Last call for the Etape du Tour 2014

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  • paul2718
    paul2718 Posts: 471
    The pros were generally an hour quicker. Apparently the best Etaper was 7 minutes slower than the worst TdFer.

    Paul
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,325
    paul2718 wrote:
    The pros were generally an hour quicker. Apparently the best Etaper was 7 minutes slower than the worst TdFer.

    Paul

    Reasonable to think he could have been at least 7 minutes faster with dry descents?
    left the forum March 2023
  • paul2718
    paul2718 Posts: 471
    The real numbers....

    TdF
    Nibali won in 4h04m17s. Davide Cimolai was last in 4h36m31s.

    EdT
    Loic Hebretau won in 4h47m29s, Alexandra Rannou was 8458th in 11h46m57s.

    So the fastest Etaper was 11 minutes slower than the slowest TdFer, but I imagine being last in the race is a fine art of balance against the time limit, so not strictly comparable. Especially as the group in the race will go much faster on the run in to the mountains.

    I think Hebretau is on Strava (or someone else right at the sharp end) and rides more than 20 hours a week. Which makes him effectively pro, IMO. I seldom manage more than 5.

    Paul
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,325
    So who came out with this thing of the 7 minutes?
    left the forum March 2023
  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,127
    stanthomas wrote:
    The front runners at the Etape are Pros, ex-Pros, nearly Pros, soon to be Pros. Jeannie Longo, no less, is a former winner.

    Would that be a different Jeannie Longo from the one who missed her drug tests and whose husband was caught importing significant amounts of POE?
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  • paul2718
    paul2718 Posts: 471
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    So who came out with this thing of the 7 minutes?
    I don't know. I just went to the official results.

    The difference means little, we've no idea how well EdT front runners would actually go in the race. I'm more impressed with the woman who finished last. That's a tremendous demonstration of determination.

    Paul
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,325
    paul2718 wrote:

    The difference means little, we've no idea how well EdT front runners would actually go in the race. I'm more impressed with the woman who finished last. That's a tremendous demonstration of determination.

    Paul

    Sure, but don't forget there are women who do 600 Km Audax events week in week out... in comparison the Etape is a stroll up the hills
    left the forum March 2023
  • Marik
    Marik Posts: 40
    Talking of women, why so few - about 270? Think UK events have a much higher rate of female road cyclists. Spectator support along the route was phenomenal, and seemed particularly encouraging of women riders.
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078
    I think 500 women signed up, which apparently was the most they ever had. Yeah, I rode with a friend (a girl) and she was the one getting all the support (which was ok by me).
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  • paul2718
    paul2718 Posts: 471
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    paul2718 wrote:

    The difference means little, we've no idea how well EdT front runners would actually go in the race. I'm more impressed with the woman who finished last. That's a tremendous demonstration of determination.

    Paul

    Sure, but don't forget there are women who do 600 Km Audax events week in week out... in comparison the Etape is a stroll up the hills
    It's more that to persist for so long in pretty miserable conditions and not give up is impressive, rather than being some absolute achievement. The fastest woman was really quite fast, but I doubt there was ever any doubt about her actually finishing.

    Paul
  • bernithebiker
    bernithebiker Posts: 4,148
    Sounds like a carbon copy of the 2012 Etape from Pau to Luchon, except there the agony was extended for 202km. Never been colder on a bike, think Tourmalet was 5'C.

    Glad I didn't enter for this year's as I probably would never have set off having seen the forecast. No way would I voluntarily suffer like that again.

    Anyone here done the 2012 and the 2014? Would be interesting to see which was colder!
  • RichiePortly
    RichiePortly Posts: 32
    I started both, but failed to finish in 2012. I made it over the Aubisque, and most of the way up the Tourmalet before the wagon caught me.

    No word of a lie, I wasn't even cold on the Aubisque descent. Wore exactly the same gear this year and I thought I was in real trouble on the Tourmalet descent. Main difference was the rain - by the time I was up the Tourmalet this year I'd been rained on for nearly three hours, and was soaked to the skin, whereas 2012 was dry (the bit I did anyway).
  • oneof1982
    oneof1982 Posts: 703
    bernithebiker wrote:
    Anyone here done the 2012 and the 2014? Would be interesting to see which was colder!


    I finished both. My recollection is that 2012 was worse in terms of being colder, but 2014 was definitely wetter. 2012 was also a harder ride in that it was much longer and had 3 large and one smaller climb, compared to 2 large climbs. My problem in 2014 was that I was much less fit and so was soft pedaling the ascents so was cold and wet by the time I got to the top of the Tourmalet, and really suffered on the descent.

    I had also done the Etape in the Alps the week before in 2012 in 30 degree heat ascending the Tissouire.

    For what it's worth I also finished the 2011 Issoire to St Flour Etape, which had fewer than 2000 finishers. In this case riders were just not ready for the unexpected inclement weather in the Augvergne - 4 degrees at the top of the St Mary.

    Relating to another thread, i rode the London 100 at the weekend which was exceptionally wet, but in reality was fairly warm.
  • Ed F
    Ed F Posts: 79
    bernithebiker wrote:
    Anyone here done the 2012 and the 2014? Would be interesting to see which was colder!

    I did both. 2012 was definitely worse - I was so cold after the short descent from the Aubisque to the Soulor that it took me 10 minutes just to get a rain coat and full-fingered gloves on. I could barely hold the bars, let alone operate the brakes on the descent of the Soulor. I was staying in Arrens at the bottom of the Soulor and it took some willpower not just to climb off the bike as I passed the apartment.

    This year, in contrast, I was mentally prepared for the conditions at the top of the Tourmalet. I wasn't wearing any more clothes and suffered on the descent like everyone else but never thought I wasn't going to make it to the finish. It helped that there was only 50km to go, and I knew the roads reasonably well having already cycled them in the days leading up to the event.

    But on both days I swore to myself not to return to a Pyrenean etape :lol:
  • bernithebiker
    bernithebiker Posts: 4,148
    I'm in the Pyrenees now, and all of last week was very poor weather, cool and wet. I only managed a Portillon and a Port de Bales in between breaks in the weather.

    Everyone was saying how unusual the weather was. But Sunday came and it turned; hot and sunny! So I did the Peyresourde, Aspin then Tourmalet! (Aspin is the best one IMO).

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