I'm just back from a visit to France to ride the Etape and see the tour. Under-fit and suffering from a hacking cough I managed to wheeze round in 10 hours 20 minutes for a bronze standard. I knew the climbs would be tough but I hadn't realised quite how brutal. After about half an hour of serious climbing you see a sign telling you it's still 9 kilometres to the top. You look at your computer: 7 kph. The descent off the 4th col was spectacular and with the field finally thinned out enough to really let rip. I clocked 85.3 kph somewhere on this descent.
Still, the last 40 kilometres were also very tough. The route plan had shown a steady descent into Bayonne interrupted by a couple of climbs. Actually it was a series of rolling hills all the way to the coast with a strong headwind thrown in. There was also a nasty detour in the last 10K with 2 very long steep soul-destroying hills. I think this was a traffic measure for the Etape and don't think the Tour itself will be sent along this.
I can't wait to see how the professionals tackle it. The TV pictures can give you no conception of just how tough these mountains are.
Well done, I did part of the Etape du Tour unofficially in 1994. I rode the Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden and man it was hard. In those days they chose the stage that proceeded the rest day so we had all the roadside regalia including the crowds cheering, pushing and handing up water bottles. Thedescent of the Tourmalet on a closed road was spectacular, chasing a motorbike, I clocked up 56mph, just couldn't push it to the magical 100kph though.
"Dave Kahn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
I'm just back from a visit to France to ride the Etape and see the tour. Under-fit and suffering from a hacking cough I managed to wheeze round in 10 hours 20 minutes for a bronze standard. I knew the climbs would be tough but I hadn't realised quite how brutal. After about half an hour of serious climbing you see a sign telling you it's still 9 kilometres to the top. You look at your computer: 7 kph. The descent off the 4th col was spectacular and with the field finally thinned out enough to really let rip. I clocked 85.3 kph somewhere on this descent.
Still, the last 40 kilometres were also very tough. The route plan had shown a steady descent into Bayonne interrupted by a couple of climbs. Actually it was a series of rolling hills all the way to the coast with a strong headwind thrown in. There was also a nasty detour in the last 10K with 2 very long steep soul-destroying hills. I think this was a traffic measure for the Etape and don't think the Tour itself will be sent along this.
I can't wait to see how the professionals tackle it. The TV pictures can give you no conception of just how tough these mountains are.
