Le Tour Challenge 2007

Hi all. Many apologies for the lack of postings just as things were starting to get underway, but we’ve been having technical difficulties. I know you’re all white-knuckled and on the edge of your seat wondering about the lads so here goes…

Well, they’re both OK and still at it, comfortably (?) finishing the longest stage from Waregem to Compiègne (236 km) on Sunday. Yesterday’s stage was a mere (!) 184km of which 180km was spent in the rain. The riders went out dressed in at least 6 layers, looking like a rather bizarre advert for a certain car tyre company and arrived at Autun looking more like drowned rats. To make matters worse it was the first really hilly stage taking them through the stunning (but rather wet) landscape around Chablis.

Pete has been proving his worth as a mechanic, spending at least an hour each night on each bike so that Mick and Sean have the luxury of riding out every morning on perfectly tuned machines.

Today sees the cyclists back on the flat, but it will be followed by 2 days of mountains so we’re hoping that Seans now famous porridge recipes will give power to the lads’ legs!

Finally underway at last. Couldn’t get into central London on time to start at first light as planned so ended up riding prologue and first part of stage 1 in busy peak hour traffic. A whole different world for the pros…
Only had a couple of navigational embarassments and generally got along a nice steady pace. Pete hooked up with us twice along the way and has sweetened up the bikes ready for tomorrow.

We’re staying at a farm campsite among the chikens and a shed full of llamas which is quite surreal…

Knackered and need sleep so more tomorrow.

Fantastic launch party last night at Tiger Tiger with around 100 in to see us off.  Were honoured to have Geraint Thomas of Team Barloworld along, the first Welsh Tour rider since 1967 and also Colin Lewis, who was that last Welsh rider along as guests.  BBC were there filming and interviewed us all. Hope we don’t look like rabbits in the headlights when it goes out…

Just packing up the monster sized camper with all our stuff and we’ll be on our way to start in central London around 5.00am tomorrow morning. 

Well, only a few days to rum now until we’re off.  Good thing we’re supposed to be tapering off and resting up some for the start as the weather is crap and clocking up the miles wouldn’t be much fun in this… 

Best news is that we’ve had a last minute addition to the support team. Pete will be coming along as our mechanic and driver and also joining us for a few days on the road.  He’s a really laid back guy who works as a mechanic suporting a pro mountain biking team.  We can’t believe quite how its all worked out, we’ve got a really professional team behind us and we can’t wait to get going.

All of the sponsors are in place and the team kit has been delivered.  Looks good and we’ll be launching it at our “bon voyage” do at Tiger Tiger on Tuesday night.  We’re expecting a special guest to along, Geraint Thomas of Team Barloworld, who will be on the start-line for the Tour two days after us.  A Cardiff lad and first Welsh rider in the Tour for 40 years, we wish him the best of luck and we’re really stoked that he can spare some time to send us on our way so close to his big day in London on Saturday.

We’ve been equipped with a mobile PDA to kep the blog up-to-date while we’re on the road.  Keep looking and we’ll be updating daily.

No post for ages, apologies to anybody following the thread.  Last few weeks have been crazy with training and orgainisational stuff and hardly had 2 spare seconds.  We’re rounding the bend for the home straight now.  The miles are pretty well in the bag (and on the legs!!) and the remaining training is focussing on some specifics -building some power, more concentration on climbing, that kind of thing.  Looking forward to the taper down and actually just getting on and riding it for real…

We’ve got a new support team member on board for the last 2 weeks of the ride - Jonathan, who will be graduating from a sports therapy course and the next day flying out to joining us after we’ve rideden 2 days in the Alps!.  I bet he didn’t think a few months ago his skills would be so quickly put to use.  Great guy and we’re really pleased to have him on the team (and his firm hands on our thighs no doubt…) 

The sponsorship to support the ride is all in the bag, thanks mostly to the efforts (and connections!) of Andy Morris of Denver Construction who is deeply committed to the CF fund raising cause. Our main sponsors are Denver, Whitehead Building Services, Get Connected! and Coca Cola.  We have also received generous support from a number of other businesses, including Elite Motorhomes and Leo Abse & Cohen, Mick’s employers.  More on that to be added to the website itself shortly.

The team kit has all been designed and is now in production - talk about “just in time” supply.  

