Etape du Tour Done!

So, it's all over! I am writing this whilst watching the Tour de France doing the same stage, Pau to Tourmalet, that we did.

Map of the route

We arrived in Pau really late on Friday, thanks to Easy Jet. Saturday was spent sorting out bikes, and registering. I also went on my bike for the first time since coming off, luckily all was fine and I was raring to go

Remi in the pen

Got up at 4am on Sunday and had a big brekkie. At 5.45 the Sky group and Simon set of for the pens. Simon peeled off to his pen and I headed off to ours. We settled in our pen, turning the bikes upside down, sitting on the floor and waiting in the dawn light until the start. At just before 7 we turned our bikes up, shuffled forward and got ready. At 7am we were off, cycling round the park, into a short descent and off down the road out of Pau.

My friend Remi passed me on the ascent (he later came 3rd in our team) and I caught up Rachel and cycled with her. The effort required was minimal, even without drafting anyone the pack was so big that the air was clear and we cruised along. We headed off to the country side chatting to each other. We arrived at the first small climb, something like Box Hill, all good and fairly easy, I can't even remember it now. Off we went down the other side, unfortunately I lost Rachel on the way.

One of the descents

The next section was to the top of Marie Blanc, 64.5km in to the ride 9km long kicking up to 11% for the last 4km. The first 5km wasn't very steep at all and we had been told to take it easy. The ride soon kicked up, I found it tough, but ok, i was pleased to be passing people. All was going well until for some reason everyone in front came to a sudden stop. I couldn't get my dodgy left pedal out quickly enough and toppled over, grazing my left arm. Once this was treated I set off again, but unfortunately on foot. There were too many people to get back on the bike and I had to walk the next kilometre or so at a much slower pace than I had been cycling! As soon it widened out I got back on my bike and headed off to the submit. Going over the submit and down the other side I got a feeling of elation, this ride was great!

I soon got to the feed station and topped up my water. I had a feeling Simon wasn't too far behind me and soon enough he came down, so we rode of off together. The next section was flattish until the Soulor, we cycled along, me hiding out of the wind behind Simon or other groups. We passed the half way mark knowing that the worst was yet to come!

At the bottom of Soulor we stopped at another feed station, by this time I knew things weren't quite right, I couldn't eat anything and felt a bit sick. We headed off to start the ascent, 22km with the final 11km being a proper climb of around 7.4%. Part way up i felt really bad and we stopped, my stomach was just churning, we set off again only for me to stop about 1km later. I was riding well, over taking people, I just felt ill. At this point I thought I was going to have to drop out. We set off again, but at another stop later I persuaded Simon to go on without me. A bit of a rest and I started to feel better and continued to cycle to the top. I had to keep stopping which was frustrating as I was passing people and then passing them again!

Route profile

I reached the summit, 126km into the ride, had a quick water fill up and a comfort stop and headed down the mountain. I raced on knowing that the Sky stop wasn't far away. On reaching the stop I was in a fluster, I knew the broom wagon couldn't be far behind. I told them my stomach was playing up, I'd had to keep stopping and I hadn't been able to eat anything (i was worrying I'd run out of energy). They filled my water bottle with just water, took my powders off me and gave me some gels. One of the guys Oli, who I had ridden with a bit at the start and before Soulor was at the stop, he was on the team to help us out. He set off with me and turned out to be a superstar!

Tourmalet profile

Oli and I set off for the Tourmalet, creating a little Sky train, with him acting as my "Domestique", which basically means I was right on his back wheel drafting him. We sped along and I was surprised no-one jumped on the back, but most people looked shattered. I still felt pretty good. We continued on through one of the villages where we saw some Sky employees cheering us on. Soon we were at the base of the Tourmalet, in the tunnel we picked up another Sky team member, Adam who joined the train for a bit. Shortly we came to a time check in one of the villages 8h59, we'd made it ahead of the sweeper, it was a great feeling!

Oli and I cycling up the Tourmalet

Progress up the Tourmalet was slow, I was still suffering from a bad stomach and had to stop for it as well as my legs which were beginning to suffer, each time I stopped they shook. I had no strength to put my left pedal in so had to leave the shoe attached and take my foot out instead. My pace was good when moving and I was over taking people, lots of people were walking. Adam caught us up after one of my stops and got a bit of help from Oli as he was suffering cramps. Oli was a star, he carried one of my bottles and also chucked water over my head, as did lots of French people. Living in Spain Oli felt the heat less, it was over 30 degrees. At the feed stop, with 9km to go they announced people could drop out, but we carried on. We did a few couple more kilometers, Adam got a second wind and went in front. At a stop we saw another Sky rider coming up, Harri and she joined us. Oli helped us both out enormously, physically pushing us at times to take some of the strain. Harri made her way up, I was still suffering, we only had 2km or so to go. I plodded on, Oli still helping, the climb ramps up towards the top, we stopped at the corner with 400m to go, so near and yet so far. I wanted to walk, but Oli wouldn't let me. With one last push we set off and slogged it to top. I barely realised I had even made it!

