Okay - Alain Prost is racing Haute Route!

F1 Racing Legend Alain Prost to Ride the Haute Route This Weekend August 18th 2011

Over 300 participants representing 27 different countries will take to the start line this Sunday (21st August) for the first edition of the Haute Route, the new ultimate cyclosportive from Geneva to Nice. This extraordinary 7-day adventure crosses the Alps from north to south over 15 mythical and challenging cols, spread across 7 timed stages. Alain Prost, Motor-Racing Legend French motor-racing legend, Alain Prost will be taking on part of the 730km course that scales almost 17,000 metres of Alpine ascent including Europe’s highest road. "Cycling is a way of life, almost a need,” said Prost, who was four-time F1 World Champion. “I'm cycling four to five times a week, it's of course great physical training but as well a much needed breath of fresh air. To take part in the first edition of this amazing race is a real challenge for me. “There are a lot of links between a cycling race and Formula 1, the training is really intense of course, but you need to be extremely strong mentally too. You can be really fit but if you're head is not in the right mode, you will fail! I’m really looking forward to the start, the ambience, the relationships that we will develop in the pain or the joy at the top of the Cols.” The participants will race in Solo, Duo or Team categories and the diversity of entries is indicative of the wide appeal of this new event. A total of 58 entries are from the UK, 92 from France, 19 from USA/Canada and 7 Australians. The youngest competitor is 20 year-old Joris Chavanne and the oldest, 70 year-old Philippe Vidal from France. The Haute Route 2011 is the first cyclosportive in the world to offer the whole peloton the opportunity to be followed through a live tracking service, once during the week. The trackers will emit in real time the position of each rider thanks to a combination of GPS and GPRS technologies. Every day, around 50 participants will carry a GPS tracker with them, allowing family and friends to track riders progress on the Haute Route website. www.hauteroute.org