Le Tour Challenge 2007

Well, its all over - back in Cardiff having spent a relaxing weekend and then demobilising, unpacking the camper and returning it to Elite Motorhomes.

After we finished in Paris, Sean jumped on a plane back to Cardiff that evening as he wanted to surprise his mate Glyn at his birthday party which was Saturday night.  Things were a bit touch and go for a while whether he would get away that night as the plane was broken.  After an engineer was flown in from Southampton and some compensatory free sandwiches had been consumed, he was on his way.   

Mick and the others stayed on in Paris and found a hotel with a spot to park the camper up in a suburb (Malmaison), about 15 minutes train ride out from the centre.  We were all pretty wiped out after the early start on Friday morning and the come-down from finishing but managed a nice meal in a restaurant down the road from the hotel, chasing dinner down with a bottle of the house bubbly.  After a sleep in and a feast of croissants and coffee, we headed in for a spot of culture and visited the Louvre.

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and took up a spot at the front of a barrier on the Champs to watch the finish of the Tour.  We spent several hours waiting, mostly fighting off a number of latecomers (mostly German, it seemed but we won’t get into national stereotyping…) who wanted to invade our spot.  We spotted a man with a Welsh flag draped over his shoulders who turned out, after some banter, to be none other than Geraint Thomas’ dad!  The complexities of the people flow system imposed by the Paris police meant that that he and the family could not find the Barloworld team coach to pick up their VIP tickets to see Geraint finish the race.  They had to mix it with the oiks like us…  We had a good chat about our experience of the Tour route and the challenges we faced and let them know that we had been following Geraint’s progress as best as we could on a daily basis.  His family were so proud of him for getting through, his previous longest stage race being 10 days.  We said that in our view, he was a superman and knowing now just how tough it was to even ride the distance and the terrain, to actually race it and work for a team sprinter as he has done was fantastic.  It was great to meet them on the Champs and frankly it madethe day more special than seeing the finish.

There is nothing to say about the finish other than you think you can ride a bike and you may even think you have a turn of speed in your legs but these guys are something else.  It was a great spectacle and worth the wait.  Unfortunately, Jen missed it as she also had to take a plane back to Cardiff on Sunday night and needed to leave to get to the airort about 15 minutes before the race got to us.  Still, she got to see the noisy and colourful tour caravan which preceeds the race on surreal motorised floats.  How many “offiicial suppliers” of goods does a cycle race need - pretzels, bottled gas, cheese??   

The trip back to the Channel Tunnel was a real haul.  We got in about midnight and booked onto the 6.00am train.  We were watching a DVD of ‘Allo ‘Allo for a laugh before getting some kip when there was a knock on the door.  It was one of the French Channel Tunnel workers offering us a free spot on the next train if we wanted it - it was so funny because his “Frenglish” accent was just straight out of ‘Allo ‘Allo.  Perhaps it’s one of those things you had to be there for…

Anyway, everyone is now home safe and sound.  BBC have been in touch for their video footage and we’re expecting to be interviewed by them again in the next couple of days.  There is to be a final fund-raising do to bring the project to an end.

For the time being, that’s it - website will be re-done with pictures and hopefully some video, in due course.  It’s not too late to pop us a donation for our efforts, either via the website or get in touch…  

After battling through the Paris traffic, we finally got to the Champs and completed the last couple of kms in the anarchic traffic. Pete cunningly manouvered to various spots along the road to avoid us receiving a parking ticket, and we did battle with the 6 lanes (unmarked) of traffic around the monster roundabout which encircles the Arc D’ Triumph. Dave Knowles who ‘coincidently’ had a business meeting in Paris today met up with us and the mandatory series of photos were taken before we adjourned to the nearest wine bar for an overpriced but long awaited bottle of tasty white Burgundy was shared around - once we get a shower, we’ll pop a bottle of bubbly with a nice meal.

More later depending on how the fizz affects the ability to use the small keys of the PDA which we have been telling the saga with over the last 3 weeks…

Well, the miles (or kilometers) are in the bag - all 3550 of them. We hit the road early from our campsite down on the Loire and put in 142 fast kms with the wind mostly at our back across the plains of the region up towards Chartres. We packed the bikes onto the back of the camper and are, as this is being posted, heading up the motorway towards central Paris to finish the last couple of kms with a parade lap of the Champs Elysees. The celebrations are on hold until then but it sure feels good to have safely completed all the miles and succeeded in achieving the goal we set ourselves all these months ago. More later…

After a hard few days, we took the opportunity to sleep in a bit and lounge around in the morning at the campsite. Sean provided the entertainment for the holiday makers by heading to the pool complete with his float vest for a spot of ‘pool running’ which is a sight to behold to those unfamiliar with the concept. Jon got to work on the legs which was welcomed after the last couple of days of hard work. All in all, a refreshing break for a few hours.

