Cyclist climbing The Tumble on last year’s event.
The goal is to ride up The Blorenge aka The Tumble or indeed, Iron Mountain as many as 15 times in a day. It’s no mean feat: the climb is over 400m in 7km so if you do the maths that’s a really tough physical and mental challenge. The journey is symbolic of the daily uphill struggle cancer patients face.
The organisers Peter and Diana, who ironically come from the flat lands of the Netherlands, decided upon this mountain in particular as a UK one after doing similar events in the French Alps owing to it’s scaled down similarity to alpine climbs. It may also be complete coincidence but Blorenge is one of the few words to rhyme with orange… Anyone who has seen Dutch Corner on Alpe D’Huez on Le Tour will testify to the passions of this great cycling nation. Doing this challenge 15 times will be greater than six climbs up that iconic stretch of French tarmac.
Last year I made this short film using a combination of GoPro video and stills shot on a DLSR with mid-zoom lens slung over my back. It meant riding up and down twice which was enough given the extra payload. This time will be different!
If you would be so kind as to make a donation to the work of Cancer Research UK the link to the event’s page is here.
If you’d like to join us you can sign up on the above website or turn up on the day: entry is £15. Please bear in mind if you want to do more than ten climbs it’s best to be early…the first ascent is at around 5am…
Many thanks.
Route and profile:
By way of an update: I managed 9 ascents on Saturday. Not quite the double figures finish I’d hoped for. Chapeau to those who did including Lawrence Gruijters (another Cardiff Ajax member) who managed a full quota of 15! That’s not forgetting those for whom such crazy feats are a bit too much. Those that managed 1,2 or 5 are equally deserving of praise. I include Bryn Ruston in those: I had the honour of riding up on his first of the day. He’d been quite ill for two days previously and wasn’t sure if he’d even make it.
Here’s a link to the stats from my ride, if you’re interested: Strava ride stats
Please do donate if you can to Cancer Research if you can Tumble Up 4 Life Cancer Research fundraising page