Author: johnstourdeforce

Cycling summary

Breakfast: 07:00. Transfer: None. Start time: 08:00. Distance: 213.5km. Terrain: flat, with a bit of work to do in the middle (1,820 metres). Climbs: one Cat 4. Finish: 19:30. Time in saddle: 9h40.

Suffer scores: John 9/10, Alex “put what you like John, I don’t care any more”. So that’s a 9/10 as well!

Local lowdown

Having headed north to Troyes, we are now heading back south to Nuits-Saint-Georges which is probably the most prestigious of the Burgundy wines if you like that sort of thing. Which I do. Hic. Other vintages are available.

Tale from the tour

Last night Martyn and Dequane arrived to ride today’s stage. They are from the Westminster House Youth Club, a charity supported by the money we raise from the cycling. Since I have visited there a few times, I had been asked to act as link cyclist which involved going for a ride with them beforehand and being a friendly face on their arrival on tour. At dinner they each spoke about the club and their involvement in it and were warmly welcomed by others who then formed a queue to speak to them which they appreciated.

I rode with them for the first 45km to feed stop one, with other riders coming along for a chat too. Then our lead cyclist Gareth rode with Dequane while I continued with Martyn to the second stop. Unfortunately we had filthy weather today, but Dequane still rode 100km out of 224km (we often have to ride more than the official Tour distances for logistical reasons) while Martyn completed the whole stage. That was a massive achievement by both of them and rightly recognised as such at dinner.

You may think that the stage was easy because it was flat and just one climb.  Well yes, but there are any amount of undulations and with the weather as it was I was certainly cursing the wind by the end. OK, so the wind was in our favour for the last few km but after two days of this plus what we had on Stage 2, I’ve had quite enough of that particular test now. I would rather be battling against gravity than fighting against a headwind (but careful what I wish for I guess). With the distance too (now a cumulative 1,300 km or so I think – too tired to check) that made for one tough ride.

I have decided that if ever I spend a day moving from Champagne to Gevrey-Chambertin to Nuits-Saint-George again, it will be in the form of moving from a bottle to a glass, not on a bike. And the weather can do whatever it likes outside!

The scenery has been nice enough but starting to get a bit monotonous now. We will get to the mountains tomorrow and I am looking forward to that, albeit that the Schleckometer has ticked up a notch or to!

Thanks for the feedback I have had so far and sorry that time makes it impossible to respond individually. One such is that my son Tom has suggested that the Tour de Force should be renamed the Antiques Roadshow! Cheeky so-and-so, but he is his father’s son alright!

It’s the weather and cumulative effect that counts for the uptick in the suffer scores today. Plus we ended up in smaller groups so that made it harder. That and the fact that we are currently surrounded by wet kit that has no hope of drying out overnight.

Cycling summary

Breakfast: 07:00. Transfer: None. Start time: 08:00. Distance: 216km. Terrain: flat if you’re a pro, else lumpy (1,920 metres). Climbs: two Cat 4. Finish: 19:00. Time in saddle: 9h15.

Suffer scores: John 6.5/10, Alex 7.5/10

Local lowdown

We’re still in a less well-known part of France here where both the start and finish towns are described as “children friendly towns”, whatever that means. On hot summer days in past cycling trips to France I’ve appreciated friendly children aiming water pistols and hoses at us as we go through, but they won’t be expecting us today. We often whizz past Troyes on the autoroute on the way down to the high mountains of the Alps. But this place is more than just a road sign, as we find out today as we continue through what the Tour de France organisers call beautiful countryside and into the champagne region.

Tale from the Tour

At the start I was chatting to another avid blogger, Ben, who told me the broad outline of what he was planning to write about on what turned out to be an otherwise fairly featureless day. I replied that I was starting with a blank canvas and would see what happened. In the end I didn’t paint anything but I did write two songs, which sort of work in my head if I take liberties with the scanning so here goes!

