Our cycle challenges are an extremely effective way of fundraising and raising awareness - they are tremendous fun and most importantly raise significant sums of money. They are not open to anyone who is suffering from an eating disorder as that would clearly be detrimental to their health. They are aimed at those who want a challenge and who have a sense of adventure some of whom will specifically want to support the cause, but if, at the outset, they are naïve about it, by the end of the event they will have learned much.

When I set out to organise our last event which took place in November 2000, it was very definitely going to be a one-off. It is purely due to its overwhelming success and pressure from many of my last participants to do another, I find myself in the saddle again to repeat the experience.

As you will have already read, this last challenge raised in excess of £180,000 net and with this donation the Psychiatry Research Trust has announced the establishment of a Fellowship to be awarded on a regular basis to individuals undertaking research into Anorexia Nervosa and other disorders of eating.

But this is only the beginning. Our aim is to fund a Research Fellow in perpetuity or to have a Chair endowed - to do this we need to find £2,000,000. To achieve results in this field we must be ambitious and create new and stimulating blood into the development of this research and above all have the funds for it to continue. Anorexia Nervosa has the highest mortality of any psychiatric illness and if we are to save lives and move forwards in finding the answers we so badly need it is essential that we keep in the academic forefront. It is one of the most chronic conditions suffered by today's adolescents and almost everyone knows of someone who has been affected. They may not though, realise the true seriousness of it, or how life-threatening it soon becomes.

Cycle Chile Diary

by Jerry Thompson

Saturday 1 March 2003

The flight to Santiago was something of an ordeal as most inter-continental air travel is today - at 7,500 miles it's Lufthansa's longest route. Most of us travelled from London to Frankfurt and then on to Buenos Aires as first landfall in South America. The remainder of the party flew via Madrid and then direct to Chile.
If the flight was long - nearly 16 hours from Frankfurt - the latter leg of our journey was rewarded with a two hour flight between Buenos Aires and Santiago that carried us in bright sunlight across the Andes mountains, a magnificent sight.
After a briefing from Miriam Zumpolle, Classic Tour's manager who will be in charge of our itinerary in Chile, we were also introduced to Colo and Martin, the groundhandlers whose role will also be key to our progress. An afternoon tour of Santiago was ideal therapy to clear jetlag. After so many winter months of training in either freezing conditions or rain it was a real privilege to be greeted by a cloudless sky and warm sunshine. The city centre features tree-lined avenues, boulevards and grand squares. If Santiago lacks many building gems, it's not for the want of trying. A succession of Italian and French architects were brought in, only to see their finest work undone by the earthquakes that regularly ravage the region. Tomorrow sees the majority of the group visiting a bodega - and hopefully a few samples - before heading south by train to start our warmup ride on Sunday.

Tuesday 4 March

<<GASP-1>> The grandeur of the scenery
<<GASP-2>> The gradients of the hills.

Trying to locate lava scree and soft sand tracks on the Isle of Wight training weekends wasn´t quite like the real thing here in Chile. Our "warm up" ride of 55 kilometers Sunday invlved a lung-busting climb on rough shale to the foothills of Longuinay Volcano. As one rider said..."If that´s the rehearsal I´m a bit worried about the main event." Wise words. We were able to recover in the thermal pool at our hotel in Manzanar before Monday´s 8.00am start on an 80 kms ride to Trailanqui. This was a very tough challenge involving lava fields, rough tracks and sandy trails - much of it uphill on testing gradients. But it was offset by the most spectacular backdrop of snow-clad volcanoes in the Conquillio National Park, tumbling waterfalls, pine trees and the clearest air imaginable. So when the going got extra tough, we stopped to admire the tranquillity and beauty of this park. We reached our accommodation that evening at 9.30pm - tired but elated with a sense of real achievement.
Tuesday saw a slower start from the rigours of the day before. We had time to recuperate and swim in the clear river before tackling a 42 kilometer ride to Villarica involving the first 21 kms off road and then 21 kms on tarmac. Never has a group greeted riding among traffic with such a cheer, as the going eased from a couple of tough offroad climbs! Villarica is on a beautiful lake overlookd by its own snow-covered volcano. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we´re back to a longer distance at 85 kms to Panquipully. The riding hasn´t erased the memories of Saturday´s trip to the Valdeveiso bodega which most participants took, a three hour coach ride south of Santiago. The setting and welcome from the winery hosts confirmed again the warmth and hospitality extended to us by all Chileans, which is becoming a major feature of this trip. Saturday night we travelled south to the town of Victoria by sleeper trin, and in coaches built in Germany in 1935. They retained a sense of faded splendour with burnished wood fittings, period lighting and attendants whose level of service came from that era.

