5.45 at the van, is not getting any easier. I can't decide whether today I am going to learn the piano or how to speak French. The second may be useful.
We know today we ride to Grenoble to Gap through the Alps following Napoleons route. For those of you who don't follow Le Tour De France, Gap is a frequent stop for the professional riders as they traverse the Alps by his gives you an idea of the likely climbing we have to do during the course of the day.
Setting off we climb through the countryside at a steady pace, passing cows with actual bells hanging from their necks. We didn't see any purple MilkA chocolate ones though before you ask. They are in Switzerland.
As we reached the first brow, there in front of us, rising into the blue sky, mountains. Big mountains and lots of them, we were at the foot of the Alps and it was a majestic view.
We then start to descend at quite a rate of knots towards Grenoble. Gary, as usual would guide us through the city, with his Garmin. Having lost the support bus some time back, we stopped for a coffee as is the tradition of cyclists everywhere and carried on through the city, only coming to a stop, when Paul had a puncture. As with the morning starts, puncture fixing fixing is again like a formula one pit crew, a far cry from the hour it took us to change Richard's puncture on the North Wales coast three weeks ago.
Trigger happy
During our ride, Richard would frequently get phone calls from the support bus.
It quickly turns into a scene from trigger happy tv,
"HELLO WHERE ARE YOU?"
Mumble mumble mumble
"WE ARE ON THE D509"
Mumble mumble mumble
"NO THE D509 HEADING SOUTH, D509 HEADING SOUTH!"
I am sure you get the picture but like the Garmin Head Bob the ringing of Richards phone has become a tell tale sign that one of us is on a different route. In and around cities this is harder as we can progress far more quickly despite our aching legs.
Heading out of Grenoble the riders need a comfort break and find a safe place, Steve again finds the opportunity for a forage, cherries are the order of the day and lovely they are too.
We leave Grenoble and onto the first Alpine pass of the day. The agreed brief was to go at your pace as climbing is something you have a personal way to approach. Especially one of this length. ,
From here on in, i can only really speak for myself and Gary as we went off together up the first climb. There were not so much S bends here but bends all the same, climbing up and up in the blazing sun, we pushed on to the top. The views were fantastic. We waited for the rest to arrive just a short time later, admiring the view
We then had lunch. Pretty straight forward you would think but at this stage into a draining endurance event remembering your name can be a challenge. Mike dropped his plate. It smashed on the floor! With his toasty lying in the street, as quick as a flash he applied the five second rule; taking it in hand and eating it. This was much to the disgust of the waitress and to the support of the team. If only she knew what we had been through or maybe the cost of the plate came out of her salary?
So onwards and upwards we went with the return of the S bends. As soon as you were around one it was a brutal climb again, it went on for hour after hour as we headed towards the cloudless blue sky. This will tell you something about cycling; it was the best climbing we had done!
Sweating in the heat, we continued. Exotic cars flying passed us, Porches, Audi A8s, We even saw a fully functional Citroen. Looking into the ravine at our side we saw a military aircraft flying below us , it really couldn't get any better.
Gary and myself then decided to make a run for our destination at Gap climbing at our own pace. Off we went, climbing then descending. With some of the descents being 12% it was as brutal going down as it was going up.
Really starting to struggle I told Gary to go ahead but he stayed with me, we pushed hard and finally met up with the rest of the team at 99.84 miles. I looked at my watch and said, I’m not stopping now, its 100 or nothing, next lay by they said. So Gary and I agreed to do an additional climb. Off we went determined to get the 100, it was a brutal climb. Around the corner we thought great they will be waiting, we rounded the corner no van! Our long suffering teddies were once again ejected from the pram. In the works of Victor Meldrew "we couldn't believe it!"
They had done one, we had ran out of water about thirty miles ago and it was beginning to feel like a scene from Laurence of Arabia. Determined to carry on we gave it our all, only to find the team waiting out on the road around the next corner, shouting encouragement to us. &£$^" !!
Like the end of a Pro race, Richard took my bike off me as I staggered across the road to the van. I downed a bottle of water, crawled in the van and tried to start some sort of recovery. I felt terrible, empty, hollow as if all my muscles were burning with the acid engulfing them. I gave it my all on that last mile and so did Gary, it was the best ride of my life. I paid for it later, I felt awful..
I do hope that Paul, Richard and Mike will post a bit about their experiences today as it was the first time we split a little since the start.
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