June 13 2001 Derk Thijs starts the tour of his lifetime: a tour de force of 3500 kilometres, almost identical to the 88th Tour the France, which will start three weeks later. In the same duration as the Tour, he will not only cover the same distance, but also 18,000 altitude metres, including the exhausting climb of "L'Alpe d'Huez".

Derk's start will be in Duinkerken. In the weeks that follow he'll cross Belgium and France. Without help of the bunch and road blocks he will make an attempt to cover the enormous distance in 21 days, which is one day shorter than the regular Tour takes.

After a thorough training on Mallorca, in which the possibilities of the THYS 240 Rowingbike were extensively tested, Derk decided that the moment is there. For him it's now or never: just a week before the start of "his" Tour, Derk will be 43.

Anybody who has ever seen the Tour de France knows that it is, in terms of physical and mental endurance, an extreme event. Apart from a small group of friends and enthousiastics, who will look after him and accompany him, he has to do the attempt all by himself.

Main sponsor Rowingbike Tour de France 2001

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