Giro d'Italia 2016

Ok, ok...

Bit behind the times, but better late than never eh?!

For anyone who missed it, the Giro will turn 99 this year - running from the 6th - 29th May 2016, it starts with three days in the Netherlands before going back over to Italy for the remaining eighteen stages from Catanzaro and finishing in Torino.

As always, they've got a flashy promo video that was shown at the route presentation on 5th October 2015 - check it out below! (credit to steephill.tv for the link)

More details of the route, any particularly nice-looking / interesting places to follow over the next couple of months, but with the race covering 3,383km and including three individual time trials, one might be left wondering what happened to the usual brutal first grand tour of the season.

Tour de Yorkshire 2016

So it's back, after the success of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014 and the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire in 2015, Yorkshire's three day cycling race is back again in 2016!

Although the final route isn't going to be announced until later in the year (9th December 2015 to be exact), the six start and finish towns have been revealed by the race organisers Welcome to Yorkshire.

From the 14 towns that showed interest in hosting a start or finish in the 2016 event, those selected are:

Beverley

Doncaster

Middlebrough

Otley

Scarborough

Settle

With the men's elite race running from Friday 29th April - Sunday 1st May 2016, there's still plenty of time to explore the towns, the routes and the spectator vantage points for another exciting race.

The women's elite race will be held on Saturday 30th April, with more details to follow on this as they become available.

Full details and dates of the sportive that complements the Tour are also planned to be released sometime in November, although it suggests that it'll follow last year and be held on the same route and day as the final day's racing (Sunday 1st May 2016)

Never give up - always follow your dreams

It was about this time last year that I started writing this post, and was in great sadness due to the sudden loss of one of my former flat-mates at university who sadly passed away whilst following his passion in Northern Sumatra working with critically endangered orangutans.

At the beginning of October a number of his friends and family took part in the Cardiff Half Marathon to raise money for the charity set up in his memory, to continue to support the work that he was doing. His memory was the thing that kept us all going, and told us never to give up.

If you'd like to read more about the work that he was doing, and what the charity continues to do, or would like to donate to such a good cause just click on the link below.

BT Donate - Run4Rich

And here's the post, I never published it last year because I didn't think it quite right at the time, but since Rich was the inspiration for us last weekend, I thought it fitting to not give up on the post.

"This post is written in sadness, but also in awe of what you can do when you really set your mind to follow your dream and passion.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the funeral of one of my friends from University, a great young man who always had time for everyone else and yet always seemed to be able to do the things that he really wanted to do. This post isn't meant as a long memorial to Rich as I wouldn't be able to do him justice, those of you who spoke at the funeral put it all into words better than any of us and we're all very proud of what you said and couldn't agree more with everything said about him.

I'm going to make sure that I try and live up to his attitude to everything and never give up on stuff that I really want! Whether that's the really serious things in life (that are too deep for this blog) or whether it's the next hill along the road when on the bike or a run - just have to keep thinking "never give up!"

Thanks for the inspiration Rich, you have been and will continue to an inspiration be to everyone that knew you!"

#Run4Rich