From Alpe d'Huez to America: What Comes Next
Alpe d'Huez was never the destination. It was part of the preparation for something considerably bigger.
A few weeks ago, Lexi Chambers reached the top of Alpe d'Huez in her standard wheelchair.
The climb gave us something important beyond the achievement itself. It gave us an opportunity to test the team, the equipment, the preparation and the support around Lexi. It also introduced her story to an audience far beyond those who were already following the journey.
That audience has grown significantly since.
But Alpe d'Huez was never the destination.
It was part of the preparation for something considerably bigger.
4,812.2km. Eight states. 115 days.
In March 2027, Lexi plans to set out from San Diego, California and cross the United States under her own power, finishing 4,812.2km later in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The ambition is to complete the journey in 115 days in a standard manual wheelchair.
Between now and then, there is an enormous amount to build.
Training continues. Equipment will be tested and refined. Routes and logistics will be developed. Partnerships need to grow. Fundraising needs to accelerate. Media relationships need to be established. And, crucially, a network of people and organisations needs to develop across the United States before Lexi ever reaches the start line.
Because End2EndUSA27 isn't simply about crossing a continent.
It's about connecting with it.
Building the network
Eight states means eight opportunities to introduce the challenge to new communities.
Over the coming months, we'll be working with the organisations already supporting End2EndUSA27 while developing new relationships across business, sport, the military and veteran communities, disability sport, media and the towns and cities through which Lexi will travel.
The aim is to build ahead of the journey.
A conversation creates an introduction. An introduction creates another relationship. A local organisation shares the story with its community. That community helps introduce it to the next.
By the time Lexi begins crossing America, we want the story travelling ahead of her.
Recent conversations with organisations in the United States have reinforced just how much potential there is to build that network. Those discussions are at an early stage, but they demonstrate what becomes possible when businesses, sporting organisations, charities and individuals begin connecting their own networks to the challenge.
A growing audience
The same principle applies online.
The audience following Lexi's journey has already grown rapidly, with her social following more than doubling in a relatively short period.
The challenge now isn't simply to make that number bigger.
It's to turn attention into engagement, engagement into relationships and relationships into meaningful support.
That means continuing to show the unpolished reality of Lexi's preparation alongside the bigger stories: training days, difficult days, equipment, recovery, the people behind the attempt, the route, the partnerships being formed and eventually the daily reality of crossing America.
The next chapter
Over the coming weeks we'll release our film documenting Alpe d'Huez and share more about the preparation for End2EndUSA27.
We'll begin exploring the route, introducing some of the people and organisations helping make it possible and showing more of what goes into preparing for 115 days on the road.
And as the network grows, we'll tell those stories too.
Alpe d'Huez showed us what Lexi could do on one mountain, on one day.
The focus now is not simply on what Lexi has done.
It's on what we're building for what she's about to do.