Some cool stuff

Found these on the web, the flyover is really cool, gives a good overview of the course. 3:20 and 5:10 is when it gets "interesting" - alas the flyover takes just a few seconds to zoom up Tourmalet and Hautacam - I'll be thinking of that during my 1.5 hour climbs of both.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzKTUl_nMl8


The Rapha site http://www.rapha.cc/index.php?page=490 has a good overview of the five distinct sections of the ride.

Just over two weeks to go now, feeling a bit jittery. Apparently the start village is known as "twitchy town" on the days leading up to the ride.

Gold!

Gold medal, first place, awesome.

Well, that's what Mr Richard Todd would have said to himself as he blitzed round the 200km course in 6hrs 20 mins. Alas when he crossed the finishing line I was still 50k from the end...

I signed up to the Victor Ludorum 200k Challenge without really appreciating what it was, thinking it was just another random 200k ride. What it actually turned out to be was part of an internationally accredited, European wide race series, there were transponders, timing mats, the works. 360 people did the 200k ride, starting off in groups of around 50 every couple of minutes, intermingled in which were a number of national / league level riders from both the UK and Europe. For the first 50k I though there was something wrong with me as just a continual stream of packs just flew by me. Normally it's nice to try and hang onto the back of a pack for a few Km to get a bit of a tow but these guys were gone before you could even try.

The time that Richard did it in shows the difference between the bob-a-job riders like me and the serious amateurs, I have a small (5k) circuit I sometimes go out on for a blast, it's dead flat and if I really fly around it, maximum effort etc I can just about average 20mph over the 5k. He averaged 20mph over 200k, including some 3,500 metres of climbing over the course of the route.

So I eventually trailed in some 2 hours later but I was not displeased, I finished 255th out of 360 who did the 200k route, averaging 15mph (including pit stops etc, or 15.8mph average for actual riding time) which I'm pretty happy with over what was a pretty challenging course on a hot day. Of my "bracket" (male, 30-39) I finished 85th out of 120, the first one coming home in 6hrs 20, the last one in 9hrs 50.

Full results listings:

http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/index.php?main=results&sub=order&chal=long

The detailed information on the Etape is now published, including the cut-off times for the dreaded sweeper van - based on this weekends ride I think I'll be fine - I won't win any medals but I think I'll avoid being eliminated - the ride is basically 100k generally flat, for which the cut-off is 14.4mph average, a 23km climb of Tourmalet at 4mph average, a 20km descent off Tourmalet and then 20km flat to Hautacam, average 16mph, then a final 15km climb of Hautacam for which thankfully there is effectively no sweeper van.

http://www.letapedutour.com/2008/ETDT/presentation/us/itineraire.htm

4 weeks to go...

A bit of a long day / madonnas breasts

The Dales Grimpeur, 215km

Up to North Yorkshire for what is generally regarded in the cycling calendar as the hardest 200k event of the season. The course can be best described as like Madonnas famous JPG bra - climb up steep Dale for 5k, descend down other side. Cruise along valley for 20k. Climb up steep another Dale for 5k, descend down other side. Stop, turn onto different road, repeat again. and again. and again. and once more. A total of 4,500m (or 3 miles) of vertical climbing in total.

The last 200k I did was on the flat, we flew around in just over 7 hours. I knew this one was going to take somewhat longer and initially guessed at around 10 hours. The first breast, valley, breast loop annoying bought us right back to within 100 metres of the starting point (how depressing is that) and already I knew that 10 hours was a little optimistic and I revised this down to 12 hours. The scenery was really just stunning and for much of the day there was nothing on the road but walkers & bikes, not a car for miles around. A really nice part of the ride was going up past Dent station to Garsdale Head, I went up this climb on my lands end / john o'groats and the weather was foul, thick cloud, heavy rain, rivers running down the road - this time the weather was perfect, it was nice to see the scenery we missed last time around.

After 130k however I was struggling and a big psychological barrier was that once again we were within just a few km of home. I sat down for a rest and very nearly got out the map to see the quickest way home, getting out the map would have been fatal. Instead I popped into a shop and filled one of my water bottles up with a 1 litre bottle of lucozade and got a nice sugar rush for the next 30k or so. After that it was the point of no return, it was shorter to keep going than turn back. Finally arrived back to the finish at 8:20pm, with a total time of 12 hours 20 minutes. Very very tired, by far the longest and hardest day in the saddle I've had but great training for the E'tape which is just 5 weeks away now.

Called my wife to say I'd be home around midnight, don't wait up etc. And then I locked my keys in my car. Worse than that, also in the car were all my worldly possessions - mobile phone, wallet, shoes (so yes, I only had socks on). Thankfully the car was parked at the guest house where I had stayed the night before and he let me use his phone to call the AA. Finally arrived home just shy of 2am, very drained, very fatigued, more than a little tired.

Weighed myself the next day - I started the ride at 77kg. During the ride I had drunk 10 litres of water plus 1 litre of lucozade, so drunk 11 litres (or 11kg) in all, plus breakfast, lunch, dinner, energy bars etc etc. Finished the ride weighting 73kg. Impressive eh!