First one, to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas:

In June and July the Tour de France gave to me:

12 hay bale sculptures

11 flattish stages

10 days of mountains

9 towns with bunting

8 riders riding

7 brake pads squealing

6 bellies rumbling

5 FE-ED STOPS, with dinner

4 tight quads

3 calf strains

2 dodgy knees

And a bicycle propped against a tree

This was written on a long, wet and uneventful section. We subsequently went through the town of Blaisny, so to the tune of “Daisy, Daisy”:

Blaisny, Blaisny

Good to be riding through

I’m half crazy

But I guess you know that too

Your part of the Tour de France

It’s great to have the chance

Life is sweet upon the seat

Of a bike with a D i 2

Make what you will of the above! I was riding with Barry who said that people in lighthouses go mad because there are no corners into which the mind can retreat. I think the same must be true of cycling on long straight roads!

Otherwise the morning was characterised by lots of lorries going past as we were on the busy N19 (before the mind started wandering as per the above), so concentration and discipline was key.

At one of the feed stops there was a memorial to Charles de Gaulle.

Otherwise that’s about it, other than to say that it was a big bike ride.

I think suffering was about the same for me as yesterday on account of the long distance and the fact that the headwind made cycling downhill difficult even at 3% or a bit more. Alex went for a higher score because he had had enough by the end, as did I in fact.

Cycling summary

Breakfast: 07:00. Transfer: evening transfer only, 1h30. Start time: 08:00. Distance: 160.5km. Terrain: rolling, with the first proper climb coming at the end (2,422 metres climbing). Climbs: one Cat 1, one Cat 3. Finish: 16:30. Time in saddle: 7h02.

Suffer scores: Both 6.5/10

Local lowdown

I’ve experienced more of this area than the others so far, having carried out a recon in May, so I shall refer you to my earlier post (“In search of mountain legs”). Yet another thermal baths here, this time en route when we pass through Luxeuil-les-bains where I had to shell out for aforementioned bathing cap and claquettes as well as paying an entrance fee! La Planche des Belles Filles is the stuff of legend (again see my earlier post), but is perhaps named after local flora (a corruption of “bel fahy” in the old local dialect, meaning beech trees which are common to the area) rather than young ladies escaping an unpleasant fate by leaping to their deaths.

Tale from the Tour

Another great day today and our first mountain climb. We have been building towards this and as I remarked to a fellow rider, with all the chat and worry about the final climb it’s been a bit like waiting outside an exam hall! Of course, in my case I have had a sneak preview of the exam paper and which put me in good stead! I ended up with a Personal Best on Strava though I did set that up by not pushing too hard in May! Tactics.

After the first feed stop we were again in our small (and functional) group, with some additions, but ended up as part of a group of 25 or so. Though good, and feeling like more of a peloton, as these are not closed roads nine of us decided to hold back and have a more manageable group.

After half way we were back on roads I had covered before and although training on the same roads at home can get boring, I enjoyed the familiarity of this.

Travelling part of the route in the opposite direction to what I knew was fun and provided some photo opportunities. This section included a categorised climb. During these times the mind can wander. “When does a pond become a lake?”, mused one. “When does a stream become a river?”, mused another. “When does a boy become a man?”, mused Andrew. And before we knew it the climb was over with no more time for philosophising.

We were elated to reach the top of the Planche des Belles Filles, which we all rode at our own pace. It’s a real tough one, especially at the end.  For some reason that I cannot explain, I decided to take my mind off the 20% slope by reciting pub names. I think I started with the Kings Arms and when I got to the Bulls Arms I realised I had lost the plot!

From the top of the climb it was a few hundred metres back to the cafe where the earlier arrivals and support crew were cheering people on. This provided a great incentive – how can you stop on that really steep section when so many eyes are on you?! We then in turn cheered on the others of course.

Since there is no hotel at the top, we had dinner at the cafe before getting on coaches to Vesoul, tomorrow’s start town and another “bijou” hotel!

On the suffer front, this has to be the hardest so far just because of that last climb, though the rest was fine. I am not allowing half marks but got shouted down, not just by Alex but by Robin and Andrew – together the four musketeers!

