Etape 2008
Comments
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15threes
I've started looking at this (by looking at the first 3000 finishers corrected times) and get the following
Category Gold Silver Other Total % Gold % Silver
A 3 42 317 362 1% 12%
B 24 164 1358 1546 2% 11%
C 31 322 1920 2273 1% 14%
D 22 149 1226 1397 2% 11%
E 34 116 302 452 8% 26%
F 1 20 19 40 3% 50%
G 8 18 82 108 7% 17%
Totals 123 831 5224 6178 2% 13%
You will have to paste out the data and reformat it to read it! The cat E and G silver scores are likely to be understated as I only went as far as place 3000. I was interested in cat C personally...
James0 -
Thanks James,
that makes interesting reading and confirms suspicion that ASO are raising the bar for medal standards again (albeit slightly) from year to year.
Based on these figures a silver in the etape is actually more difficult to achieve than a Gold in many other events(marmotte included).
Just an observation, and may make people feel more satisfied with their own achievements.
BTW Well done to everybody for etape achievements this year0 -
Thanks James,
that makes interesting reading and confirms suspicion that ASO are raising the bar for medal standards again (albeit slightly) from year to year.
Based on these figures a silver in the etape is actually more difficult to achieve than a Gold in many other events(marmotte included).
Just an observation, and may make people feel more satisfied with their own achievements.
BTW Well done to everybody for etape achievements this year0 -
Echo the 'great achievement' chat.
I enjoyed the first 100kms and then the last 70kms were just brutal. I've never suffered like that before.
To be honest, stupidest thing I did all day was not wearing the right kit from the start. I was in my short sleeve jersey with Bush75's mini gillet on over the top. I froze at La Mongie, the summit of Tourmalet and I had to stop at a cafe on the descent of the Tourmalet to have a hot chocolate and grab some newspapers. I was borderline hypothermic and almost quit there and then, I've never been colder. Couldn't control myself, let alone the bike. Serious gut-check time. Got to the top of Hautacam totally goosed and got given a bin bag for the descent....I was in convulsions all the way down - don't know how I didn't crash.
Very proud to have finished my first etape (and the real plus is both me and Bush75 are bronze medal boys despite him being over an hour faster than me!). I always thought it sounds a bit funny when people say "thanks to the crowd for keeping me going" but I totally understand it now - whoever they were, they gave me such a lift at the start of Hautacam that i knew I would do it.
I thought there wasn't much chat on the ride (guess the language barriers) but I did get talking to this chap in a short-sleeve jersey who had messages from his two children written on his white handlebars - he explained he was missing his son's 9th bday to ride the etape. Poor bloke was so moved by the messages that he almost choked up (I don't doubt that he finished though, no way he was going to let his boy down). I thought that was a nice moment during a tough tough day.
Chapeau to all who rode. (I just wanted to write that word)0 -
James LC wrote:15threes
I've started looking at this (by looking at the first 3000 finishers corrected times) and get the following
Category Gold Silver Other Total % Gold % Silver
A 3 42 317 362 1% 12%
B 24 164 1358 1546 2% 11%
C 31 322 1920 2273 1% 14%
D 22 149 1226 1397 2% 11%
E 34 116 302 452 8% 26%
F 1 20 19 40 3% 50%
G 8 18 82 108 7% 17%
Totals 123 831 5224 6178 2% 13%
You will have to paste out the data and reformat it to read it! The cat E and G silver scores are likely to be understated as I only went as far as place 3000. I was interested in cat C personally...
James
I think its even smaller percentages than that when you include all those starters that didn't finish which i think number about 1300 or so. I'm not sure i could realistically ever get a silver but it won't stop me tryingpm0 -
xio wrote:Mountains are all in the mind. My hrm theory was probably best illustrated on the Hautacam when I managed to keep going despite leaving it in the big ring after the short downhill stretch. Felt a bit of a tw@t when I realised that one... Might explain the 24rpm cadence.
you did the Hautacam in the big ring!!! You are insane! And obviously a genetic freak!
well done mate! I am in awe....0 -
portuguese mike wrote:I think its even smaller percentages than that when you include all those starters that didn't finish which i think number about 1300 or so. I'm not sure i could realistically ever get a silver but it won't stop me trying
Correct, my maths only looks at finishers... I dont think there is an officail source of retireds by category anywhere?
James0 -
whiteboytrash wrote:I'd say gearing. If you used a 34x29 or 34/30 you could have spun your gear at a high cadence
How do you set that up I thought the biggest you could use this a compact was 34x27.
