A team of 18 amateur cyclists have ridden into Paris, the 21st and final stage of The Tour 21 event, as heroes on Sunday following the announcement that their fundraising had topped £1million for national blood cancer charity, Cure Leukaemia.
The team have spent the past three weeks cycling across Spain and France as part of The Tour 21, in partnership with Flutter, on behalf of the charity – a feat which has seen them complete all stages of the Tour de France – one week ahead of the professionals. Made up of cyclists from across the world, the team completed all 3,400km of the world’s most famous and prestigious professional cycling event.
The team rolled out of Bilbao on Saturday 24th June, soaking up the atmosphere of the soon-to-arrive Tour de France event, branding of which had already decorated the city. Three tough stages across Spain provided a stern introduction to Tour life before many French mountains awaited them.
The 16 men and 2 women making up The Tour 21 team this year have been pushed to their physical limits in what has been the most mountainous Tour of recent years. Five mountain ranges were tackled in total – the Pyrenees, Massif Central, Jura, Alps and Vosge – including the dreaded Col de Joux Plane and the mighty Col de la Loze, and the Puy de Dôme. Over the course of the 21 stages, the team, representing four different countries from across the globe, cycled over 55,000m of elevation – the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest over six times – or 183 Eiffel Towers.