Matt Prior completes epic Tour de France charity challenge as former England cricketer rolls into Paris
The 37-year-old has been riding one stage ahead of the professional riders and has helped to raise more than £160,000 for three different charities
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Technically, Matt Prior endured an even harder Tour de France than the man in the yellow jersey, Egan Bernal. The former England wicketkeeper rolled into Paris on Saturday having completed each gruelling stage one day ahead of the professionals, but then his stage 19 to Tignes wasn’t cut short by a landslide, and his stage 20 to Val Thorens wasn’t truncated by the threat of more to come.
No, the 37-year-old Prior had to cover every single kilometre in the road book, but it was worth it: along with nine fellow amateur cyclists Prior has raised more than £160,000 at the time of writing, for three charities, in a project entitled The 21. No detail was spared, recruiting a full support team of mechanics, medics and other staff.
“The idea behind it was to experience exactly what the pros have,” Prior tells The Independent. “Everyone supporting us is from a pro-team background. The guys have absolutely loved it: taking bottles from the car, feed stations, it’s pretty cool. I honestly think if you went off by yourself it would be about three times harder.”
For Prior the hardest stage was 18, a 200km brute taking in the infamous Col d’Izoard and Col du Galibier. “For me that was the toughest day by some way, the mixture of distance and climbing. The Galibier wasn’t actually that bad because it was a steady gradient. The ones that really hurt hit 12, 13, 14 per cent gradient for a sustained period of time. That really does knock you sideways.”
The thing about stage racing is there is an awful lot of time: time to hurt, time to think. “So many times you ask yourself the question: what are we doing? But no matter how much it hurts after a long day you get back and look on social media and one of the charities will have sent a video of school kids giving a motivational speech, and it brings you back to why we’re doing it.
“The mental game, I guess that’s why I love cycling. it doesn’t matter what job you’ve got, how much you earn, who you are, when you’re on a mountain and you’ve got nothing left: it’s the most honest sport because there’s no bullshit. You’ve got to find a way to get the job done.”
Prior takes about the sport with such passion that it’s easy to forget that cricket is his first love. So after three weeks in the saddle, taking on the most famous race in the planet, does he ever wish he had been a cyclist in another life?
“Oh god no. Absolutely not. I have the utmost respect for cyclists but no, it’s not a job I would have wanted to do," Prior admits. "It’s relentless and pretty brutal, and the sport itself is the wild west. We’ve had a bit of insight speaking to the support team, and on the way to the top some guys don’t get treated brilliantly, some teams don’t have great infrastructure – compared to cricket and football it’s way off.
“As a whole, there’s still a lot that needs improving to support riders and teams, and the sport, because it’s a phenomenal sport.”
To donate to charities Dan’s Trust, Chance to Shine and Parkinson’s UK, click here
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