I have a 50/34 x 12/27; I understood that was the limit of the chain range with a compact.0 -
My mate Gareth used a 34 at the front and an 11/32 mtb cassette at the back - set up when he got the bike new a couple of weeks ago and by all accounts worked a treat. Probably worth experimenting. I Managed on a 34 and a cobbled together 12-26 (butchered a couple of campag cassettes as the 13 wasn't enough for the flates, let alone the descents).
Does anybody know the cut off points for gold and silver were? I was cat B and probably well outside silver, but like to think I might have had a chance if I hadn't come off on Loucrup / frozen on the Tourmalet!0 -
The user and all related content has been deleted.0
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Chainer:
Go for it again next year, at least you tried and you had the guts to write about your failure
Get out there in June and do a recce. Start from the bottom of the climb (while fresh), you will get up, and once you've done that you'll be mentally stronger. Then on the day it's just a case of pace and willpower.
A VR turbo trainer is really useful too. It helps to simulate grinding away for 75 minutes - you can't do that in a UK sportive. I did about two climbs per week ithroughout the winter. If you've climbed Alpe D'Huez twenty times on the turbo you know you can get up almost anything! Mine is a Tacx and it cost £350 ex PC.0 -
My supporters at the top of Tourmalet noticed a bike being wheeled out of a black van. I think they said it had No.16 on it. What was that about??0
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was it Rasmussen? 0
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I doubt it - it looks like whoever it was only just beat the broom wagon!0
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What a day out. Did 7.02, which I think puts me just inside the top 900, compared to 8.51 and 950th last year.
Quite chuffed, though left crank came off twice, on the Loucroup and on the Tourmalet which cost me 15 - 20 minutes, about 400 places and blew my silver medal chances. But that's cycling.
Highs
The flat part - 6 of us rode at 40kmh, riding through and off and hardly breaking a sweat.
The 3 French guys and the Rapha rider who selflessly helped me fix the cranks and gave me a push on the Loucroup.
The support - "allez les gars" and "allez Dynamo de Londres" throughout the race.
My friend's results - 2 had mechanicals last year and nearly threw themselves and their bikes off the Port de Bales but all went well this time and they finished 185th and 236th. One came 18th, and his drive and enthusiasm in training throughout the year helped us raise our game from completing to competing.
Lows
Mechanicals - but you move on.
The weather - anyone fancy descending a 2000m mountain with approx 10m visibility again?
Bunching - no real splitting of the field early enough, unlike last year, so a lot of slow Frenchmen.
The Hautacam - not fun if if you're 85.5kg and 6'3"!
We went with Custom Getaways whose customer service and support was superb, particularly as they had to sort out 2 hire bikes at 48hrs notice as 2 of our bikes never arrived. Also did a training weekend with Pyractif, which was a great experience. Chapeau to Chris B!
Not sure about next year - so many factors are outside of your control and can stuff you (weather, start position, kit, airlines) and the medal times are hard. Any thought on how this or last year compares to the Marmotte or the Quebrantahuesos?0 -
I started with a 7000 bib number this year and I have a question....
Having finished in the low 2000's, could I expect a lower start number if I enter again next year?
Cheers
Rich0 -
James LC wrote:I doubt it - it looks like whoever it was only just beat the broom wagon!
And he's worth £3.6bn, so probably had his own feeding van at the top.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 795645.ece0 -
kmahony wrote:James LC wrote:I doubt it - it looks like whoever it was only just beat the broom wagon!
And he's worth £3.6bn, so probably had his own feeding van at the top.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 795645.ece
Maybe he was changing from his climbing bike to his descending bike?0 -
popette wrote:There was a decent sized group watching so you might remember our whooping and clapping. Ken Night, were you wearing a shirt like your avatar? I seem to remember seeing you go past, chatting with other riders.
Hi Popette
I was wearing the kit....but so were three others from our village
I sent you a text from my French phone-sorry not to be able to meet up
I had a nightmare day, with my gears playing up from the moment I got the bike from the Park Ferme. With one thing and another, I was at least 30mins longer on the bike than I had planned. Another great day out, though“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best..." Ernest Hemingway0 -
Ken Night wrote:popette wrote:There was a decent sized group watching so you might remember our whooping and clapping. Ken Night, were you wearing a shirt like your avatar? I seem to remember seeing you go past, chatting with other riders.
Hi Popette
I was wearing the kit....but so were three others from our village
I sent you a text from my French phone-sorry not to be able to meet up
I had a nightmare day, with my gears playing up from the moment I got the bike from the Park Ferme. With one thing and another, I was at least 30mins longer on the bike than I had planned. Another great day out, though
ah, that's a shame - I didn't receive your text. Glad you had a good day.
