40 Goals

12th of 120, 4:45 and a Gold medal. Gotta be pleased with that. It turns out that all these months I missed out the last climb of the route up Staples Lane. The weather was forecast for torrential rain but I was gonna be riding this event even if the whole route was flooded. It bookends my cycling year. Last year I rode it in just over 6:30, with a bit of getting lost and a lot of being knackered and overweight. It kick started my attack on Alpe D'Huez and the FWC and of course, L'Etape du Tour so I had to race it again to see where I'd got to. Ironically, in the 4 weeks since Etape I've had back problems, stomach problems and biscuit addiction problems so I'm back to 80kg again. Didn't make much difference on the day though. Met up with an old acquaintance from Weybridge RC and rode with him for a while, he punctured at Box hill and I kept on going, keen to get that Gold medal. Spent most of the ride on my own, it felt just like a training ride despite the wind...

Update: Results now in. I came 2,285th of 7,000 starters and 4,357 finishers or 855th of 1,644 Cat C finishers, in a time of 10 hours 4 minutes and 2 seconds. Ride time of 9 hours 37 minutes and 12 seconds, although the stop time is more appropriately described as "recovery time" rather than "feeding or waiting". Anyway, apologies for the radio silence (if anyone is still interested in my exploits). Been a busy old week and I've been staying at a cottage in Mirepoix, about 20 miles from Foix. To say it is medieval is very appropriate - not only did I have no mobile reception the Internet has not been invented as far the locals are concerned. The medieval cathedral and oldie-world town square makes up for it, kind of a mini Stratford-upon-Avon sans traffic jams. Preamble Getting here took 24 hours. Man, France is a big place. The Liversedge family battlewagon got loaded with bikes and all manner of equipment and clothing on Friday and we headed for the train at ...

So the big day arrived and looking out of the hotel window at 8am it all looked a bit grim. Rain and charcoal gray clouds were the order of the day. Bugging hell. But hey, it is my birthday. You don't see bib numbers like this in the pro peloton... We drove out to Bourg D'Oisans getting mightily lost out of Grenoble and as we approached it was all looking a bit threatening, but at least it wasn't gonna be too hot. Drove to the top and got myself prepared for a gentle descent down to the bottom and a warm up before coming back up again. Me? Nervous? Never... The descent to the bottom is a blast, not overly technical but still managed to get the back wheel out of shape a couple of times - some of the inclines are steeper at the switchback which means you think your slowing as you approach them but actually speed up... As I descended I made a mental note of the steeper sections and the longer switchbacks. The ascent up from switchbacks 18 and 21 being particularly long... Got...