Today I thought we should also use a “Schleckometer” to gauge how “tired” we are. I think at the moment I am a bit tired, rather than “quite tired” or “totally tired”.

Cycling summary

Breakfast: 07:15. Transfer: 1h00. Start time: 08:15. Distance: 207.5km. Terrain: largely flat, 1,440 metres climbing. Climbs: one Cat 4. Finish: 17:41 Time in saddle: 7h15.

Suffer scores: John 2/10, Alex 4/10

Local lowdown

The official Tour website to which I am indebted refers to this being a day dedicated to water. They mean the thermal baths which are common to this area, the start town of Mondorf-les-Bains being the first such place we visit. We’ve snuck back into Luxembourg for the start in fact, aiming for Vittel where there are yet more thermal baths. If you want to go in, don’t forget your little bathing cap and “claquettes” (flip flops). Vittel is also the home of the frog tart, but that had better not be on the menu – too small you see, not enough protein.

Tale from the Tour

The transfer happened before breakfast because quite honestly the hotel was a bit of a dump and could not provide sufficient for us in the morning. It did not even provide toilet paper which became an issue you don’t want to hear about.

On the major plus side, this meant that Franck Schleck joined us for breakfast at the start in Mondorf because he lives there and one of our riders is from Luxembourg and knows him! For those who don’t know, he rode the Tour 9 times.

Franck came round and spoke to us all and was impressed by what we are doing, the money we are raising and the causes we are supporting, recognising that we are the privileged ones (himself included) who can afford to spend their time mucking around on bikes.

We asked Franck about his Tour hotel experiences and one of them was far worse than ours. He recounted the story of one hotel which was not ensuite (OK so not the end of the world perhaps) and going for a shower meant walking on a squelchy carpet. We feel less bad about last night now! And tonight we are in a really nice place just outside Vittel where we are also able to make a better job of washing and drying our kit so that we don’t get any sores.

The route today was unremarkable though there was more sign of Tour life and some pretty feed stops.

The best thing about today’s ride was that seven of us continued where we left off yesterday and rode really well as a group. Each person did a 2km turn on the front in strict rotation and no-one was too shy to call out and reign someone in if they were getting too excited on the front.  This may not sound like much to a non-cyclist but when you are riding more than 200km it is a big deal. Andrew, who is using a power metre, tells me that he only had to work half as hard when he was on the back, so you can see the benefit. Consequently we don’t currently feel as bad as Franck suggested we might, but there’s still time I guess! And we finally started to see more decorations

I found today easier than yesterday because of flat terrain and the teamwork. Alex was tiring at the end.

Cycling summary

Breakfast: 05:45. Transfer: 0h30. Start time: 08:00. Distance: 212.5km. Terrain: typical Ardennes (=lumpy, 2,763 metres). Climbs: two Cat 3, three Cat 4. Finish: 18:59. Time in saddle: 8h15.

Suffer scores: John 3/10, Alex 4/10

Local lowdown

We start in Belgium and spend the best part of the day riding through Luxembourg – from top to bottom in fact and then out the other side. We end up in Longwy and our first sight of French tarmac. Longwy remained part of France in the 19th century when other parts of Alsace-Lorraine became part of the German Empire. No doubt the ramparts (now part of a UNESCO world heritage site) had something to do with that. Pottery is a big thing in Longwy, but I won’t be replacing my water bottles with anything ceramic.

Tale from the Tour

Dropping due south, we passed a sign saying 950 metres to the Grand Duchy but there was no actual sign to show when we had passed into Luxembourg. We knew that we had arrived when the car number plates change and the villages went from being a bit scruffy to neat and tidy. Also the drivers seemed more impatient. We knew when we had entered France when it got a bit industrial and tired-looking.

After some fairly ordinary scenery, we had our best view as we were crossing a bridge and the shout went up to stop for photos.

The riding was great today, not just the scenery but a few of us have gelled really well as a group of riders and which makes all the difference.  Inevitably I struggle a bit on flats and descents because I have less raw power and ballast, but I make that up on climbs if needed. By and large though the rotation works well.

