L'etape: Pre Race

One thing that becomes clear with experience of participating in Sportives and Triathlons is that there is a real the benefit in routine; it reduces unnecessary stress and enables you to focus on the right things in the build up. Having never participated in an event abroad before I was prepared for the lack of normality. The starting point for the etape was Montelimar in the South of France. I originally had to choose between driving or flying and had opted to drive so I could be a little more in control of the situation and could also explore a bit of the country side whilst there.

It became apparent in the run up to the event that even though I was driving myself, it was a requirement for me to use a Bike Box for transportation to and from the start/finish. This meant that I had to pack the bike in a box for the trip down and I would then re-build the bike on the Saturday in Montelimar. I am now aware that successfully using a Bike Box is a skill in itself, a skill that comes with patience and practice. Four attempts and several internet consultations later I managed to get the bike in but was still a little concerned that it was too tight and some of the parts may be under pressure. Once we got to Montelimar on the Saturday it became apparent that I was right.

Upon re-building the bike and subsequently testing it, I couldn’t get it into 1st Gear and it was jumping in several of the others; not ideal for climbing 5 Cols on the Monday. A cursory glance revealed a split gear cable hosing which required a visit to a bike shop for a spare cable or the correct tools for a DIY repair. I took advantage of the Mavic support team and they took a look.

No spares were available so a repair was the only option. After repairing the cable, the Mavic technician started what appeared to be randomly adjusting all 4 screws on the rear derailleur. I suspected from that moment on that I was doomed to spend the rest of the weekend trying to fix my bike. He topped it off by adjusting the perfectly working brakes and “Horror of Horrors” putting oil on the chain – something that my bikes never get as it just attracts dirt and wears down the chain and cogs. I always use a Teflon lubricant and the cassette and chain remain spotless. This was not really a problem, merely a deviation from routine which made me nervous. I couldn’t complain as he meant well and I was grateful for him having fixed the bike.

I had to go for a quick ride as part of my Carbo Loading strategy and the gears were running great. Well I thought they were until I realised I couldn’t get the bike into top gear – the technician had either not noticed or not mentioned it to me but I now only had 9 gears working on the back. I had run out of time that day to look at it so resolved to return on Sunday to fix it and reset the brakes where I wanted them. Alas, Sunday was not fruitful and I ended up with 9 gears for the ride and black hands from all that oil!

After looking at the bike, we decided to take a drive up to the top of Mt Ventoux from the Mt Serein side.

Having previously been told that we were not to hang around at the top after the etape but were to descend to Mt Serein before stopping I wanted a proper chance to see what the top was like and take some snaps. The drive up took 30 minutes, primarily in 2nd gear, I was more and more surprised at the sheer relentlessness of it as we got higher and higher. I adore the mountains, having lived in the French Alps for 5 years I really feel at home in this type of geography, it is awe inspiring. This is the first mountain I have been up where you can see for miles for a full 360 degrees around the top, it’s “balding head” (the result of Roman tree cutting) is visible from miles around and sticks out as if it doesn’t belong. The weather was quite poor at the top, very windy from the Mistral and according to the car it was a good 10 degrees C colder than the bottom. I made a mental note to carry my arm warmers for the ascent in the cold.

Once we got to the top and appreciated the scenes I decided that my 8 hour ride time target would be tough as I would need to save energy for the final climb. All the same I wanted to try and hit Bedoin at 6 hours and plan a 2 hour ascent knowing I could average 11Kmh up that sort of incline.