As part of our continuing series of inspirational guest writing we have a timely piece about the personal battles people face with parts of the Tour de France.  Having suffered a stroke, Kim battled with courage and strength to take on her personal challenge at the 2009 Tour de France.

“…the nastiest hill I ever climbed”

I cried today while riding the bike. Why? Cuz I made it to the top of Cole de Romme—a Cat 1 climb. It wasn’t pretty, I took a hike with my bike many times, don’t think I rode an entire km without stopping at least 2 times, but the point is, there are no mountains in Austin, so I rode like I had trained…up a hill, rest on the downhill repeat. Only this time it was ‘pedal up the mountain, stop and walk a bit, take a picture, repeat’. Back in Nov 15, 2007 I couldn’t walk and today I made it to the top of Cole de Romme! You do the math… 8.8 km from elevation of 502m  to an elevation of 1297 m! There’s about 3 feet to 1 meter!

I took my pic (below) at 5 km to the finish, then again at 1 km, by then I figured I would make it. I didn’t ride the entire last km, I stopped at least 3 times! The top was so crowded, I probably inched the bike across the line. I found someone to take my pic, then went over the line, then started crying. It was at this point that I realized I was going to be ok, I can survive a stroke & continue to live life.

I rode down about 3 km to a spot above a hairpin turn. I could see the riders coming up (a lot faster than moi) then, I would turn around and take pics. Haven’t looked at the pics yet, but I did get to see the Devil and the Norway chicken.

The race was incredible and in the words of Lance Butler, “…these guys are professional”

I think my overall time to reach the summit was about 2 hours.(I’ll let you do the math on the mph…remember I hiked with a bike quite a bit.) It didn’t take me that long to go downhill, rode the brakes the entire time down…the thought of road rash to match my 5” x 3” bruise on my butt will slow ya down! (the previous day I slipped on some stairs and landed on my right butt cheek..the blood thinners must have still been in my system, because the bruise is huge.

Mt. Ventoux is out of the question, it was amazing how long it took to go 5k and to do that 5 times on a steeper grade, not worth it.

I’m a very fortunate brain injury survivor. Thank you Alison and Mom! love ya!

Col de Romme, 8.8 kilometers, average grade nine percent. I think Lance Armstrong said, “Col de Romme, the nastiest hill I ever climbed.”

Thank you to Kim for sharing her story. I’m sure many people reading this will know someone who has been affected by a stroke and it’s a heartening story. Congratulations Kim, hopefully with some LovingTheBike and #bikeschool help we can get you scaling Mt Ventoux!

Stevie

We’ve had a great week at LovingTheBike Towers and I’ve particularly enjoyed the our time on Twitter with the #bikeschool gang. We had some absolutely fantastic answers to the questions at last Thursday’s class so I thought it was only right we put some of the up to celebrate your individuality and genius.

Shameless appeal…

Firstly I’d like to remind people that I am looking for a sponsor to pay for me to travel across the United States of America. @Lycra_Loony is also going to come with me from Australia so if you are willing to help out please make sure you have deep pockets and long arms. We would obviously need to be supplied with bikes in every state we visit so it’d be nice of you owned a bike brand too. #Justsayin

Who inspires you to get on 2 wheels? #bikeschool

Great to see you with the Wouter Weylandt Twibbon too @MTBandTreegrrl!

…how would you explain CYCLING to an extra-terrestrial watching out #bikeschool Twitter stream!?

An early contender for Tweet of the night from @noteon

A late entry via #homework from @readyforplanb but a lovely idea.

What are the benefits (if any!) of winter & what can we do to make the most of it? #bikeschool

And the picture….

If you could issue EVERY rider across the world with 1 piece of kit… what would it be. You can be brand specific #bikeschool

Rookie or Pro… we all suffer from this @Rosee_bikebar

…who would the #bikeschool class want me to try & interview? #bikeschool

Cool name and interesting looking bloke… I will definitely try to get hold of @gouldgeorgia. Thanks @jayrides4cancer

And finally…

Last week we started a competition to come up with a new #bikeschool tagline. After a week of voting I’m proud to announce @twittyboyd has stormed the field and taken the win. She is the lucky recipient of a hamper from @GUEnergyLabs and a gift card from @RoadID. Well done to Marty; the new #bikeschool tag line is…

WORLD CYCLISTS UNITE

Stevie