Woman who cycled ‘a whole lap of France’ following Tour de France route raises £89,000 for mental health charity

A woman who cycled 6,556km (almost 4,074 miles) to complete the entire Tour de France route – including the transfers – in 29 days has raised nearly £90,000 for a mental health charity.

Amy Hudson, 29, from Derby, started her journey in Lille on June 27 this year and was in the saddle for 282 hours and 14 minutes – doing “basically a whole lap of France” on a bike expedition that went far beyond the total mileage of the world’s most famous bike race.

Instead of getting transported between each of the race’s stages, she pedalled herself from each day’s finish line to the next day’s starting position.

“The pros do it in 23 days… and they have two rest days. I had one rest day, and then I did two half rest days, where I did shorter mileage, but then I gave myself an extra six days to do the extra 3,200km,” she told PA Real Life.

Amy was inspired to take on the challenge after learning of the feat by Australian cyclist Lachlan Morton who, in 2021, cycled the entire Tour de France route including transfers.

“It doesn’t really feel real, to be honest,” Amy says.

“I feel really happy that I’ve done it, and I hope it inspires other women to go for doing these challenges, and not feel like they can’t do it because they’re a woman.”

Beyond the physical challenge, Amy also wanted to raise money for Shout, a mental health charity that runs a free, confidential 24/7 text support service for anyone in the UK, following her own battles with anxiety and an eating disorder.

“I started cycling four years ago in lockdown,” says Amy, who previously worked as a mental health nurse for people with eating disorders – but found her own mental health plummeting during lockdown.

“I struggled a little bit at uni with my own eating, which I think is why I went into the eating disorder field, because I felt like I understood it.

“But unfortunately, I myself got an eating disorder, and quite bad anxiety and things like that. And I got to a point where I was really unwell, and I had to leave my job.

“I didn’t want to, but at that time, there was just no choice, really, I just wasn’t well.”

Amy’s love for cycling began when her husband of six years Kyle, 30, “randomly” bought her a basic bike, and despite not having ridden for a decade, she found it was the tonic she needed to help with her racing mind.

“I started off going out with my dad in the Peak District, and it was the only time when I could get some relief from my mind, because I was constantly worrying, basically, about my job, and the people I was working with…” Amy says.

“I just can’t describe how much the bike has helped me. I don’t honestly know where I’d be without it.”

Amy went back to working in the NHS in a finance role, realising that being hands on in mental health nursing “wasn’t right” for her, but her passion for cycling continued to grow.

She now shares her cycling adventures with her 93,000 followers on her Instagram account, which has the handle @amy.cycling.adventures.

While the official Tour de France race, which ran from Lille to Paris from July 5-27 this year, takes place on closed roads with riders supported by a team, Amy went it alone, on public roads, with just her husband Kyle for support.

“I think it was really hard for him as well, he was meeting me two or three times a day with food and water, then he was going to the accommodation, washing my kit, cooking my dinner, unpacking the car, repacking the car, going to the supermarket,” she says.

“It just means the world that he did this for me… Without him, it wouldn’t have been possible.”

Of course, some days in the saddle were tougher than others. Amy averaged 230km a day throughout her ride, tackling all kinds of terrain and surroundings.

France is famous for its mountainous regions, including the beautiful Pyrenees and Alps, and while conquering these peaks was an incredibly taxing physical challenge, Amy’s eating disorder also threatened to rear its head when it came to fuelling for the ride.

“One of the weird things, you have to train your body to get used to eating so much,” says Amy, who says that she had to fuel her body with between six and seven thousand calories per day.

“That was a big challenge for me, especially with my eating disorder… But through cycling, that has healed me, because I want to be a strong cyclist, and the only way to do that is to eat enough.”

Amy says she ate pasta and rice to carb-load each evening, enjoying milkshakes with banana and oats for breakfast and snacking on energy bars and croissants throughout the day.

“Almond croissants, I got into them,” she says.

“But I’d have one, and then I still sometimes get those guilty feelings in my head where I’m like: ‘Oh, I shouldn’t have eaten that, it’s bad for you’… But I am at a point now where I can ignore those thoughts, even though they come in.”

There were also some truly magical moments along the way – not least that feeling of crossing the finish line on July 25 on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

“It felt surreal,” Amy says of being greeted at the finish line by her husband Kyle and her friend Laura, along with some encouraging strangers who had heard about her ride and had come to see her finish.

“It was just an overwhelming feeling of relief to get out of the traffic in Paris. I was ready to finish. I was tired. I was sleepy.”

Not only did Amy achieve her personal goal of cycling the full 6,556km of the 2025 Tour de France route and its transfer stages, she has also raised an incredible amount of cash for Shout.

“My aim was to raise £10,000 for the charity, and we’re on £89,000 now. I couldn’t believe it. We got £10,000 on the second day.

“So thank you to everyone who donated – and the donations are still going up.”

Amy’s fundraiser for Shout can be found here:  https://www.justgiving.com/page/a-c-a.

Free, confidential mental health support is available 24/7 from Shout at giveusashout.org.