L'ETAPE DU TOUR 2007. How was it for you?

np@cyclingplus

We're putting together our yearly feature on the Tour's 'Etape' mass participation ride for issue 200 of Cycling Plus. It's happening today, so we'd love to hear how you got on. Was it the killer everyone was making out? Did you survive? Have you got the before and after pics to prove it?

Post your comments, stories and experiences here, or email them to us at cyclingplus@futurenet.co.uk Don't send us huge pictures, or the server will just ditch them, but smallish jpegs are best - if we need a bigger version to reproduce in the mag we'll get back in touch.

Looking forward to hearing and seeing the blood sweat and tears!

Good luck!

Neil
Cycling Plus

Bronzie

A guy in our club rode yesterday.............he is a previous top 30 finisher at Etape (2002) but I'm not sure how fit he is at present..........he is still a bloody good rider though.

Took him over 9 hours yesterday....................will be a very tough stage for the pros I think...............6+ hours in the saddle?

SeamusD

What a great day out and what a beautiful course. The only problem I had was splitting the wall of my tyre which I discovered at the top of the Bales. Didn't fancy a 50mph descent when I could actually see the inner tube sticking out through the hole, but there was no assistance available. In the end I decided to descend anyway at 15kph. It was harder than the climb! My shoulders and arms hurt so much I had to stop three times on the way down whilst hundreds and hundreds of riders went flying past me.
Climed the Peyresourde and no one passed me, and saw many of the riders who'd just passed me on the descent and then had to do the most amazing, grin inducing descent I have ever seen at 15kph whilst they all went past me again. Finished in 11.18, but I'm going to claim sub 10 hours!
Great atmosphere and loads of British riders out there, though not much chatting on the Peyresourde! I was wearing a Great Britain top if anyone remembers chatting to me.

leguape

Here's my pics from the day:

http://www.atomicecho.com/etape/index.shtml

I was trying to photoblog it this year but that went out of the window due to the climbing after Portet D'Aspet. Breaking it down:

- At the 70km/first feed at Saint Girons I was averaging 29km/h and absolutely flying at around 10am. An hour later I was at the top of Portet D'Aspet and considering I could do a reasonable time, perhaps even sub-10 hours.

- At the top of Col de Mente I was still a full hour ahead of the elimination time at 1pm. I was now averaging about low-to-mid-20s km/h, I think.

- I got to the top of Port de Bales at 4:40pm. I had arrived at the bottom of it just after 2pm.

- I reached the top of the Col de Peyresourde at just after 6pm, utterly destroyed but totally elated.

- I crossed the line, arms aloft, about 7 minutes inside the final elimination time, just before 7pm.

It's a good thing I can descend pretty well and roll pretty well across the flatter stuff, otherwise I wouldn't have made it.

raecp

9 hours 8 minutes, which I am very happy with, despite going over the handlebars at 27 mph outside St Girons when my friend was forced into a bollard right in front of me. The Mavic van was there in 3 minutes, fixed the trashed wheel and we carried on. Got some good photos of the damage....

Mente was the climb that did it for me - I was pretty much fried at the end of that, so Bales was tough, but we'd done a recce the day before and I knew what to expect. Peyresourde was bloody painful, but the cheering from the spectators was great. Contrary to expectations, the descents from Bales and Peyresourde were brilliant - clear roads and good visibility through the bends which lead to some pretty looney speeds.

I wanna do it again next year....!

TheTalkingTurboTrainer

9 hours 45 for me which I'm ecstatic with given I wasn't even a cyclist 18 months ago!!

Makes me feel rather smug when I think back to all the doom merchants who were preaching "it's too hard, you couldn't do it, being motivated isn't enough blah blah blah" when it was first announced.

It was definitely tough, but if it wasn't .... what's the point of getting out of bed early on Winter mornings, missing nights out with the boys, telling the girlfriend you can't go away for a long weekend because you've got to train etc? If it was easy, it wouldn't be a challenge and it wouldn't be worth achieving.

I'm a very happy boy.

