Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the 2014 MyFitnessPal Giro d'Italia Grand Tour Challenge.

This thread is solely for entering ride details into. Please keep all questions, discussions or general banter and inter-team trash talking in the discussion thread ( http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1274938-2014-mfp-grand-tour-challenge-signup-discussion-thread )

To attempt to simplify matters, I've created a "template" for ride logging that I really do need you to use:

it's on my website to download in a .txt file as

http://www.mb-software.co.uk/MFP/GrandTours/Giro/MFP_Giro_Challenge_Template.txt

I'd suggest you dowload it, and save it on the desktop, then just edit in the rides as they are logged, when you're happy with everything, just "select all" and paste it into a post in this thread.

RIDES POSTED IN OTHER FORMATS (e.g. cut and paste from excel etc. - unless identical to the above format) WILL BE DELETED AND NOT COUNT UNTIL POSTED CORRECTLY. I WASTED FAR TOO MUCH TIME IN LAST YEARS CHALLENGES TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF PEOPLES "INTERPRETATIONS" OF THE REQUIRED DATA FORMAT. So - This time, it's "No More Mr. Nice Guy..." IF YOU CAN'T DO THIS, PLEASE SAY, AND WE CAN LET SOMEONE ON THE RESERVE LIST JOIN IN INSTEAD. IF YOU'RE NOT 100% SURE HOW IT WORKS, WAIT A FEW DAYS AND SEE THE OTHER PEOPLE'S POSTS AS AN EXAMPLE - AND IF YOU'RE STILL NOT SURE, PM ME AND I'LL TALK YOU THROUGH IT.

Also - to keep the thread length manageable, I reserve the right to delete any off-topic (i.e. non-ride posting) entries without any explanation. Keep that to the Discussion thread please. Ideally, wherever possible, I will also be deleting any prior posts from a given rider as soon as the latest version of there log is updated to my spreadsheet, marked as logged (with the ususal "TBY Edit - Logged" marker) - though again, this is subject to my having time/energy to sort this. If I don't do this, imagine how long the thread will get - 36 people x 21 days would mean the thread would end up splitting before the end of the challenge...

So... just a couple of guidelines / disclaimers before we start...

1) You don't have to ride every day that the tour riders do, just ride as often as you can, at a sustainable level - no point in riding 3 back to back centuries and then being restrained to the couch for the next 14 days.

2) If you ride more than once in a day, post the total distance, Time and Altitude, with a series of URL's for the individual logs - with 4 (or more) teams of 9 riders to keep track of, I really don't have the extra time to be adding 6 rides to the shops and back up every day for some people. While it's no big thing for a single person, with 40 or more people potentially doing this, last year I think I spent more time logging things than I actually did riding.

3) Remember, It's not **really** a race - don't go out and ride at stupid dangerous speeds and hurt yourselves. It's not big, or clever, and I can't afford the lawsuits that would ensue :laugh:

4) Post your ride details as soon as you are easily able to do so - i'll not actually be publishing results for a given day until I've got all ride details (or nulls) from everyone. Also - if you're "on tour" or away from t'internet, don't sweat it (though a PM to me beforehand to let me know so I don't waste time searching for anything from you would be appreciated) - we'll get there eventually. When I've entered your ride, I'll stick an edit in the bottom of the post to say it's sorted.

5) Ride logging commences 00:01am (in your own local time zone) on 9th May 2014. Logging ends at 23:59pm (again, local TZ) on 1st June 2014. For night rides that may cross from one day to the next, I reserve the right to log them in whichever day may need the extra mileage

6) It's all for fun and fitness - so go out there and enjoy it...