Wednesday 5 March 2003

Thus far we have been blessed with the most beautiful weather. Apart from a briefly cool and overcast start Wednesday each day has seen cloudless skies and warm sunshine - a reward perhaps for the days of freezing conditions and rain many of the participants endured during their winter fitness training.
We moved into Chile´s Lake District Wednesday for a day that combined lakes and a backdrop of towering volcanoes. Steep pine-clad hills dropped down initially to Lake Calafquen and latterly to Laguna Pillingue. With such a clear day we were able to see across to Mount Lanin (3717 meters) acros the border in Argentina.
After early undulating tarmac we met 25 kms of rough road with some sharp inclines round Lake Pillingue but the team has been energised by three days of tough riding and everyone´s performance has improved beyond recognition. After two hard climbs our well-earned lunch was taken in a pasture that saw clouds of butterflies and grasshoppers amid cowslips and heather - a scene some of the older participants said they hadn´t encountered since childhood. A major feature of today´s ride was the volcanoes, many of them with whisps of smoke at their summit as a constant reminder of their dormant power,and the wide range of beautiful trees below the pine slopes with hawks quartering these lower levels. The many wooden bridges traversing the lake gave welcome opportunities for peaceful contemplation - usually just before having to tackle the next climb! We arrived in Panguipulli (town of roses) in late afternoon sunhine. Since our quarters are spread throughout this small town we are having supper in the main square. A popular feature of the challenge has been the introduction of a Tour de France style Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey) to one of the participants thought to have done especially well during that day´s ride. The winner wears the jersey the next day. Winners to date are Michael Brown for reaching the summit of the "warm-up" 9 kms sharp uphill ride ahead of the field, Chrissie Wright for her unquenchable spirit after having a kidney removed as recently as late last year, and Robin Chapman for surviving two blow-out punctures and still finishing up with the leaders. Participants make their nominations to Johnny Collard who keeps us all in entertained suspense at supper with a rollcall of the good (and not so good!) before announcing the winner. Tomorow Thursday sees us riding to San Xavier with the last two hours of the day a trip by riverboat to reach our destination.

Thursday 6 March 2003

We said goodbye Thursday to the logging town of Panguipulli and if the broom, honeysuckle and trusses of ripe blackberries that cascaded on to the roadsides put anyone in mind of home this notion was soon scotched by the appearance of twin-span oxen carts driven by Mapuche farmers taking their produce to town. In any event, with 85 kms to cover we reluctantly had to pass on fruit-picking.
Another cool start to the day, climbing sharply out of town through rolling fields, forests and peaks of grey and purple as we headed away from the cordillera towards the coast. Undulating tarmac roads for the first 50 kms and our lunch stop coincided with the sun breaking through as it had the day before - and just before we tackled a tough 30 kms offroad. Before hitting the gravel, we were met and accompanied through Los Lagos by an official escort of Los Carabineros de Chile (police). Word of our arrival had clearly spread and townsfolk gave us a rousing welcome as we progressed through the town - as did farmers throughout the offroad section.
The gravel included some tough climbs and the ride was made even more taxing by the fierce sun that had now broken through. But the compensations were breathtaking panoramas down steep, wooded slopes of the Rio Calle Calle that flows from Lago Rinihue to the Pacific Ocean at Valdivia. The higher reaches of the river are characterised by clear, shallow green currents with plate-sized stones and small islets reminiscent of the Loire. Riders looked on enviously as local children frolicked in the river but our turn was to come as we finished this section to embark on two riverboats for the two-hour transfer to Valdivia. Before departure most participants took the opportunity to plunge into the Rio Calle Calle and clear off the choking dust.
Our latest winner of the Maillot Jaune is Mark Harrison. Mark also took part in the Vietnam - and other - rides and thoughtfully always packs a range of small, useful gifts such as pencils and crayons to be distributed on an ad hoc basis to local children. While Chile is obviously a well-developed country with a literacy rate better than 95%, many people in the areas we are riding through are not well off and any assistance is highly valued. The participants are seeing fitness levels improve beyond recognition with each day´s cycling which is welcome since Friday´s ride is 117 kms - the most demanding of the whole Cycle Chile challenge.

