First Post

I feel I should put a bit of effort in and have a go at this blogging business, since I haven’t seen any of you guys in a while now and I want to keep in touch.

I am very much excited about the prospect of the greatest ride of my life so far! Training is coming along nicely and I have ventured out into the great British winter most weeks since we signed up. Anytime I feel I’m flagging, I have this motivation that I’ve never had before, and this comes from the fear of the dreaded broom wagon sweeping up the stragglers on the big day! I have waited my whole life for a reason to train for a specific event, and the Etape seems to fit the bill.

With regard to the fund raising, I hope I’m not too late Mr Brett Geldof-Green, but I would like to throw another idea for a fund raising cause. During my travelling to Africe in 2005, I worked for a local mission in Zambia (a small village called Mwandi) where they look after orphaned children in the local community. The Australian lady that began this in 2004 (Fiona who has received an Australian Member to the Order of Australia for her efforts http://www.unitingworld.org.au/programs/experience/experience-profiles/fiona-dixon-thompson-mwandi-zambia/ ) has managed to build a drop in centre, a playground and develop the medical centre. These children now depend on the support that they give so any funds that they receive go directly to help people that really do need it. Even a small donation to this can make a difference. Just a thought.

If I haven't said it before, without Clive and everyone that's helped organise this, I probably would have been too lazy to do it myself, so cheers. I look forward to the time when there is no longer gritty, slippy, dirty roads, but for now I’ll be out as much as I can, on my bike, pedalling along …

I love it....

....when a plan comes together.

Eurotunnel reservations are in place for the 5th July outward, and the 14th return. Both crossings are at about 10p.m. so we have time for a leisurely depart at either end (depending on whether you boys insist on working the 5th July, which I shall probably not).

I have a copy of the Gite contract to run past our friendly neighbourhood French person, so all that seems to be left is the training. 173 days to go, in the words of Mr Jeremy Clarkson "How hard can it be?"

The Poor Student

Clive's traditional New Year opener, this is a basic level 200km Audax event starting and finishing in Oxford. This year's event was on Saturday 7th January, and thankfully the weather relented from the grot of the preceding week and granted us fine weather.

Arriving early at the Park & Ride, there was only limited faffing and we were ready for an early getaway. Sneaking off a few minutes early, we were noticed by the Audax Gods who, frowning upon our 'cheating' dispatched the Puncture Fairy to enact their vengeance upon us. A puncture after just 400 metres is NOT the best start to a year.

Patched up, we headed through the 'official' route under the Bridge of Sighs and through the ancient University Buildings before heading West into the fresh and persistent wind. The first indication that "weight loss is good" was that I arrived at the top of Cumnor Hill in the main group, and without the customary lung hanging out. Ray, who was accompanying me, was already struggling after being ill all week.

Shrivenham and Swindon came and went, the wind remained. Long draggy bits were climbed more easily than normal, but Ray went off the back a couple of times, normally he's another one who is a nightmare to keep up with uphill. As we arrived in Malmesbury after 80km, we caught Marmite Geoff who had started even earlier. I was up for a quick "grab and go" stop at the garage control, Ray decided completing the event with Geoff was far more sensible, and let me go. Despite the wind, the first leg had only taken 3 1/2 hours for 80km and I was keen to see what time I could finish in.

Having refuelled at the garage with the obligatory dirty pasty (Cheese & Bacon Ginsters Mmmmmm) and first of the day's 3 cans of Relentless (really must check if that stuff is on the UCI list of banned substances) I left quickly and was soon blasting along the main road. I credited the refuelling with my speed increase, but it was probably due to the fact that the first bit of the second section went East with the wind.

Flashes of brightly coloured lycra could be seen way ahead on occasions and through the Cotswold Water Park to Cirencester, I managed to reel in many of them. Even when we reached the long drag of the WhiteWay no-one came past. Approaching the "Compton Abdale Alps", 3 steep climbs one after the other, I could see a largish group near the top (probably 5 minutes ahead). On each climb, they were a little closer, and it may have taken 6 miles, but eventually I caught them up, and we cycled into Chipping Camden together. I realise now that no-one overtook me on the second leg over the Cotswolds. Previously, I've been on my own, save for the few seconds of respite when passed by others.