I'm hoping I'll be fixed in time to do the exmoor beast and the autumn epic so may catch you on one of those.
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chainer wrote:I have been preparing for this for ages (at least 10 months). I have been getting rides of 20-30k in most weekdays and on the weekends usually manage a long ride of about 100k. I have done 3 or 4 sportives in the UK this year with a reasonable amount of climbing in them (1000m to 2000m total). I felt good about the Etape and slept well, hydrated well and fed myself well beforehand. The first 90k to the foot of the Tourmalet went well, I was flying along at about 30kmh and felt great. But the ascent of the Tourmalet was a nightmare. After about the first 3k I felt like I couldn’t go on. It wasn’t energy (as I had plenty of food on board and in my jersey). I just couldn’t seem to sustain the effort without a break like that. When I saw the sign saying summit 12km, my heart sank. There was no flat stuff anywhere where I could get my breath back. I was in a 34/28 (so not exactly hard gearing!). I don’t know if it was a mental issue or a physical one, but I just felt terrified at the prospect of keeping going at that gradient for another 12k!
Chainer, sorry to hear about your experience, on hopes that the etape is usually, while hard work, a joy to ride around since you are so aware of the many greats that have pedaled the same roads and will pedal the exact course in a few days. That very thought (and some training) has got me through 7 of these things.
As some have suggested it could just be your "climbing legs". The remedy is simple, sign up for a spring training camp in Spain/Tenerife and just climb. I've no idea about your cycling background but it took this flat-lander a couple of years to become accustomed to 60-70 minute climbs. So don't give up! Time trials are also good prep since the longer ones are all about effort budgeting, which I guess would be point no. 2: did you blow your load too early on? One mate remarked to me that the top of the Tourmalet was 150 kms in, longer than most training rides we do. 30 km/h is pretty quick for the first 90-100 kms of a course that wasn't flat, on a day that was cold. Best remedy is to get a HRM or a powermeter and learn your limits and formulate a game-plan to not go in the red too much, too early.
Lastly the mental/visualizaton side cannot be underestimated. You either have to be in a state of euphoria on climbs (I notice only 55kg whippets doing this) or you have to go at it with grim determination to rip the climb's balls off before it beats you. Unf the Tourmalet beat you that day, but given your gearing and prep, maybe those cyclists passing you while you walked (I gave some encouragement to a couple people I saw walking so I hoped you heard some) were no better than you but were more willing to take the pain. Last point around this is cycling is a pain sport like marathon running. In all your riding, have you ever really pushed your limits to the max, then turned it up a notch to chase someone ahead. Again, a training camp can help with that since there's always someone up the road to chase.
Best of luck, hope to see you back next year, ready to rip the guts out of any climbs!When a cyclist has a disagreement with a car; it's not who's right, it's who's left.0 -
And he's worth £3.6bn, so probably had his own feeding van at the top.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 795645.ece[/quote]
Maybe he was changing from his climbing bike to his descending bike?
If you look at the standings you'll notice that Mr Carvalho had Tony Doyle to accompany him around the course. I'm sure he never had to stop once at a feed as Tony would do all the bottle fetching. Tony's been doing this for city types for years. He used to get other good riders like Rob Hayles to help out. It's an easy £500-1000 for a day's work. But I suppose Tony has never ridden so slowly his whole life...When a cyclist has a disagreement with a car; it's not who's right, it's who's left.0 -
Chainer - just to support what FransJacques said about the HRM. I crashed 3 months ago and compressed a vertebra so had to train in the kitchen in a back brace until 10 days before the event - then went a bit mad on miles for a week before 'tapering'. On the Etape I made it with about 40 mins to spare and enjoyed it - particularly the Hautacam climb (but not the cold descent!). I put this down to experience - I know the HR that I can sustain for up to 2hrs climbing (it is 140-150bpm) and this guarantees me enough speed to avoid the broom wagon. Since I know that I can sustain this there is no need to 'get my breath back'. I also know how often to eat & drink on the climb to keep going. I am not strong so use a triple (min 30 x 27). I am slow but my target is enjoyment and arriving to get bronze with enough time to mend punctures if needed (by the way friends & I ALWAYS have new tyres for the Etape - and have avoided p*******s in 4 Etapes so far). Did you do some 200k rides? I think it is good experience to go well beyond the 140k mark so that you learn to ride on carbos only (having nothing left in the legs!)0
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Anyone get sticky stuff from the number on their jersey and jacket?