Friday 7 March 2003

Trying to winkle information out of our gound crew about the day´s ride ahead has led to some descriptions that have now joined challenge folklore. "Nippy Hills"..."Inclined Plains"..."Fairly Flattish"...and "Some Undulations" are among them. But while we now understand that a South Americn kilometer equates to about three miles, in anyone´s language - and much of it was pretty industrial on today´s ride - Friday´s 117 kms, or 73 miles, is a long way. We departed Valdivia, again accompanied by Los Caribineros, to tackle the longest ride of Cycle Chile. A lolloping Labrador decided to join the expedition and accompanied us for the first 18 kms of main road, skittering in and out of the roaring traffic. But when we turned off and he realised what we were facing, he turned tail and fled. Wise dog. The side road was still paved but flattered only to deceive. A swooping ride through some sharp, but shortish undulations took us through lower hills reafforested with quick-growing eucalyptus trees - mainly for woodpulp to print newspapers on - and basic wooden homesteads with subsistence farming.
At 40 kms, the paved road turned to gravel and we then faced an exhausting 16 kms climb in rough conditions that sapped energy and tested willpower. But the dogged spirit of the group, and our improved levels of fitness, dragged us up those unforgiving slopes. At the top we were greeted by lunch, the start of another tarmac section and a small, blue clapboard church for those who wanted to give thanks for deliverance from the gravel tracks. There was, though, to be no deliverance. Another endless, winding climb took us upwards before dropping down into La Union followed by a predictable uphill grind to leave this town. A switch to undulating gravel road led to the ferry station on the Rio Bueno. The "ferry station" was one man and a dog with a wooden hulk pushed by a small boat and outboard motor. We crossed in relays and even managed to get the vehicles across in the same tub.
By now we had travelled 90kms and the heat, dust and pummelling of rough roads were taking their toll. But we now faced a further 12 kms drag upwards towards Osorno.
By the time we reached the summit riders felt they were surgically attached to their bikes and had the scars and pain to prove it. Bandages covered a range of ailments but strong fellowship and a dose of gallows´ humour kept the group going. As one rider put it...all roads in Chile end on the moon.
Beyond the Rio Bueno we were in cattle and crops country and the late afternoon sun burnished gold the stretching cereal fields - some harvested and some whole - bordered by dark evergreens and a background of five distant volcanoes in the Andes.
The appearance of smooth tarmac for the final 9 kms into Osorno brought a huge cheer as we quit the noise and dust of gravel. A real sense of achievement was evident as we entered the town after 11 hours on the road. An exhilarating but exhausting day.
Osorno was a centre of Germany immigration and tonight´s dinner is appropriately at the restaurant Bavaria. Our latest Maillot Jaune winner is Vincent Neate who deservedly took the jersey for his determination to crack the code behind how to ride hills.
After figuring out the best way to tackle the steep bits, he was telling anyone who would listen, cigarette glowing at every riding break, that the simple numbers 1 and 1 were key to the lowest gearing. Vincent´s a chartered accountant.
Tomorrow, Saturday, it´s 86kms to Frutillar.