Again, we completed the ‘time trial’ by taking a ride of equivalent 55km length out over the local roads in the general area. We decided there was no point in an exact replication of the route as we wanted to come back to the campsite for a shower before the road transfer up for our final ride. Pete joined us for the session which started out as a gentle spin through very pleasant vineyard terrain of the Charente region. About halfway through the outbound leg, we encountered Pascal, a rather handy local club cyclist who joined us for a ride along and chat in combo French / English. Without realising, the pace seemed to hot up until by the return leg, which Pascal joined us for also even though it was not on his route, we may as well have been competing in a time trial as we were pretty well going as fast as our tired out legs would bear. Nonetheless, it was a nice ride and after getting back and taking a quick shower, it was clear we had overstayed our welcome at the campsite, so we hit the road north in readiness for completing the final 146 km run to the finish.

We’ve decided that after our rather protracted trip out pf London, a city with which we had at least a rough idea of the layout, riding through the suburbs of Paris to the centre is crazy. So, we’re going to do almost all of the 146 km in the countryside to the south of Paris and then put the bikes on the van, to be driven into the city and then do a couple of laps of the Champs Elysees. That will bring the 3550 km saga to and end and the champagne corks will be popped…

A long day’s riding at 211 km but, for the second day running, completed in glorious weather. Seems we are generally dragging good conditions around behind us for the pros to enjoy riding in. Shame we couldn’t have some of this for the final tough day of the Pyrenees as the views from the climbs would have been spectacular and they would have been more pleasurable than they already were (for sick puppies like Mick who has decided he likes riding uphill…).

One of the write-ups of the stage said it was boring terrain. We certainly didn’t think so, at least for the first half which was over very pretty rolling terrain and through the Dordogne. The second half was along a single, busy main road from Perigueux which seemed to drag on a bit, especially the uphill sections.

In the end, it was a tough day as we decided to crank up the pace for the last 50 km to get the job done and the haul into Angouleme seemed to hurt as much as a hors category climb to finish like the Aubisque.

Found a nice campsite about half way to Cognac, in good time to finally get a team meal at the café rather than in our little camper. We’d all been talking about eating pizzas for days (lots of cycling does tend to focus the mind on food…) so a round of pizzas was the order of the day. The pizzas seemed to have been prepared earlier and heated up with extra cheese in the microwave but it was universally agreed that they were the best to be found this side of Napoli after all this time waiting…

Smelly and tired is probably not the best way to start a day’s riding, but at least there are no mountains to climb.

Today’s stage goes through rolling fields of corn and sunflowers over six relatively small climbs and at last they have a tailwind.

Both riders are now generally fatigued and as the day wore on the joy of cycling wore off. There was some fun to be had on some of the earlier descents where the tailwind helped the boys achieve speeds of 70km per hour, but sore bottoms made the rest of the day a bit of a chore. Mick declared the entire day “pointless” as he was already missing his mountains, although how he would have felt if he had actually been presented with one remains to be seen.

Cahors is a beautiful place on the banks of the Lot which may go someway to explaining why it was so hard to find a campsite that wasn’t full. On the third attempt someone took pity on us and allowed us to park up in the carpark and use the facilities. Everone was extremely thankful as, quite frankly, we were starting to smell like one of those nuclear French farm cheeses.

By the time we had eaten, attended to the bikes and the riders’ legs it was very late and we were lulled to sleep by campsite kareoke that brought to mind Edith’s singing in “Allo Allo”.

