January 24 - In trouble again

Beech Mountain, North Carolina




So, after the intial excitement around doing the Etape du Tour and creating a blog I discover that there are blogs from some of the other 8000 people also planning to do the ride this July.

Apparently these other blogger/bikers (blokes as I call them) are a lot less serious than I am about preparing.

For example, none of them had a holder for a box of Cheezits like the custom cage I had built for my bike.

I have also read where some of these blokes, with no thought for their health or for the welfare of their bikes, have gone out to train in the cold and rain.

However, I have made one important investment regarding the trip and that is my own special helmet design that looks like a French beret since I believe that looking good is half the battle.

Me and the group have exchanged some e-mails about our own training regimen for the trip. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the best way to train for a trip is take other trips.

Tom and I kicked off the new year with a four day trip to Las Vegas. Training there consisted of consuming large quantities of protein and carbs (steak, wine, the usual suspects). Tom and I included several hours mountain biking on our rented Specialized Stump Jumpers with full suspension out at Redrocks. We didn't want to overdo it since we had to get back for a tour of the Ferrari dealership and had to keep feeding the meter (I mean slot machines).

Next up we are considering a trip to Beech Mountain in North Carolina in March. Beech Mt is 5500 feet as compared to the Tourmalet which is about 6900 so this should be good training if there isn't snow on the roads.

If there is snow on the roads then plan B would be to trade the bikes for skis and do the Tourmalet in the winter.

Next we are thinking about a weekend doing hills out in central Pennsylvania in April. The hills aren't anything particularly challenging but the funnel cake is to die for and I am hoping to be able to take some with us to France and stuff it into our special needs bags that will be waiting at the private feed station run by the tour company.

Any way, I rode yesterday in the freezing cold. It was also dark, in part because I went out so late and in part because I was wearing my Oakley sunglasses. Robin was worried because I was also riding my black bike and wearing black tights, gloves and jacket. It was all ruined with the white helmet.

If only I had completed the prototype beret-helmet in time for the ride.

Anyway, I hope that the folks at Cheezits, French Berets, Ferrari, Specialized bikes, Las Vegas, Oakley and the Amish are all noticing the great advertising opportunity here. I look forward to hearing from them.

Could it be true? I get to ride in the Tour De France...

This year for my birthday Robin has given me a gift and a challenge. Having been involved in cycling for many years she thought it would be great if I could do the Etape du Tour with several friends. The Etape is an opportunity for cycling/racing enthusiasts to do a mountain stage of the Tour de France several days prior to the actual race. There are typically 7000-8000 participants.

This year the event starts in Pau and covers 184 kilometers going over two category 1 climbs before finishing at the summit of the Tourmalet in the Pyrennes in the south of France.

An ambitious goal given my age and fitness would be to finish this in about 9 hours.

But, I looked at some videos on Youtube of previous events and to my horror I discovered that it will not be enough to simply finish; there are actually time limits just like in the actual Tour.

So, if you do not arrive at certain milestones at certain times you are prevented from continuing.

Sort of like traveling to Mt. Everest but not making it to the summit.

As a consequence, I will need to get more serious about training especially since there will be four of us on the trip and two are younger than I am and they are former professional racers. The fourth member of the team will provide moral and comedic support since as the least experienced he will make me feel like Lance and will keep us laughing along the way.

First order of business: instead of getting out of bed and starting my training I felt the burning need to start a blog.

The theory being that once I go public I will be forced to complete the Etape regardless of any physical shortcomings.

There will be lots to do between now and July and I thought it would be fun to chronicle the preparations and missteps along the way.