Equally, last year I left Chipping Camden in the dark, this year we were in and out by 2:45. Fuelled by double Relentless intake our group of 5 stayed together over the lumps and bumps to Moreton-in-Marsh, and I climbed Dorn Hill near Draycott for the first time on this event without walking. It helps to be doing it in the daylight, and to be able to see how much of it is left. We arrived at Shipston-Under-Wychwood, only ??km from the finish before stopping to put on lights, and had the energy left to sprint up the chevronned climb in Finstock in the big ring after 180km ("weight loss is good"). The last few kilometres is gradually downhill or flat, but I was still amazed (and dead chuffed) to arrive back at the start at 17:03. A personal best by three hours ("weight loss is good").

My phone threw a wobbly about operating Endomondo in low power mode, insisting that I had travelled to and from London several times in the day. However, my trusty GPS functioned well, and I managed to upload the stats here. A great ride made better by an unexpectedly good performance.

Ray & Geoff finished too, by the way.

Posting to Static Pages

Dear Tour de Mercredi

Only the Home page on this Blog is capable of taking 'dynamic' posts from you boys. All of the other pages are 'static' and can only be edited by logging in and selecting the "design" option.
You can only do this if you are a blog administrator, so as of this evening you all are. So, if you wish to post to the static pages, please log in, go to 'design' and select the "Updated Blogger Interface". When the blog dashboard appears, select the 'Pages' icon on the Left to list the Blog Pages.

Select "Edit" next to the page you wish to amend, and place your post at the top, above the existing text. This will ensure all recent posts are near the top. Alternatively, post your content to the "Home" page as normal, and I will copy of move it to the requested page.

Rhino.

A Worthy Cause!

Happy New Year to all you Etappers out there, I hope you've kick started those training plans as we enter, what I hope is a memorable year for all of us!

I have take it upon myself to become the official sponsorship organiser for our L'Etape event as one of the goals I set myself at the start of the year was to raise at least double what Clive and I did when we entered back in 2008. For your information it was £3,426.50 so £7k would be a tremendous effort and I genuinely think this is achievable as there are 10 of us going which equates to £700 each or £100 per person, per month....come on you know we can do it!

I will be looking to organise a few events before our trip such as a charity bike ride, quiz night, sponsored leg wax, plus any other ideas you guys want to throw at me, so get your thinking caps on. In my experience the organised events tend to raise the most amount of money so I want to get the 1st one planned fairly soon.

Which brings me to the final point of the post, which is we never agreed on a charity to raise money for so here is my suggestion of how we organise this in a fair manner:

If you wish to put a charity into the "voting pool" then please post the name of your charity along with the reason why you've picked it, by no later than Friday 13th January. If you don't have a preference then please post a nil return or if I haven't heard from you by the deadline I will also take that as a nil return. I will then get Clive to summarise the selections on the blog and everyone will then have one voting right to pick the charity of their choice. The charity with the most votes is the winner and if we have a tie we will split the money according to how many charities shared the most votes.

I hope everyone's happy with the rules but any suggestions or improvements, let me know ASAP!

Brian Camembert / Brett "Geldof" Green

The T-Bone Returns

So the honeymoon periods over, literally, and its time for me to drag myself onto Joanne (the bike) and begin what is sure to be a prolonged period of pain.

I'm totally out of shape and about as rock bottom as can be cycling wise so should be fun to see where this goes.

Thanks to Agent Rhino for to comprehensive document on preparing for this. You are the Mourhino of cycling.

Tips on Nutrition & Winter Training

Just in case you haven't received the email, there are a couple of interesting articles on the l'etape du tour Mondovelo website in relation to nutrition and winter training.......every little helps as they say:

http://www.letapedutour.com/ET1/us/les_news_nutrition.html

http://www.letapedutour.com/ET1/us/les_news_entrainement.html

I will do my best to be a bit more active on the blog this year, I promise!!!

I managed to complete 2000 miles last year which wasn't a bad effort but way off the pace compared to some of the other Etappers so I am aiming to complete this distance before we set off for France in early July along with getting to a target weight of 12 stone.

I always find it good to share your goals with the group that way we can all help each other and keep the encouragement/motivation levels high. Clive - maybe we should have a separate page on the blog which shows everyone's goals and progress?

Keep those legs spinning, Brian Camembert :-)

Christmas Outing

Joe came down to sunny South Wales on Boxing Day and we managed to fit in a ride on Tuesday as the rain had relented enough to allow us out. We ventured out via the lanes in the Vale of Glamorgan up the Rhondda Valley to tackle the Bwlch and Rhigos before returning to Cardiff via Pontypridd.