As the rain began we knew we were in for a tough day. Sean in particular was a cause for worry. As an ex-prop he doesn’t have the physique of a mountain climber and he freely admits that they are not his strong point. He had given pretty much everything to get through the last two mountain stages and looked to have nothing left for this, the longest mountain stage (infact the 3rd longest of the whole tour).
As the two set out Sean was having trouble finding his rhythym before they had even reached the first, most deadly, climb the Port de Larrau. It was decided that Mick would have to go on ahead and wait for Sean at the summit. By the time they were near the summit it was raining and the wind was so strong that Mick was actually knocked over by it. He got into the van, put some extra layers on and had a hot drink when suddenly Sean shot past. He had dug deep and found some strength from somewhere, infact he did some of his best climbing so far in the trip that day. That was the first climb done and only 3 more to go!
It was then into Spain for a section and up the Col de la Pierre St Martin back into France.
By the time they reached the top of the Marie-Blanque Mick could barely walk and had to be helped into the van for a cold drink. It is a deceptive climb as it is only 9km long, however there are no switchbacks at all so that’s 9km straight up at a rather tasty gradient with no let up in the last 4km which are all over 10 percent gradient. That just left the Col d’Aubisque which is not especially steep, but makes up for that by being especially long. Mick felt he had some unfinished business with that climb after it beat him badly on the Etape in 2005 so he he really dug in and climbed it well, declaring the score now even with that particular col.
By the time they had finished, it was a 14 and a half hour day of riding and food / drying out breaks. All that was needed was some food and a lengthy shower. Unfortunately, as we were unable to find a campsite near the next day’s start point we ended up worrying the locals by setting up camp for the night in someone’s driveway. Hence no shower, hence a van that now reeks, although filling (clean) socks with roadside mint and draping them around the place has helped somewhat!

OK, so today was supposed to have been a rest day, but there was still yesderday’s unfinished business to attend to.
As it happened there was about one and a half hours of the stage left which was about the distance that the boys would have cycled on a rest day anyway.
We woke up to a typically damp Pyrenean morning, but were confident that the cloud would burn off as there was a glimmer of blue in the sky if you looked hard enough. After a leisurely breakfast Mick lead the campsite in rebellion against a particularly beligerent cleaner who had decided to shut the clothes washing facilities at peak hour. He wasn’t actually cleaning anything, preferring to stand outside the block arguing with people trying to get in. Mick managed to breach the makeshift barrier and was soon scrubbing away at his kit happily chattering in pidgen French with his new groupies (Who had an average age of about 65).
By the time Sean and Mick set out to finish the stage the sun was shining and there was a positively party-like atmosphere on the Col de Peyresourde as the tour proper was only a day behind.
The sunshine and atmosphere didn’t do anything to lift the tense atmosphere back at camp. Concerns about the length of time it had taken to complete that stage coupled with general fatigue made everyone nervous about tomorrow’s ride - the last, but longest mountain stage containing what is reputed to be the hardest single ascent in the Tour.

OK, so today was supposed to have been a rest day, but there was still yesderday’s unfinished business to attend to.
As it happened there was about one and a half hours of the stage left which was about the distance that the boys would have cycled on a rest day anyway.
We woke up to a typically damp Pyrenean morning, but were confident that the cloud would burn off as there was a glimmer of blue in the sky if you looked hard enough. After a leisurely breakfast Mick lead the campsite in rebellion against a particularly beligerent cleaner who had decided to shut the clothes washing facilities at peak hour. He wasn’t actually cleaning anything, preferring to stand outside the block arguing with people trying to get in. Mick managed to breach the makeshift barrier and was soon scrubbing away at his kit happily chattering in pidgen French with his new groupies (Who had an average age of about 65).
By the time Sean and Mick set out to finish the stage the sun was shining and there was a positively party-like atmosphere on the Col de Peyresourde as the tour proper was only a day behind.
The sunshine and atmosphere didn’t do anything to lift the tense atmosphere back at camp. Concerns about the length of time it had taken to complete that stage coupled with general fatigue made everyone nervous about tomorrow’s ride - the last, but longest mountain stage containing what is reputed to be the hardest single ascent in the Tour.

There really couldn’t have been a bigger contrast with yesterday - today was miserable!

The rain started not too far out from Foix and rapidly became monsoon-like. With the onset of rain temperatures plummeted, which added to the discomfort especially on the descents. The boys were soaked through and frozen to the core, having to make numerous stops for hot drinks and soon the bus resembled a mobile swimming pool.
Progress became so slow that it began to look unlikely that it would be possible to finish the stage in one day. Just when it looked as though the best solution would be to stop two thirds of the way and then to complete the last two climbs the next day (a scheduled rest day), the rain became lighter, although it wasn’t always easy to tell as it was so wet above the cloudline. There was a boost for the lads when Colin and Paul appeared half way up the Col de Mente with their families and bemused onlookers must have thought that the Tour had come early with our mini rent-a-crowd cheering the cyclists on.
Although time was now against the riders they made the descision to press on and finish it if they possibly could so they set off up the Port de Bales. The cloud was freezing and wet. Visibility dropped to about 20m, but they soldiered on to the top - and more to the point to the bottom, but by now it was nearly half nine at night and a puncture signalled defeat.
With one last climb to go, cold and weary the team van limped into Luchon for the night and left the Col de Peyresourde for the next day.