Etape du Tour 2019

2 Wheels Good

Anyone doing it?

07Lapierre

Yep!

Dipsomaniac

Yip. Wave 12 so not too much comfort in front of the broom wagon.

nak

Moi aussi, in wave 3.

Johnny Jukebox

Wave 6, looks a bit harder then it did last October...

07Lapierre

ah its "Only" 135k... piece of cake... we'll smash it!

2 Wheels Good

07Lapierre wrote: »

ah its "Only" 135k... piece of cake... we'll smash it!

And a good 35 of that downhill

victor201

Yeah , my ninth one .Pen 11 hopefully weather is dry and not too hot.Last climb will be tough as its really long but spin to win lol

nak

Johnny Jukebox wrote: »

Wave 6, looks a bit harder then it did last October...

I only got my place in April so less time to prepare myself. Hadn't planned to do any road cycling this year!

Podge_irl

Yes, but irritatingly in wave 15. Have already cycled the course twice (though over two days each time!) and going to be tight with the cut-off times at places.

2 Wheels Good

Podge_irl wrote: »

Yes, but irritatingly in wave 15. Have already cycled the course twice (though over two days each time!) and going to be tight with the cut-off times at places.

Hopefully the extra bodies around will tow you along, skip the first food stop as well and that should help give you a buffer

Doc07

Yes wave 8 ( and I badly need that headstart on the broom)
Can’t wait

07Lapierre

Doc07 wrote: »

Yes wave 8 ( and I badly need that headstart on the broom)
Can’t wait

Check out the Broom wagon timetable...

As your in Wave 8 (me too) we have until almost 5pm to get to Saint-Martin-de-Belleville at 117k. That's not too bad IMO.

http://netstorage.lequipe.fr/ASO/egp/etapedutour/edt19-itinhoraire-v4.pdf

Doc07

07Lapierre wrote: »

Check out the Broom wagon timetable...

As your in Wave 8 (me too) we have until almost 5pm to get to Saint-Martin-de-Belleville at 117k. That's not too bad IMO.

http://netstorage.lequipe.fr/ASO/egp/etapedutour/edt19-itinhoraire-v4.pdf

Ah ye not too worried about time cut, if heat is not extreme should be grand. I’m a bit ‘undertained’ this year but very stubborn.
Enjoy

Podge_irl

2 Wheels Good wrote: »

Hopefully the extra bodies around will tow you along, skip the first food stop as well and that should help give you a buffer

Yeah hopefully. Not a lot of flat bits where a tow will be that useful. I have just about 3 hours to get to the top of Cormet de Roselend from the start which will definitely be a bit tough.

El Vino

Drove up to Val Thorens this year for a ski holiday, looks brutal. Good luck to anyone doing the event! Must get my act in gear for next year.

07Lapierre

Thats funny. We went Skiing last year in Val Thoren. I had signed up for the etape 2018 from Annency to Le Grand Bornard. As we were in the bus i said to my wife " I'm glad the etape is not coming up here!" .. If i knew then..

Johnny Jukebox

One of the harder one of recent times. The heat and the concentrated elevation were very challenging.

Organisation was a shambles at the end, the location was awful, the steep gravel path climb to the road was a joke. Lack of water stops on the final climb was unforgivable too - it it wasn't for the local residents and their hoses and the streams I'd have died of thirst.

2 Wheels Good

Johnny Jukebox wrote: »

One of the harder one of recent times. The heat and the concentrated elevation were very challenging.

Organisation was a shambles at the end, the location was awful, the steep gravel path climb to the road was a joke. Lack of water stops on the final climb was unforgivable too - it it wasn't for the local residents and their hoses and the streams I'd have died of thirst.

Found it easier than previous years, lost an hour though due to a tube meltdown so any hope of a good time went.
This was the cause of that!


Stunning route again, ,but as above the finish was a bit of a mess, well up out of the town and gravel everywhere for tired legs was poor organisation.

Podge_irl

Johnny Jukebox wrote: »

One of the harder one of recent times. The heat and the concentrated elevation were very challenging.

Organisation was a shambles at the end, the location was awful, the steep gravel path climb to the road was a joke. Lack of water stops on the final climb was unforgivable too - it it wasn't for the local residents and their hoses and the streams I'd have died of thirst.

VT damn near killed me. It was carnage on the sides of the road, just bodies and bikes strewn everywhere with any bit of shade. The stop at the top of Cormet de Roselend ran out of water which was a bit of a joke. There was nowhere near enough water stations on the final climb either - I filled up from some local's hoses and finally from a bloody waterfall.

I gotta say, the organisation around the starting blocks really irritates me - they completely encourage you to lie your ass off on your application regarding your expected time. I spent the whole time climbing up VT surrounded by people with 8/9/10000 numbers who had started the guts of an hour before me whereas I had to keep worrying about the cut off times.

07Lapierre

Epic day!
Started in "SAS 8" at 8am. Pace was steady enough to for the first 20k or so. O the first climb I climbed well within my limits and kept my heart rate below 150. I stopped at the feed station at the summit, grabbed a few handful of banana's and topped up two bottles. Then headed down that wonderful descent! What a road! If I can reach 80+kph without even trying, I can't wait to see what speeds the pro's descend at!

