The mid-July solar is thrashing down on Amy Hudson as she pushes up the Col du Tourmalet within the French Pyrenees, legs burning, tears starting to prick her eyes. It’s day 18 of her journey throughout each stage of the 2025 Tour de France route, (plus the transfers in between) and three extra mountains loom forward. This primary climb is already the best mountain she’s ever cycled.
“I all the time advised myself that any ache I am in, I’ve chosen to do it. I put myself on this place and it is a privilege to be on this place, so I’ve to only take pleasure in it.”
“I simply utterly had a breakdown. I couldn’t cope,” Hudson advised Biking Weekly in February.
“I needed to depart my job as a result of it was on the level the place I simply actually wasn’t effectively, and it actually wasn’t good. I didn’t wish to be right here.”
“All I may concentrate on was my respiratory, pushing up the hills, and nature. It was simply so peaceable.”
Hudson’s expertise of tension and psychological well being struggles are the drive – and trigger – behind her Tour de France problem, as she raises cash for Shout, a 24/7 psychological well being helpline.
“It was actually, actually scorching. I simply felt like I used to be melting,” she stated.
“Then on one of many corners, there was a pair with slightly signal that stated: ‘Go Amy’. And it simply made such an enormous distinction. It was simply so good.”
And the nice will simply stored on coming. Her finest good friend Laura introduced a marmot mascot that she would stick out of the help automobile at intervals all through Hudson’s journey, a chunk of cuteness to maintain her powering upwards. On the prime of that pissed off battle uphill at Tourmalet, Hudson’s associate, Kyle, purchased her one other mascot (“Tourmy”) to tie to her bike, this time an “indignant trying goat”.
“He [Kyle] stated, let’s simply let all of the anger be within the mascot, not in you on the bike.”
195 miles adopted by 180 miles adopted by 175 – Hudson spent relentless back-to-back days on the bike. On phases 19 and 20, she climbed over 5000 metres someday, adopted by 4600 metres the subsequent (“that was laborious”), with little relaxation between days. However even earlier than the mountain phases, the lengthy days on the flat proved difficult, too, seeing countless near-identical fields alongside the highway.
“It was form of laborious to maintain myself entertained on the bike. If you journey for 12 hours and also you simply see the identical views, it may get a bit…not boring, but it surely was laborious to remain optimistic,” she remembers.
“I simply all the time reminded myself of why I used to be doing it. The ache I used to be getting on the bike was nowhere close to as unhealthy as what I went by once I struggled with my psychological well being, which is why I began biking. So I feel that is what makes me decided once I’m on the bike. It is not as laborious as that, so I’ve simply acquired to maintain pedalling.”
“I am fairly a self doubter. So I all the time set myself these challenges,” she continues.
“And there is all the time a giant a part of me that is like, oh, I do not know if I can do that. However once I acquired midway by, I used to be like, Oh, truly, I feel I would be capable of do that.”
(Picture credit score: Ottr Works / Pinarello)
All through, Hudson was powered by a mix of almond croissants and cherry juice.
“I needed to eat like, 7000 energy a day. I’m a bit bizarre as a result of I do not like espresso and I do not use gels or something. So I simply fuelled all of it on actual meals. Everybody’s totally different, however that works for me, and it is what I favor to do. So I used to be simply consuming a lot, I’ve truly acquired a listing of all the pieces I ate, however I did not eat as many croissants as I anticipated, as a result of we truly solely ate 14 croissants.
“I’d end the journey and instantly have cherry juice, which was slightly tip that we acquired, that the professionals do – it helps with restoration.”
Possibly it was the miracle cherry juice, possibly it was the hours of coaching she crammed in within the small hours between work (earlier than she grew to become a full-time social media influencer), however by the point Hudson started her last leg into Paris, she had survived the Tour with no accidents – and no punctures, both.
“I had by no means been to Paris earlier than. So I believed it was going to be simply a great deal of roads with a great deal of automobiles, however there have been actually good bike lanes, which was useful, but it surely was filled with different cyclists, e- bikers, e-scooters, site visitors lights, automobiles coming at you. It was simply so traumatic. I did that for 5 hours ultimately, as a result of clearly I did not wish to simply do the one lap, I wished to do precisely what the professionals did. That took a very long time, however once I completed, I used to be simply relieved to get out of the site visitors. The Champs-Élysées was not enjoyable – hitting seven lanes of automobiles, all simply going all over the place.”
However Hudson had her husband, Kyle using behind her, a continuing help on the 29 day effort by France. And, for his last act of help for his machine of a spouse, he dressed up as her favorite fruit – a juicy, crunchy apple.
“I like apples. I all the time have a crunchy apple. If you’re thirsty on a extremely lengthy journey there’s nothing higher than a pleasant crunchy apple. So, I used to be simply biking alongside, and so they had been simply on the aspect of the highway, like, crouched down, like little apples.”
(Picture credit score: Ottr Works / Pinarello)
It has now been two weeks since Hudson first set off for France. She’s coated 6556km, climbed 74862 meters of elevation in a time of 282hrs & 14 minutes, all while documenting all of it on YouTube with the assistance of her husband, Kyle. Plus, she has to this point raised over £89,000 for Shout.
Trying again within the aftermath of her achievement, I requested her what most stood out on her journey by France.
“I feel one of the best moments had been simply the little moments of magnificence within the Alps and within the Pyrenees – simply being alone on the bike in the midst of nowhere. It was very nice simply being in nature and feeling calm and grateful to have the ability to journey my bike and have a cheerful thoughts once more – not all the time joyful, however the majority of the time, joyful.”
You may donate to Shout right here, and comply with Amy’s biking adventures on her Instagram @amy.biking.adventures – I’m promised there’s extra to return.
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