 

One thing that has been striking on the Tour to date is the almost complete absence of visible signs that it is happening! Sure, there were some painted bicycles and a few signs in Düsseldorf and Liege but it contrasts poorly with last year.  Admittedly that was in France, but Yorkshire put them to shame. They still have a week to go I suppose.

Tonight we went to a Chinese restaurant for an “all you can eat” buffet. They are lucky that we are not too far into the Tour and have yet to properly dip into calorie deficit else we would have descended like a plague of locusts and probably bankrupted them!

A word on the suffer scores. Overall an easier day because of the lack of wind and great group work, though Alex found the climbing a little tougher.

Cycling summary

Breakfast: 06:45. Transfer: None. Start time: 08:00. Distance: 203.5km. Terrain: largely flat (1,400 metres climbing) Climbs: two Cat 4. Finish: 17:38. Time in saddle: 7h32

Suffer scores: John 5/10. Alex 5/10

Local lowdown

Today we pass through the Neander Valley, from whence came Neanderthal man until he evolved into a cyclist! Liège is not the prettiest place on earth, but is the home of one of the “monuments” of cycling going out to Bastogne and back. A brutal 270km ride that I did in 2015. Bastogne wasn’t much better but if you like waffles, you’re in business in this area. Liège is called Luik in the Walloon language, and hence why I got lost once as I couldn’t see any signs for the former, though there were plenty for the latter! Prompted me to get a Satnav…..

Tale from the Tour

I was expecting this to be an undistinguished ride – life in northern (industrial) towns including a loop out of Düsseldorf and then back in again – but there were some moments. To start with there was the day’s first puncture – mine.

What characterised today was the strong headwind that was doing its best to blow us back to Düsseldorf, which would have been a real shame because having been there two days and escaping it once this morning only to have to return we really wanted to stay away!

We finally made it into Belgium and I was happy to get into the rolling Ardennes countryside which was more my kind of terrain and a lot prettier too.

The wind contributed to the splitting up of the groups, but the most unusual cause of a split was negotiating our way through a carnival which seemed to be celebrating the pig (what the pig has done for us over the centuries etc). I heard one mum say to her young daughter “vite vite cherie come and look at the slaughtered pig that has been cut in half and thrown on the back of a horse drawn cart”. That was the gist of it anyway.

We had earlier negotiated another road block where there were anti-nuclear protesters. I think I somewhat undermined the seriousness of their protest by getting them to cheer on our peloton as we rode up the street!

Note to Stewart. Alex’s “mean cup of tea” turned out to be coffee, and white at that. I think we’ll be ok though. The suffer scores are our entirely subjective assessments. We are expecting rides that are harder than today and hoping for some easier ones!

That’s it. Time to eat and to wash the kit.

Cycling summary

Start time: 17:00. Distance: 14km time trial. Terrain: flat. Climbs: None. Finish: 18:30. Time in saddle: 0h55

Local lowdown

Think Düsseldorf, think beer and sausage. The stereotype is true perhaps, but apparently there is a great fondness for all things French here. There is a three day celebration of French culture and cuisine around the time of Bastille Day (14th July), but we will be long gone by then. Will have to make do with beer and sausage then!

Tale from the Tour

Well first up a group of us that had arrived yesterday went to see the rugby.

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly we lost what is probably our best chance of a win in the Lions-NZ series but hey ho. At least we got to see it in the comfort of McLaughlin’s bar and no-one dared sit in front of us. We were very loud at time and would have deafened them!

After that it was back to the hotel for a spot of lunch at the superbly named Mangold bar. Now we are not all golden oldies and we are not all male, but there is nevertheless a fairly narrow demographic. We had dinner and a few beers there last night too, having first retrieved our bikes from the vans that had brought them out and stored them in the basement next to the sauna as instructed. This still seems to have annoyed someone using it at the time, quite possibly we had had the temerity to move the deckchairs to make space, one of which had his towel on it. Ever been confronted by an angry, naked German? First incident of the tour and we hadn’t even got on our bikes yet. Now I usually like to illustrate my stories, but this one not so much!

