Etape 2008

Sfelt

Anybody know what sort of food/drink the stations have? Is it ala Dragonride bananas and junglejuice?

richa

From a fluids point of view, last year it was water only (small bottles) - no energy drink.

From what i remember, I was grabbing fruit and dried fruit...

FransJacques

food in the etape depends on how back you are and how raped the tables get

if it'snot too hot it'll be ok but if it's swealtering like 2006, it'll be russian circa 1972

they have lots of good stuff but no enuf IMO. i think they've been listening the last couple of years tho...

kmahony

I'm gonna take as much food as I'll need with me.
I'm thinking I can fit 2 flapjacks and 7 gels in a jersey pocket. Then all I need to stop for is water (banana or sandwich would be a bonus)

Might not need that much water. Now showing:
Pau (Morning) - 12C - very light rain - very light tail wind
La Mongie (Morning) - 15C - very light rain - very light head wind

I took CO2 catridges on a plane last month with no problems. They're not allowed, but don't really believe anyone looks at the x-rays.

SunWuKong

Kieran, not that I condone your behavior or would attempt to do the same, were they in with your bike or normal checked in luggage?

Garybee

kmahony wrote:

I took CO2 catridges on a plane last month with no problems. They're not allowed, but don't really believe anyone looks at the x-rays.

Just got back from a trip in the Pyrenees, coast to coast, rode the Tourmalet among others. Flew with BA who didn't have any problems with CO2 as long as it was in the hold luggage. Checked with them before flying out.

mkfdixon

Hi to all and thanks for all the useful info here

Does anybody know for definite what is happening with the start pens? Looking at last year it looks like 6,000 to 8,500 were in one massive pen? But also you hear its in pens of 500? And in the pens is is first come first served or is there an order number and if first come first served how early do you have to get there to get a decent slot?

Any info very gratefully received

ta

markmanner

mkfdixon wrote:

Hi to all and thanks for all the useful info here
Does anybody know for definite what is happening with the start pens?
ta

The pens are in 500 increments, 1-500, 501-1000, etc., based on your bib number, and I hear (never been before) that they attempt to enforce it. Hope this helps, and I am off to France today.
Best, Mark

musto_skiff

Good luck to you all; as a newbie I have been following this thread with an interest in doing next years event ... sounds great.

richa

Start Map is now available here:
http://www.letapedutour.com/2008/ETDT/p ... depart.pdf

Last year pens were:
0-500
501-1100
1101-2500
2501-3500
3501-6000
6001-8500

See here:
http://www.letapedutour.com/2007/ETDT/p ... n_foix.pdf

This is a much clearer plan of how they try to organise it. Your start number will probablly be colour co-ordinated with your pen and you'll only be allowed down a side road that leads to your pen only.

Peolpe arrive from 5:30-6:30 (when the pens officially close) but arriving by 6am should get you close to the start of your pen and can make quite a difference. Up to 2500 places!!

popette

Good luck & have a safe trip down there everyone

give me a wave if you see me on Tourmalet on Saturday - I'll be wearing red, on a red bike and going sloooooooow

If I had been doing the event, it would have been the worst final week of preparation as I've succumbed to some kind of tummy bug. I'm still very queasy and tired from a night slumped on the bathroom floor. I hope I perk up by tomorrow or that drive down is going to be hell.

Good luck again - can't wait to hear all your stories when we're all back.

stage_fright

Following on from Popette's post - good luck everyone, and please let us lesser mortals know how you got on!

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

il_principe

Good luck to everyone. If you see a bloke on a Pinarello Prince with matching red/white/black Castelli kit then say hello

Clothing wise I'm hoping that my Montane Velo jacket will be enough in addition to the standard jersey and bibs. I do have an excellent Castelli jacket but it's too bulky to store on the bike given how stuffed my pockets will be. I reckon it'll still be warm enough anyway! Perhaps long fingered gloves for the descent?

Top news about the tailwind - i hope that's accurate!

Enjoy it folks.

SunWuKong

I fly out tomorrow, staying with Sporting Tours in Lourdes.

Good luck everyone, hope you all enjoy it and have a safe journey.

I'll say hello to anyone I can spot from their descriptions.

Wu Kong

popette

jashburnham wrote:

Good luck to everyone. If you see a bloke on a Pinarello Prince with matching red/white/black Castelli kit then say hello

Clothing wise I'm hoping that my Montane Velo jacket will be enough in addition to the standard jersey and bibs. I do have an excellent Castelli jacket but it's too bulky to store on the bike given how stuffed my pockets will be. I reckon it'll still be warm enough anyway! Perhaps long fingered gloves for the descent?

