Save yourself, save yourself…

No, that’s not a line from Saving Private Ryan, it’s Ben (but it sounded like Jim Bowen in my ears with that northern accent): “OK, phase 1’s in the bag. That’s safe, save yourself son, that Puig Major’s a bugger, it’s spit me out so many times – I’m pacing myself today”.

Look - no hands!

Within that breath two pro cyclists went spinning past –WHOOSH – WHOOSH – WHOOSH. Hold on what’s Ben doing chasing them?

Imagine Ben & Jerry, oh no that’s an ice cream, I mean Tom & Jerry (Ben being Tom – hold on that’s getting too confusing!).

Anyway he’s off chasing like a maniac, I’m doing 50km and can’t get anywhere near them… he must be up to 65km down that hill. To say Ben’s competitive is an understatement. Well that pretty much sums up his character and determination, that’s why he’s ready for the “ride of his life” in 10 days, and that’s why I’ve enjoyed training him.

Saturday we cycled 135km of mountains, the toughest route in Mallorca, as difficult as Ben will experience on his journey. But we did it with comfort. For the first time Ben enjoyed that route, he’s confident, ready – in fact we stopped off to admire the scenery and have a coffee & sandwich instead of head down pure training!


We started out 12 months ago as complete strangers – trainer & client – and we rode the 135km on Saturday as mates – chatting, laughing and just enjoying each other’s company.

I’m not saying it’s been an easy journey. For both of us, so much has happened but those events have made us both so stubborn & resilient and strong enough to tackle the journey. A great example was Sunday. Ben was due to ride so I wished him luck by text. I could tell by his reply he wanted some downtime to chill with his family. I nagged him (if you can nag by text?!), his reply was “I’m all lycrad up”. I got another text 3 hours later, after getting another 90km under his belt “I hate you”. I laughed out loud – that’s the kind of relationship we have, I’m not his trainer, just a mate who happens to be a fitness trainer.



Bring it on!



Are we ready? Too right we are! This is not just a fitness challenge but a mental challenge. I guess we’re pretty mental to take this on, I mean mental as we’re both quirky characters, quirky but mentally very tough. 

As Ben always says “How do you eat an elephant – a chunk at a time”. That’s how we tackle this, a chunk of road every day until there’s no road left, nothing will get in our way.

Let’s go and eat some road matey!