How it all started – the begging letter:

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From: Roger Crabb <crabbo@ntlworld.com>
Date: 19 June 2007 23:07:42 BDT
Subject: A Pain in the Pyrenees!

Dear Friends, family, Hashers, Curry/Shed Clubbers and others

20th June 2007
As many of you already know, in less than a month from now I will be attempting 
to complete arguably the most challenging amateur sporting event in the whole 
calendar, the 'Étape du Tour de France'. This year's stage consists of 196 km 
of mountain climbs in the French Pyrenees, from Foix to Loudenvielle, and takes 
place on Monday July 16th.

It is not a charity event as such, but in gratitude for having recovered well
from an operation eighteen months ago, I will be raising money for 'Beating 
Bowel Cancer', and hope to get enough to cure me the next time I get it!

I have set up a secure online donation page here:
               http://www.justgiving.com/crabbo-etape
. . . or you can sign up on the traditional sponsorship form that I will be 
hawking around in the next few days.

Please give generously to this worthwhile cause, but please also bear in 
mind that the extreme severity of the challenge that I have set myself may 
prove beyond me, and in spite of the 2000+ miles of training and the shiny 
new bike, I may not finish within the time limit of ten hours. You can be 
sure, however that I will giving it everything I've got.

Further information on the 2007 Étape route is available here:
        http://www.letapedutour.com/2007/ETDT/presentation/us/parcours.htm

There are some scary pictures and an account of a recent recce of the route 
here:         http://www.etape.org.uk/07recce.htm

Thanks for reading this far.
If you have any questions about the event or the charity, please feel free 
to email or ask me in person.
Kind regards
-- 
Roger Crabb
 _                  _____________________________________     o__
/ ' _  _ |_ :_  _  / Cambridge Randomly Active BikeHash --   _.>/ _
\_,| '(_||_)|_)(_)/ a drinking club with a cycling problem. (_) \(_)
_________________/       http://crabs.org.uk/