March 2007

TRAVEL JOURNAL

Riding Etape du Tour 2007 - Challenging Yes, but doable? Have they gone too far? (See the video covering the route of Etape)

Etape du Tour - aka - Amateaur Day on the Tour de France; or at least that is what we call it. This event is surprisingly little known still in the USA/Canada, so I would guess widely unknown outside of Europe. Below is a recap I wrote after riding the route Gap-Alpe d'Huez last year that pretty clearly sums it up. As we are both an operator and service provider to other operators selling Etape du Tour there has been discussion on our side of the business about how hard this route really is. Some feel that it may be so hard that it is discouraging people from booking. I don't buy it, but I would be curious to know what our readers think. See the link below the article and tell us what you think!

Etape du Tour 2006
Gap to Alpe d’Huez

We decided back in April when we knew we could get some spots in Etape to enroll. It was a decision that had to be made within 2 days or the chance would be gone as spots would go back to the organizer. We took them. I have been racing this year and was ready for the challenge by my brother Brent was just finishing up another tax season wherein nothing but tax work gets done for 14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. ie – he had 2 months to train for Etape!

July 9 – Brent arrives in Lyon from the USA, and we drive to Gap to pickup our timing chips and our bikes. We used our Eddy Merckx bikes that our company Cycling Classics owns and rents to our bike tour clients. We met up with another group we had organized at the check in and found out our bikes would not be available to pickup until after 5pm. So, we arrived at our hotel at 7:00 pm, about 34 km away from Gap. It was the final of World Cup tonight too, so we had to go directly to the dinner table and eat before it was too late and the match under way. We had an excellent dinner and our hotel, the Hotel du Lac in Embrun, is a nice setting near the beautiful lake of Embrun. We partially assembled our bikes and then went to bed as early as we could because breakfast was at 4:00 am. With the match, we couldn’t make it to the end, but though France lost it probably saved us some quieter time during the night. Unfortunately, sleep did not come.

At 3:30am, we decded to get up and start getting ready. We ate a breakfast at 4am, and departed for Gap. We had a prearranged meeting point in Gap so that I could give our rental car to one of our guides with the other group. We lined up at 6:30 and waited. Our numbers were 7948 and 7947 out of 8500 issued. We were at the back of a group of 8,500 participants. The gun started the Etape at 7am, but we didn’t start to move until 7:20, we walked for a bit, then rolled with a foot down for a bit, and then finally started to ride. The first 55 km or so to Guillestre were nice: rolling countryside, beautiful mountains. The first feed zone was here in this town, and that’s when the difficulties started.

We knew to expect the feed zone, so we planned our water and eating accordingly. We were forced to walk our bikes, squished like sardines slowly toward the feed area. The mass of people trying to get supplied made a monster traffic jam. We did finally get up to it and walking over a sea of litter, we managed to get oranges, bananas, cereal bars, some candy, and some gels as well as water. The scene is hard to describe, but since we were at the back of this large group, a group which had disposed of its litter all over the ground, we were walking on plastic bottles and orange/banana peels squishing banana into our cleats and so on. It was an omen of more to come at the feed zones.

Nonetheless, we continued and at this point started up the massive Col de Izoard. It started as expected – hard. We expected nothing less from a HC category climb, but the heat from the sun was starting to become a burden. We traveled along at a relatively moderate pace of about 6 mph. We seemed to be moving a little bit faster than the average of the people at this point in the race as we were passing a lot of people. It became evident that a lot of people were going to suffer with the heat. About 10km before the summit of the col, we saw people throwing up and some suffering the beginning of heat exhaustion. One note, we did pass many village of course throughout the Etape and without fail the locals were out giving encouragement by cheering, clapping, and being respectful of the achievment all were trying to make. Some locals of course were supplying water and pour water or spraying water on the cyclists as they passed. I rode under the spray of one gentleman and the cold water jolted me but the wet jersey cooled me off and helped my progress. There were, without a doubt, a lot people who were probably unprepared for the difficult climbing as they were already walking their bikes, but most by sheer will fought through it. Unfortunately, time was working against them.

When we arrived at the top of the Izoard it was about 12:00 noon. Time wise, that was longer than we expected it to take. We were now up against the pressure of the sweep vehicle. Normally, there was supposed to be a feed zone for water only at the top of Izoard, but to our chagrin and everyone else arriving at that time; there was NO MORE WATER! I scrounged around the sea of empty plastic bottles on the ground, trampled flat and covered with mud and bananas and other litter to find a mud covered but unopened bottle. We shared it and started to descend. We had to hurry to Briancon to the next feed station because of time. The descent was some kind of thrill ride! Brent flatted at about 30 mph, probably due to heat and friction. After Brent made a very quick change, we moved on and made it to Briacon rather quickly. When we arrived we heard an official shouting that we had 10 minutes to get on the course or we would be eliminated!

