'The pain on the bike was nowhere near as bad as my struggles with mental health' - meet Amy Hudson, who just completed all 21 stages of the Tour de France, plus transfers, four years after getting her first bike

The mid-July sun is beating down on Amy Hudson as she pushes up the Col du Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees, legs burning, tears beginning to prick her eyes. It’s day 18 of her ride across every stage of the 2025 Tour de France route, (plus the transfers in between) and three more mountains loom ahead. This first climb is already the highest mountain she’s ever cycled.

“I always told myself that any pain I'm in, I've chosen to do it. I put myself in this position and it's a privilege to be in this position, so I have to just enjoy it.”

But before Hudson tackled the Tourmalet, before she even had the idea to take on every stage of the Tour de France, there was COVID. Back then, the 28-year old was working as a mental health nurse in the NHS, stressed and burnt out, and struggling more and more with her own anxiety.

“I just completely had a breakdown. I couldn’t cope,” Hudson told Cycling Weekly in February.

“I had to leave my job because it was at the point where I just really wasn’t well, and it really wasn’t good. I didn’t want to be here.”

Then, unexpectedly, her husband bought her a Carrera bike from Halfords - her first bike in ten years. Her dad took her out in the Peak District where, on her first ride back, she covered 45 miles.

“All I could focus on was my breathing, pushing up the hills, and nature. It was just so peaceful.”

Hudson’s experience of anxiety and mental health struggles are the drive - and cause - behind her Tour de France challenge, as she raises money for Shout, a 24/7 mental health helpline.

But, back on the Col du Tourmalet, the relentless 7.5% incline is far from the peaceful idyll she left in the Peak District.

“It was really, really hot. I just felt like I was melting,” she said.

“Then on one of the corners, there was a couple with a little sign that said: 'Go Amy'. And it just made such a massive difference. It was just so nice.”

And the good will just kept on coming. Her best friend Laura brought a marmot mascot that she would stick out of the support vehicle at intervals throughout Hudson’s ride, a piece of cuteness to keep her powering upwards. At the top of that frustrated struggle uphill at Tourmalet, Hudson’s partner, Kyle, bought her another mascot (“Tourmy”) to tie to her bike, this time an "angry looking goat".

“He [Kyle] said, let’s just let all the anger be in the mascot, not in you on the bike.”

195 miles followed by 180 miles followed by 175 - Hudson spent relentless back-to-back days on the bike. On stages 19 and 20, she climbed over 5000 metres one day, followed by 4600 metres the next (“that was hard”), with little rest between days. But even before the mountain stages, the long days on the flat proved challenging, too, seeing endless near-identical fields alongside the road.

“It was kind of hard to keep myself entertained on the bike. When you ride for 12 hours and you just see the same views, it can get a bit…not boring, but it was hard to stay positive," she remembers.

"I just always reminded myself of why I was doing it. The pain I was getting on the bike was nowhere near as bad as what I went through when I struggled with my mental health, which is why I started cycling. So I think that's what makes me determined when I'm on the bike. It's not as hard as that, so I’ve just got to keep pedalling.”

“I'm quite a self doubter. So I always set myself these challenges," she continues.

"And there's always a big part of me that's like, oh, I don't know if I can do this. But when I got halfway through, I was like, Oh, actually, I think I might be able to do this.”

Throughout, Hudson was powered by a combination of almond croissants and cherry juice.

“I had to eat like, 7000 calories a day. I’m a bit weird because I don't like coffee and I don't use gels or anything. So I just fuelled it all on real food. Everyone's different, but that works for me, and it's what I prefer to do. So I was just eating so much, I've actually got a list of everything I ate, but I didn't eat as many croissants as I expected, because we actually only ate 14 croissants.

“I would finish the ride and immediately have cherry juice, which was a little tip that we got, that the pros do - it helps with recovery.”

Maybe it was the miracle cherry juice, maybe it was the hours of training she crammed in in the small hours between work (before she became a full-time social media influencer), but by the time Hudson began her final leg into Paris, she had survived the Tour with no injuries - and no punctures, either.

“I had never been to Paris before. So I thought it was going to be just loads of roads with loads of cars, but there were really good bike lanes, which was helpful, but it was full of other cyclists, e- bikers, e-scooters, traffic lights, cars coming at you. It was just so stressful. I did that for five hours in the end, because obviously I didn't want to just do the one lap, I wanted to do exactly what the pros did. That took a long time, but when I finished, I was just relieved to get out of the traffic. The Champs-Élysées was not fun - hitting seven lanes of cars, all just going everywhere.”

But Hudson had her husband, Kyle riding behind her, a constant support on the 29 day effort through France. And, for his final act of support for his machine of a wife, he dressed up as her favourite fruit - a juicy, crunchy apple.

“I love apples. I always have a crunchy apple. When you're thirsty on a really long ride there's nothing better than a nice crunchy apple. So, I was just cycling along, and they were just on the side of the road, like, crouched down, like little apples.”

It has now been two weeks since Hudson first set off for France. She's covered 6556km, climbed 74862 meters of elevation in a time of 282hrs & 14 minutes, all whilst documenting it all on YouTube with the help of her husband, Kyle. Plus, she has so far raised over £89,000 for Shout.

Looking back in the aftermath of her achievement, I asked her what most stood out on her journey through France.

“I think the best moments were just the little moments of beauty in the Alps and in the Pyrenees - just being on my own on the bike in the middle of nowhere. It was really nice just being in nature and feeling calm and grateful to be able to ride my bike and have a happy mind again - not always happy, but the majority of the time, happy.”

You can donate to Shout here, and follow Amy’s cycling adventures on her Instagram @amy.cycling.adventures - I’m promised there’s more to come.