This past week the world lost the kind of man and friend everyone should have the privilege to know and it was my sincere pleasure to call Ian Hoggarth a friend. He was the sort of man you wanted on your side; friendly, engaging, enthusiastic, optimistic and always willing to go the extra mile – this was his approach to everything. When Ian set his mind on something it would get done, to the best of his ability, and normally he’d make it look ridiculously easy doing so. What this man didn’t know about cycling was not worth knowing, and he backed it up by being pretty bloody good at that too – I wish I had even half the talent on a bike Ian had.

What I’m trying to do in 9 months won’t be easy, in fact it might be downright painful, but I will continue to take inspiration from Ian. His approach would have been methodical, he may have hit setbacks but he would have rolled with the punches, kept a cool head and ultimately succeeded, all the while with a smile on his face.

This tragic turn of events also made me realise that I must take the opportunity to use this challenge to give something back as Ian often did with his feats of endurance.

Thanks for being a friend Ian – my thoughts are with your family.

You will be missed.