I was a bit worried aobut the etape having ridden the Marmotte a couple of days earlier. I had really struggled at points on the Marmotte and had no idea how my legs would cope with being put through the mill again only a couple of days later. Had managed a quick recovery spin on the 'rest' day which only confirmed the obvious that my legs were tired.
My plan was simple. I would start steady climb the Col d'Izoard at whatever pace I was happy with and then assess things up the top which was just under half way. The target time for silver was 8.01 which looked pretty tough but doable.
At the start everything was hotting up too nicely. At the Marmotte I'd needed my waterproof on when standing around at the start and arm warmers for the first part of the ride and later that afternoon Alpe d'Huez had been a furnace. This time I was standing at the start with no coat, no arm warmers and zip already undone and the sky was pretty clear. It did not bode too well for things.
Things started nice and steady and it was comfortable run into the first climb up the Col d'Izoard. From the point you turn off the main road to the summit is about 30 km although fortunately most of it is pretty flat. I'd decided to ride the first part as a race so skipped the first feed having started with 3 bottles of energy drink which just sufficed to get me to the top of the Izoard. The time was 3.45 at that point and 8.01 looked like a real possibility.
The descent off the Izoard went well, the advantage of being fat is that you roll quite quickly downhill if you have the nerve to stay off the brakes and I reached speeds of 40-45mph on both the descents we did.
There then came the climb up the Lauteret, not steep and reasonably steady. Big ring most of the way up looking not to get on the front of any group. Got dragged along nicely and relied on my English ignorance when a French rider suggested that it wasn't nice for me to sit a couple of inches behind his wheel the entire way without doing any work at all.
Once at the top of the Col d'Lauteret the route to the finish was the same as the Marmotte. It had taken just over 2.5 hours in the Marmotte, and I got to the top of the Lauteret with about 6 hours gone so would have to pull my finger out.
The descent went well with one minor hiccup as we got towards the end as I hit a rough patch of tarmac at 40 mph my pump went skating across the road. A moment's hesitation about whether I needed to go back and pick it up soon disappeared with a "sod it I'll be on Alpe d'Huez in a couple of minutes and there will be plenty of people walking to borrow a pump off if I need". I reached the feedpoint at the bottom of Alpe d'Huez with 6.35 showing on my computer. I'd stopped once which would have added a couple of minutes and I needed to stop again as I had no drink left at all, so I reckoned I needed to climb in about 1.21 to git my target. As it had taken me 1.24 to do it with fresh legs at the beginning of the week this was looking a bit optimistic but if you don't try ....
Set off at a reasonable pace and was bang on target at the 10km to go board. However as things kicked up after the 'flattish' mid-section my speed started to disappear. The heat at this point was pretty phenomenal and it took all my will power not to stop at the streams that flow down the Alpe providing a tempting supply of cold fresh water. Although I didn't see him a rider who finished about 10 minutes after me said that Chris Hoy was sat on the side by one of the streams in his World Champions jersey.
At 5km to go I'd completely blown it I was about 10 minutes off the required pace and it was all about pride. There was no way I was going to stop until the finish line. The section between 5k and 3k you can see the village towering over you and you know that you've got to ride through the village to the top. I'm not sure quite how I managed that section although having a large bottle of cold water tipped over me by some kind french woman certainly helped. Once into the village things eased off a bit and I even managed a sprint for the line.
'Real' finishing time was 8.09 so 8 minutes off the target with my computer showing a riding time of 8.05, so only 4 minutes spent stationary on the ride. I'm pretty happy with that I'm sure I couldn't have gone any faster on the day and that's all that really matters.
