l’Etape du Tour 2016
Comments
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Courtesy of the local newspaper, Le Dauphiné Libéré:
11471 cyclists started of which about 11000 finished, with the last arriving around 5:30pm.
The control centre recorded 48 interventions judged serious as of 4pm, of which a dozen finished in hospital. The most dangerous section of the course proved to be the descent from the Colombière with one cyclist suffering multiple traumatisms, as well as many tyre blowouts. Some others succumbed to heat stroke on the ascent of the Col de Joux Plane.
The competitors ate their way through 11 tonnes of bananas, 3.4 tonnes of oranges and 1 tonne of cheese.
The winning man was an ex-Nordic skier, who competed at European level as a junior, did not quite breakthrough at senior level, and has now switched to cycling. The winning woman was the current French national road champion.
My own impression was the event was really well organised by ASO and the hundreds of volunteers, with a smooth, trouble-free start and only minor delays at the feeding stations considering the weight of numbers. The marshalling on the descents, new since my last time in Annecy, was useful in avoiding any surprises on the tighter corners. The disappointment for me was the litter discarded by a minority of the 10000 who went before me. There must have been one tube/sachet/wrapper for every two metres of the 122km, at least for the flat and uphill stretches. I cannot understand why, when the majority of cyclists respect the rule to keep their rubbish until the designated collection areas, a minority seems hell bent on spoiling the wonderful mountain environment.
As one of the under-trained, just get round amateurs, I suffered enormously on the Joux Plane. Mind you, it was 37°C on the lower slopes and still 30°C near the summit.
PS One of the ladies from the Exeter Wheelers (see above) overtook me on the last km or so of the Colombière and another near the start of the Joux Plane. They are obviously much better cyclists than me
. I hoped they managed to get back to Mègeve all right. 0 -
JS14 - you have my full sympathy - well done for holding out; when we were on the Joux Plane at 1030ish, my Garmin said 24'C.
But Joux Plane is fully south facing, and clearly it was gonna get a lot hotter!
I was sweating buckets going up there, so God knows what it must have been like later; I passed a guy I knew from Geneva that had stopped to BUY a cold drink (2.50E!) half way up, and he HATES to stop!
The descent to Morzine was wonderfully cool!
Respect!0 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:Never seen an event where the last rider takes nearly 4 times longer than the fastest... there must be a humongous spread of ability... from the "I missed my chance to be the next Contador" to "I have never cycled more than ten miles in my life"
Fully agree with Bernie here in that I don't think the spread of abilities is an issue providing the pens are enforced based on ability. I did the Tourmalet/Hautacam Etape in 2014 and you couldn't go forward a pen, you could drop back but not move forward whereas this year anybody could just wander into any pen. In both Etapes I've done I've started in pen 6 and finished around the 6000s suggesting I'm in the right place but even that far back I see lot's of issues with people who simply can't descend as quickly or as smoothly as the company they're keeping and at the start you see many instances of riders, caught behind much slower folks, trying to weave through Impossible gaps to find a bit of clear road. Likewise we went past a few folk who were already walking up Aravis with no obvious mechanical issues so I can't imagine they finished and there's no way they should have been in the first 4 pens (or indeed in the event) unless they were all mechanical issues
I think the Etape is a fantastic event and I love the mass appeal and the fact that the towns and villages along the route really get behind it, but they should really be enforcing the start pens. With the sheer volume of riders it's probably never going to be an event to set scorching times unless you're in the first 3 or 4 pens but it could be made better for all than it was this year
Really enjoyed it again though - it was nice to do a very hot one after the near hypothermic experience of 20140 -
You are hoping the French do more work and not give a gallic shrug. Good luck.0
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bernithebiker wrote:All done!
In the end the descent to Moraine was NOT neutralized and a good thing, as it was fine.
Great day, very hot and sunny, but fortunately finished before the heat really hit (4 hours 7 mins).
I for one, was quite happy that the Ramaz was not there, as that Joux Plane is a real killer, and would have been even more of a struggle with the Ramaz too.
No T-shirt this year though which is a bit of a shame.
My mate crashed 3km from the finish line actually. Collar bone, 5 ribs, bone in his back and one in his neck.
7 hour operation on his back the following Monday.
Supposed to finally be on his way back to the Netherlands today.
He would have finished around the 4hours 10mins area.Scott Addict 2011
Giant TCR 20120 -
bernithebiker wrote:The last one I did was Annecy in 2013. There I gave up my 450 number to ride with a friend in 12000 and something. They were very strict about the pens, you could NOT jump up.
This year, it was a free for all. While we sat in pen 2, (I managed to "engineer" a 2 instead of a bizarre 8500), we saw tons of 4, 5 10, 12, 15 thousands casually sauntering into pens 0 and 1. Some looked like they belonged there. Some didn't !! There didn't seem to be any controls.
The 1st 10km or so were fast, 1 or 2% downhill, we were doing 50 to 60km/h. We passed some BIG people doing 35ish with 10 000+ numbers on their backs. This is somewhat dangerous!!
It also seems that the Americans using Trek Travel get to buy their way into pen 0, which strikes me as unfair, especially as most of them are completely out of their depth.
I think it is still policed, but the way they allocated numbers didnt see to be as accurate as previous years. You could then get a different number on your bib that allowed you into a different pen.
Although the front section was still for sponsors and tour groups to stand in front of the fast guys. Always find that a little dangerous, although with the long flatish section it was less important and a less aggressive start compared to last year I thought.Scott Addict 2011
Giant TCR 20120 -
I had an interesting time. Finished in 6:53 which all things considered I was happy with considering I'm about 85kg.
I've never ridden in the alps, or indeed above the summit of Sa Calobra (683m) before. The gradients were fine but above about 1300m my lungs really struggled, especially when combined with the heat. Last food stop my garmin recorded 41C but I think that was it being in full sun.
