It’s been just over a month since I completed Paris-Roubaix, probably the biggest challenge of my sporting life, in honour of my late Mum, Ros. Matt and I flew out on the Thursday and were able to go for a short ride on the cobbles to be able to familiarise ourselves. I think it actually made me more nervous! We saw several pro teams out riding in preparation for their race too, including Greg van Avermaet, the current Olympic champion. We had a superb Airbnb nearby and rode to the start from there, starting the race at 7am. We tried not to stop too much but needed to occasionally to pick up food and fresh drinks. We arrived at the velodrome in Roubaix 7 hours and 12 seconds later. The adrenaline of actually arriving at the most famous finish in cycling was quite overwhelming and tearful. It was an emotional day, as you can imagine, but my mum helped me to finish. The riding itself wasn’t too tough. I enjoyed it (all of it, even the cobbles). Having left Athens in 20 degree heat, it was really tough when we started the race and found the temperature was -1 degree, but it ‘warmed’ up by lunchtime to eventually become about 10 degrees, which made it manageable. After a burger, we rode home. A total of 165km (or 102 miles for those who work in imperial measurements). The following day involved packing bikes before driving south to see the professional race. We’d watched the Tour de France race over the cobbles in the summer of 2018 so we’d got an idea of how it would be, and the experience was every bit as good as the Tour de France - only 20 degrees colder! I’ve put a video of our experience on YouTube (thanks to Matt) and below you’ll find the links to the two podcasts we recorded. The second one has a conversation with a friend who competed in the Costa Navarino Half Iron man, Christos Latanis also. The volume for this bit is very low so you’ll need to turn it up, but it is there, honestly! YouTube Video https://youtu.be/dSsk0yq1fNI Podcasts Episode 1 https://www.buzzsprout.com/273064/1015818-ride4ros-episode-1-welcome-to-ride4ros Episode 2 https://soundcloud.com/user-265241916-669341636/ride4ros-s1-e2 Thanks once again for all your support, both financially and emotionally. It made a big difference to my ability to complete the race, especially at 7am with frozen toes! I managed to raise just over 4,500 euro, combined with my brother’s £5000 (who ran the London Marathon 2 weeks ago) I think we’ve done a good job. I am now in search of my next challenge on the bike… Hayley