Marc’s road to recovery hits the heights

Cycling

Marc White has described completing the seven-day Haute Route across the Dolomites and Swiss Alps as an epic adventure. The 44-year-old chief security officer was this week back home in Park Farm, Ashford, reflecting on his involvement in the event, one of the world’s highest and toughest cyclosportive and dubbed the amateurs’ Tour De France. The race took the riders over a route climbing 19,700 metres from Geneva to the finish in Venice. White said: “It was epic. You can plan as much as you like but then you get to the start line and the nerves and adrenaline take over. At the end, I was overcome with all sorts of emotions both mentally and physically but it was a great experience and I hope to do it again next year.” He was all set to take part last year until an accident laying a patio resulted in him undergoing skin grafts on both knees. He said: “The lime in the cement mixture I was using soaked through my trousers and started eating away at the skin around my knees. “I left it over 24 hours before going to hospital and was then transferred to a specialist burns unit. “An X-ray showed the lime had almost eaten through the bone and within 12 hours I was undergoing surgery. I was discharged from hospital last October, winter and spring came and went and I built up training. I went to a training camp in Mallorca, steadily building up things from there.” Explaining why he wanted to attempt the Haute Route, White said: “I have always been on a bike. I have done mountain biking and road racing and competed in one-day and three-day events but had never ridden in the Alps or Dolomites. “It was the chance to ride for seven days like the pros, on timed stages, a different location every day, across legendary mountain passes and appealed to the adventurer in me. “My wife Maggie thought I was having a midlife crisis when I told her what I was doing and said I was totally crazy. “Living in Kent I could only dream of being able to climb such lengths and altitudes. The longest climb I have locally is less than half a kilometre long! “The race surpassed all my expectations as did the climbs, to be able to follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest cyclists ever was incredible.”