UncleFred

11hrs 6 for me. Started at the back of the blue pen and was worried about getting caught by the sag wagon as i was so far back so kept a high pace until Col De Port then took it easy.

I was freezing on the descent down Col de Port and wished I'd taken my arm warmers with me, being from the BVI where the average temp is in the 90's I struggled with the cold.

Portet d'spet was enjoyable, but was a bit shocked at how close Col d'mente was. It was on Col D'mente that I warmed up enough to take off my undershirt.

Got in a 20man pace line on the carriage way to Port de Bales which helped receovery into the head wine.

Port De Bales was hell, I'd run out of gels and only had power bars but every time I tried to chew one I threw up, my camel pak was empty and I only had half a bottle, managed to find a stream about half way up to fill up the bottles and discovers that if I took a bite of a power bar and washed it down with water I could manage it without puking. I ended up stopping 6 or 7 times but didn't walk any of it. I managed to get some gels at the top of Port de Bales which saved the ride.

Descent of Port de Bales was fantastic, big grin all the way down and hit 49.8mph on one of the longer stretches.

Col de Perysourde was a fantastic climb, really enjoyed it and the 10 gels I picked up at the top of Port de Bales were all consumed, crowd really helped as well.

Descent was fantastic, let the bike go and just held on....

Dead Keen

It was fantastic!

I've put some stuff on my blog: http://www.ironman-mark.com

Ken Night

It was certainly harder than last year's edition-congrats Leguape on getting round without troubling the broom wagon


by my estimation


6/313 of Cat A (20-29yo) got gold, and 57/313 silver
28/1107 of Cat B (30-39yo) got gold, while 145/1107 got silver
In my Cat C (40-49) 43/1640 got gold, and 305/1640 got silver (which I missed by 2 mins with my 8h 42m)

Gold on the Vaujany and the Marmotte were easier!

what a great descent on the Mente!

Does anyone know what happened to the guys that came off on the Portet D'aspet? The guy who was down as I passed, seemed to be knocked out and a couple of spectators had just reached him

The accident lower down (but still above the Casartelli monument) was less serious-the guy was sitting by the side of the road, with a bollard shaped dent in his front wheel. Those concrete bollards are frightening (though I guess they are no harder than any other bollard)

ladep

I completed in just over 11 hours. The day didn't go without incident for me.

My computer popped on off my handlebars just as I crossed the start line. A suicidal dash into thousands of oncoming cyclists to retrieve it followed - I wasn't going to ride the next 196Km without it! Next I had an encounter with the French tarmac as the guy in front of me went down after touching wheels with someone. With no escape route I took a dive over the handlebars.

Next a glue like substance found it's way onto my right cleat at one of the feed stations. A number of small stones then became stuck to it which stopped me from getting my feet in the pedals.

I had a great day though and I'm please that I avoided the broom wagon, which was my main aim.

One thing that was noticible was the amount of expensive carbon machinery that was being pushed up the mountains on foot

rjtwilson

Last year I completed the course, but only after having been "eliminated" at the foot of the Alpe and handing my transponder in.
This year...a bit better maybe, I got round in almost exactly 12 hours after crossing the start line; feeling more than a little tired and emotional, having rode my bike every inch of the way. The mat at the finish beeped, and someone gave me a medal, but I still don't know whether I class as an "official" finisher as I can't get any sense out of the results section on the official Etape website.
I'm a 47 year old "returning to fitness" type, been cycling 18 months, still a few kgs overweight, and I wish I'd been able to lose more of those before last Monday. I knew the course, having done a recce week at the beginning of May (in the rain/hail/snow...), and that certainly helped when the mind games got going on the Bales, knowing where there were flatter bits to stop and rest etc.
It was always going to be a race of 2 halves, a good paced ride with plenty of recovery opportunities as far as St Beat, and then a war of attrition over the Bales and Peyrosourde. The rate-limiting step for me was energy levels in the legs; I simply ran out of carbs, and had trouble getting any more in due to the heat/lactate/nausea. Every time I tried to pedal faster, the heart rate responded appropriately, but the legs didn't last. I was determined not to get off and push however, and managed that.
I'm giving next year a miss, will stay at home, but most likely will try another Etape in 2009, thinner and fitter.
How do we found out about the numbers of starters and finshers? I couldn't get the Etape site to tell me that.

richa

RJTW,

What was your Bib No? It can be difficult to get a result from the official website.

