OK, so I've decided what I'm going to do next year - I'm going to have a go at L'Etape Du Tour. "The Etape" is basically an annual event held over one of the Tour De France stages a few days before the Tour riders do it themselves. It's held on closed roads and somewhere in the region of 8,500 cyclists take part, cheered on over the mountains by around 100,000 supporters. The Etape is to France what the London Marathon is to England, it's the one big amateur event per year that really captures the publics imagination.
As with the London Marathon it is technically a race but of course only the top 20 or so competitors are actually racing to win, everyone else just wants to get around the course. The one key challenge with the Etape is keeping ahead of the "sag wagon" - a fleet of busses that follows the route at a pre-set pace - anyone caught by it is mandatorily excluded from further participation (to allow the roads to be reopened) - so basically you have to keep going come what may, else you get eliminated.
The other key difference between the London Marathon and the Etape is that being in France and being a bike race then of course the race is fixed such that a French rider always wins the male and female races - the entry procedures are somewhat biased in that you can only get a good starting spot if you use the "priority" entry form - this is only available in a french cycling magazine and only from french newsagents... Overseas participants can only apply via an official tour agent and are allocated slots at the back of the grid, 15 minutes behind the start...
I've considered doing the Etape for the past couple of years but it just looked really really horrible. In 2006 the course was 120 miles going over 3 mountains including the legendary Col D'Izoard (2,350m) and finishing by going up the Alpe D'Huez (1,850m). 5,500 riders finished out of 7,500 starters. Last years was insanely tough, 120 miles long, five climbs in 30 degree heat and was so tough that the organisers decided to slow down the sag wagon as so many riders were struggling it was just hoovering everyone up. Around 4,300 finished out of 7,500 starters. Before decided to do the Etape I read through this guys blog - it's really fascinating - taking him from a 16 stone couch potatoe who had ridden around Richmond Park a few times in December 06 to 13 stone cyclist who can cycle over mountains for 10 hours in July 2007.
The 2008 course seems somewhat more "doable", it's a little shorter at 100 miles and has just two climbs - albeit pretty severe ones - firstly over the infamous Tourmalet (2,100m), a 15 mile ascent with an average gradient of 7.5% and the finish of the course up the top of Hautacam, a 10 mile ascent at 7.2%. Personally I get on much better with a course like next years where there are fewer but bigger hills, I find I can just get into a gear and keep a good grinding rhythm all the way up as opposed to a much bumpier up and down course like last years.
Full details of the event herewith:
My main concern is the heat - the race is in July and I always struggle in heat, although I suppose it will make a difference to being snowed on going up Ventoux earlier this year. I'm also a little worried about nutrition - even with the course at "just" 100 miles this will probably take around 8 hours constant cycling, burning 1,000+ calories per hour - that's a huge number of calories to have to try and replace as you go along - particularly with a bus chasing you down preventing you from stopping. At least on my week in the Alpes this year when you ride without any restriction on pace then you can stop for elevenses, proper lunches etc - here you've got to just keep going. If you don't replace the calories as you go along you'll never get to the end, your body just starts to eat itself and you get "the bonk".
I think this will by a long way be the hardest thing I've done. I've cycled 100 miles before quite a few times but typically on the flat and always at my own pace with proper refuelling stops for food and drink. I've cycled over mountains before but typically the days were 60 to 70 miles rather than 100 miles and again at my own pace. I've cycled in the heat before (summer of 2006 springs to mind) but really didn't enjoy it, I tend to wilt somewhat. So 100 miles at race pace over the mountains in the heat - hm, that will be "interesting".
So that's it, I've booked my place, booked the flight, got my medical certificate and now eagerly await to see just how far behind the 7,500 French riders I will be starting. I'm also trying to retain a lot of my fitness through the winter, mainly by cranking up the Spin sessions, I'm doing 3 or 4 a week now and will try and keep that up until the spring weather is good enough to get back out on the bike again.
I've also decided that after 6 or 7 years of fantastic service from my current bike that it's time to get a new one. My current bike has done somewhere in the region of 14,000 miles (that's here to Singapore) almost without fault and I really enjoy riding it. It is however now "old technology" - it is steel / alloy based and gets pretty uncomfortable to ride over long distances - there's very little preventing the vibrations coming up through the frame and after a few hours in the saddle I usually end up with very stiff back, neck & shoulders. So as of last weekend I am now the very happy owner of a lovely carbon framed Bianchi (my old bike is also Bianchi, I think they are great bikes) and it's just a world apart from the old bike - Bianchi now make a selection of types of racing bike - from the no compromise ultra light weight pro bikes to more "user friendly" race bikes such as mine - for instance they use a combination of carbon fibre and Kevlar on the frame (the Kevlar mops up a lot of the road vibration) and design it for long-distance use, so the ergonomics of it are slightly more comfortable - the slightly curved frame makes for a more comfortable posture. All this stuff adds weight to the bike which is why you would never buy it for pro racing - but for what I want it's perfect - I went out for the first time last weekend and it just glides over the road, very little vibration comes up through the body.