Top news about the tailwind - i hope that's accurate!

Enjoy it folks.

I struggled to keep my front wheel straight when descending alp d'huez, such was the affect of my shivering arms. I had arm warmers and a Castelli thin jacket - similar thickness to my montane velo. I'm going to take the same coat plus a gilet plus arm warmers to make sure it doesn't happen again.
It's 'orrible being too cold (not to mention very scary) On that day, the weather was cool ish - warm enough to wear a vest and shorts down on the ground level but as you got up, it got cooler and cloudier.
I'm probably over cooking it a bit but I'm preparing for everything.

James LC

I'll be riding - number 2174. Red S-works Roubaix. Clothing undecided.

Here's my brother in law's assessment of the weather (he's a paid meterologist so hopefully informed!)

"There will be a weak front lying over the eastern Pyrenees during Sunday after passing over Pau overnight Saturday. This should mean that your ride should be in the cooler and drier air behind the front but the timing of this could change closer to the day. At the moment the front will trigger the focus of the showers just to the east of your ride, with only a small chance of a shower perhaps towards the end of your tour route.

Max temps ahead of the front are likely to be in the mid-twenties deg C and it will be humid but behind the front are in the high teens or low twenties deg C with lower humidity. It looks like the ride goes up to around 1700-1800m (I am guessing because the finish is a ski area with a top of around 1800m). Temps at these heights will be around 9 to 14 deg below temps at sea level depending on cloud heights, so probably lowest temps on the ride will be around 8-11 deg C by the time you climb up there."

Sfelt

James LC wrote:

I'll be riding - number 2174. Red S-works Roubaix. Clothing undecided.

Here's my brother in law's assessment of the weather (he's a paid meterologist so hopefully informed!)

"There will be a weak front lying over the eastern Pyrenees during Sunday after passing over Pau overnight Saturday. This should mean that your ride should be in the cooler and drier air behind the front but the timing of this could change closer to the day. At the moment the front will trigger the focus of the showers just to the east of your ride, with only a small chance of a shower perhaps towards the end of your tour route.

Max temps ahead of the front are likely to be in the mid-twenties deg C and it will be humid but behind the front are in the high teens or low twenties deg C with lower humidity. It looks like the ride goes up to around 1700-1800m (I am guessing because the finish is a ski area with a top of around 1800m). Temps at these heights will be around 9 to 14 deg below temps at sea level depending on cloud heights, so probably lowest temps on the ride will be around 8-11 deg C by the time you climb up there."

Thanks James LC and brother, very useful.

kmahony

I'm off.

Good luck everyone.

IanTrcp

So here we are in Pau the night before the Etape. Unfortunately, it looks certain to be cloudy and raining for the big day tomorrow, as it has been all day (pretty much) today.

I was up at the top of the Tourmalet this afternoon, having driven up through grey rain and cloud from StMdeC. At times visibility was below 10 metres, bad enough to lose sight of the edges of the road now and then. If it's like that tomorrow then the descent will be very difficult indeed.

As I stood and contemplated, the layered clouds parted just enough to let the sun slip through and backlight the mother of all temperature inversions in the valley below towards LStS. A truly magnificent spectacle.

Good luck to everyone, and stay safe.

Ian

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Ken Night

Yes it was a difficult ride

Medal times even more difficult than last year

Cat C gold, needed a finish of 80th or better, and silver needed around 1000th

IanTrcp

A tough day out!

Finished in 9 hours and plenty, but never really felt threatened by the 'wagon as much of that time was spent winching myself up Hautacam at the end!

It was a shocker weatherwise, starting with a flash of lightning and a roll of thunder just as we set off. Rain most of the way around, with low cloud meaning poor visibility on the top part of the Tourmalet descent. Riding the 14km back down the hill from Hautacam to the finish village was no fun either!

Chapeau to the organisers. It's a massive event and - as far as I could see - everything worked like clockwork.

Congratulations to everyone who finished. The local paper suggests that around 15% were eliminated, apparently far fewer than last year.

Coriander

Am i just being really stupid or are the results not up yet? I'm trying to let a friend know how he did...

kmahony

I had a horrible day. Was really unwell, making a tough day even tougher.
Finished (some how) in about 9:50.

