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Acknowledgements
No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.
-- Alfred North Whitehead
Le Tour 2007 began a little acorn of an idea that grew into a mighty tree. But it didn't grow by itself, there are a number of people that contributed to its success and the following deserve thanks. In most cases the tour would not have been possible without them.
Route Planning/Navigation/Logistics
Once the 2007 route was announced, it was traced on a giant map of France to determine the feasibility of doing a stage a day. Matt then spent many hours tracing the entire route turn-by-turn into Memory Map software that allowed us to load it into handle bar mounted GPS. This allowed mostly stress-free navigation that enabled concentration on riding rather than navigating. The whole trip would quite simply not have been possible without this - thank you Matt.
Brian Denman highlighted all 3500 km's of the route into a road atlas, Mark Wakeling provided a France mapping Sat Nav unit for the van.
Specialist Food & Drink
A three week stage ride requires riders to burn many thousands of calories to the point where they are hard to replace with conventional food. Kyle arranged through contacts at US suppliers Accelerade to provide us with a vast quantity of tubs of quality powdered protein drink and hundreds of energy gels. Consumed prodigiously throughout, these products got us through the long mileages and mountains, thank you Kyle.
Transport
'Just Go' supplied the Campervan that we used, Matt Denman sorted it all out and provided up-front funds, thank you Matt.
On-the road Support
Brian Denman and Emma Denman were our two support drivers. To the riders, over the course of the three weeks they seemed to grow wings and halos, especially when we rounded corners after long stretches and saw the van parked up in pre-agreed locations.
We were spoiled. Brian's lunch time spreads became increasingly lavish to the point where it was difficult to leave the van after stopping. And Emma's first choice holiday wouldn't be driving four sweaty cyclists around France in an oversized vehicle, so to you two in particular we owe a great deal of thanks, behind every success is a support team and you were fantastic - thank you very much indeed.
Website/Blogs
Mark, (me, so this is a bit of own-trumpet blowing) built this website and the live blog and did his best to keep both updated with planning, news and updates throughout the first half of 2007 as we moved towards the tour itself.
The live updates themselves were entered each evening (almost daily) on a 3G enabled laptop that also hosted the Memory Map software. I spend many hours at work staring at a laptop and most evenings on le tour weren't much different. I perfected multi-tasking in campsite snack-bars.
Photography
The majority of photos were taken by Matt, Brian, Emma and Mark. They were edited and shrunk using Photoshop for uploading onto the websites etc.
Cycle Kit
Matt and Mark designed the kit and supplied the logos etc, Matt driving the arrangements to fruition with a after the first company fell through. The final kit was made by Owayo and proved mostly excellent (shorts could have done with more padding, but then again I don't think there are shorts made that have enough padding).
Sponsorship/Media/Publicity
A combination of mostly Matt and less of Mark sorted out these elements.
Charity
The Education for the Children 'Just-Giving' mechanism was set-up my Matt and Emma.
Organisation/Itinerary/Misc
Matt and Mark kept a rough project plan in place to ensure everything came together for the start and that we ended up in the right town at the right time. Microsoft Project was never used and not much was written down, but it all seemed to work out. It goes without saying that this cavalier approach is, of course, in complete contrast to our approach at work.
A vast number of other little things were required to keep the show on the road, these include : camping guides, 3G card, bike maintenance kit, bedding, maps, pump, route guides, tents, chairs, french, phones etc etc etc etc. Matt and Mark provided most of these various essentials.
Supporters
A big thank you to the many people who donated to the charity and encouraged and supported us as we rode. The 'most dedicated fan' award (gift will follow on) goes to Anthony Hagues, an uber-fan who checked on progress constantly and provided many kind comments. Thanks Tone, felt like you were riding for the team at times.
The idea in the first place
I think it was Matt who first dreamt up the idea to one day ride the Tour Route......
The dream is real, my friends. Failure to realize it is the only reality - Toni Cade Bambara