Etape De Tour (Mavic saved me)

[siwickm]

I have just got back to work after doing the Etape. What a weekend. The stage was long, 237km with most of the mountains coming at about 150km into the ride.

I started the ride with Max and we left Limoges at about 6.45am. With thousands of people the first 20km was spent going past people on the little hills out of Limoges. I got a bit of pain in my right knee and therefore Max and I stopped as I thought that my seat was too high. After adjusting I tightened up the bolt too far and ripped the thread on the seat clamp. Whoops. I told Max to head off while I scratched my head thinking about possible ways of mending this. After trying a few things I decided to ride with the saddle down and to think about my situation. I therefore spent 20km riding standing up and then to my relief I came upon a Mavic Mechanic stop. They fixed my bike and I was ready to go. This is when the real adventure started.

There is a minimum time for the first section and I had just exceeded it due to my problems. A guy on a motorbike wanted me to stop, but I insisted that I was a very strong rider and would have no problem catching the main group. He was very adamant in me stopping, pulling the motorbike in front of me. I stopped and I was meant to wait for a car to come and take my transponder. As the motorcyclist went around the next corner I headed off in pursuit. He was stopped chatting to a few others telling them to stop so I blasted past. He shouted for me to stop but I think he got the message that I was no way going to stop. I then spent the next 40km at about 90% Max HR catching up with the main part of the race and overtaking a lot of the slower people. After 90km I was back in with a reasonable group and felt more comfortable. Only problem being that I had wasted a hell of a lot of energy on catching the race and the mountains were yet to start.

At the first stop filled up my water bottle, had a gel, ham and cheese sandwich and a power bar and got back under way.

There were a number of really long climbs but the serious stuff started at Puy Marie. This was about 8km of climbing. Then you go down a bit and you have a first category 17% for 2.5km. This was a challenge but I managed to get up without getting off unlike many others who were walking. Mind you this came at about 170km into the race so I was not too surprised.

A few more 5km climbs and then the relief of the flat section into St Flour. I managed to sprint the finish and it felt superb coming over the line with many people at the side of the road cheering.

My leg pain stayed with me the whole race which was a bit of a shame but overall the whole experience was awesome. I highly recommend this. With a lot of training this is a brilliant event and I cannot wait until next year.

Hope all you other ACCers made it. I saw Richie, Nick and Steph out of the hills, how did you get on guys?

Cheers

Marek....

[richv]

This was the least enjoyable day I have ever had on a bike.

Everything started fine. I was chasing the silver time (9h10m for my age). The first part was pretty rolling and the pace was kept down because of the number of people on the narrow roads. There was no possibility of going off too fast as there were too many people in the way.

Things started to space out a bit following the early climbs but none of these were too hard. After the first food stop there was a superb run down to a dam. I must have been in a peleton of about 150 people, we were knocking along at about 30mph on what appeared to be a fairly flat road and I was barely pedalling.

At halfway everything was going pretty well, getting there in 4h. The second half of the course was harder with the bigger climbs but I reckoned that 5hours to the end was doable.

There was then a long drag up to a feed station at 160k and at the start of this I tweaked my knee somehow and it started to hurt. This got worse as I trundled on and instead of sitting in a group I suffered the dispiriting experience of thousands of people coming past me.

I started to feel pretty miserable at this time and I think Max came past me and got a pretty short answer when he asked how I was doing.

Three things kept me going - the first was someone in Mauriac (I think) who shouted "come on addiscombe" in such a cheery way that I couldn't think about stopping for the next 10k. The second was seeing Marek at the food stop who was looking so knackered that it cheered me up no end (although seeing him come past me later on when I was sat at the side of the road on the Puy Mary took the edge off that) and the third was that I just wanted to get back to the hotel and the only options were cycling to the end and then driving back or waiting for the broom wagon to pick me up take me to the end and then driving back. It was a pretty close call but I reckoned it would be quicker to cycle than wait for the broom wagon although sitting down by the side of the road and a having a couple of hours kip was pretty tempting at the time.

After the food stop there were the two hardest climbs, Puy Mary and Plomb du Cantal. The Puy Mary was a cruel climb. I had driven it the day before and the steep bit started about 1.5km from the top (according to the signs put up by organisers). What I had not noticed was that the 1km to go sign had been placed about 2 km from the summit. It was at this point, about 1km from the top (in reality) that my knee and brain decided that there was only so much pain I was prepared to accept and I gave up, got off and walked.

