Rupert Guinness entered the Haute Route Alps in France looking for a new challenge to test his physical and mental strength. But after 800km of cycling through the Alps from Nice to Megève, the cycling journalist and author realised that the experience had delivered to him and the 400-plus starters something far greater. It had provided them with the adventure of a lifetime; from a sense of what it would be like to ride in the fabled Tour de France that he has reported on more than 30 times, to the creation of friendships with fellow riders forged by their shared suffering and encouragement for one another as they cycled through some of the toughest and most spectacular mountains that cycling has to offer.