The course was organised well but the day before was a mess. I booked the shuttle to return from Morzine to Megeve. What it never mentioned, until I got an email at 2:37pm when I was already on the shuttle bus, was that it only left from Avoriaz! That meant I missed the last bus from Megeve to St Gervais so I had to run the 10k back to my hotel. Basically took all day to do all of that which wasn't the best prep.
I arrived on the Thursday and on the Friday I did Forclaz de Quiege (cat2) then Montee de Bisanne (HC) from Stage 19. Which turned out to both be a brilliant idea and an awful idea. I wasn't acclimatised to the altitude or the heat and ended up taking 2 hours 40 to do Bisanne. I was quite worried about not being able to finish L'Etape after that!
in the end race day was fine. Aravis was nice, and Colombiere nice too. Had to stop on colombiere to remove some discarded jelly babies from my rear brake and other than it topping 30C for the last 2k it was pretty enjoyable too.
The descent off Colombiere was just littered with offs, nearly every corner but was good fun for me. Because I was in pen 11 and I'm a slow climber, not a single person passed me on the descents :-) .
the heat built up on the transition from Scionzer to Samoens but in the end Joux Plane wasn't anywhere near as bad for me as Montee de Bisanne. I only had to stop 3 times in the shade to cool off and wouldn't have needed to stop if it had been a bit cooler.
Most interesting thing is that my legs have been completely fine since. Which shows that my limiting factors were heat/altitude rather than legs. If I do it again I'll make sure I arrive a week before to acclimatise.0 -
chilled wrote:I arrived on the Thursday and on the Friday I did Forclaz de Quiege (cat2) then Montee de Bisanne (HC) from Stage 19. Which turned out to both be a brilliant idea and an awful idea. I wasn't acclimatised to the altitude or the heat and ended up taking 2 hours 40 to do Bisanne. I was quite worried about not being able to finish L'Etape after that!
Having read this, I'm glad I skipped Bisanne as a "warm up" and did just Saisies.
I suspect it will have been the heat more than the altitude which will have had an impact on you - that and the humidity.0 -
MBCaad8 wrote:chilled wrote:I arrived on the Thursday and on the Friday I did Forclaz de Quiege (cat2) then Montee de Bisanne (HC) from Stage 19. Which turned out to both be a brilliant idea and an awful idea. I wasn't acclimatised to the altitude or the heat and ended up taking 2 hours 40 to do Bisanne. I was quite worried about not being able to finish L'Etape after that!
Having read this, I'm glad I skipped Bisanne as a "warm up" and did just Saisies.
I suspect it will have been the heat more than the altitude which will have had an impact on you - that and the humidity.
Agree - none of the summits on this year's Etape was very high, nothing above 1700m. I only start to feel it above 2000m, although I'm sure there is a bit of a loss of output below this.
Your body uses quite a bit of energy to sweat, especially if not acclimatised, so this is most likely the factor that affected most people. Kind of unfair that the faster riders got to ride in the cool, whilst the slower ones were hit by the full force of the sun!
I'm sure the person that set up the 2.50E drink stand halfway up the Joux Plane sold out!0 -
I thought the photographs were very good this year - very sharp and well taken. Anyone got any good ones? Here's mine!
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bernithebiker wrote:MBCaad8 wrote:chilled wrote:I arrived on the Thursday and on the Friday I did Forclaz de Quiege (cat2) then Montee de Bisanne (HC) from Stage 19. Which turned out to both be a brilliant idea and an awful idea. I wasn't acclimatised to the altitude or the heat and ended up taking 2 hours 40 to do Bisanne. I was quite worried about not being able to finish L'Etape after that!
Having read this, I'm glad I skipped Bisanne as a "warm up" and did just Saisies.
I suspect it will have been the heat more than the altitude which will have had an impact on you - that and the humidity.
Agree - none of the summits on this year's Etape was very high, nothing above 1700m. I only start to feel it above 2000m, although I'm sure there is a bit of a loss of output below this.
Your body uses quite a bit of energy to sweat, especially if not acclimatised, so this is most likely the factor that affected most people. Kind of unfair that the faster riders got to ride in the cool, whilst the slower ones were hit by the full force of the sun!
I'm sure the person that set up the 2.50E drink stand halfway up the Joux Plane sold out!
I'm honestly not sure. My lungs didn't feel as efficient above about 1200m. My HR was spiking very quickly with even moderate efforts. Temp hit 36 that day. I suspect a combo of temp and altitude. Still if I do next year it'd be nice to go out a week or so before to properly acclimatise.0 -
bernithebiker wrote:
I bought 2 cans of Coke from that stand. Through one down my neck as quickly as I could and then didn't fancy the second one so I turned to the girl next to me and offered it to her. As she politely declined I realised that it was Jodie Kidd.
My mate got there when they had run out of soft drinks so had a beer sitting at the side of the road.0 -
MBCaad8 wrote:chilled wrote:I arrived on the Thursday and on the Friday I did Forclaz de Quiege (cat2) then Montee de Bisanne (HC) from Stage 19. Which turned out to both be a brilliant idea and an awful idea. I wasn't acclimatised to the altitude or the heat and ended up taking 2 hours 40 to do Bisanne. I was quite worried about not being able to finish L'Etape after that!
Having read this, I'm glad I skipped Bisanne as a "warm up" and did just Saisies.
I suspect it will have been the heat more than the altitude which will have had an impact on you - that and the humidity.
I did stage 19 in June which included Bisanne and I found Bisanne tougher than Joux Plane. I'm not sure how Joux Plane would have felt with Ramaz in the legs and another 90 minutes for the sun to build mind you as I found Ramaz to be a pretty significant climb0
(bib: 3839)