So, we stuffed our pockets with anything we could find, which was basically more of the same: cereal bars, bananas, candy. I stuffed cereal bars into my shorts and we got out of there quickly. We ate on the bike as we started up the long climb of the Col du Lautaret. The col isn’t as steep, but it is long. We knew this of course, and considered it easily doable. The heat was increasing as it was now after 1pm. We rolled along, and stopped for a soaking in a few of the fountains in the villages along the way. Though we really didn’t know it at the time, the temperatures were in the 90s. The ride became a slog. We only passed people, maybe only 1 or 2 persons passed us. Many persons were walking, some were sitting. The medical staff on the tour was very busy attending to sick people. Brent alone says he saw 5 people dry heaving. We saw people in blankets suffering from heat stroke. Brent and I split on the climb. We were worried about the time limit, so I climbed ahead. I rolled well, and as a final inspiration before reaching the col I came across a tandem with a stoker who had no legs and missing his right arm. He had prosthetics attached to the pedals and he held the bar with his left hand. Amazing, and it made my little difficulties seem meaningless. I arrived at the col in good time and waited; Brent arrived 15 minutes later. He found a second wind and ascended quicker than he was going at the bottom. He took no time to rest, and so we descended directly. The long descent to Bourg was much more than just a ride downhill.

The descent is steep, but less than the Izoard, but we were under pressure of time. We did have the whole road to use, which helps but were were aware because of the signs posted that this road would open soon. Cars were starting to line up at the intersections to wait. The road is rough, we are more impressed with the pros now as we know they will take these roads at speeds well above those we took. The challenge is maintain concentration, hands on the bars, and watching for pot holes and so on. No big deal really, but nothing to disregard. Because of time, we had to cover 40 km to Bourg in 1 hour, so we had to average 40km per hour downhill. There are sections that are flat or even climbing. We were falling behind. We arrived at the turn to Alpe d’Huez at 3:50 pm and the roads were opening at 4pm. Cars were lined up and people were standing around. Gendarmes everywhere. The heat now was topping 102 degrees. We clearly had just made it off the national in time. The next feed zone was here. We expected nothing and basically got nothing. The volunteers were doing what they could, and though we know not where the water was coming from, they would take our water bottles and disappear for a few minutes and return shortly with them filled. We quickly forced down a few cereal bars, a banana and few oranges. We trampled across the sea of empty bottles to the place we left our bikes to climb on again. It was now decision time. The barriers were going up on the road up Alpe d’Huez.

We chose to go up. We were among the last 10 persons or so allowed through the barriers. We started, and as everyone knows, the first few turns on Alpe d’Huez are the hardest. We knew this too. Having triple chain rings, we were now in our 30-25, and the climbs were taking everything. Some of those left going up were riding, most were walking. There were people sitting all over the road waiting for the sweep buses. Bikes were left on the roadside. We struggled to turn 18 and stopped. The sweep vehicle was right behind. We were not going to make it and the temperate was burning. We abandoned. It was disappointing, but not devastating by any stretch. We dealt with all that the Etape gave us, many of the conditions out of our control. Knowing that we were taking chances with our training, and late arrivals, no warm ups, no acclimitazation, we were happy of what we accomplished. To those considering the Etape, they should know this isn’t just a century ride. (we did not consider it this way, but some clearly did) This is a race. We expected more in the feed stations, and better use of the routes. Meaning, the traffic of so many people at times severely delayed our progress. The race leaders are elite athletes, with the winner covering the course in 6 hours. He finished up Alpe d’Huez in 49 minutes. Of course its for amateurs, but very strong amateurs.

In the end, some numbers:

Time on the bike: 9 hours 15 minutes
From Brent’s Polar:
Calories consumed: 9450
Calories taken in: estimated 1500-2000 (equals a weight loss of about 7-8 pounds)
Distance covered: 178 km
Cumulative elevation gained: 10,120 feet

That evening when we made it to our hotel, we had dinner and slept. We slept from 10pm to noon the next day. After the rest, we got the bikes out and went to the base of Alpe d’Huez. We turned around and went straight up. Similarly, it was hot like during Etape, but our condition was so much better. I went up in 1 hour 13 minutes and Brent in 1 hour 42 minutes. We finished strong. In the end, we did it all, it just took a few more hours!

- reprinted from http://flognblog.blogspot.com

Have you ridden Etape du Tour? Would you like to share your own story? Please contact us or send questions!

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