Any tips for getting it off?0 -
Nope. To put it bluntly you have to do a lot better than that. 1 gold (325th OA) and 2 silvers (both <1500) did nothing to help me out, it's all about who you go with. Go to Sporting Tours or Baxters and it's a "put the brits at the tail end game". I made a complain to Thomas Delpeuch about this at the tent in Pau (reasonably fluent french helped a little but not much). He says it's all about the blocks of numbers they have to allot to larger groups like STI who can field almost 1000 riders - can't have them all at the front. Better to suck up and pay out to Rapha or Cyclefit or GPM 10. Some buddies paid north of £200 for theirs but they got 11xx series bibs and didn't face the traffic jam up Hautacam. I reckoned I lost 10 mins since all my passing was done in the on-coming lane. Took a lot out of me.Rich.H wrote:I started with a 7000 bib number this year and I have a question....
Having finished in the low 2000's, could I expect a lower start number if I enter again next year?
Cheers
Rich
The way to stand out results-wise is to score well in your age group. 2 years ago a friend was 350th or so but was 60th in group D (51 yo) and he got a letter from the ASO but that's the first I've heard of this.
The unfair game about sticking Brits at the back were the Sunday Times and other articles that came out in which the ASO mocked the "have a go Brits" many of whom have not done well over the years. The ASO tried to typify this as lack of prep, but when the voiture de balais starts literally 20 after you cross the line, a flat or 2 or a serious bonk due to empty-when-you-finally-get-there ravitaillment tables can spell disaster.
I always swear it's my last etape...we'll see what they choose for next year. It'll be alpine for sure, maybe a Galibier stage since they haven't done that since my first go in 1998.When a cyclist has a disagreement with a car; it's not who's right, it's who's left.0 -
Hi mate sorry to hear things didn't go well for you. Why did you fail? Well it sounds like you simply weren't fit enough. Yes I take on board all the climbing and training you did. But I reckon you probably plateaued in terms of fitness levels months ago and simply were going through the motions.chainer wrote:My Etape was a huge disappointment. I have been preparing for this for ages (at least 10 months). I have been getting rides of 20-30k in most weekdays and on the weekends usually manage a long ride of about 100k. I have done 3 or 4 sportives in the UK this year with a reasonable amount of climbing in them (1000m to 2000m total). I felt good about the Etape and slept well, hydrated well and fed myself well beforehand. The first 90k to the foot of the Tourmalet went well, I was flying along at about 30kmh and felt great. But the ascent of the Tourmalet was a nightmare. After about the first 3k I felt like I couldn’t go on. It wasn’t energy (as I had plenty of food on board and in my jersey). I just couldn’t seem to sustain the effort without a break like that. When I saw the sign saying summit 12km, my heart sank. There was no flat stuff anywhere where I could get my breath back. I stopped for a bit and got back on, but seemed to be able to go only another 500m before having to give up. I was in a 34/28 (so not exactly hard gearing!). I don’t know if it was a mental issue or a physical one, but I just felt terrified at the prospect of keeping going at that gradient for another 12k! I ended up walking all the way to the summit, which of course meant I missed the cut off for the Hautacam.
Can anybody explain what I was doing wrong? I trained plenty for this and have been looking forward to it for ages. It’s such a massive disappointment to me. As I pushed the bike up the endless incline I saw all these people cycling past me and I remember thinking, I have absolutely no idea how this is physically possible!
No offence but "flying along at 30kmph" is not really flying at all. Cycle training can be very deceptive just because you're on the bike turning the pedals around fo mile after mile doesn't mean you're getting fitter. The key to doing well in Etape type event is "sustainable power". Motoring along at 18mph on the flat doesn't require much power really if theres no headwind.Questions. Are you overweight? How well did you do in the UK sportivs? How did you test to see if your fitness levels were improving?0 -
FransJacques wrote:The unfair game about sticking Brits at the back were the Sunday Times and other articles that came out in which the ASO mocked the "have a go Brits" many of whom have not done well over the years. The ASO tried to typify this as lack of prep, but when the voiture de balais starts literally 20 after you cross the line, a flat or 2 or a serious bonk due to empty-when-you-finally-get-there ravitaillment tables can spell disaster.
So how do you enter from the UK and an independant at get a resonable number?0 -
wear a tricolour and speak French?0
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We went via Cyclomundo, told them we expected to complete in 8 hrs and got bibs in the 3800s. As it was we were pretty accurate - our group finished between 7' 38 and 8' 20" including stops. Maybe the French operators get better blocks of bibs?0