Link for Last Recorded Place (4357th)

Pos. Gen. Pos. Cat. Cat. N. Name Surname Official Time Real Pos. Real Time
4357 1644 C 6593 MACKIE Bruce 12h 01' 06" 4181 11h 39' 14"

motdoc

An excellent day out. A bit challenging I must admit, Looking at the stats 8500 entered and only 4365 finished (when I checked yesterday), ridiculous!
The french were awesome and supportive the whole way round, spraying us with water and laughing at my welsh riding jersey (Allez pays du Galle! they shouted a lot).
Poet Du Bales was tough and made worse, by the time I made it through, by lage patches of melted tarmac (I was told by others it was about 33c at this point).
Made it round in about 11hr7. One of our team made it by 2 mins despite having a chest infection...bloody good effort!
Only thing that could have improved it was not travelling with Graham Baxter...what a miserable bugger, also dropped us off 5 hrs early at the airport, British service at its worst.
Congratulations to all
Motdoc

Mick Jagger

Came in at 9.30 with a ride time of 8.58. I was position 1466 which I was very pleased with. Would have been better if my friend didn't have a puncture and was carrying no tubes levers or anything (tosser), but I'm not complaining! The col de Menté was hard and relentless. A relief to finish. The run to the Port de Bales was fairly slow and subdude, everybody knew what was coming up. Except for some guy from New Zealand who declaired at the foot of the Bales that "this cols a piece of p**s" before turning the corner and seeing it rear up to 11% plus! That was a very steep climb and if I knew what it was going to be like, I would have changed my training regime to suit. The Col de Peyrsourde was hard because it was the last climb of the day. A lot of people walking or resting under trees on the last 2 cols but not as many as I thought. I didn't get off and walk once but I wouldn't have been unhappy about getting a puncture!

A lot more Brits than I thought there would be and all doing very well.

I was worried about the descents as the fast guys came through but it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The worst being the D'Aspet.

Things that made me laugh were the amount of men with shaved legs. Looks really silly. And riders managing to find the strength to stand on the pedals when they saw one of the official photographers before collapsing back into the saddle once they had their photograph taken!

I recorded the whole ride on my Garmin 305 which did a fantasticlly accurate job of recording everything. You can view all of my stats, elevation speed etc. on this link here.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3328096

And here is a link to a KML file which when unzipped and clicked on will open up in Google Earth. You can then fly the route!

www.fontasia.com/etape_du_tour2007.kml.zip

You need Google Earth installed

To top it all I raised over £3400.00 for Brain Tumour UK so all in all a long but enjoyable day.

raecp

The results page does not work in English. Select the French version of the site and type your bib number in the "dossard" box. Works fine.

SeamusD

Just to add to what others have said already the race support was awesome - chapeau to the organisers. It would have been nice to have found a Mavic vehicle and a new tyre, but I survived without it and this was a minor problem compared to those that some were having. There was plenty of water available around the course and the organisers seemed to have added in extra watering stations, plus I took advantage of fountains at the foot of the Bales and on top of the Portet D'Aspet - I still took and used three bottles though and think this may have helped me survive better than many others. I also took advantage of every spectator who wanted to pour water over my head so thanks to them too! The friendliness and concern of all the official vehicles was very impressive. Several vehicles stopped to ask if I was OK during my 15kph descents - shame none of them had a tyre. Next time I'll take some gaffer tape just in case I need to do a quick patch up.
I haven't seen an official figure for the number of starters, but with only 4357 finishers it looks as though about 40% didn't make it. One noticeable difference between this etape and the last Pyrenean one I did - Pau to Bayonne - was that then there were literally thousands of riders walking up the last big col; this time almost no one was walking - they were all lying down!

