Clifton CC

Dave, Willy et. al.

Got back late Friday night after a week spent in the Pyrenees. I achieved my goal of completting the Etape. Superbly organised event, just ashame you cannot organise the weather. The day of the Etape started wet and cold and remained that way. The perverse irorny is that I was glad it wasnt 30 degree heat though. But the conditions meant you could not enjoynthe veiws beacuse of the low cloud. Would'nt like to say wether I would do it again may be too early to say but you just dont have time to enjoy the ride. I'm just not fit enough to be easily within the time limits and so spent my time clock watching.

On the plus side despiete being amongst 9000 riders I bumped into Dave Cook at La Mongie. Did'nt see Willy but he must have been close bybecause his time was close to mine on the results.

The atmosphere at Hautacam was also a big plus for me at least. There was alot of people lining the route anyway but most seemed to be on the fnal climb which gave me a great boost.

All in all a great week whch saw me also ride the Aspin and Peyresourde and Luz Ardiden and will be glad to be goinf backin Sept for a more relaxed tour to knock a few more Cols of my list.

Jon

Since Mark asked, I really enjoyed stage 10 of the tour (Tourmalet and hautacam). But that was watching it live on Monday on the widescreen TV of the Brittany Ferry beween St Malo and Portsmouth.

Actually doing it was somewhat different, a dreadful day, cold, rain (even at the start), never saw a single mountain, all in fog cloud. This at least meant that on the descents you were not too aware or concerned what was beckoning over the edges on the endless descents.

No wonder Jon did not see me: would have been difficult with 20 metres visibility a lot of the time!

Anyway, enough stuff for some worthy Cliftonite material (password NZ) and I did get another ribboned medal for the collection.

For those interested, there's a really quite nice self-effacing account with photos of this years's Etape by Ron Cutler ( through whom I book my entry) on:
www.etape.org.uk

Sounds like the exact same weather as when I did l'etape in 2001 in the same area (Aspin, Tourmelet then Luiz Arden). Rain, mist, no visibility and at the finish the wind was so strong it had blown over the crowd control barriers. The next day was 30+C heat.

Hey, just remembered something that can't wait for the Autumn ClIFTONITE!
It should be filed under 'New Bike Advice'

Just after I finished up at Hautacam a guy turned up riding a pretty standard, aboud 20 year old, not heavily modified sit-up-and-beg RALEIGH PIONEER!!!!!!

You know the sort, Sturmey 3-speed hub gear, steel chrome plated bars and wheels, Side-pull Weinmann brakes, chainguard, mudguards, all weighing at leat 30 pounds.
These used to be popular in the good old days with workers at the Holgate Railway Carriage Works!

The modifications were limited to a derailleur 12sp mech and, crucially for the descents, handlebar fitted airbrakes in the form of multi-coloured tassels attached to the grips. You know, the sort fitted to 'My Little Pony' kids bikes. Oh, and the standard saddle had an extra thick gel cover!

The guy riding it said it was fine for the job, but found the brakes a little marginal. I think he won his bet handsomely!

So...there is a moral here: it's not what you ride, but who rides it!

Respect. It's the going down that would worry be on a bike like that!

Great stuff. Its knowing when to stop which is the key. The bike as stands sounds ideal. I still maintain Chris Boardman could beat me on a Grifter in his hayday.

For me, having not done this type of event before, and only been cycling for 18 months it was an amazing event.

I have been planning, training for this event all year, but what I hadn't practised was getting up at 3.45 am. Still I felt good as all 8,500+ of us set off through the streets of Pau. (My actual start time was 19 minutes after the first off). After around 25 k's on a tight downhill lefthander I had a bit of a moment but survived as the riders in front had to stop as some had crashed and blocked the road. The pace was fast and I was concentrating on pacing myself, and although there were a couple of small cols I always had Tourmalet on my mind.

My wife and daughter came to France with me ( we spent 2 weeks touring/biking up Loire valley etc after the Etape) and watched the event come through Lourdes for 2 hours in the rain but missed me.

The climb up Col De Tourmalet was tough, it seemed steeper in parts than the 8-10% that I had in my mind, but I learnt that that is the average figure quoted per kilometer. I was looking out for Jon and Willy and finally saw Jon G near the top at the food station.

I was not looking forward to the descent in the wet but amazingly it was dry on the other side so I really enjoyed going down passing loads of riders who had passed me on the ascent. The ride through the valley to the foot of Hautacam was also a highlight for me.

The climb up Hautacam was hard but with only a few kilometers to go for the mountain top finish I didn't need to keep any reserves and it eased off for the final bit but the rain and mist had come back and after the finish, waiting to descend, I really felt the cold.

Very enjoyable despite the weather.

Dave Cook

I did the Tourmalet last Monday before the stage went through and the weather couldn't have been more different if it tried.

Scorching hot at St Marie de Campan and clear blue skies all the way up to the top and down.

I've some great pictures of the riders which I'll stick up when I get the hang of it.

Quite content that I was going faster at the top than poor Cavendish, who looked absolutely out of it.