You’d think, after hanging up your boots at the end of a career playing rugby union professionally, that you might want to take things a bit easier. Put your feet up by the fire, let things go a little, maybe drop into the pub for 16 or 17 pints and banter with the lads, talk about that try, or tour of South Africa, or whatever.
Not so Richard Parks, whose playing career (Pontypridd, Wales and more) was plagued by – and cut short by – injury. No slippers and pipe for Richard, but crampons, ice axe and skis. Inspired by Ranulph Fiennes and something that was said at his gran’s funeral about horizons, he conquered the highest peaks in all the world’s continents, and the poles, in record time. Now he wants to be the fastest person to ski solo to the South Pole.
Anyway, his training and the challenge itself is being documented in this four-part Race to the Pole (Channel 5). Starting with a bike ride. A gentle pedal along the Rhondda Valley perhaps, to get into the swing of things? Pah! No. Richard, who has never done any mountain biking before, is starting off with the Yak Attack in the Annapurna region of Nepal, the highest, toughest, mountain-bike race in the world.
It’s not just the killing climbs, the precipitous drops, the extreme temperature changes, frostbite, altitude sickness, dicky tummies and old injuries that Richard has to contend with. But also loony local lorry drivers who seem determined to send him plummeting into the valleys below.
There’s a lot about muscle groups and motivation and all that kind of gym-talk (which makes me tired and a bit bored at the same time). But Richard seems like a lovely lad. God‑fearing too, says his mum. And the scenery is spectacular.
The biggest disappointment is that the race totally fails to live up to its name. I think only one yak features, very briefly, in the whole show. And he looks on at the lycra-clad cyclists, a bit confused perhaps but totally docile. I don’t think he’s going to attack anyone.
