Iain and I attended the Mamba Riedel Awards last night at the Harrow at Little Bedwyn, the 10th anniversary year for Roger and Sue’s fabulous event. This year the categories were Aussie Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We entered two wines into the awards and received 3 awards!

I cannot claim any cycling heroics as per James and Alan, although going to Pacha with 50 middle aged blokes was quite brave!

The first 30k of the 550k that we would ride would be up the highest paved road in the Pyrenees reaching 2600m above sea level. “Easy stage of the ride”. Dan has no sight in one eye and with his good eye he is able to read the top line of the classic optician test. How he copes, or better said, excels with his sight is impressive and he has learnt to utilise his other senses to compensate his poor vision.

It was raining. Of course it was. But the silver lining was that we were heading to Champagne Bollinger in Aÿ, ostensibly for a sales & marketing conference, but it was a dead cert there would be some Champagne involved, which is always heart-warming.

This is the final day of the Stage 1 of the Slam. I can’t believe I have survived this long, I must have burnt off thousands of calories and already achieved what I thought was going to be impossible. I am surrounded by incredible people; many have long since retired, made their fortunes, were a success in the business world, and left their halos behind.

A short climb takes us back into Spain and onto the next hill to take us over 2000 meters in altitude. Once we have taken in the sights at the top, a 35km descent will whisk us to the beautiful Spanish mountain town of Sort.

The decent is fast and scary. My hands are freezing and I struggle to lean into the corners as I zig-zag down the precarious mountain road. I am a slow descender, but I still manage to reach speeds of 68km – full concentration is required. No sooner had I reached the bottom, and the whole process of climbing and descending begins again as we attack the second Col D’Aspin.

Day 2 and we still hasn’t found a coffee shop. I was beginning to suffer from caffeine withdrawal! Will, was often at least an hour or two behind me, which gave me time to check in the hotel room and sort my kit out.

The first day of the 2016 Slam gently eased us into the event with a delightful ride that covered a few small Pyrenean foothills before taking a coastal ride into the beautiful seaside resort of Biarritz. It should have been beautiful if it wasn’t for the rain! My clean bike was about to get very dirty!