L’ETAPE DU TOUR RACE DAY

Start line in Megeve. 18 degrees at 7 am. 35 degrees later in the day.

Another cycling season closed by the L’Etape du Tour ride. A great long weekend in the French Alpes closed by the most important event of the year for me. And it was again a very hot day in the French summer, with temperatures around 35 degrees, steep hills and hard climbs. The result for me was mixed feeling: I bit my expected target by 16 minutes, finishing in 5 hours and 44 minutes. But finished with the sensation I could’ve done better, could have pushed harder. As in my all of my good Etapes…

This year the race was short, originally with only 146 kms. And even shorten later by the ASO  organization due to issues with the falling rocks out of the mountains. They removed the third mountain, Col de la Ramaz, out of the race and added in place a long stretch of 33 kms false flat. But more of that later. First we rode from the hotel to the village of Megeve, which was a nice 7 kms ride on 18 degrees. Already warm at 6 am. I was located on the starting line with Stef, Richard and Cloe and the nice chatting made time pass quite quick for the 7:30 when we started racing.

The first part was a quick downhill with speeds of 38 to 40 kms/h and event the 1.9 kms climb before the first mountain of the day was dealt fast and without any fuss. We descent a couple of hairpins towards the start of the Col de Aravis, with 11 kms and average gradient of 7% . Everybody was taking care not to crash and  I quite liked the riders around me at that point. My plan was to try to stick to Stef and Richard all the way to the top. The climb starts immediately  with a 9% gradient and I stick my rythmn to 80 rpm and heart rate of 170, stayed with Richard wheel and climbed all the way to the top in that way.

 
Helicopter filming us at the star line.

It was great to have someone pacing me to the top and kept out of pushing too hard and blowing up too early. I finished way ahead of my forecast with a total time of 32 minutes. It was also great to have done this climb twice in the weeks before, so I knew every corner and gradient waiting for me. I complete the climb in less than an hour and we didn’t stop at all, cresting quick and enjoying a fantastic descent towards the second mountain of the day. The field was still very compact and with many riders on the road I had to brake more, which slowed me down. My top speed was only 61 kms/h with most of it around 55 to 58 km/h. Good but not really fast.

At the bottom we start the climbing of Cold de la Colombiére straight way. I lost both Stef and Richard on the descent and climbed this one alone.  This is a little similar to the previous mountain with 11 kms but much easier gradients, staying around 6% all the way. Only at the top it goes above 8%. I kept the same pace of the previous climb and enjoyed it, making it in 53 minutes. A little under my expectation to do it in 1 hour and 4 minutes.  The temperatures were already around 30 degrees!

FAST DOWNHILL – Again I went straight thru the top and did one of the best descents in recent years. Easy large roads, great asphalt and easy turns begged for speed. The field was more spread and with less riders around me I could just let the bike go. During the descent an ambulance overtook me and I jumped into its slipstream. That was great as I could just follow it and knew it would bring me into the ride lines and right moments to break. Top speed there was 72 kms/h. Great fun!Almost at the bottom, though, I had to slowdown as my contact lenses started to move in my eyes. I sign that I was so concentrated that I forgot to blink. At that point I was overtaken by Stef who had stopped at the top of Colombiére to refill his bottles. But quickly we had to separate again as I had to stop to refill at the bottom.

FLAT FROM HELL – After a quick refill of both my bottles at the bottom of the Col de la Colombiére, I started riding what was going to be the worst moment of the day. A long 33 kms false flat in very hot 35 degrees industrial and uninteresting roads. I started negotiating the roundabouts and hooked up with another 2 riders. They were going around 35 kms/h and we shared the workload a little. But one of them gave up an it was only two of us. Soon a quick group passed by going around 40 km/h and I couldn’t keep up with them. So I was left alone, with no one to share the work or hide from the wind.

