Veteran cycling legend Mick Ives to ride full route of 100th Giro d'Italia - at age 77

Veteran cyclist Mick Ives is to ride the route of the 100th Giro d’Italia in May – at the age of 77.

The Coventry-born ex-pro describes the challenge, named Mick’s Italian Job, as “a daunting task for anyone, but possibly the toughest task I have ever faced during my 60 years of competitive cycling.”

He aims to raise £60,000 – one for each year in which he has been involved in the sport – for four charities. Those are Barnados, Rainbow Children’s Hospice, Padraic Sweeney Kidney Research and Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice, and Ives  will be sponsored by Jewson, Polypipe and McCann.

Eight times a Master’s world champion, and with 85 national titles across various age groups and disciplines to his name, Ives is the only male rider to have represented Great Britain on the road and track as well as in cyclo-cross and mountain biking.

> Veteran Mick Ives takes his 85th national title (+ video)

An eight-year stint as a professional on the road was followed by a further eight years as a pro mountain biker, after which Ives moved into management both for trade teams and the national team at mountain biking and cyclo-cross world championships.

This will be the second time Ives has taken on the route of a Grand Tour – in 2005, and at the age of 65, he rode the entire parcours of the Tour de France a day ahead of the race.

The Giro d’Italia starts on Sardinia on Friday 5 May and will finish in Milan a little more than three weeks later.

> Route of 100th Giro d’Italia revealed (+ videos)

He will be undertaking the challenge on a Colnago C60 bike donated by Ernesto Colnago himself, who also designed the paint job.

You can donate to Mick’s Italian Job on his Virgin Money Giving page.