The rest of the ride was pretty much a matter of survival. On the Plomb du Cantal I think I got off my bike 3 times (although my pride stopped me from walking any of this section) and most of the flat sections were spent in the small ring trying not to put too much pressure on my knee. The descents were flat out trying to avoid the need to pedal quite so much on the next uphill. I finally finished 11 hours after starting.

When I did the etape last year I finished, thought it had been the hardest thing I had ever done, and was glad I'd finished it.

This year I finished, knew it was the hardest thing I'd ever done, and am still wandering why I bothered.

Mind you there's always next year.

[siwickm]

Happy I inspired you for at least a bit. I have booked in to see the cycle fit guys so am hoping can get my knee sorted for the rest of the season.

Was good to see you guys out there and well done in completing.

Cheers

Marek...

[Toks]

Hey Merek,

Wow,that was a pretty inspirational stuff!! Before he left for London Stef told me about what had happened to you. I relayed your epic adventure to some of TEAM WORLD (the group Stef, I , Phil and Nick did the Etape with) and they were also amazed ...My etape story's not that exiting. I was going pretty well untill about 120k. All of a sudden I started cramping up in my legs and feeling quite weak (despite eating and drinking!). Anyway I had a big fat lazy rest (45mins) at the 2nd food station so I new I wasn't gonna make silver - which was my goal. I can't quite decide wether it was harder than last years etape coz my training was hampered this year by my dodgy knee. Who knows perhaps I was fitter last year. Nevertheless it was a very very tough ride. Wether you finished or not you deserved to be congratulated. Will I do it next year? OF COURSE I BLOODY WILL!!

Toks

[Will]

That all sounds pretty impressive!

Congratulations for making it through to the end.

[Tamar]

Huge respect and congratulations. Did anyone see Maria?

[siwickm]

I bumped into her the day before the race, she seemed quite apprehensive, mind you most people were. Not sure how she got on though.

Cheers

Marek....

[David Findlay]

How unusual to hear about Marek experiencing mechanical problems. Rear mech, seat pins whatever next.

Just seen the Tour de France doing the Limoges-St Flour. Looked pretty flat to me. Dont know what all the fuss is about. Broken bikes, sore knees, cramping up..sounds like a Saturday club run.

All said and done you have inspired me to put my name down for next year. See you there..

[Ian A4size]

All I can think of is thank god pathfinder marek wasn't leading the race he would have ended up finishing in Calais.
Seriously though well done to all who participated, Virenque in 6 hours, how long for you Marek?

[siwickm]

I did it in a whopping 10 hours 42mins. But you have to take into consideration the following:

1 hour or so to mend bike
1 hour to take account of painful right leg
1 hour to get past all the slow people
1 hour to stop and queue up for food and water

Blimey Virenque only beat me by 40 odd minutes. By next year he better watch out.

Cheers

MArek....

[davep]

Hats off to all of you , it looked tough last night on TV.
Flat bits? I heard they're weren't any, it was either up
or down!
Anyone for the h/cap tonight at Kitsemad Lane?
I need a lift

[Toks]

Hey David, you're right!. As those Eurosport peeps said 'the camera definetly lies': it didn't look that steep at all!!. But you can't tell me watching Axel Merckx `dying` at the top of Puy Mary didn't give you some indication that the aforementioned climb was perhaps a wee bit steep. Indeed, if you listened to that american lady reporter the average family car would have struggled to complete the stage.

Toks

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Great stuff you guys (and gals??)
One thing you didn't mention was the atmosphere, which is absolutely fantastic - I'm leaving tonight for a week staying at Bourg D'oisans, and will be watching the TT up Alpe D'huez. Colin and Barbara Davies will be staying with us, so there will be an ACC presence!!!!!!!!! keep an eye on Eurosport.....
Intend to "etape" next year if there are a few up for it?
Paul

[Nick W]

Stef and I finished the course in about 11 hours but regrettably Phil was swept up by the grim sweeper whilst pedalling up Puy Mary which was heartless to say the least.

[siwickm]

Well done Nick, hope you enjoyed the Puy de Peyrol which is where I last saw you.



Cheers

Marek...