As I've glanced at my watch at various points in the day, I have thought to myself, "5 weeks from today I'll be.......". During the morning school run, I imagined that I would be hopefully over the first climb and on route to Nyons. During the afternoon school run, I imagined that I would be suffering on Ventoux. 5 weeks from now, I hope that I will have finished ahead of the broom wagon, will have my bike dismantled and into the box (something that worries me) and will be enjoying some delicious French food and maybe a glass of champagne. I'm going to get lots of those pain au chocolat stuffed with custard for the train back as well. As for Colin, I just hope he is still alive at the end of it. He's done less than 400 miles of training this year and is heading for a day of suffering. Just as last year, I really worry for him.
Here are some very interesting Etape course reviews:
http://www.kingstonwheelers.com/edt2009.shtml
and http://www.rapha.cc/the-elusive-prize
It's going to be brilllllliiiiiaaaannnnntttttt!
Karen
Twitter Updates
About Me
- Karen Popplewell
- Cheshire, United Kingdom
- Wife, mother & passionate cyclist. Finished my first Etape at the summit of Ventoux in 2009. Hoping for even better result in 2010 - Pau to Tourmalet.
Etape / Ventoux Links
- Etape 2010 - Pau to Tourmalet
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jul/05/cycling-holidays-tour-de-france
- http://www.rapha.cc/the-bastard
- http://cyclotherapy.independentminds.livejournal.com/#asset-ti_cyclotherapy-9799
- http://www.etape.org.uk/R2000.htm
- http://www.sarnhelen.org.uk/leetape.htm
- http://www.ocrc.co.uk/audax/Etape2000/
- http://www.rapha.cc/the-elusive-prize
- http://http://www.kingstonwheelers.com/edt2009.shtml
Countdown
Blog Archive
Sportives I'm doing in 2009
Swiss Hill on the Cheshire Cat
(shortly before I fell off)
Climbing the Tourmalet
Knackered!
Followers
11 comments:
Karen, if you keep this up getting progressively more and more excited, you'll explode something around the 10th July.
I know, it's ridiculous. I need to chill out a bit don't I? but I'm soooooooooooo excited and a tiny bit nervous. It's like waiting for 10 Christmases to come at once.
I hope it goes well for you. You've worked hard for it and deserve to do well. I can't help thinking that attempting it on 400miles training is just asking for trouble though. I live out here and if it is anything like as hot as it was this weekend on my ride, I would find it hard, and that's with over 7000km in my legs and used to the long climbs. Forgive my negativity but it's just not sensible.
Re anon's comment, I agree. Why enter if you can't make the effort / find the time to train? As a keen cyclist who didn't get entry to an etape I would dream of riding and would train hard for, I think that turning up with no preparation is showing a complete lack of respect for the whole thing. Not to mention the health worries you rightly have. There should be no complaints when the sag wagon picks him up.
The best of luck to you. It's great to see the efforts you have made and I hope it all goes well for you after the disappointment of last year.
we just had a heart to heart about it and he admits that he is in no shape to do the Etape. At the moment, it looks as though he won't be riding it after all. I completely agree with all your comments and have thought all of them myself over the last year or so. I found it quite frustrating last year when I really wanted to train and compete and wasn't able to and I felt he wasted the opportunity. After he did the event and was eliminated, I thought that would be motivation enough to put the hours in for this year. Unfortunately, that has happened in practice. In his defence, I know how hard he works and I do understand when he says he doesn't feel like training because he's so shattered. However, there are still weekends to fit training in aren't there? I'm relieved that he won't do it - I know that I would be worrying about him on the day, particularly if he got to Ventoux. Furthermore, being totally selfish about it, it certainly helps my own pre-event preparation as it means I don't need to cycle to the start and we don't have to leave the car at the end village the day before.
of course, I should have said that hasn't happened in practice
Hi, Karen, I have been following your blog with great interest as a fellow etape first timer. We ( my colleague Richard & I) booked through Cyclomundo but with delays we've finished up in the 8400s. I'm trying to do a similar thing with my garmin 705, but it's not easy to create a timed course with waypoints, without doing the ride before...We have the reality check this weekend of the Dave LLoyd. Good luck and we might see each other in July. Peter
Hi Peter,
thanks for getting in touch. Good luck with the David Lloyd this weekend - are you doing the full 150 miler?