There’s been a triathlon event going on today, so in order to make life easier we held off doing our ride until 5pm as it wasn’t going to take long. This gave us plenty of time for a briefing and to meet other riders and the support team who will be vital to our success in this crazy mission to ride 3,500km over 21 days.

The best thing that can be said about today’s stage is that we have knocked it off the list. I’m not complaining, but commuting in London used to be more fun. And the Tour is the Tour after all (cliche alert). Ride leaders did an excellent job of getting about 50 people through busy streets where we also had to contend with tram tracks.

Oh, and I was honoured to receive the first “chapeau” award for having mentored one of the lads who attends a charity supported by the money we raise. Dequane will be coming out to ride stage 7 and I hope he feels encouraged by our ride together. Please do consider sponsoring me if you haven’t already. Http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/johngriffiths5. It’s for very good causes.

 

So, another beer, then dinner and one more beer for carbo-loading purposes and it’s time for bed before a proper ride tomorrow. As I mentioned at dinner, so far I have drunk more beers than I have ridden kilometres. There may be some journalistic licence in that, but not much!

I could become a better all-round cyclist if I worked on my descending skills and could generate more power on the flat. However, in order to get through the Tour de Force I decided early on that I would focus on my (relative) strength, namely climbing. Climbing is when cycling tends to hurt most. Riding fast can hurt too, but you can always slow down a bit whereas the mountain is still going to be there! My aim is to enjoy the Tour and so I’m looking to minimise the pain and suffering in terms of time and effort required on the many cols and mountain tops that are to come. As of May, my total vertical ascent is now over 50 miles – that’s way above the stratosphere though not yet in space!

Early on I decided that I would recon some of the climbs that I don’t already know, so I planned this week of two halves, focussing on stages 5 and 9 of the 2017 Tour. I’ve written a lot and posted a lot of photos here. The narrative will help me when I get even older to remind me of this week and I am sure that some will just flick through the pictures. That’s absolutely fine! I am grateful for the interest shown and sponsorship received already and all I ask is that if you enjoy this blog (which is a taste of what’s to come in June/July) then you consider making a donation. All the money raised goes towards supporting the charities that the William Wates Memorial Trust supports (more on which I have posted earlier – see the Grand Slam post for example). That’s virginmoneygiving.com/johngriffiths5. Thank you!

Vosges

The Tour spent a few days in the Vosges in Eastern France in 2014. I was captivated by the beauty of the landscape and it’s been on my “to do” list since then. Since stage 5 finishes at La Planches des Belles Filles (henceforth PDBF), I decided to go there first and also to ride the route of the “Trois Ballons” and to split all that activity over two full days, not cram it into one. My friend Matthew was with me for this part of the week as he is training for the Vatternrundun ride in Sweden (300km) and will be spending a week crossing the Canadian Rockies. We maximised time on the bike by getting in a short ride on arrival day (Friday) once the storm had cleared and got our first taste of the area.

 

 

On Saturday we headed straight for PDBF. At the café at Plancher des Mines we got chatting with Veronique, whose brother made this statue at the top. Not my best photo, but is depicts a belle fille – the legend is that this is a place where young ladies threw themselves to their deaths in order to escape unwelcome attention from the advancing Swedish mercenaries. However, it seems to be named after beech trees in the area – belles fahys in the local dialect. Indeed, there is a village called Belfahy in the area and it sits on top of a horrible climb. We know, because we rode it! Still, it got the legs warmed up nicely!

Veronique was not too keen on the Tour coming through because it not does too much for the area other than spoil it (it’s a massive juggernaut of an operation). She said that we were OK though because we were spending money in the café. But in a seeming contradiction, Veronique and the bar owner were excited to show us a newspaper cutting with a picture of Chris Froome at their friends’ café at the top of PDBF when he came through the previous week to do his own recon. That’s despite the signs commemorating his victory in 2012 when it took him a little over 16 minutes to complete the 5.9km climb so he clearly knows it rather well! We took rather longer than that – indeed Mr Froome would have had time to descend to the bottom and probably pass us as we got to the top!