I started feeling like I was being cooked. The heat was oppressive and I was afraid if I would push too hard I would be wasted when I reached the bottom of the last mountain of the day. I kept on pushing 30 kms/h and nobody show up to share the work. Either they were too slow or they were groups going too fast for me. At some point a group came by and Frido was in the middle of it and shout my name! I managed to hook up with them with speeds of 38 km/h and rolled for another 5 kms before hitting the bottom of a short climb with some areas of 5%. I didn’t feel well during this whole part as rolling in the flat sections with very hot weather is not my thing. I completed it in 1 hour 23 minutes, 30 minutes behind my target. No good.

Last kilometer of the Joux-Plane mountain. Warm and steep!

LAST PUSH – At the end of this part, there was a feed zone and when I was about to enter I heard my name. It was Richard, his wife and friends there waiting for the Nike team. It was great to see him just at the bottom of the hardest climb of the day. After a little chat, lots of drinking and recovery, I started the climbing of the Col du Joux-Plane. When you look in the profile of this mountain it doesn’t look impressive. Mostly 9% sections. But reality kicks in very quick when your bike computers and the pain in your legs tell you that it goes immediately to 13% and 14%. It is a short 12 kms climb that never settles in one gradient. It goes from 3.5% to 7% to 14% constantly. When you see the boards telling you the next kilometer average is 9% and you are on a 3% you know there is a 14% waiting later.

I kept the best pace I could manage at that point and tried to push hard and just grind up to the top. But it wasn’t to be. I couldn’t get my heart above 160 bpm and most of the time I was around 150 bpm. My legs would just gave up on me. Speeds went down to 7 to 8 kms/h and I quickly saw that would be the game. Keep grinding on the heat. Temperatures were around 35 degrees and the inclines were just too much. I counted every kilometer and the big number of people that just stop because they couldn’t continue just show me how hard that actually was.

With 7 kms to go I thought I would stop around 5 km mark just to rest a bit. Just another 2 kms to rest! But when I got there, I saw a group waiting in the shade and they look at me with faces of jealousy because I could keep on cycling. That told me I wasn’t doing too bad and gave energy to continue. I knew that the last kilometer was somewhat easier, so I only had to do really 4 kms. Mind tricks one to do keep on going. At the last kilometer sign I even managed to take a picture of the sign and finish the climb in 1 hour and 23 minutes. 8 minutes behind my target. Clearly the energy I lost in the valley cost me here.

From there it was a quick and short 10 kms descent to the city of Morzine and complete the Etape on a downhill sprint. First time ever since I started doing this 9 years ago. I recover quite quick and overtook lots of people on the downhill. But I was careful as well as I was told construction were just done and the roads were dangerous. Full of sand and gravel. In the city I push to the line and had to do a full on break to stop right after the line. A great way to finish it!

Finish line downhill, a first in 9 years.

My original target was 6 hours but after riding I felt I could have done better. But I should be happy to beat the target by 16 minutes with the amount of training I manage to do this year, which was much less than last year. So, all in all, happy. But with some motivation to train better and get better results next year. So, that must be a good thing… :)

See you next year France.

NOTES:

- I want to leave a great congrats to everybody that overtook me on the day and said hello: Ian, Cloe, the Tri Triathletes, Frido, Claes, Marc, Jesper and Pawel (did I forget someone?). Also to the ones that bit on on the time :) – I will be back!

- Three kids wearing Bradly Wiggins masks on the last kilometers of Joux-Plane gave me a great scare. Well done boys, I guess I wasn’t the only one…

- A big group singing a little Joux-Plane song at the bottom of the last climb was very French! I hope they were not saying something like: “you don’t know what is going to hit you!!! tra la la…”

- I only saw one accident this year. But I heard there were lots. I guess is good to start the race in the number 4 thousand and be in front of the majority of the pack…

- Niels, our best rider, crashed on the descent of the last mountain. Bad crash and I hope everything goes well from here. Cycling looks a very composed sports but we have very little protection when riding at 70 km/h +…

- All feed stations were placed on the left side, where the riders are fast… Why? It make it tricky to pass them if you are not stopping and to enter them if you are…

- When you are putting all your efforts going uphill on a 35 degrees heat, receiving a cold shower from a hose gives you a second life. People that do that are great. Merci!