Tour de Sez co-founders due to arrive in Rome later today
AFTER riding more than 1,000 miles from Guernsey, two cyclists are due to arrive in Rome this evening.
Tour de Sez co-founders Gary Hooks and Leon Howard have embarked on a journey from Guernsey to Istanbul via Rome.
After setting off a week last Friday, the pair and their support team are scheduled to arrive in Rome after successfully passing through the Alps with a decent to the Mediterranean Sea.
In a progress report they were said to have made steady progress towards Rome although the hard, mountainous terrain of mainland Italy proved to be far more challenging than expected.
As of last night, the overall elevation gain was more than 18,700 metres, the equivalent of twice the height of Mount Everest.
Yesterday the cyclists were in Pisa and passed through Sienna. Due to adverse weather they stopped short of their planned overnight destination, leaving a final leg than was slightly longer than anticipated (116 miles).
Tomorrow Mr Hooks and Mr Howard will set off on the second leg of their journey to Istanbul.
They will initially cycle across Italy to the port town of Ancona where they will take the overnight ferry to Igoumenitsa in Greece.
They will arrive in Greece on Thursday and will arrive at the Turkish border next Monday, 30 September.
The last two days of their journey will be undertaken without the support vehicle, which is precluded from leaving the EU under the hire arrangement in place.
The Tour de Sez aims to raise as much money as possible for the Sarah Groves Foundation and is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
The Sarah Groves Foundation was established in 2013 with the aim of fulfilling the ambition of Sarah Groves: to enhance the lives of young people, especially those less fortunate.
Miss Groves was killed on 6 April 2013 on a house boat in Kashmir at the age of 24.
The murder trial is ongoing.
