Ben’s Blog by his mum

Big thanks to Jaime Schubert for doing the Spanish translation for the BENSMILES website. No small job. Jaime decided in the end not to charge Ben the 140€ she had originally asked for, and instead to do it for free.

What I can also tell you is that Ben paid the 140€ himself, but not to Jaime. He put it into the BENSMILES funds. Ben’s quite careful with his money, so I was particularly impressed. This boy never ceases to amaze me – and I’m his mum!
Margaret Whittaker

Claire's weekend challenge report!

Our ride from the top of Soller mountains back to Portals took us 3 hours, mainly due to the fact, I needed to take a few breaks and water my bits and pieces to calm the pain down, and its was 32.5 degrees in the shade!

Was given the chance to quit 3 times, and I refused each one! (And for the sceptics back in the UK, who think I just write this for fun and don't actually do it, here's the photographic evidence!)

Considering I only got back on a bike 2 weeks ago, I'm so delighted that I didn't give up and I will continue with my training when I get home with my own bike when I go and buy one!

What all this has done is put into perspective what Ben has achieved so far and trains daily to keep on achieving! Remember back in June Ben competed in the 312km Mallorca race? Considering he'd only bought his bike in January and that everyone was telling him he was insane to even attempt (let alone in agony), Ben did the impossible in extreme pain and blistering heat!

We did a tenth of that yesterday and did the first 4km down a mountain, not the first 100km up the Tramuntana mountains!!

We all got back to Mood, totally exhausted and elated! Ben had the biggest grin on his face because his big sis didn't give up! Dan and Dave both had a little soreness of the nether regions too and put me to shame! Woodhouse better look out when we get back, the bikes will be out on a regular basis and training will continue!