How I met Denise

In which I ride my bike to the Yukon, and one thing leads to another

Hello friends,

As you read this I’ll be crossing the border into France, on Stage 3 of this year’s Tour de France route.

This is the view from Côte d’Orioko Benta, earlier in the stage

You’ll be hearing a lot about the Tour from me over the next few weeks - perhaps inevitably, as my summers have been tightly shaped around it in recent years. Every June, a week before the official race starts, I set off with the riders of Le Loop, to follow the route ahead of the pro peloton.

After we reach Paris, I typically spend a week lying down, eating everything I can get my hands on, and binging on the ITV highlights, trying to get up to date so that I can watch the final stages unfold in real time. I don’t bother trying to avoid spoilers: I find my enjoyment of the race is often enhanced by knowing how it’s going to play out later on. Indeed, there are days when I’ll catch up on stages from the first week in the morning, and then watch that day’s highlights in the evening, or seek out a live feed in the afternoon.

And now, once the men have finished racing, there is a women’s race to follow. Last summer Tour de France Femmes had its first outing, and I followed the race in the company of a Canyon film crew, and my friend Denise, who raced in the original women’s Tour de France back in the 1980s.

The film we made will be released on the 17th July, just a few days before this year’s TDFF starts in Clermont-Ferrand, and the day after I finish Le Loop. And because it would be quite frankly impossible to squeeze the whole story into a short film, over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing some of the background behind how this venture came about, and what happened en route.

First up is the story of how Denise and I originally crossed paths. As with many chance encounters, it happened during a long bike ride, and resulted in adventures I could never have imagined.