Team Exiles was setup in April 2010 by myself (Philip Field) and my riding partner Natt Moore – both dedicated road cyclists living in Verbier, Switzerland. With a love for riding, the outdoors and a continual (and sometimes over the top) urge to push ourselves with new physical challenges, we formed Team Exiles to promote our enthusiasm for road riding and endurance sports.
Last July we christened our new team with a 2,500Km multi-national ride from Verbier to John O’Groats via Dunkirque and Land’s End. Taking inspiration from Mark Beaumont’s ‘Around the World’ record breaking ride that I’d seen on BBC during a quick visit back to the UK , the ride was planned, agreed and shook on the next day when I returned to Verbier with one quick conversation between Natt and I – we both knew it would be amasing and that was all that mattered!
The following July we departed our friends in Place Central in Verbier with a simple plan – to head North riding 165Km’s a day and to have a lot of fun. Taking 17 days and raising over £2,000 for Livestrong (Lance Armstong’s cancer charity) the ride proved to ourselves we could ride as a Team, opened our eyes to the amasing sights, challenges and experiences that could be found on our bikes and prompted our thoughts for what we could do in 2011 to top it.
This January Natt and I booted up the laptop and signed on to read about The Race Around Ireland – Europe’s toughest cycle challenge (www.racearoundireland.com). The event which is part of the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association (UMCA) World Cup series takes it’s competitors 2,100 Km’s around the coastline of Ireland in a tight time schedule – 132 hours or less. This looked perfect – we’re were after an endurance challenge that we would really have to train exceptionally hard for and the event had the added bonus – if we were to finish we would gain qualification into the The Race Across America (RAAM) – the World’s toughest endurance cycle race.
Acting as a team the plan is to take on Ireland riding continually for the 5.5 days through day and night rotating on and off with one another til the job is done – i.e. I’ll ride 4 hours on (approx 100K distance), then Natt 4 hours (another 100K), then repeat. In competing in The Race Around Ireland we will be raising money for Help for Heroes and Mind – The Mental Health Charity. Last year we found that riding for chairty is not only a hugely rewarding experience but also an extremely effective motivational tool for when you’re in those dark hours on the bike – just thinking of all those people out there less fortunate than ourselves and the money so kindly donated by our friends and supporters really does give you that extra boost in the tough times.
In preperation for Ireland Natt and I have been using the winter months in Verbier to train via ski tours, snowboarding/ skiing and some early season rides on the bikes. At the time of publishing we’ve ridden over 750Km’s during March and the beginning of April and have been making use of the hot ‘summer like’ conditions that we have all been experiencing in Valais recently. The plan for April onwards is to work up to 500Km’s per week.
Looking ahead we will be putting in some unique training rides this summer to build up the miles and to re-acclamitise the muscles to continuous multi-day riding. Already scheduled in the diary is a ride over the Alps from Barcelona to Verbier. Team Exiles have kindly been invited to attend the much coveted and renowned VIP Gumball 3000 party in Barcelona (www.gumball3000.com) during thier 2011 European car rally. Ensuring we don’t hit the party to hard the night before Natt and I will don our lycra the following day, clip into our pedals and set off home to Verbier over the gruelling and majestic alpine mountains – it’s going to be stunning so look later this summer for a full report!
Other rides planned this season will be a series of local Etapes (races), a potential trip to Ibiza to ride the island and several 250K non-stop rides to Lake Como in Italy and back. You can keep up to date with Team Exiles via the Alpine Guru blog and by ‘Liking’ the Team Exiles Facebook page – www.facebook.com/teamexiles. Any donations to Help for Heroes and/or MIND are hugely appreciated by Natt and I and if you would like to make a donation this can be made direct via the Team Exiles website – www.teamexiles.com
Look out for future posts on our progress leading up to Ireland and if you fancy joining us for a ride please feel free to drop us a line.
Phil – Team Exiles
TeamExiles are sponsored by Velotec (www.velotec.co.uk) and Zest Design (www.zest-ideas.com).
