In this day and age we really don’t need to think at all about what we have to achieve in life. It’s all there in the ‘self help’ section of the….do we still have bookstores? There’s the 1001 Places to See Before you Die, then the originally titled 101 Things to Do Before you Die. I’m sure I could go on, but really, if you’ve got those two books I think your life is good and covered.

Where was I going with this? Oh yes, Haute Route just posted a video on their Facebook page with someone’s (Global Cycling Network) Top Ten Best Sportive and Gran Fondos to Cycle in the World video. I really don’t know how I’m going to fit them in, with the 1102 things and places I need to do and see already, but this Top Ten list at least sounds fun.

On the list is a 235 km sportive in Australia; Levi Leipheimer’s Gran Fondo in California; something called the Dragon Ride in Wales, with ‘famously poor weather and bad road surfaces’ (why the hard sell fellas?); a cobbled sportive in Belgium the day before the pro Tour of Flanders; a 312 km(!) race on the island of Mallorca; Paris-Roubaix (ouch); the Gran Fondo Santini, in the Dolomites of italy; La Marmotte, in the French Alps; La Haute Route (surprise!); and l’Etape du Tour, which all of my devoted readers know well by now.

Yes, completely random, I suppose, but tell me this video doesn’t make you want to sign up for something right now. I have a few others I’d add to this list, like Liege-Bastogne-Liege in Belgium, and the Maratona in Italy.

If you have any you think must be on the list, let me know. If we get 101 we can write a book.