I watched episode 1 and quite enjoyed it ! A wide mix of odd and not so odd characters. The fact is you could sympathise with what they were going through. I shall watch next week.
The hardest bike race in the world. Not sure what Pete Penseyres or Chris Hopkinson would think of that claim
These 'reality' programmes are always ridiculous. If they really were serious about doing something like that then they would approach it totally differently - the first weeks spending time just riding a bike, then going on cycling club runs etc. and gradually building up the ability and fitness to tackle the Etape. But of course that wouldn't make for entertaining TV. Of course you have to have a stupid time scale involved - six weeks preparing for a really hard ride effectively from scratch, etc etc. I recall something similar on TV a number of years ago where they tried to see if they would train a normal member of the public in a very short timescale to be able to ride with a team who were doing the team RAAM and it was embarrassing.
To be honest Louie Spence is quite amusing; without him it would be quite dull. He did come out with something that epitomised the whole thing, saying something about running before they would walk which was spot on really.
Oh yes and forgot to mention - it is a sportive so not a 'proper' race.