Challenge not too tough

On reading George Gauci's letter Life Cycle: Is The Challenge Too Tough? (September 1), my immediate reaction to his question is... no!

If it were too tough, we would not have successfully covered 2,350km in 13 days from Bucharest, through Ukraine and Poland, and finally to Berlin.

The "extreme distances" and the "eating and sleeping conditions" mentioned are part of the extremity offered by Lifecycle. Prior to the event, the participants are well informed about these conditions and apart from one or two unexpected mishaps, all goes as planned.

With regard to Alan Curry's abilities I agree that he is a good fitness instructor but he surely does not lack cycling techniques. Mr Gauci needs to change his "sources" of information as they are either not well informed or may have ulterior motives. The statement made about Mr Curry makes me wonder if Mr Gauci really meant to make himself clear, for the sake of interpretation, in his opening sentence!

Since Mr Gauci is a keen cyclist, he should know that different cyclists have different levels of stamina, different techniques, different timings and different ideas, hence, different groups of different numbers in each group. The number in the group is irrelevant as long as there is the necessary teamwork. 

Mr Gauci should rest assured that Mr Curry has taught the pacing technique, year after year, and stresses its importance Sunday after Sunday during the 17 weeks of hard training prior to the event. This technique is used by all cyclists around the world and also by the Lifecyclists.

The main aim of Lifecycle is to raise funds for the renal patients, so when Mr Gauci sometimes asks himself "what are they aiming for?" there is his answer. The distances covered during the Giro d'Italia is not an issue to be compared with Lifecycle. But since he mentioned the subject and just for technicality's sake, Lifecycle covers longer daily distances!

In his own words, Mr Gauci stated that "...it must not be forgotten that the professional cyclists have the best medical care..." Kindly note that here again he is not well informed. The Lifecycle medical team has excelled in professionalism and I can confirm this through my personal experience of this year's challenge. Their dedication towards the cyclists' needs was impeccable.

Finally, I am sure that Mr Gauci's suggestion for next year's Lifecycle Challenge 2008 will be discussed at committee level and I sincerely hope that it will be put aside as quickly as the time taken to read it out.