In May, a team of riders will cycle from Suffolk; 850 miles to Mont Ventoux in the south of France. Once there, the team will take on the Ventoux challenge which which will see them riding up the mountain not once, but 3 times in 24 hours. This challenging climb is well known as being the toughest part of Tour de France so the team has certainly set the bar high!
 
Team member David Renton met CHUF Parent Trustee and super-fundraiser Ivan Hollingsworth at his sister’s wedding, just as Ivan was preparing to do the coast to coast challenge. Inspired by Ivan’s story and his success in raising funds for CHUF, David rode 110 miles alongside Ivan during his Half a Million, Half a Country challenge.
 

“I felt honoured to be helping at last. I only rode as far as I did due to the fact I live in Norfolk. Leaving the group in Market Deeping was hard to do as I felt good and I could have gone further; I was something I would think about a lot, right up till the film of the event came out. Watching it back; I realised I had some demons that needed quieting, I felt I hadn’t done enough. I remembered Ivan saying this was his last challenge; I thought I’d do one for him, to silence these demons”

 
Through conversations at work the idea started to grow and from that, David says that the plan to ride up the iconic Tour de France climb of “Mont Ventoux” was born.
 

“As we tend to do in the military with these sort of challenges, we decided to make it as tough as we can; so we are going to ride from Raf Honington in Suffolk to Mont Ventoux of approx 850 miles over 5 days, and then on day 6 ride up Ventoux 3 times”

 
For a closer look at how the team’s training is going and to follow them as they start their challenge on 20th May, take a look at their Facebook page. The team is made up of 4 people on bicycles and an additional 4 in 2 vehicles providing support. The team has hired a van to get the bikes home as David says doing the whole thing again on the way back is a bit much for them all! Their plan is to camp overnight during the challenge to keep expenses as low as possible.
 

“I am a lucky man and have been blessed with 3 lovely healthy boys, anything I can do to help the amazing work of CHUF, I will”

 
If you’d like to support the Ventoux4CHUF team as they take on this incredible challenge, you can make a donation on their GoFundMe page
 

CHUF is delighted to welcome the Ventoux4CHUF team to our fundraising family and wish them the very best of luck with their challenge

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