A 5/6 km ride downhill to the village followed where i collected my medal, a great feeling, I almost cried but didn't have enough energy. I was broken!

My lasting top memories are:

• seeing Simon and calling out to him after the Marie Blanc
• elation coming down the Marie Blanc
• silence as people climbed the mountains
• after the Sky stop being picked up by Oli and riding down the left hand side of the road passing everyone
• seeing Robyn, a colleague cheering us on in one of the villages
• going through the time check at the bottom of Tourmalet
• "riding the line", a blue line painted by some Sky supporters on the Tourmalet when I was feeling absolutely rubbish
• the crowd- simply amazing, cheering you on, shouting bravo la femme/la fille, throwing water over, allowing you to shade next to their camper vans, allowing you to use the loo in their restaurants!

  

What a ride, what a day. We cycled 181km, we climbed over 4500m. I'll remember it forever.

Simon and I with our medals the following day

The day has almost arrived

So, I'm sitting here watching a DVD of the route 15mins before we leave for Gatwick. Never had such butterflies!


It's been a tough week, I went over the handlebars of my bike on Monday and spent all day in hospital. I had to have sugery on my elbow. The big dressing was removed yesterday, but I have no idea what sort of pain I'll be n when I cycle! I am hoping it will be ok though. Luckily the bike is fine, my lovely Sky jersey has 1 or 2 holes though, but it is still wearable.


I'll try and do some facebook updates on the ride. Wish me luck!

Too busy to blog!

It's been a busy and odd couple of weeks both on and off the road, what with lots of training, a sunny Glastonbury, a TV interview and being put on risk of redundancy!

A couple of weeks ago Simon and I went on a "Tour de East Sussex", a lovely route from Crystal Palace to Battle, Hastings, Bex Hill, Pevensey, finishing with ice creams on Eastbourne beach. The intention was for me to reach that illusive 100 miles, we didn't quite make it, mainly because we had to keep stopping to map read, but it was a good ride. 

The following week saw me give it another go on the Thursday before Glasto, the route was lovely, but I just didn't feel right and I ended up going home to Mum's falling asleep for the afternoon- very unlike me.

The event is all consuming at the moment. I am finding when not on my bike I am either talking about it, thinking about it, buying stuff for it or sorting it out, so it was great to go to Glastonbury and completely get away from it. I wasn't even tempted to jump on the electricity generating bike in Green Fields!


Monday was a weird day; we got up early, made a mad dash from Glastonbury  to London to get to Si's Mum's 60th. On the side of the A303 I found out I my job is at risk of redundancy, we had birthday tea (v nice), got home and I was on the news, went out for birthday dinner (v nice), got home and I was on the news again!


The redundancy has come at a really bad time with the Etape slap bang in the middle of the months' consultancy period, luckily training should calm down a bit and hopefully I'll be able to work on my CV and apply for jobs etc.


In the middle of this hullabaloo  I accidentally clocked up my 100 miles on Wednesday, ok so I did 30 in the morning and 70 in the evening, but at least it confirms I can do it (I knew I could)!  In hindsight I am really pleased as Wednesday evening was a bit of a low point psychologically for me. We went on a group ride and I got dropped off the back several times (again!), what's more our leader wasn't very encouraging and was actually quite critical. This put me in a really bad place and I was questioning whether I could complete the Etape at all.  A couple of days reflection and a team get together has helped though and I am back to my focused self. Sod him!

We have just over 2 weeks to go now, we do our final long ride this weekend, some intense hill training next week and then that's it, off to climb the Tourmelet! I get butterflies even thinking about it!


So, that's about it for now, I'll post next week with a pic of our new team kit which is really cool, we turned a few heads on Wednesday

It's a month today!

It's a month today and even writing that gives me butterflies! We were given some advice on how to tackle to the ride psychologically today- I'll be reading in great detail. We've also got our race numbers, mine is 2660 which means I am in pen 2586 - 3000 out of 10,000 odd people, so fairly close to the front, which is good as I am going to need all the help I can get! Si is further down the field which he is miffed about but I know he'll be fine and will probably pass me anyway!


I've had a pretty good week, the ride last Sunday turned out to be 80 miles not 90, which has sort of thrown my training plan out a bit. However, it went really well; I felt pretty good most of the way round, enjoyed the hills, and could have done more!


This week I have had my new handlebars and saddle put on, so my bike is much more comfortable. I have also put the new pedals put on, they have proved to be really problematic though and I can't actually get my left foot clipped in. This means i can't wear my new carbon soled "bling" (according to Rachel Jarvis) shoes!


Physically i seem to be bearing up ok, I've had some RSI problems in my left hand which seem to be going. My left leg muscles were pretty tight and my knee has hurt a bit but the physio did some acupuncture on it so hopefully that will help. I ride with my left knee strapped now so that is all ok!


Here is the Evans Sportive route from Sunday 13th in the North Downs, it was nice and sunny which always helps :-)

Weekends? What are they then?!

