Official Results Thread here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1001583-mfp-giro-d-italia-grand-tour-challenge-results?page=1#posts-15331189

Tour de France Challenge may be slightly probematic - as I'm sure most of you are aware, I've had a fairly fundamental change in my personal circumstances since dreaming up these challenges way back around Christmas time.

At the moment, I have a few things that I need to remain at home for until they are resolved. Once these things are sorted, I'm thinking of taking a little time to catch up on things that have been placed on hold for the last 7-8 years... Aside from my not having had a single nights holiday away from the family home for over 7 years, I also have a house that is in dire need of re-decoration, re-furnishing and all-round turning into MY home, and not just my parents house that I moved back into while I looked after them.

The first step in all of this however, is to decide what the hell I'm actually going to do with myself for the rest of my life... which, I'm hoping, will start to become clear when I manage to take a few days/weeks away from my current environment.

The impact of this as far as the challenges is... well - I don't know really - if I can't get the current "paperwork sticking points" resolved before July, I'll be able to organise things as normal - if I get them sorted this week, I may be back home in time to organise it, but equally - I may actually be away for the duration, which is where the problems happen... The logging spreadsheet is pretty much written - basically copy the Giro version, change the names/numbers to the new teams, clear/refresh the forumulas and change the colour-coding for the shirts, then open up the spreadsheet so that each rider can post their own distances etc. - This then leaves the GPS verification and the organising of dossards (i.e. the time and bandwidth consuming bit - not something I want to be doing via a laptop and cellular phone whilst away from my cable connection.)

As far as pre-registration goes - that's a no! there's one person pre-registered for the TdF, that's Frannybobs, purely because of her getting injured at the 11th hour for the Giro, and still being good enough to let me know, and allow her place to be offered to someone else. I may not even be taking up my customary #309, as if I'm planning being away from home, and possibly "Sans Vélo" it wouldn't be fair on my teammates.

As I've always said - if the challenge managed to motivate half the people who signed up to do 1 extra ride a week, or 10% extra distance each ride, then the work I've put into it has been worthwhile. It does slightly sadden me that a number of people didn't have the decency to bother posting even a short "Can't finish the challenge, book me in as DNF from this stage", but I guess that's life - and of course, priority for signups to the next challenge could always be given to finishers of this one...

Okay - Here we go for Part Deux of the Grand Tour Challenge



1 Saturday, June 29 212 km Porto-Vecchio → Bastia
2 Sunday, June 30 154 km Bastia → Ajaccio
3 Monday, July 1 145 km Ajaccio → Calvi
4 Tuesday, July 2 25 km Nice → Nice
5 Wednesday, July 3 219 km Cagnes-sur-Mer → Marseille
6 Thursday, July 4 176 km Aix-en-Provence → Montpellier
7 Friday, July 5 205 km Montpellier → Albi
8 Saturday, July 6 176 km Castres → Ax-3 Domaines
9 Sunday, July 7 165 km Saint-Girons → Bagnères-de-Bigorre
R Monday, July 8 Rest day in Saint-Nazaire
10 Tuesday, July 9 193 km Saint-Gildas-des-Bois → Saint-Malo
11 Wednesday, July 10 33 km Avranches → Mont Saint-Michel
12 Thursday, July 11 218 km Fougères → Tours
13 Friday, July 12 173 km Tours → Saint-Amand-Montrond
14 Saturday, July 13 191 km Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule → Lyon
15 Sunday, July 14 242 km Givors → Mont-Ventoux
R Monday, July 15 Rest day in Vaucluse
16 Tuesday, July 16 168 km Vaison-la-Romaine → Gap
17 Wednesday, July 17 32 km Embrun → Chorges
18 Thursday, July 18 168 km Gap → Alpe d'Huez
19 Friday, July 19 204 km Bourg d'Oisans → Le Grand Bornand
20 Saturday, July 20 125 km Annecy → Annecy
21 Sunday, July 21 118 km Versailles → Paris

Total Distance 3342 km (or 2075 miles approx. for the metrically challenged)

filling up nicely people...glad to see there's still a bit of interest in these challenges