With the early morning fog clearing and summer's absent sun shining down on a beautiful autumnal Box Hill, well over 400 riders gathered for the second staging of Dave Aitchison's memorial cyclosportive, Legs of Steel. Ful-on Tri, Dave's triathlon team and the organisers of the event, were out en masse, and considering the number of competitors ensured a well-organised start to the event as groups of ten riders set off at one minute intervals from 8am onwards.

Team Aitchison, including Dave's dad Tony, CB his girlfriend, his coach Bill Black, Dave's sister and brother-in-law Jane and Ed and several members of the Herbalife academy (of which Dave was a member), were one of the last groups to head off down Box Hill for the start of the race. Tony was on Dave's racing bike, which was a lot more high tech than Bill Black's French onion sellers bike, see above. Nick Rusling (managing director of IMG Mass Participation Sports) was also part of team Aitchison and sounded slightly apprenhensive at the start, "I'm not sure if my daily eight mile cycle commute is going to help me up the hills." Thankfully we can report that it did and Nick returned from his 40k ride still looking in pretty good shape.

The event which includes two separate races, one of 40k and one of 80k took the riders through the beautiful, narrow, country roads of the Surrey Hills, where some of Great Britain's most stunning countryside can be seen. Riders reported back scenes of misty valleys interspersed with beautiful shafts of sun rays bursting through the autumn trees.

En route the riders had to tackle some of the infamous climbs which form part of the Surrey Hills, the toughest ones being; White Down at 18% and Winterfold at 21%, not a problem for the seasoned triathlete, but for the likes of Bill black, on his somewhat archaic bike decked with a large string of onions, it did get tough. That said, Bill returned from his 40k ride positively glowing, "That wasn't too bad", he said, "I had to remove the basket three quarters of the way round as it was pressing on the front wheel, and yes, I did have to walk some of the hills, but for the best part it wasn't too bad!" So where did the French theme come from? "Dave, apart from being a very talented athlete, was such a funny guy, so I wanted to make it fun. It all started with the Peugeot bike, then the basket, then the onions, beret etc... It has been a great event and really it's win, win, win... The race keeps Dave's memory very much alive, it's a great event, and raises money for up-and-coming athletes in the London and South East region."

At the end of his ride Tony, Dave's father looked as fresh as a daisy (he finished sixth place overall in the 40k race), he rued not having a smaller gear on some of the tough climbs, but he certainly wasn't complaining. "It's a fantastic event", he said, "and such a tribute to Dave that so many people have turned out to race today. It's also very exciting to see the money that's being raised for the Dave Aitchison sports aid fund. We're now just waiting for British Triathlon to approve the funding process so that the athletes can start benefiting from the charity, hopefully that won't take too long. Before today's event there was well over £8000 and there will be more to add to that after today."

The winner's of the the 80k event were Stuart Anderson, who came home in a time of 2:37:51 and Natalie Creswick had a fantastic ride in the women's race to take gold in a time of 2:56:03. In the 40k event, Gary Geller was first in 1:55:22 and Maryka Sennema won the women's in 2:07:12. Full results for the short distance event can be found here and for the long distance event here.

I was left in total awe of the event that looks set to grow and grow, and felt so much respect and admiration for Tony and Jenny, Dave's wonderful parents, CB, his girlfriend, Siobhan Brownlow (the race organiser), his friends and all at Full-on Tri for all that has been achieved so far in memory of Dave. And, as Tony Aitchison put it at the end of the race, "What a tribute to Dave that so many people are here to remember him and support such a great cause."