The "L'Étape Australia" is the largest Tour de France event held outside France.

It is a torturous 170-kilometre bike ride run to Tour de France professional standards.

It provides amateur riders with an experience as close to riding in the Tour de France as is possible, with fully closed roads and a mountainous course that is the equal of a mountainous stage of the Tour de France.

The race took riders from Jindabyne to Rocky Plains, Berridale, then onto the King of the Mountain sections at Col de Beloka and Col de Kosciuszko, thereafter descending back to Jindabyne.

The race route is 170 kilometres long with a 3000-metre height climb and a long descent.

John was one of 1224 starters and finished 26th in his 65-69 age category in a time of 10 hours 07 minutes 55 seconds.

A remarkable effort considering he is only four months away from his 70th birthday!

To better understand John's remarkable achievement, consider the degree of difficulty with this mountainous course.

The very steep "Col de Beloka" 3.04-kilometre climb, then later you face "Col de Kosciuszko" reaching 3000 metres in height.

If those conditions aren't harsh enough, John and Jacqui reported that the conditions were freezing cold with huge head winds.

The winds were so strong that John was blown off his bike on one occasion.

In other news, Graeme Wolfenden has just completed his Canberra Sri Chinmoy National Capital Swim.

He won the 60-69 age category for the fourth time albeit missing breaking the record due to the atrocious conditions on the lake.

That is four wins from four starts for Graeme.

This 9.5-kilometre Lake Burley Griffin swim is regarded by some as one of Australia's premier fresh-open water swims.

This year Graeme was hoping to break the long standing record of 2 hours 32 minutes and 57 seconds, set back in 2008 for his 60-69 years male age category.

The greatest concern for many swimmers is always the weather.

It was reported that last year some swimmers became seasick and several were forced to withdraw when choppy waves became unnavigable.

Support paddlers themselves became swimmers after being upended in the swell.

The advantage of a tailwind was largely lost through the extra distance covered vertically as well as horizontally in the effort to maintain any sense of direction.