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.