Saturday 8 March 2003

There we stood, this band of chums
Our aching limbs, our Vaseline´d bums

A more subdued group Saturday as we gathered in Osorno for the 86 kms ride to Frutillar. After the giddy euphoria of Friday when a sense of achievement associated with completing the battering 117 kms of mixed gravel and tarmac offset the heavy toll that hard riding had taken on us, the bumps, bruises, scratches and aching joints now had 12 hours to remind us of their presence.
While these battlescars were proudly borne, a cool wind and light rain was a slight dampener as we pulled out. The opening road was flattish farmland and without the grand scenery that has done so much to lift spirits at the toughest moments. Lunch as taken at Puerto Octay, a small lakeside town nestling in the crook of some hills and looking as if it had been transported to Chile from the Alps with its needle-steepled church and balconeyed houses with ornate eaves.
Everyone´s mood was lifted as a warm sun broke through, easing aching joints.
Then it was off climbing on our way to Frutillar. If the countryside prior to Puerto Octay was featureless, the transformation afterwards was nothing short of a revelation.
Lago Llanquihue, an immense inland sea of 870 square kilometers was the foreground far across the lake to the Mount Fuji-like Volcan Osorno (2652 meters) snow-capped and a stunning sight made all the more extraordinary because the lake is not surrounded by the extremes of country normally associated with volcanoes, but by gently rolling pastures dotted with Friesian cows.
In little over a century this region has been transformed by German, Swiss and Austrian settlers into some of Chile´s finest dairy farmland. Neat gardens and shingled churches were a constant reminder of these immigrants´ origins. Groups and single riders stopped constantly on this leg to absorb its peace, beauty and the volcano´s majesty.
We finally reached our destination in Frutillar at 5pm, a welcome change from all previous nights when, because of the length and challenge of the ride, arrival times have been well after 8pm, leaving time only for a quick bath, late supper and bed before an all too early wake-up call. As we rode into town some of the girls eyed up a large sign that read "Bandas Vibratorias." Alas, it was merely rumble strips.
Not many months ago, quite a number of participants would have found Saturday´s 86kms ride of 86kms either beyond, or at, the extreme of their endurance. It says much for the dedication and training programs of the group mostly in cold winter conditions that Saturday´s ride was completed comfortably, despite the nagging injuries many are carrying. However, one participant who mused mid-ride whether we should include some off-road was given an injection and sent to lie down!

Le Maillot Jaune Winner.

His "parish notes" are one of the highlights at supper as the latest winner of the day´s Yellow Jersey is finally teased out. Individuals´ foibles may be gently lampooned but he also always unearths those small unbidden acts of kindness that are the group´s connective tissue. And behind the banter, the arched eyebrows and knowing looks lies an unerring judgment that ensures the yellow jersey always ends up with the day´s worthiest recipient. So to universal acclaim, stepping up as the latest Maillot Jaune winner was our own urban fox, Johnny Collard. But sensaing perhaps that his own rugged form might not set off the jersey to best effect, or perhaps moved by chivalry, Johnny immediately reassigned it to the cool, svelte, blonde Flying Dutchwoman Sonja Nauta, whose courage in conquering the gravel hills meant she arrived at the summit a full eight minutes ahead of the nxt rider - and epic of endurance and sangfroid.
Tomorrow, Sunday, is our final day as we head for Puerto Varas.

