Etape du Tour 2015

As the day of departure for France finally arrived I felt many emotions!  A great sense of relief – relief that this constant focus/training was coming to an end, relief that I was finally going to put these legs to the test and relief that once it was over I could rebuild my relationships with friends/family again as I feel the past 9 months of training has left me no time to be sociable and I have certainly had to become a little “selfish” with my family time – something I have found hard to deal with.

I also felt excited though about the prospect of taking on such an enormous personal challenge. I’d started to watch the Tour de France and really wanted to get going with my stage! Bring it on!

 And, as those who know me well won’t be surprised to hear, I felt a predictable sense of self-doubt. Could my legs possibly be strong enough to get me up all these mountains? Had I done enough training? Was I going to cope with the crowds of cyclists around me? – something I’m fairly new to as I’m used to it being only Susan and I cycling together! So many fears building up and actually it was all really about fear of the unknown…

Our bike bags not appearing in Lyon on Thursday evening with us wasn’t a great start to the whole week. I have flown with BA twice in the past year and twice they have lost my bags! This was annoying as we knew, from past experience of lost baggage, that the airline wouldn’t be pulling out all the stops to get the bags to us at our accommodation asap and for that reason, we chose to stay in Lyon and  went back to the airport the next day to wait for the next flight from Heathrow. The 8.30am flight produced nothing so we were left to wait until the next flight, 18.45 that evening, and keep our fingers crossed! What a relief to see them arrive on that flight and what a dirty letter BA will receive!

We drove towards our accommodation after that, having managed, by some miracle, to pack 4 bike bags, 4 small cases and 4 people into our hire car! As we got closer to our apartment at Albiez Montrond, the mountains appeared to grow, then grow some more until they were really rather domineering around us! Gulp.

The next day (Saturday) we built bikes (okay, Kev and Andy did!) and decided to drive towards La Toussuire (end of our etape route and also where we needed to go to register that day). We parked half way up the hill and cycled the rest (about 14km uphill). I felt it was a little too far for my wee legs that day, with the etape the next day,  but on hindsight I realise it was a great leg loosener and if anything it gave me a bit of confidence as I managed it fairly easily. Pizza at the top was our reward for lunch and on the way back down,  it was great to cruise past the endless queue of cars filled with people who had been up to La Toussuire to register!

Pasta for tea and an early night for all that evening!

On etape day we drove to the start village and parked the car in the designated car parks (very well organised). Then we cycled the 1.5km to the start line to wait for our leaving slot at 8am. I expected this part to be very daunting/nerve wracking, but as I was standing around waiting to start I glanced at my Garmin – HR 56 beats per minute!! Was I still breathing???! Truly odd. I felt remarkably calm! I always said that I couldn’t have put in any more training than I did – all those 4.30am starts in the garage, squeezing in my sessions before work/kids get up, then the long, long cycles with Susan and all our short sneaky ones in the afternoons. With all the training I felt that I had done as much as I possibly could and if that wasn’t enough to get me to the finish then I would have no regrets, it just wasn’t for me. Just words of course and I do know that if I hadn’t finished I’d beat myself up massively and some unfinished business would certainly arise!

So 8am came and we were off! We’d already decided before the race that Kev and I would stick together and Andy and Susan would cycle together. Then we’d meet at the first food stop and see how things were progressing/ see if we wanted to alter that plan.

We were pretty much straight into the first mountain, Col de Chaussy (1153m) and it was a fairly okay ascent!

The descent worried me slightly with all these riders around as I’ve met a number of gruff, aggressive male cyclists before on Scottish sportives who shout if you ‘do anything wrong’. However, I tried not to and must have been fine cos didn’t get any condescending comments! At the bottom of that descent there was a massive bottleneck going over a very narrow bridge and we were all forced to an absolute stand still! I’m not sure if it was caused by an accident or people stopping with punctures that caused the clog but we waited for around 10 minutes. Whilst waiting and completely stationery I oddly fell off my bike (yes, astounding I know!). My cleat wouldn’t release and I crashed to the ground. There were many shouts then but all of concern for ‘la fille’ who was hoisted up by a couple of kind chaps. My knee was cut and my pride was hugely dented! What a plonker. I tried to get back on my bike once we started going again but my gearing had taken a knock and, fortunately, my mechanic (Kev) was there to rescue me! Thank goodness or I’d have been stuck and might have had to resort to tears!

