In June this year I will climb the famous Mont Ventoux on a 160km (100 mile) day long bike ride, as part of an independent team of four ageing Scotsmen!

This is a first time event for me. I live in New York City and have never before tackled anything beyond a few laps of Central Park with my son behind in the kids’ seat. I bought my first ‘real bike’ in January and due to the inhospitable NYC winter started training indoors, spending endless hours on a stationary bike or spinning in a local gym.

Mont Ventoux is seen as the hardest of all the mythical Tour de France climbs and achieved worldwide notoriety when it claimed the life of the great English cyclist Tom Simpson.

In 1970 Eddy Merckx rode himself to the brink of collapse while winning the stage. He received oxygen, recovered, and won the Tour de France.

"The Ventoux is a god of Evil, to which sacrifices must be made. It never forgives weakness and extracts an unfair tribute of suffering” - Roland Barthes, French philosopher and cycling fan.

From cruising Central Park to ascending the Ventoux summit, this promises to be quite an adventure!

Thank you in advance for your support and above all for any contribution to The Jodi Lee Foundation.