Day 11 - THE FINAL RIDE

Cycle Chile has been so long that we're crossing time zones. After expecting to be called for lunch at the hotel in Frutillar on our final riding day, Sunday, we were advised the time was in fact an hour earlier - so a little more time lakeside where the evening before we had been reduced to awed spectators as the sunset gradually washed the snowy peaks on Volcano Orsano and its neighbouring mountains with delicate shades of flamingo pink and violet.
After lunch we set off on a 38 kms gravel ride to the finish line at Puerto Varas. As the road switchbacked, vistas of Lake Llanquihue and the volcanoes on the far shore would suddenly appear between the trees and golden fields.
With so many kilometers under our wheels and fitness now at a peak, this was a relatively short hop. Participants made more stops, perhaps acknowledging that Cycle Chile would be over later that day and wanting to imprint the continuing grandeur of our surroundings, although some of the hills we encountered were among the sharpest of the whole challenge. The arrival in Puerto Varas saw us warmly welcomed by townsfolk, a message of support for RIED from the mayor, Formula One-style flying champage and a finishing tape threaded with discarded Cycle Chile T-shirts. It made a pretty filthy-looking washing line - but an accurate reflection of the sweat and dust over eight days. In true South American style there was a band waiting for us in the main square. Children in traditional Chilean dress - the girls in petticoated frocks, the boys in boots, leather chaps, rowelled spurs and flat-topped hats - danced for us and then shyly pinned Chilean ribbons to our Cycle Chile T-shirts.
Completing Cycle Chile was a proud moment, each of us in the private knowledge of conquering our own different personal challenges over more than 600 kilometers. Equally importantly, we had also grown and prospered as a group from the widest backgrounds and geography. As we hugged and reminisced about the many peaks and troughs there were some tears - relief, yes, but also mixed with regret. Tough as the challenge had been, it was now done and with it the close of a focus over many months on fitness, fund raising and the anticipation of mixing with a new culture in Chile. The success of Cycle Chile was going to leave a void.
It was time to say goodbye to our cycles - we had often cursed them but they had carried us through and absorbed astonishing levels of punishment - and the ground crew. Miriam from Classic Tours, back-up team leader Marcelo, driver Antonio, another Marcelo the bike technical supremo, cameraman Martin, paramedic Gustavo, Colo who led the party on the road each day, a further Gustavo, also a guide, as was Lola. The crew's enthusiastic participation was a key element of the challenge's success.
But we felt there had been a ninth, invisible crew member - team leader Marcelo's wife Maria Lauro - who kept us fuelled with an endless supply of the most delicious home-made cakes, biscuits and pastries. These boxes of goodies were keenly anticipated at our stops and we regretted not having an opportunity to tell her personally how she had sustained our stomachs - and lifted our spirits.
The previous evening we had our penultimate Maillot Jaune winners. It was a double award, to Jerry Thompson who sent notes to the Psychiatry Trust web site on each day's activities, and physiotherapist Helen Booth. Helen normally practises in Somerset but for the last eight days unselfishly ministered to wounded cyclists on Chilean roadsides, easing aching limbs and gently mending muscles. She was much in demand.

Our last evening dinner started with Chilean dancers who encouraged participants to join them in traditional steps. We did our best without matching their elegance. As with all Chileans we encountered, they radiated a pleasure in greeting us with an openness and enthusiasm that was a notable element of the whole challenge.
The after dinner entertainment we made ourselves - as is traditional at the end of these challenges. For impromptu performances dreamt up at such short notice, the wide range of talent available was astonishing. Singers, comedians, satirists, actors, a conjurer, slapstick, we had it all. Vincent Neate was our MC for the night with Ken Pardey co-ordinating. There was a briefing from Nina Jackson, who gave a formal vote of thanks to everyone's sponsors, adding that to date £140,000 net had been raised for RIED, warmly applauded as we drank a toast to our generous supporters.

There remained only one task - the final Maillot Jaune award.
The vision in selecting such a tough, but rewarding challenge in Chile allied to the skills needed to organise a highly-disparate 55-strong party and raise substantial sums, would test a fully-staffed travel company. Nina Jackson's encouragement, determination and enthusiasm was acknowledged as the guiding force behind Cycle Chile and the yellow jersey was presented to her - signed by all riders.
The final couplet in Nigel Hunt's perceptive poem - Ode To The Yellow Shirt - he read that evening summed up sentiment…

With love and to Nina our highest award,
From yellow to gold, with one accord.

The next day we were off on our separate ways - some home to UK, while others explored more of this fascinating country of contrasts, including Easter Island.

Also - check out last year's Cycle Vietnam