Training has really stepped up now and it's been a pretty hard week. I haven't done as many short rides as I'd like but I did 86 miles with of 3 of the girls and Si on Saturday, followed by 50 odd miles on Sunday, a bit of turbo training on Tuesday and then a ride with the Sky boys on Wednesday. The ride with the boys was really, really hard work, as they glided along I really struggled to keep up. We did 57 miles out into Surrey, up Box Hill and back, I wanted to stop at Leatherhead and catch the train back but they wouldn’t let me! I didn’t really enjoy it but I think it was very good for me.

Tomorrow I have a 3 hour ride planned and on Sunday I have a 90 mile sportive, basically, except for Glastonbury, the next 6 weeks weekends are not my own!


All in all I think I am on top of things with regards distance but I definitely need to get my speed up, the elimination times came out and apparently they aren’t very generous.

Training week commencing 7th June
Monday -REST
Tuesday -REST
Wednesday -ROAD HARD 3hrs
To include 4 x 15 mins efforts (10 mins Z3 then 5 mins 80%) 15 mins rest in between efforts.
Thursday -REST
Friday- TURBO – 1.5hrs
20 mins warm-up
10 min ramp effort to Z5 (build slowly over the 10 mins so getting into Z5 in the last 1min), 10 mins easy.
You are now ready to go – 3 x 5 mins (in each minute effort = 40 sec Z5 then 20 secs Z2).
10 mins rest between efforts
Saturday -ROAD EASY 3.5hrs Hilly club ride if possible with no structure
Sunday -ROAD ENDURANCE 5hrs Hilly club ride if possible with no structure

Never try a bike that is more than your budget

Here is a picture of my shiny new (though with one chip-grrr!) Pinarello FP3. I ended up with it after "trying it for size" as the shop didn't have a small FP2. It's a 2009 so had a good deal of money off it and it's 1kg lighter than the FP2, so all in all I'm happy!

I took it for a rainy  76 mile "spin" on Saturday in the Tour of Wessex sportive and it rides really well. It needs a couple of "minor" adjustments for comfort- new handlebars as the Pinarello ones have massive reach and a girly saddle.  I'm also investing in some knee protecting speedplay peddles.

As for training, that hasn't gone that well this week really and I'm getting a bit anxious :-S

Groovy new helmet!

My new Sky helmet arrived today, it's really comfortable and light and comes with a surprising amount of instructions!

I've had pain free cycling for a week now and it's been great, it makes such a difference.  Saturday I had a great ride with the Dulwich Paragon in the sunshine. Saturday afternoon we went to a bike shop to try a Pinarello, "unfortunately" they only had my size in the next model up. I took it out for a spin and it was great! I've managed to find the same bike a bit cheaper in Evans and have ordered it in to try! I've completely blown the budget but have justified this by it being my birthday yesterday, by not having traded in my car for the soft top I wanted and telling myself at the age of 90 I'm hardly going to look back and say "I wish I hadn't spent that extra money on the bike". Just hoping I don't turn round to myself next year and say it!

Pragmatism or Passion?!

Progress was a little slow after the long ride in my last post, in subsequent rides my good right knee decided to play up. So i decided to stay off the bike (again) for the next few days. I was due to take part in the Little Lumpy Sportive at the weekend but decided that hills should probably be avoided. Instead I joined mentor Matt and fellow etaper Kevin for 2 laps of the flat-ish Windsor triathlon route, which was good and not too painful! A trip to the physio confirmed the right knee issue is not too serious, he strapped it up and now it's feeling much better. So, onwards and upwards!

I went for a lovely ride round Richmond Park this morning, it was great to be out in the sunshine. I definitely need to get fitter though, my heart rate was far too high and I was at the back of the group. I am determined to nail this though and am all the more spurred on by the workshop we had a Sky yesterday.

On to more positive things: bike shopping! My Specialized Dolce Sport definitely isn't going to cut it! I've seen a bike fitter who has looked at my bike and recommended sizing for a new bike, he has also managed to get me a really good deal on a Pinarello FP2 in Sky colours. So now I have a dilemma, the Boardman or the Pinarello ?? White or Blue? British or Italian? Value or extravagance? Pragmatism or passion? Rival or Shimano?! A bike test on Saturday should be the decider, watch this space...

Barker is back!

After a couple of test rides in the week I did my first long ride for 4 weeks on Saturday, it was 86Km and much harder work than it should have been! However, the knee held out and I don't seem to have any aches and pains. I could kiss my physio! I have definately lost a lot of fitness though, I was struggling to keep up and am going to have to work very hard over the next few weeks.

Still off the bike

I've been off the bike for a week and a half due to my knee injury, am trying not to let it get me down and am hoping that it'll be ok. The physio seems good, I think he has pin pointed the problem. In fact he pin pointed it quite literally with some deep muscle acupuncture last week!

In the meantime I have been putting my spare time to good use: I've ordered my wedding dress, sorted out our spare room, ordered a funky new Sky team helmet and checked out new bikes! I met a girl on a ride with Dulwich Paragon whose partner builds bikes, he is going to put together a spec for me and I am also considering the new Boardman women's specific carbon bike, the men's bikes get great reviews and are really good value, the women's bike looks pretty nice too.