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