Mike Neame

I did'nt make it to the end - I made the 2/3rds (2nd elimination point) ahead of the broom wagon but I knew my time was coming and I would be caught on Bales.

The Col De Mente killed me! - interesting to see other's found it tough.

Like all others, I agree the organisation was excellent and the experience fantastic.

I'd like to put a bit of a defence for Graham Baxter Tours(I have no connection to them).

Their return times to airports were well communicated in advance so I think it unfair to criticise them for time waiting for flights. They make it very clear that they do not control flight times.

My experience of them was very positive. We returned on Monday very late (nothing to do with G.Baxter Tours) and we were all resigned to litlle (if any food) etc....

We were wrong, quite the opposite, an excellent meal was still layed on very late in the evening. If (when) I return to the Etape I will use G.Baxter tours.

Boris Dog

"Courage mon brave, courage"

How many times can that phrase go round your head in 9 hours 17 minutes of riding? Plenty it seems.

Totally cream crackered 3 days later but still re-living the memories.

(www.rafcycling.org.uk)

rjtwilson

RICHA, my bib was 4324, I checked through using the French site, and no luck. I note that the "real" time of the last one across the line was 11:39, wheras mine was more or less exactly 12 hours, so I guess they take the 7am start as the start for everyone, rather than the time you cross the start mat, which was 7:16 am for me. Never mind, I got round, no pushing, it was a great day, great support, and i'm chuffed.
And Mick Jagger, what a fantastic effort raising £3400 for charity, congratulations, but why the problem with shaved legs? Don't knock it until you've tried it.. makes those lonely nights away a lot more pleasurable...

grazer

Well done TTT. I remember reading the threads from last year about how hard/impossible it would be!!

Did u get a medal for your time??

TheTalkingTurboTrainer

Thanks Grazer. Everyone gets a medal when they cross the finish line.

I should clarify that 9:45 was my ride time. Total time was a bit more than that (something a bit over 11 I think?) with feed stops and also waiting for a mate who suffered three inner tubes blowing out on him (he had to retire - his carbon rims had warped in the heat) and then waiting for another mate who had back probs up the Peyrousaurde. Still, I finished and I really wanted a sub 10 ride time so I'm pretty thrilled!

I also agree that the French were amazing - both the spectators and the organisers! I don't think I was in a big queue at all during the weekend despite there being 8,500 competitors!! Registration took no time at all and food and drink was immediately available at every feed station. It was first class!

grazer

a great effort to everyone who even got to the start line

out of interest:-

what were the gold/silver medal speeds/times
what gears were people using?

richa

grazer,

8,500 entered. 7,000+ started. Just 4,357 finished.
That’s 2,643+ (38%+) that didn’t make it to Loudebvielle under the time.

Category B (M30-39) Standards:
Gold: <7:21 => Achieved by 27 / 1,107 Cat B finishers.
Silver: <8:26 => Achieved by 140 / 1,107.
Bronze: <12:00 => Achieved by 940 / 1,107.

So, of the 1,107 Cat. B finnishers:
2.4% achieved Gold
12.6% achieved Silver
84.9% achieved Bronze

liversedge

I certainly remember all the nay-sayers last year like TTT mentioned - what a great experience it was and how wrong they were. I did think of them as I sufferred the last 7k of Bales.

You can't tell a thing by looking at the riders though can you? Watching guys with deeply tanned shaved legs and chiselled calves guys pushing their pinarellos up the Bales as my pasty chicken legs plugged past (sloooooooowly) for a 10:04 which I'm reasonably happy with given so many people here told me I was doooooooooomed.

And why lie by the side of the road with just 2km to the summit of the Peyresourde? What was that all about?

I'll be back for the Alps ..............

Congrats to everyone that made it through the day ...

