L'Etape 2010

Well, in the last year of training I cycled 6589 kms, took 281 hrs 21 mins and climbed 62,713 metres just to do the above ride! Was it worth it? I don’t know but I got eliminated again!!

This year I had a great start number 4742 and was halfway from the 10,000 starters. In fact I got up early at 5 to get to the start early to get at the front of my starting pen to steal a march on the dreaded Broom Wagon that sweeps you up. In fact I started after 10 mins giving me 30 mins start on same wagon. Yippee!. I was feeling good, my trainer and I had planned each kilometre and reckoned I would do it in 10.5 hrs with 30 mins lead on the broom wagon. Feeling confident. Had driven quite a lot of the route the day before on a recce and saw at least 20 mins that I could easily take a lead on the broom wagon on the stretch after the first big climb.

Weather was nice and cool and after an hour and a short category 4 climb, I was on schedule and had gained 2 mins on the broom wagon. The next 30kms though was a lot more undulating than the official route suggested. In fact they gave us the wrong information. There was also a couple of bottle necks through two towns where we came to a halt so I was now 10 mins from where I wanted to be.

Anyway still started the first big climb Col de Marie Blanque in good form with 20 mins to spare and planned to keep in the green as it was the first climb and I still had the part where I could make up time to follow. 9kms of climb starting really OK for the first 5 kms then it really ramps up to 11-13% gradient for the last 4 kms. Relentless. Anyway about 1.5 kms from the summit people started to get off their bikes ahead and walk, as the road was really narrow and it was too steep for some. I tried to keep cycling but fell off my bike twice as people fell into me and I tried to restart on the steep. Eventually I gave up and had to walk the last kms to the summit along with everyone else. So now I have lost 15 mins and need to get cracking. Filled my bottles on the descent but the top half is quite slow and partly plateaued. Last third was great and I hit 72 kph but had to dodge people the whole time.

The next bit I made up the 20 mins but started to run out of steam a bit after that. I couldn’t turn the pedals with the power that I started with and that I was used to doing in practice. So I got to the first elimination point 20 mins ahead of the broom wagon so I had only lost 10 mins despite everything and we were 6 hrs in. I was very pleased with myself as this is where I got caught last year in a similar position. I thought I would rest for 10 mins as this was the real start of the climb of the Col de Soulor category 1 with 13 kms left to go to the summit. I fed well on fruit and carbs and set off.

Things weren’t working so well and it starts really steep for a few kms and after 30 mins I started realising that I just didn’t have enough power/energy to keep the average speed I needed to avoid elimination. This was a really rough realisation as it soon occurred to me that I just hadn’t drunk enough water. My trainer had told me to dring at least 2 bottles by the top of the first climb I had only drunk I and a half. By now I had only drunk 2 litres in over 6 hrs on a 32 degree day with steep climbs. At least half what I needed. I must have been mad. Still ot sure why I didn’t drink enough.

So I decided to pull over with some other cyclists under some trees and rest for 5 mins and have a gel and a drink. Soon a motorcyclist appeared to say the broom wagon was 5 mins away and we should cycle down the mountain to meet it. That made me take off again immediately he had gone so I wasn’t swept up. I carried on another half hour and was approached twice by sweepers and I said no I feel fine and will continue the ride. They let me go. Then an official in a car with the timer on his roof pulled alongside me and said I was eliminated. I said no again. So he said OK give me your transponder you are out of the race but can continue and drew a red line through my number. So off I went again.

5 kms from the summit the buses came up and stopped behind me. It was weird by then because I seemed to be the only one left on the mountain. The leading bus stopped to ask me if I wanted to get on. It was then that I thought well I am not going to finish the whole race as I will never recover the energy I needed, and would therefore have no way to get back to where Lisa was meeting me except probably walk to the top of the Col de Tourmalet, so reluctantly I thought the best thing was to get in the bus.

I guess that was the right decision. Seeing all those poor cyclists walking or staggering up the last climb in the searing heat I was glad I wasn’t them – in a way.

But I am so disappointed, I lasted 7 hrs and 10 mins and climbed 2400 metres which was 2 hrs more than last year and 760 metres more. It was a lot tougher this year and over 3000 got eliminated.

Will I do it next year? Who knows.  For now I will just enjoy the bike.

If you want to read the harrowing experiences of someone who made it follow this link.