We met Susan at the food stop and Andy appeared a bit later, having fixed his puncture on the way down Col de Chaussy in super quick time. We got going again and the plan had been to do the 30km valley floor together. However, Kev and I got swept along by a group of Frenchmen at that point and I sat really comfortably in the middle of the group at 33kmph (fast for my me!) for almost all of the valley. Kev got all excited and went for the King of the Sprint Challenge but I kept my place in the group and we were at the foot of the Glandon in no time it felt.

Glandon. The beast – 1924m of fun ahead! We had been well warned about this particular mountain and they were right – it was a horror! Corner after corner you were met with another steep slope, then another then another. It was hard work. The sun, by this time, was beating down hard (33 degrees) and it made for a really tiring climb. I was pleased to be passing many (and overtaken constantly too!) and there were loads of bodies sitting/lying down at the side of the road whilst I continued. However, about three quarters of the way up my I reached a dark place! I struggled on for a bit but decided that if there was another hideous hill once I reached the next hairpin then I was definitely getting off and walking! And I did. (This was the only bit of the whole etape I walked for and it was my very first photo taken on the etape by the photographers! Damn!) I walked for about 20 metres in the blistering heat and decided it was actually easier cycling (Kev said I should have got off and rested not walked…). So I got back on my bike and…nothing!! The gears had got stuck again and my pedals wouldn’t go round! Miraculously, the Mavic car was passing by at that very moment and he stopped to see if I was okay. He tweaked something on my back cogs and we were back in business! Yahoo. Funnily enough, after he’d done his wee thing my bike cycled much easier – I don’t think I’d been in my lowest gear that whole way up! Anyway, I made it to the top of Glandon after that, was greeted by a big cheery smile from Kev (he’d been waiting for about 20 minutes) and fell apart – tears/panic breathing, the works! FOOD! I really needed fuelled up so we grabbed lots – including a cup of fizzy coke (normally yucky for me!) and rested a  bit before getting moving with the thought of the ‘voiture horaire’ approaching in some 25 minutes! Yikes!

Col de la Croix de Fer was a fab climb – short and an easy 7%. We were there in no time. The descent was incredible. I’d found my courage and just went for it, – such a blast! I also knew by that point of course, that we were home and dry from the point of view of the broom wagon picking us up – unless of course we had a terrible bike malfunction. The worst part was definitely over. Or so we thought!

Col de Mollard was never really out there as a tricky climb but it really robbed us of all our energy (probably because we weren’t mentally prepared for it) and by the time we’d finally got to the top then cycled down to the bottom of that one, neither of us were excited about doing the final climb – La Toussuire. If I could have finished there that would have suited me just fine. However, on we went, only 18km uphill to go til the end!

We’d obviously done part of La Toussuire the day before when we cycled up to register. However, that was so easy with fresh legs and lots of enthusiasm and energy! Today that 18km seemed to go forever, lots of steep parts and continual corners with hills as far as the eye could see. However, the last 4km was the longest ever. The day before we had been forced up to the village via a road to the right (as they were preparing the straight on route for the Tour). We had to do the straight on route for the etape and it was so much more tricky. The other route had flattened off fairly quickly near to the top and this way into the finish was hilly! Kev and I rode together for all of this part and I know he also found this part never ending. Being a female, however, I was lucky and one kind French guy pushed me for about 15 metres and I went racing ahead up the hill! Just when I needed it too!

When we were approaching the finish line the crowds were amazing, cheering us in and lots of special “allez les filles” for the ladies – what a difference the public’s support made the whole way along. We found a new lease of life as we got closer to the end and found the legs to accelerate towards the end to the delight of all the crowds. Then it was over the finish line to lots of happy smiling French people congratulating us and giving out medals and tshirts. We were finished!!!

What an incredible experience. To have dipped so low at points in your mind then dug yourself out and continued, it was a seriously hard, long, painful journey and bizarrely I enjoyed most of it. I immediately said never again, but now…?? A week further on and who knows?  Watch this space…!