I took my lad to Col de Port on Thursday so he could ascend it too. He got a cheer and round of applause as he reached the summit from the assembled day trippers!!!! I didn't have the heart to tell them he'd only done the last 5km ..... which isn't so bad given he's only 8.

freddy2

Superb day. What an event. All the people who supported along the roadside made you feel very special. The climbs up the last two mountains were extremely difficult but the motorhomes waiting at the top made it feel like a tour ride. Their support was incredible.

It was my first etape and getting to the start was part of the adventure. The police checks of vehicles and the slow ride to the start really hieghtened the excitment. it took 25 minutes to get going but unlike other sportives i've been in the start was very relaxed. I waited patiently as just mingling with an international collection of cyclists was awe inspiring.

Really enjoyed getting over Col de Port and descent into St Girons. Got onto the back of a group which really pulled me along. The next two climbs were difficult but was ahead of the broom wagon by about 50 minutes by the time I got to St Beat.

I was really pleased I’d recce’d the route in May because the climb up Bales was tough with all those miles in your legs. Knowing the mountain made it mentally easier to cope with. Seeing so many people walking made me more determined to get over the difficult bits.

Peyrousorde was as difficult as I expected and more so because once again all the miles beforehand really told. Once I got to the top though the feeling of elation was incredible. I was ahead of the broom wagon and it was downhill all the way.

What a difference closed roads makes because I enjoyed all the descents but the last one was extra special. Riding into the finish was truly memorable (why no official photographer?!). My time was 11:20 and I finished with 20 minutes to spare. My computer told me I had cycled for 10:40 so I had 40 minutes of stops along the way. Didn’t walk once however.

My first but not my last etape!

popette

Hi
well done to you all. I'm planning to do this in 2009 but your amazing stories are making me want to do it next year instead.
When does the route for the following year get published and how soon can you start booking your place on the etape?
Happy resting

richa

popette,

I decided to do it this time last year.

Places can generally be reserved from Septemeber. UK entrants are generally required to go through a tour operator. See here for a list of tour operators.

The route of the Tour is announced in mid October and the Etape is announced at the same time. (i.e. you may end up booking yourt spot before you know the route - it ususally alternates so expect it to be in the Alps next year)

I was a total novice, unfit and overweight. I didn't buy my bike until October. Got out on the bike a little from October-Christmas. Then the real training started in January and continued building until July when you can taper !!! It takes motivation and hard work but is very achieveable.

Do it next year. You won't regret it.

flattythehurdler

Hey TTT, I wouldn't get too smug. I didn't finish last year in the heat, and said this year's would be hard, but I kicked your ass, and it was imo easier than last year (with a decnt bit of training this time, and a decent rest) :twisted:

richa

I've now completed my full write up, photos & stats:
www.etape2007.blogspot.com

In short, it was an incredible day. 10 hours alternating between grimacing (on the ascents) and smiling (on the descents).

A fantastic thing to have done and something I'd recommend to anyone.

TomF

Well, I packed near the top of the Bales.

I'm still pretty disappointed, but have to have an air of realism: I've been riding road bikes since last October only, my training in the last 3 months has been very badly affected by work, and it was even harder than I could have imagined.

Chapeau! to all those who finished and recorded a time (I know of plenty who finished, but outside the 12 hours).

I have already vowed to return before winter to the Pyrennees to complete the Bales and Peyresourde climbs.

And I'll be signed up for next year's Etape, too (only this time, with a bit more idea what I am doing!).

Tom

andyp

TomF - sorry to hear you had to pack but I'm heartened to hear that you want to try again. I wish a lot of luck for next year.

I think I'm one of the naysayers that others refer to on this thread but I still think that undertaking the Etape is a massive challenge for anyone but even more so for those who are relatively new to cycling. The combination of the distance, the mountains and the heat combine to make this one tough event and if you don't know this up front then you'll struggle. It's impossible to re-create this challenge in the UK so I'd still advocate to anyone who wants to do it to travel to somewhere like France or Italy beforehand and get the experience of riding in the mountains.

I'm pleased that so many people completed this year's event as I still think it's one of the toughest Etape courses in years. Chapeau to those of you who made it.