To celebrate his 60th birthday Len decided to shadow ride the Tour de France, but without leaving Paros! He was accompanied in part by 7 other cyclists, but only Len completed the full 3640 kilometres in the same 21 days as the young professionals riding around France. The event was sponsored, and raised over 3000 euros for various charities worldwide.
Although there are no Alps on Paros, neither are there any long flat roads, and overall the total vertical distance covered was similar to the real Tour. There was also a weather problem in that July 2006 was unusually windy. Wind speeds reached 60kph at times and temperatures of 30 degrees were not unusual.