The climb itself, by the way, was mostly fine. The first 5km is a fairly steady 10 or 11% but we were able to chat easily as we went up. Why is a 10% climb in France easier than a 10% climb at home? Road surface might have something to do with that, and so does the environment probably. There’s then a short dip and the final part of the climb gets steep (I hit 20% briefly), but it’s all over in a matter of a few hundred metres.

After a leisurely lunch at the café at PDBF, we then went on to tackle our first ballon – the Ballon de Servance. I think the term “ballon” is given to those mountains over 1,000 metres, otherwise there are many other cols dotted around which get to 600+ metres. This was a long, steady climb presenting no real difficulty as the gradient was mostly 6-9%. This made for a good descent the other side – not too steep and not too twisty. The last 20km home was ridden through a thunderstorm. We had seen it brewing for a while and had been circling it until it hit us big time, with hail as well just for good measure.

The next day we drove to Servance so that we could ride the rest of the Trois Ballons route, which included Ballon d’Alsace and the Grand Ballon (appropriately the highest of the three at 1,504 metres). With other cols dotted here and there, this was a day of constant ascending and descending. The two 15km climbs up the Ballons were just what I needed and it was a great ride. Rain jackets were on and off all day, but there was a lot of sunshine too. We were fortunate not to be out in the thunderstorm that followed. In the car on the way back we witnessed an even greater storm than the previous day. Hardly need for headlights with all the lightning, though the windscreen wipers needed to go at triple speed!

Matthew and I did a final ride together on Monday morning before he headed off to the airport and work tomorrow, poor thing! We followed the route of La Boucle de la Petite Finlande. So called, I think, because of all the lakes and pine trees. Once Matthew left after lunch, I had a power nap and felt ready to go again – I had been feeling weary on the morning ride. I explored to the north and west this time. Yet again there were more picturesque climbs and descents through forests, past lakes and streams and waterfalls. Is there no end to this beauty!

 

The Vosges fully lived up to my hopes and expectations in terms of scenery and cycling experience. Indeed, I feel like this is a cycling paradise, though you have to enjoy climbing which fortunately I do!

Jura

The climbs on Stage 9 of the Tour include Col de la Biche, Grand Colombier and Mont du Chat. After a long drive south on Tuesday morning, I arrived at Culoz from where I set out to climb the Mont du Chat. We go over the difficult side and descend into Bourget-du-Lac. The first sign you see is at 12km to go, but the climb kicks off in earnest from about 7km to go and the gradient soon gets to 14-20% and stays there. Ouch! With about 3km left to go, the gradient drops to around 12% which by now feels like a long-lost friend. The final run-in at 8% seems positively flat! But the view at the top is breath-taking. One photo does not do it justice but I can’t post my panoramic video here. With the lake down below and the Alps in the background, it’s inspiration enough to get me back up that climb in early July.

 

My return route via the D14 was blocked to cyclists due to work going on, so I either had to retrace my steps and climb Mont du Chat again, or add a few km to my day by going round the lake via Aix-les-Bains. Tempted as I was to do another climb, it was getting late in the day and the lake route was flat. Unfortunately so was my front tyre. I had two punctures today and was now out of spare tubes. With about 40km still to go I was concerned, but managed to blag a spare off a cyclist who I saw was at his car and packing up for the day. Result! There were no further blow outs but I felt better. On future solo rides I think I’ll take three tubes with me, though I’ve only ever had that many punctures once before I think.

On Wednesday I ventured out from my hotel in La Balme de Sillingy. It sounds like a lotion for curing daftness, but I think I’m a lost cause! It was great to set off from the hotel after three days of having a “transfer” first. It will be like this on tour, where most days involve getting on a coach first and those days where we can start directly from the hotel are a real joy. Not least because you can maybe have an extra 30 minutes in bed!

