L’ETAPE DU TOUR REVIEW

142 kms | 8 h 30 m | avg speed 16.8 km/h | avg hr 149 bpm | 4.206 kcal

What a race it was the L’Etape du Tour this year. If last year was marked by freezing weather, this edition went to another extreme: 41 degrees Celsius in the last two mountains. It was a very hard day in the saddle, with 4 mountains to go thru summing up to 4300 vertical meters of climbing that the heat made especial challenging. Check after the link how it went.

A L’Etape du Tour desse ano foi uma corrida épica. Se o ano passado foi marcado pelo frio, esse ano foi o outro extremo: um calor de 41 graus nas duas últimas montanhas. Foi um dia muito duro e com quatro montanhas para passar e um total de 4300 metros verticais para escalar de bike com um calor infernal, foi uma Etapa duríssima. Dá uma olhada depois do link como foi.

Nike team ready at 6:15 am to go for the start area.

As usual the day started with the mandatory wake-up time at 3:30 am, breakfast at 4:00 and bus ride down the mountain in night darkness. After the nervous preparations and the usual confusion where to find your starting area (together with another 15 thousand cyclists) we were happy located right at the front of our starting group. The temperature at 6:15 was already 20 degrees, which gave a sign of what was coming.

From the Nike team Marjan, Philippe and I had the start numbers around 2000 and stayed together very close to the front. It was great as both of them have a great sense of humor and we pass our time talking nonsense bullshit. Great to easy the start line nerves. At 7:00 the first numbers started and at 7:15 we went under the gate. And right from the get go everybody was pushing quite hard with average of 44 kms/h. At some point we were going for the 50 kms/h mark on a huge peloton. Very cool.

I stayed with Marjan for the first 4 kilometers and right at the bottom of Chaussy, our first mountain of the day (with a total of 15 kms), Marjan dropped me as she is much stronger. I kept within my rhythm and let my heart rate settle for around 160 bpm. The first climb is always interesting because you want to see how your legs are feeling that day (hoping for a good leg day) and how you are in general . I was paying especial attention to the legs due to the cramps I had on Thursday.

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Quick start at 45 kms/h. Great fun.

CHAUSSY | My legs were quite sore because of the cramps and I let them warm up slowly. At some point I passed one of our colleagues, Silvia. It is always great to see a familiar face during the race. At around one third into it I started feeling the muscles loosing up and getting more power and speed. It was a great climb with nice views of rocky walls, little charming villages and the perfect cycling temperature. The gradients keep changing from 6 to 11% what makes it difficult to keep a rhythm but I like as it doesn’t get boring. Total climbing time of 1:15 and average speed of 12.6 km/h. Very happy with that.

Chaussy is a beautiful climb with rocky mountains and good gradients.

200 meters to the top I started the preparations for descending: got my raisins/guave sweet sandwich out of the pocked and ate it quite quick. The first kilometer after the summit was an slow 2% negative gradient and it was perfect to eat and drink before the real downhill started with 10 to 11% inclinations and tight corners close to each other. Got to have both hands and full attention on the road as I knew it would be a fast and technical descend.

Unfortunately not everybody does the same. After 3 or 4 kilometers, when I was pushing speeds of around 65 km/h, we all had to slow down because of a crash. A bad one as I learned later that the guy got paralyzed from the neck down. I love descending and like to go quite fast. But I never eat and drink and always keep both hands of the handlebar. Never loose attention on the road when gradients are steep and turns are coming very fast. That said, I hit 70 kms/h speeds. Lot’s of fun!

Summit of the Col du Chaussy.

After that we had 29 kilometers of flat terrain with some rolling hills at the second half of it. I managed to hook up to a good group and we were going at 46 to 45 kms/h most of the time. Great fun but at the same time being careful not to get too excited and lose energy on this part. The rolling hills of the second part slowed us down but it was also good to take time to eat my last sandwich (krentenbollen) and drink to be ready for the second and most challenging (at least in gradients) mountain of the day: Glandon.

GLANDON | The famous Col du Glandon is a 25 kms mountain climb, with 3 clear sections. The first one right after the village of La Chambre is a hard start. It goes up to 8 to 9% with some ramps of 11%. But luckily most of it is on the shade and we didn’t feel too warm. Again I decided to keep the legs turning at a nice cadence and heart rate of 160 bpm. Speed was around 11 km/h and I started feeling confident that I would beat my target time at the top of the mountain at 12:00.

The middle section of the mountain is easier, with gradients around 6 and 8% and even a little downhill. But at that point the day started getting really warm. This area is not high enough to get winds to  cool one down and it is mostly exposed to the sun. No shade to cover. I managed to keep the speed going but was feeling very warm. I opened my jersey fully and started pedaling 4 minutes on the saddle and 1 minute standing for every 5 minutes. Shifting gears up (heavier) when standing and trying to keep it lower for one minute after sitting. It is a great way to keep speed up and have some variation on long climbs using different muscles.

