Roddy Riddle ready to battle Marathon des Sables

IF RODDY Riddle had been born 20 years later he might have been riding with Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and the other British cyclists who now rule the roads.

Two decades ago the rider from Inverness broke Graeme Obree’s national hour record. These days, perhaps he’d have been riding for Team Sky.

In the absence of such opportunities, the hugely talented but geographically challenged Riddle had to be content with more modest ambitions. Until now.

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Tomorrow, aged 45, Riddle will set out on the biggest sporting challenge of his life when, in the Sahara desert, he starts the Marathon des Sables.

Not only does that entail running 155 miles in six days across the sand and up dunes – with one day featuring “three dunes each as big as a Munro” – but, in Riddle’s case, it also involves managing Type 1 diabetes, with which he was diagnosed five years ago almost to the day.

On Wednesday evening, in their budget hotel at Gatwick airport, Riddle met his fellow Scottish competitors for the Marathon des Sables: there are seven of them, in a field of 1,000, sharing an eight-man tent with one Englishman.

“It’s the Tartan Army tent,” explained Derek Stewart, one of the Scots, before adding that the Englishman has been told to learn the lyrics to Flower of Scotland for a daily rendition. That’s not a joke, apparently.

The mood among the seven was nervously buoyant, or cautiously and understatedly excited. Entries for the Marathon des Sables had opened two years ago and closed within hours, so they have had that long to prepare, but now, as it loomed on the horizon, each seemed a little daunted.

They have an asset, however, that they might not yet fully appreciate, since they do not yet know Riddle as they will in seven days’ time.

As a cyclist, his most notable performances came in stage races, though he also finished ninth in the Commonwealth Games road race in 1994, the first time they were open to professionals. But he excelled in multi-day events partly because as everybody else became tired he became stronger, but also because his positive attitude seemed to override the negative thinking that can destroy others.

Riddle will doubtless infuse his tent-mates with the same permanently upbeat, relentlessly optimistic mood that used to prove so infectious among cycling team-mates. His new colleagues had a taste of it at the end of January when, as a training exercise, they got together for a two-day run through the Great Glen, in conditions quite different to the 45-degree heat they will encounter in the desert. After running 41 miles on day one, it became so cold towards the end of day two that Stewart suffered a shaking fit and Riddle lost all feeling in his fingers.

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In the desert Riddle’s greatest fear seems prosaic, until he explains why. “Blisters are what I’m most afraid of,” he says. “I’m not bothered about scorpions, snakes, spiders – even these gigantic camel spiders – or any of that. My biggest fear is blisters. Because I’m diabetic, if I get blisters and they become infected I could end up getting my leg amputated. I don’t really want that to happen.” His Marathon des Sables adventure all started on Twitter. “I had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes,” says Riddle, “and I didn’t know anything about it. The signs had been there. All of a sudden, when I was 40, I began having health issues: severe weight loss – three stone in about six weeks; an unquenchable thirst; I was never out of the toilet; I was extremely tired; my eyesight seemed to be deteriorating.

“When I went to see my doctor he referred me to the hospital, but a sign of how oblivious I was to my state of health was that I cycled there. I was in a bad way, and very lucky to be diagnosed when I was.” For a year or so Riddle learned how to manage the condition and slowly returned to sport. He and some friends cycled “the hard way, over the Lecht,” to Hampden for the 2010 Scottish Cup final (Riddle’s nine-year-old son, Alisdair, plays for Ross County under-10s). A year later he posted a message on Twitter: “Looking for a really tough challenge, open to suggestions.”

Dave Brandie, a friend and physiotherapist at the Scottish Institute of Sport, replied: “Marathon des Sables.” Riddle looked it up, phoned the organisers and was told he was a year too late for 2013. Then he explained he was a Type 1 diabetic and they told him that would be a first, and they would think about it. The next morning an email arrived: he was in. “You idiot,” said Brandie when he heard. “I was only joking.”

In the desert they will carry 9kg rucksacks, with all the food they will need for the week. Riddle is living off Weetabix, muesli, nuts and powdered milk, but will be reliant on his Insulin pump. And he’ll be monitoring his blood glucose as he goes.

He’s doing it to raise awareness and money for diabetes and “to prove to people that diabetes shouldn’t be a barrier to leading a normal life.” Only for Riddle could taking on something like the Marathon des Sables fit into any perception of ‘normal life.’