The Col de la Biche was tougher than I expected it to be, particularly at the bottom so that was good to note. Fairly unremarkable at the top and there was no café which was a shame, though I always carry some food with me.

 

Then it was on to Grand Colombier. Approaching it from this side offers two ways to the top. I plotted the right one on my Garmin, but dithered and ended up going up the climb that the Tour followed last year instead of the tougher one that we will do this year. However, the last 4km are the same regardless of the starting point so that’s OK. Where the two routes meet I did consider going down to Virieux le Petit and climbing again just to make sure I did the proper route (was fairly sure I was wrong by then), but I thought that would be excessive. Plus as it turns out there’s no café at the top here either and I was out of food by now, though with a descent into Seyssel coming up. In any case, having some “unfinished business” with a mountain can be motivational for next time!

 

In Seyssel, the bar had stopped serving food but I’d seen the sign that they had Affligem on tap – my favourite Belgian beer! When I was asked what I wanted, there was absolutely no thought of ordering a Coke or an Orangina – asking for a beer was a totally reflex action! I still had a little way to go to get back to the hotel, but I had a real sense of “mission accomplished” and a cheeky little “vingt cinq” wasn’t going to hurt!

I was previously thinking of going for a ride the next morning before heading north again for an overnight stay in Luxeuil-les-Bains (near where I had been staying in the Vosges), but all thoughts of that evaporated as I was having my beer. I think my body was telling me that I had done enough now. Indeed, it was crying out for a relaxing hour chilling out in the thermal baths, if that’s possible at 34 degrees. There were some aqua cycles in the pool, but I left those well alone! I’ve a little bit more training to do when I get back, then a holiday (no bikes!) and then I’ll just need to tick over gently until it’s time to come back out with the Tour de Force and experience the majesty of this region all over again.

I think I should have entitled this post “Beauty and Majesty”, for that is what it has been. But I think I’ve found my mountain legs (we’ll find out, won’t we!), so I’ll leave it at that.

See you in June…….

 

 

 

Before I knew I would be riding the whole Tour in 2017, I had decided that my main challenge for this year would be to ride on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. The full pro race is around 250 km, starting from Compiegne (north west of Paris) incorporating 27 sections of cobbles totalling some 55 km. The day before the pros race, amateurs could choose to ride either 70km, 145km or 172km in order to experience some of the “Hell of the North”, one of the five “monuments” of cycling. I chose the middle option on account of the fact it started and finished in Roubaix, rather than needing to spend 1.5 hours on a coach to Busigny, where the longest of the challenges starts. That’s something I can do without, as there will be plenty of transfers to endure when I do the Tour de France! The route I chose still had 18 cobbled sections, totalling some 33km and included the iconic sections such as Trouée d’Arenberg and Le Carrefour de l’Arbre.

Weather conditions were good, meaning that the course would be dry and dusty, not wet and slippery, so that was in my favour. I had opted for slightly wider tyres than I would normally ride (28mm) and did not inflate them as much as I normally would in order to attempt the limit the bouncing (80 psi). I think it worked in that there were no problems in the saddle area – issues came elsewhere!

As we were starting in Roubaix and only joining the longer Paris-Roubaix challenge route after 51km, this meant a fast-paced ride out on clear, smooth roads and the opportunity to join other groups of riders. My pain would be experienced solo later in the ride. I started just before 8 am and once out of town it was misty first thing until the sun won through. So for the first few km I could only smell the muck-spread fields rather than see them!

I’ve experienced the cobbles that feature on the Tour of Flanders and expected these ones to be worse. I was not disappointed! First up was the Trouée d’Arenberg, 2.4km of cobbles that were graded a 5 star difficulty rating (out of 5). What a baptism! I hit the cobbles OK, remembering what I had been told about selecting the right gear beforehand and maintaining momentum. What I had not anticipated was that I would be unable to see properly – this was because my eyeballs were bouncing around inside my skull! Despite there being smooth sections of tarmac alongside the cobbles (which a good number of people were using), I was determined to see this through to the bitter end and was thrilled when I did so. I thought this augured well for the rest of the ride, given that there were only three 5-star cobbled sections in total, so the other 15 must be easier right? Well they were, sort of, but not by very much. The only real difference between 2-star and 4-star sections was the length I think, or at least it felt like it.

