At the start of the year Sports Tours international asked me to write a blog on a new trip they were about to launch, a trip that would be truly ‘monumental’. On paper it looked madness, in reality it would be insane, it was to ride the courses of all five of cycling’s monuments in a single week. Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Lombardy, Liège-Bastonge-Liège, Tour of Flanders and finally Paris-Roubaix. Just taking on one of these famous parcours in a week takes some guts, to do all five with all the traveling in between would need a herculean effort. I wrote the blog, sold the adventure best I could but secretly never expected anyone to actually take up the challenge. Roll on a few months and I get
The Struggle Dales. I don’t want to get out of the car. I really don’t want to get out of the car. Sitting outside the headquarters, warm and dry, with the wind and rain lashing the windows the urge to remain inside was almost overwhelming, but it was an urge that had to be fought. I was here to ride the Struggle Dales, a relatively new event on the calendar but one with an already fearsome reputation which would only be enhanced by today’s conditions. The Struggle Dales does exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a Struggle. 174 kilometres long, climbing 2,874 metres and crossing some of the toughest climbs in the Dales, including Malham Cove, Greenhow Hill, Trapping Hill and of course