I'm still experimenting with the Garmin. If you work out how to do it let me know. My mate Howie says he knows what to do so I need a bit of a tutorial from him. I'll post on here when I work out how I'm going to do it.
Keep in touch and yes, maybe we will see each other in July :-)
Karen
Hi Karen,
If you carry on like this you wont sleep the week before never mind the night before !
You will fly around this route so relax and enjoy it.
PS as I founding member of Team Lard, it seems a shame for your Domestic (fella) to not do it, I managed to get to the foot of the last climb before the broom wagon got me, but no matter how far he gets he will still enjoy this route Im sure knowing how tough his last one was, he will know whats ahead, mentally and physically. Hell, he could even be you leadout man for the first 50K before it starts to spread out !!!
Tape your schedule key points to your top tube for easy reference.
Wear a top with a white back to reflect heat
Personally I would shy away from air canisters, as had too many problems with them. A pump you can use many times, someone will always give a lady a tube anyway on this event, they will probably pump it up for you too.
The descent of the top is tricky especially when tired, great view though!
At the risk of getting you more existed heres some likes to the Ventoux etape I did in the snow, just to get the juices flowing.
Although Im sure youve already seen them!
Enjoy and Good luck.
Graham Team Lard - Sandbach
http://www.etape.org.uk/R2000.htm
http://www.sarnhelen.org.uk/leetape.htm
http://www.ocrc.co.uk/audax/Etape2000/
Graham, Team Lard, (love that)
Thanks for the links - I haven't seen them before and I shall read them this evening. I soak up all this stuff like a sponge. My husband sometimes calls me a sponge actually :-)
You've done it now - top with a white back. That was all I needed to hear - what about this - http://www.wiggle.co.uk/images/assos-ss13-mens-zoom.jpg
black front to camouflage the tum, white back to reflect the heat. I had decided to go for the "cheaper" assos but you've sown a seed now.
He's had another couple of weeks of no cycling so it's really doubtful. Plus, he can't keep up with me for a mile anymore so he's unlikely to be my lead out man. Even if he was doing it, I would say bye to him at the start and would be off looking for a good wheel to suck. I think he wants to do Ventoux the day before the event - a reversal of what we did last time round when I tried Tourmalet and he did the Etape.
Cheers / keep in touch
Karen
Hi Karen,
If youre spending at Wiggle, look at this below I got from them first...but you havent got long to decide.
Dont forget youre UK flag socks so UK guys will cheer you on.
Ps Dont know how far you train around here, but I used to train on a really good road which copied the etape type roads pretty well.
You will have to find it on a map, but here goes.
Climb starts at the junction of the A523 south of Macclesfield and the A54 out of Congleton, turn East heading to Buxton along A54,all the way along it to the A537, then back down the cat and fiddle to Macc. Its a great mix of short sharp ups and long drags with good downhills to fine tune your skills, watch out for the bikers though if its sunny.
Have you done this route before?
Cheers Graham Team Lard
From: lorne@wiggle.co.uk [mailto:lorne@wiggle.co.uk]
Sent: 09 May 2009 15:05
To: graham team lard
Subject: Come back to Wiggle and I'll give you £5 off
Hi,
I've just had a look back at your account and noticed that you haven't
ordered anything from wiggle for ages.
While you've been away we've added loads of great new products, extensive
new ranges from all the big brands as well as some fantastic new features.
Shopping at wiggle is now even easier and more enjoyable than before!
Make an order over £25 in the next 14 days and we'll give you £5 off it.
Just enter this exclusive e-voucher code HPZ9L-E4TB6 on the checkout
page - please give it about 15 minutes for this code to be uploaded onto
our web server.
If you don't want to use this voucher yourself, you can always forward it
to a friend.
Yours,
Lorne
Post a Comment