The next cobbled section was shorter and went OK, this time with perfect vision. Half way through the 3.7 km third section I realised that I was already starting to get blisters on my hands. This was not a good sign. My normal riding position is to have my hands on the hoods, not the bars, and I think my failure to go straight to the bars may have caused the problem – or at least brought the situation on earlier than it otherwise would have done. Oh well, there was not much I could do about it now but to grimace and bear it. In fact, in most of the photos that were taken of me during the day it’s clear that there was a lot of grimacing going on!

Over the next few sections I stayed mostly on the cobbles but did go for some occasional respite by riding along the side. In fact, riding on the hard-packed earth alongside the cobbles was almost as difficult most of the time as it was rutted, narrowed at times, and there were quite a few holes too. My honour drove me to stay on the cobbles as far as possible though, rather than copy the many who took whatever advantage they could. As the day wore on though, I was happy to start compromising a little more!

The feed stop provided welcome relief for a while. 6 sections down, 12 to go. I was making reasonable time, but I was staggered by the speed of the people who were able to fly by me. During the next sections I tried to push harder in order to get the pain over and done with quicker, but I clearly lacked the strength and/or technique and perhaps the sore hands were hampering me too, though the blisters weren’t giving me grief when I was riding on the bars.

One flat field gave way to another flat field and each of them had another long stretch of cobbles with which to contend. These sections were coming thick and fast now, with only a handful of km between each of them in which to recover. And even then we were faced with a headwind to impede us in another way. You could see the foreboding sign marking the start of a new section looming in the distance – a sign to start mentally preparing for the next assault on the body. There was also another 5-star section to negotiate during this period, but eyeballs stayed in place this time.

Another feed stop, then the final 7 sections. The third last was Le Carrefour de l’Arbre, the last of the 5-star killer sections. I had pretty much had enough by now and was so pleased that I had not gone for the 172km route as I would have reached that threshold much sooner! To start with I could not face bouncing around on cobbles again so stuck to the sides for a bit, then stopped to admire the prowess of those coming through and to try and record what the road looks like. I was pretty exhausted by this stage.

Two more sections to endure, and then the merciful relief of knowing that there was just a few km of smooth roads to go before the end. I was happy, but not yet relaxed because the ride finishes in the velodrome. I’ve never ridden in a velodrome before and the last thing I wanted was to get it all wrong on the banking and end up in a heap! Entering the track was OK in the end and I soon moved to the flat on the inside – safety first after I had come so far. I felt triumphant crossing the finishing line. No mean achievement, and although it’s always possible to wonder “what if” with respect to how I could have done things differently, it is not one I shall be repeating, but don’t let me put you off!

 

With little over 10 weeks to go before the Tour de Force commences, it’s time for a quick update on how my preparation is going. This has included my most notable ride of the year to date (ever?) – the Paris-Roubaix challenge! More on that in the next post.

The training so far

At the start of the year I looked at my training diary for 2016 and felt somewhat intimidated by what I had achieved in the first few months of that year! I wanted to match that and by the end of February, despite some tricky road conditions that curtailed some of my efforts, I largely achieved it. I was sort of following my triple weekly objectives from last year (150 miles in total, one ride of at least 70 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing), but not slavishly so. This was because knowing that I would be leaving my job at the beginning of March I would have more time to focus on my preparation. In the event, March turned out to be a huge training month, clocking up over 1,000 miles but more importantly I was focussing on getting a lot of climbing in. The Tour will include a lot of climbing of course, but this year a number of steeper sections are on the schedule so I’ve been actively seeking out the challenging hills in the Kent/Sussex countryside.

My schedule seems to have fallen into a routine whereby I ride for four days and then take three days off. This should help build up my endurance while also giving me sufficient recovery time.

So far, so good.