Pleased to complete, but didn't enjoy the day. The weather was worse than expected. Couldn't see much more than about 10 metres in the mountains.

Etape organisation was brilliant. Tour operator not so good.

madturkey

I think results are up but only on the French version.

Am I right in thinking they just don't list people who were eliminated? I'm trying to find out how some friends did but only found 2 out of 3 times

bigmat

1453rd best time (7:20) - pretty happy with that. Didn't really enjoy the ride, I'm no good in the cold and wet, managed to fall off going uphill (on the Loucrup) which knocked my confidence for the descents - could barely see a thing coming off the Tourmalet and the Hautacam descent was possibly worse than the climb! Wondering what might have been on a better day, but it was an incredible experience, closest I'll ever get to riding a tour stage. So many little things - the writing on the road, the newspapers down the shirt at the top of the climb, kids shouting allez! allez!, going under the 1km to go arch, the guy that picked me up and checked out my bike then gave me a push off when I fell - all made sure that it was a great day, in spite of the conditions.

vermooten

How many took part?

kmahony

vermooten wrote:

How many took part?

Etape site says 7500 started. (edit)
Results go up to 6178, which would mean 18% retired.

MartinJ

I thought it was a great experience despite the many difficulties on the way.

I always thought the logistics of getting there were going to be harder than the ride! This proved true when we arrived at Toulouse late on Friday evening to eventually discover that British Airways had left my bike, along with many others, on the runway at Gatwick! Apparantly they had been running a back log since the morning. With each flight they sent the bikes left over from the previous one!! :x

We queued to report the missing bike - which took until 1am. They told us that it should arrive on the first flight the next morning. So instead of driving down to Lourdes, we found a hotel in Toulouse. I was fortunate - my bike arrived the next morning, after a night of wondering whether I could walk the 105 miles before the broom wagon caught me! :roll: Some others were not so fortunate - I know some bikes didn't arrive until Saturday evening - I hope that everyone got to ride.

The atmosphere at the start village on Saturday at registration was great. There was a real buzz of expectation.

Sunday morning I left Lourdes at 5am for the drive to Pau. Arrived at the start in the dark with light drizzle falling. Expectation grew as the light slowly increased towards the 7am start. Just before the start the rain became heavy :x There was a great cheer as the first riders left dead on 7am.

20 minutes later I passed under the start kite. Riding through Pau made an exciting start. Gendarmes at all the road junctions, riding along wide boulevards, going through red traffic lights Going round roundabouts the wrong way :P. It was a great start to my first experience of closed roads on a sportive. I made great time for the first 15 miles. Serious congestion as the ride went through Rebnaq brought the ride to a standstill - the disadvantage of a late start number. After a few slow miles on narrow roads the pace increased again, over anothe climb and through to Lourdes. I was watching my HRM to make sure I didn't get too carried away before the big climbs ahead. Frequent showers and rain didn't really cause a problem - just like english weather :roll:

After just over three and a half hoursI reached the start of the climb of the Col de Tourmalet. I maintained an even pace to the feed station about 3 km before the summit. The final pull up to the top seemed to takei forever. A quick stop to put on gillet and long fingered gloves before plunging down into the mist. The first part of the descent was quite treacherous - wet roads and very limited visibility - you couldn't see from one bend to another. I was please that everyone was taking this steady. As we got lower the roads got drier, visibility improved and speed increased. The initial unnerving start to the descent was replaced by an exhilararting rush down to valley level where a fast moving group formed and worked together to the foot of the Hautacam.


The climb to Hautacam started in sunshine. It was hard to get the legs going after the long descent. asfter a couple of miles I got into a rhythm and worked my way up the mountain, squeezing through slower riders on the narrow road. Higher up the mountain the sun was replaced my mist and then rain. As I went under the 1km to go kite , I was feeling comfortable so I thought I would try and up the pace - that lasted about 100m !!!

Finally the finish kite was reached

After a few minutes at the top imagining the view came the long descent back to the valley. This was probably the worst part of the day. The road was very narrow and wet. riders coming up were sometimes coming onto the descent side of the road. By the time I reached the bottom I was so cold I was shaking as I rode the bike. It took at least half an hour an a change to warm dry clothes for the shivering to stop.

Overall a great experience. I loved the closed roads and riding with 7500+ other cyclists. I enjoyed my first experience of the big mountains on a bike - though I would have like a view! I still don't know what thr Pyrenees look like. I amazed that I overtook over 4000 people during the race :roll: Organisation was excellent. A really memorable day.