Final Day – What a journey!
Hi Folks. OK – Job done. Cent Cols Pyrenees 2025 – completed. A very big 10 days in the office! 
. Short summary:
Lots and lots of Adapting, not Quitting, we expect nothing less – right? (Aortic Athletes motto).
What did we learn? Well, my old military 7P’s approach seems to have paid off OK (prior planning & prep, prevents pi** poor performance).
Lots of patience (and direct from Jack’s playbook (Jack Crowe)– careful, incremental training loads).
It’s taken 9 years (and 3 attempts) to nail the 100 mountain cols in 10 days event, albeit now with the aid of eddy, the e-Zimmer (aka Spesh Turbo Creo e-bike 
). On the other side of the balance sheet we have a (complex) Type-B aortic dissection, massive TEVAR and on-going dissected AAAs to contend with.
It’s been 4 years of rehab training post-dissection, and I literally needed a real Zimmer to cross the hospital carpark back in Nov 2021. For me, the e-road bike has been the best cardiovascular rehab platform ever. I probably wouldn’t be riding without it, and certainly much less healthy and active.
This event has been about 3 years in the planning for me. Gradually increasing my endurance on the bike, whilst maintaining an eagle eye on heartrate ceilings (circa 125-130 bpm) and blood pressure monitoring. Over the four year period I steadily moved up from 10km circuits around the Surrey home, to 1200km UK “Audax” long distance events.
I have a science & engineering background, so I do tend to keep an eye on the numbers. Two metrics needed a lot of work. Power to Heart Rate ratio (watts per heart beat). For short periods, I can now push 250 watts @ 105 bpm. The other was Power to Weight ratio. Less weight = longer bike range = lower heart rate = lower blood pressure.
Dumping body-fat had been one of the most difficult aspects of AD rehab, for me – given all the metabolism-lowering drugs I was on, and the reduced calories being burnt on account of the e-bike. So – with the cent cols event looming and BMI of 30 / 97 kg (at the high point) – I bit the Mounjaro bullet, and have not looked back since. For me – It’s an amazing game changer. I started Mounjaro (5mg) in May (2025) – and I hit my 81kg target by the start of the Cent Cols event. So for short efforts, I have effectively been able to double my power-to-weight ratio (150watts/97kg to 250watts/81kg). I was concerned that the vascular team to St. Georges Hospital, London might have some severe reservations about the use of Mounjaro. Quite the contrary – they were very supportive, on the basis of reduced cardio-vascular load, and other emerging evidence regarding vascular benefits – so happy days.
The event itself was superb. Very hard at times. Drenched, frozen and baked – all in the space of a few days. The scenery was simply stunning, the organisation of the event was great – and an excellent team of 10 other riders on manual bikes. I was the only disabled / handicapped / physically challenged (or whatever we call ourselves) rider on the event.
So – what’s next. No big events planed at this stage. I now have my 2025 Strava goals to nail: 15,000km distance / 600 hours exercise / 225000m of ascent. Behind a little on the first two – ahead on the third, on account of 100 cols in the Pyrenees! 
So – Happy Trails folks – stay safe out there – don’t over-do it & take it steady. Do remember – we are all different – what works for one person, may not for another – and always check it out with you cardio-vascular team
MASSIVE – THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me – and for the contributions to the THINK AOTRA fund raiser. It makes a BIG difference, and is very much appreciated.
Today IS a Good Day.
THINK AORTA Fundraiser
https://www.justgiving.com/page/think-aorta-cent-cols
Challenges on a Bike 