I took the right turn onto the Val Thorens climb at exactly 1pm and I estimated it was going to take me 3 hours to reach the summit.....boy was I wrong! I had stopped at the feed station in Moutiers and topped up both my bottles, I wasn't worried about running out of water, but barn the heat was something else! It mainly affected my feet in that they swelled up and got quite numb after a while. I had to stop (in the shade) a number of times just to get the blood back into my little toes! When I reached the final feed station at Saint-Martin-de-belleville, again I topped up both bottles and grabbed some bread and cake from the food tables. I also downed a few glasses of coca-cola which were a godsend!

With 4K to go, I still had one and a half bottles of water left, so I figured the water wasn't doing me any good still in my bottles, and I didn't need one and a half litres to get me to the summit, so I poured one bottle over my feet to cool them down and I then drank the other bottle dry and pushed on for the finish.

The last 500meters were savage! The surface was not a problem...the bloody gradient was! I was swinging, but I was determined that I wasn't going to walk or be pushed over the finish line..I'd just cycled 135k and I was going to cycle over that finish line!

My total time was 8 hours and 50 minutes...nothing to write home about, but when you consider that over 30% of participants failed to finish, I'm ok with it.

victor201

Well done to all finishers , i got 5 k up VT climb before i gave up due to heat ,not good with intensity that was unrelenting and so exposed.
Bad trip allround as out of my group of 5 four had their bikes stolen from hotel the night before event , approx 12000 euro each bike, so not much sleep on the night b4 as they were dealing with gendarmes ahd paperwork.Ruined the event really for them and me . this was my ninth etape and probably the last one as its so stressful and expensive , 8 out of 9 completed so not so bad a record.

2 Wheels Good

victor201 wrote: »

Well done to all finishers , i got 5 k up VT climb before i gave up due to heat ,not good with intensity that was unrelenting and so exposed.
Bad trip allround as out of my group of 5 four had their bikes stolen from hotel the night before event , approx 12000 euro each bike, so not much sleep on the night b4 as they were dealing with gendarmes ahd paperwork.Ruined the event really for them and me . this was my ninth etape and probably the last one as its so stressful and expensive , 8 out of 9 completed so not so bad a record.

Heard about the theft at the airport, sorry to hear that! You didn't miss much at the finish so 8/9 is a pretty decent score!

Podge_irl

Podge_irl wrote: »

VT damn near killed me. It was carnage on the sides of the road, just bodies and bikes strewn everywhere with any bit of shade. The stop at the top of Cormet de Roselend ran out of water which was a bit of a joke. There was nowhere near enough water stations on the final climb either - I filled up from some local's hoses and finally from a bloody waterfall.

I gotta say, the organisation around the starting blocks really irritates me - they completely encourage you to lie your ass off on your application regarding your expected time. I spent the whole time climbing up VT surrounded by people with 8/9/10000 numbers who had started the guts of an hour before me whereas I had to keep worrying about the cut off times.

This actually sounds overly negative looking back on it. Should have mentioned that I did, ultimately, really enjoy it. My goal was to finish and I did so that is all that matters (in a stonking 10 hours 5 minutes :pac:). I failed to finish last year thanks to some pretty shoddy training so pleased to correct that.

nak

victor201 wrote: »

Well done to all finishers , i got 5 k up VT climb before i gave up due to heat ,not good with intensity that was unrelenting and so exposed.
Bad trip allround as out of my group of 5 four had their bikes stolen from hotel the night before event , approx 12000 euro each bike, so not much sleep on the night b4 as they were dealing with gendarmes ahd paperwork.Ruined the event really for them and me . this was my ninth etape and probably the last one as its so stressful and expensive , 8 out of 9 completed so not so bad a record.

That's awful, hope everyone is compensated.

My first etape and hadn't planned to do it until I got offered a free spot. Think I had around 4 road spins and a brand new bike so was well prepared for all the climbing! Suffered from the start with stomach cramps, thought about quitting every few kms but somehow kept going and made it to the finish and collapsed when I crossed the line. Met at the finish by friendly faces and a can of coke so got that into me and trekked up the hill to the tent with food and beer and the day's racing on the telly.

The people on the side of the road helped immensely and appreciated the cold showers from the hoses. All 10 women in my group finished, we're all at different levels and they're a lot more used to the heat and mountains than me so we split up and regrouped at the finish. Everyone was very friendly and encouraging with lots of "allez les filles" throughout the day.

Looking forward to watching the pros race it on Saturday.

Dipsomaniac

Just back now after a few days cycling afterwards over there. Got used to the heat on the other days and it was hotter on them but it felt way too hot on the etape. I thought the organisation was really good at the start and we rolled out at our start time on the button. Being in wave 12 I felt under pressure with time cutoffs.
Probably pushed a little too hard on the first big climb beacuse of this and paid for that later on. I didn't stop much in the first 100km. Just quickly topping up water.
The last 35 km up were really hard because of the heat and the earlier effort. There were bodies lying everywhere on the side of the road. A lot of people seemed to have suffered a great deal with the temperature. Thankfully because of the locals I was able to keep my bottles topped up and get a bit of a hose down every once in a while.
Stopped for a while in the last food stop and loved the sort of bicycle wash getting soaked by the kids. I cycled on slowly after stop but after 5 km got back into my grove and had a chat with a few other irish people. The sugar must have kicked in and I pushed on fairly hard over the last 4km or so passing a lot of people that were running out of steam.
I was flying and then hit the last 300m which was a bit of a shock to the system as it really ramped up. The cheering of the crowds really helped and crossed the line with an official time of 8hrs 28mins.
Enjoyed the day but the threat of the broom wagon really takes away from it all if you are in the later waves.