yeah, there's a few interested but I was wondering if anyone here would be interested. Also I would like to do something for a Kilkenny based charity.

biffontour

Fair play to you for doing It, sounds like fun,

Captain Havoc

biffontour wrote: »

Fair play to you for doing It, sounds like fun,

It's pretty fun, it's also an unbelievable way to see France, I used to live in France but I've seen more in the few weeks cycling through it than the year I lived there.

biffontour

Captain Havoc wrote: »

It's pretty fun, it's also an unbelievable way to see France, I used to live in France but I've seen more in the few weeks cycling through it than the year I lived there.

Id well believe it, i'm only cycling for 4/5 months and its even a brilliant way to see the roads around Kilkenny, You see stuff you never see in a car

Cabaal

I'd honestly love to do a cycle across France...especially if its flat terrain

Actually had planned to drive across France to Luxemberg last year but due to costs it had to be shelved and ended up flying into Belgium and using Luxemberg as a base to see Germany, France, Belgium.

I'd actually seriously think about joining you for this only for my plans for this summer are already made.

June I got a 100km charity run planned which I'm planning on being crippled after :pac: and July I'm off to Germany then for a few weeks, so I'd be hard pressed to get in the training for cycling across France.

biffontour wrote: »

Id well believe it, i'm only cycling for 4/5 months and its even a brilliant way to see the roads around Kilkenny, You see stuff you never see in a car

I can honestly say I agree with this, I've seen stuff while running/cycling the roads of Co Kilkenny that I've passed for years almost daily and never actually seen, you really don't pay attention to stuff when you're driving.