\n Ceri Stone, from Kilgetty, took on the challenge once again as part of Le Loop, a charity ride that follows the exact course of the Tour de France, just one week ahead of the professionals.\n<\/p>\n
\n This year\u2019s route covered more than 3,500 kilometres and more than 55,000 metres of climbing over 21 days.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Stone, who grew up in Begelly and was educated at Pentlepoir CP and Greenhill Comprehensive, is believed to be the first person from Pembrokeshire to complete the feat.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “This year\u2019s tour was the toughest so far.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I put it down to two reasons: the first is that I was ill for the first three days of the event and regularly had to stop for comfort breaks in cornfields.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I don\u2019t know how I made it through those first few days.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I put it down to determination and resilience and also the fact that I have been so well supported by my sponsors that I could not let them down.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Le Loop raises funds for the William Wates Memorial Trust, and this year\u2019s ride has already brought in \u00a3435,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Stone is a member of the Pembrokeshire Dragons Cycling Club and credits the club with helping him prepare for the challenge.\n<\/p>\n
\n He is also the author of Le Loop, How to Cycle the Tour de France, which tells the story of his 2019 ride.\n<\/p>\n
\n This year\u2019s route began in Lille on June 28 and was described as the toughest in more than 50 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Only about half of the 50 riders who started the challenge completed every stage.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Stone said: “Despite all of this I somehow found an inner resolve to ensure that I made it to Paris, having cycled every single inch of the route.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I have now cycled 71 stages of the Tour de France, but I am pretty sure that is my last.”\n<\/p>\n
\n At 58, Mr Stone celebrated his achievement with a glass of champagne in Paris, though he says he isn\u2019t ready to commit to riding the tour again just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ceri Stone, from Kilgetty, took on the challenge once again as part of Le Loop, a charity ride…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-35533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}