The weather was dry, about 10 degrees, light west wind , roads very wet in places. The link on map my ride is here - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/83362836

Cycling Weakly

That most marvellous of all comics has done an Etape Review for you boys, but unlike me they were able to go to the Alps to do it.

Rest assured, I will be plagiarising their comments for the "Stage Page" on this blog, but the full sections can be found here.

Most of interest should be the bottom of the leader page where they have ranked the climbs "from Killer to Vanilla" and you might be a bit surprised when you see what they ranked as the "worst climb".

Read on, enjoy, and keep on training.

Our Purpose, Mission and Sponsorship?

Right guys we need to start thinking about what cause(s) we are going to do this for and then we can start to put the wheels in motion for sponsorship deals and jersey designs!!! Fire in your thoughts and suggest we put it to the vote once everyone has had chance to voice their views.

Aiming High

At the Stratford Cycling Club Dinner I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to bend Mr Magnus Backstedt's ear, and possessing of sufficient sense to listen to what he had to say.

Firstly it is comforting to note that even those who have won Paris-Roubaix and Tour de France stages have days when they really don't care for their bike. Secondly it is possible when listening to people who have "done stuff" to realise where your own issues lie.

My trip to the Pyrenees in 2008 to do the Etape du Tour is well documented in my blog. Equally well documented are my thoughts on anticlimax and an ultimate disappointment with the event. Last night, while listening to Magnus talk about targets and success, I came to the realisation that there was actually nothing wrong with the Etape du Tour 2008. The problem lies with me.

All the way to that ride, I was writing down my paranoia of hitching a ride on the broom wagon because I wasn't good enough to finish when, in retrospect, I knew that I could dig in and find enough to get to the top of Hautacam. I realise now that avoiding failure and achieving success are not the same thing.

On the day of the Etape itself I arrived in St Marie de Campan, 102km into the stage, well ahead of the Broom Wagon, and calculated in my head that I could no longer achieve a silver medal standard. I recall rationalising what happened next as "formulating a plan". I made a decision to take it easy over the Tourmalet and up the Hautacam and use as much of the remaining 6+ hours as I needed to avoid the wagon. 5 and a bit hours later, in an elapsed time of 8:56:30 I crossed the line to the biggest anticlimax of my life. I felt no achievement, I felt no elation. I felt precisely nothing.

What actually happened in St Marie de Campan was that I gave up trying. So what, if my calculation that I couldn't get a silver standard was right? So what, if I had put in all that effort and came out of it with the same certificate at the end of the event that I have now? At least then, at the end of the ride, I would have known that I'd given it my best shot, that what I'd achieved was the limit of my (then) abilities. What I allowed myself to achieve was nothing. All I did was survive.

To hear someone recount a Tour Stage win at the end of a day which started with the Team Manager having to talk them out of quitting, makes me realise that none of us ever really know what is in there. Until we look for it.

So what am I going to do about it? Well, I've already documented my wish to achieve said silver standard next year, and that stands. However, I will not be freewheeling over the line five seconds before the silver cutoff time to the adulation of the masses. No, I shall be crossing that line in a flurry of limbs, squeezing every last ounce of effort from my protesting muscles to achieve the best result that I can. As long as I collapse from the bike 12 inches after my transponder has crossed the line, I will be satisfied. Not necessarily happy, but satisfied.

Whether I am happy or not will still depend upon whether I hit my goal. Whether my goal is right or not will depend on me. Who is to say whether the Medaille D'Argent is within my capabilities, utterly beyond me, at the very edge of my ability, or the bare minimum that I should allow myself to achieve? That would be me, then.

Time will tell but this time I will not settle for the avoidance of failure. The most damaging lies are the ones we tell ourselves, and that is failure enough.

One In, All In

Having eagerly awaited the opening of Etape entries at 11 a.m. on 17th November, the TdM Etappers found themselves in the Mother Of All Electronic Queues.

All told, the weight of potential entrants delayed the posting of transactions by up to 3 hours. Nonetheless, when the dust settled, all 10 of us had places in the first tranche of 3,000 entrants (a.k.a. the cheap seats) and are now committed to training for one monster day out on the bike.

Game On Boys!