5 kms to the top of the Glandon when things got really hard.

The third part of the climb, with 7 kms to go the rocky mountain starts to show its picks and the gradients gets steep gain. There are ramps of 11% one after the other. That is when the things get really hard. Especially the last 3 kms, there are places that go to 14% and you really need to push and got to the red zone to keep a good speed = 174 bpm. Really hard work. Speed when down to 7 to 8 kms/h. The good thing is that the wind was cooling us down when coming as crosswind and even helping a bit as it was mostly tail wind. I was really happy when crossed the line at 11:57 am. 3 minutes ahead of my target. Total climb time of 2:23 and average speed of 10.8 km/h.

I didn’t stopped at all at the top and I went straight towards the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer which is just 5 kms from the Glandon summit. I didn’t want to get my legs too cold. In the top of the Croix de Fer I stopped to fill my bottles. I did it quickly, eat a energy bar and started the descend of the mountain. This is a very nice and quick descend, where you can really see far ahead of each turn and don’t need to use much the breaks. I was having lots of fun and only around 15 kms later I realized that my Garmin had lost connection with the satellites. I don’t know how that is possible as I’m in a top of one of the biggest mountains in Europe. I should be closer to the satellites, right?!

Last kilometer to Glandon, the hardest climb of the day

To fix the problem I had to switch the computer off and on again, while descending. Luckily that was on a part where the gradients were not too steep and speed was around 50 km/h.  But I lost 15 kms of the total race distance. I finish the descend quite fast and went in the direction of the worst part of the day. To climb the two last mountains on scorching heat.

MOLLARD | While descending towards the third “little” challenge of the day, I could already feel the warmth coming from the valley below. It was getting hot very quickly. At the bottom of the descend we turned right and immediately it picks up 8% gradient. Lot’s of people got unprepared with cold legs and the inevitable cramps made lots of people stop. I knew it was coming and the I never stopped spinning my legs during the descend. Even in the last 2 kilometers I was doing small pushes to warm the legs. And it worked, no cramps at all.

 

Every shade on the Col du Mollard was a blessing.

But than I hit the bottom and and hell broke lose. My Garmin was recording 41 degrees Celsius! Lot’s of people disregarded this climb as it was only 6 kms long and it doesn’t look too difficult on paper. But from experience I knew it would hurt a lot. The heat and gradients were really hard, with ramps of 8 to 10%. I also decided to save a bit the legs because I was suspecting the last climb would be extremely hard for the same reasons. It took me 30 minutes to climb and a average speed of 10.3 km/h. OK.

The descend of Mollard is fantastic! I’ve done it in the past so I knew what as coming. I descended it in racing style, with speeds constant around 70 km/h and hairpins at 40 km/h. You can really see the road ahead and push hard. My top speed was 82 km/h and I hit that a couple of times. Real fun. The bottom came very fast and I stopped at the water station again as my bottles were empty. My original plan for the day was to stop only at two water  stations. But with the heat of the day I had to stop in every one of the 6 stations.

One of first corners of Toussuire. Pure heat torture.

LA TOUSSUIRE | After a quick break I started the last mountain of the day. La Tussuire has around 17 kms (my Garmin registered 18) and it is always varying the gradients. The first 5 kilometers are actually on the same road of the Col de la Croix de la Fer. It stays around 8 and 9% and with the 41 degrees heat it was really hard to keep going. I managed to keep my speed at around 9 km/h but was feeling horrible. The sun was surely baking us slowly and there was almost no shade to hide.

I was so hard that kept on drinking water and every time throwing a bit on my neck to cool down. Drinking water was not helping at all and quickly had a full belly. The rate I was sweating was quicker than my body could absorb water. Really a very bad feeling and I fear of desalinization and lead to all sorts of problems. After the first 5 kms, the road goes right in the proper road to Toussuire and there are a little bit more shades to hide. But that also meant more temptation to stop and did stop once or twice to cool down.

Last kilometer of the race. What a day!

I don’t really do well when it is too warm and with 5 kms to the finish the heat was not getting easier and I was completely cooked. I was feeling terrible but managed to avoid stopping again. I pushed with everything I had in the tank and all I could manage was a 7 km/h speed. At the end the gradients got a little easier but I was empty and dragged myself to the finish line. With 300 meters the road turns left and it is a straight to the line. The last minute rush of adrenaline kicks in and I pushed the front gear to the big ring and gave everything I had for a sprint. Total climbing time of 1:52 and average of 9.7 km/h. No good.

I completed the race completely empty. I took a good 5 to 10  minutes to be able to get moving again. My dream target was to hit 7:30 with a realistic target of 8:00 hours and a OK situation of 8:30 if anything too difficult would happen. So, completing the ride with 8:30 in that heat qualifies for the difficulty and I hit my target range perfectly. I will take  it and be satisfied. Now it is relaxing and just ride the bike for fun and not for training. Cheers!

Last 200 meters, ready for slow motion sprint and pasta party!