We’ve been interviewed and filmed training (or pretending to…) by the BBC.  The piece they are putting together is being stored up to go out the week that the Tour comes to the UK.  We’re also shortly being equipped by the BBC with video diary equipment to film the final stages of our preparations and the ride itself.  Look out for this… 

We will be having a team kit launch and farewell event in Tiger, Tiger club in Cardiff on 3 July at which there will be a charity fund raising auction / raffle.

Promise more updates as we come into the finish straight.  Just trying to sort out portable internet access for the trip at the moment so we’ll be able to keep a daily post going.  

God, where has a month gone since last updated this blog?  Well most of it seems to have been spent riding a bike.  Simon’s program was pretty unrelenting for the first month. Week consisted of one 60 minute power session and 3 nights doing 3 to 4 hours after work, a day off and 8 or 9 hours each day of the weekend.   All up, this has added up to around 700km a week.  Been clocking up most of the the miles on undulating roads in the South Wales valleys and Monmouthshire. All made possible by the miracle of Assos chamois cream - truly a miracle product…

Have just received the next 4 weeks worth of training schedule. Will be concentrating on building some power and pushing more maintain riding at the threshold to prepare for the demand of the long climbs ahead. 

Feeling comfortable now riding regukar 220km plus at a steady rhythm that averages around 27km/h in undulating conditions.  Hopefully, this will translate to something over 30km/h on the flat stages without burning ourselves out before we hit the Alps.

The detailed route of the Tour has now been published on the official site (www.letour.com) and we can start planning out the exact course we’ll be riding on the road atlas.

We’ve got a meeting with some backers this week and hope to finalise all of the organisation of the logistics and support. 

No update for a week or so, have hardly had 5 minutes off the bike to write!  We’ve got Elite Fitness (www.elitefitness.co.uk) onboard to guide us with the preparation.  Last Wednesday night Mick did a Maximal Lactate Steady State test to collect the figures for future training guidance and best sustained performance.  Not a pleasant experience but enjoyed it when it was over…  Sean’s turn is up in a week or so. 

After the test, Simon of Elite set us the task of riding 220km on each day of the Easter holiday weekend.  The weather was fantastic for it and we chose 4 interesting routes up into Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire and over to the Gower.  On Saturday morning we were lucky enough to have Nick & Martin to draft behind for 50 quick miles.  After 8 hours plus per day in the saddle, we achieved a total of 900 km for the 4 days of the weekend.  Our first real taste (and feel for the bottoms) of what is entailed in the task we have taken on.   Preliminary feedback from Simon indicates we’ll be doing it all again and more soon…  

With the weather improving and the clocks going forward, we’re concentrating hard on increasing mileage, day after day.  Last weekend Mick did a run up from Tewksbury through the Cotswolds to Kenilworth and then out through the lanes towards Northampton.  Sean went out in the hiils in Monmouthshire followed by a 5 hour session on the MTB.  We both got out 4 days after work, once together, in our local lanes for a couple of hours taking advantage of the extra light. The plan is to build this up to a daily afternoon 50 mile session.

Beautiful weather today and we rode with Nick, a regular training mate of Sean’s.  Went out through Newport, Cwmbran, via the hilly lanes over to Tintern and stopped for a brilliant pizza sized teacake before heading home back over the hills via Usk.  Well, that would have plan…  The bottom bracket of Mick’s shiny new Pinarello, only freshly built up, loosened and started to unscrew.  With the crank arms  now hitting the chain stays, couldn’t go on with about 4 to run to Usk.  After stopping briefly by the gliding club, Sean was inspired use an inner tube as a tow and Mick suffered the indignity of being pulled into town like a lemon, much to the locals’ amusement, to be bailed out with a lift home.  Maybe this could be the way ahead…     

Having had a gentle spin yesterday to ease back into training, we went out together for 60 miles through the Vale of Glamorgan, most of the first half into the teeth of a 35 mph westerly wind.  We both seem to have recovered pretty well from our respective ailments and got along at a comfortable pace we felt we could have kept at for hours more.  With the days getting longer the focus now is to work towards building a consistent daily mileage base to ready ourselves for the challenge of getting up and riding every day for 9 days on end. Weather looks like its getting icy for a couple of days so back to the turbo trainers…