Well, well, well, what can we say about that.
Stage 3 was a monster, 100 miles with 10,500 feet of climbing (more than a third of the height of Everest) and the iconic and dramatic Col du Tourmalet.
From the time the course was released it was the stage I wanted to do.
I’d ridden Mount Teide in January again with Louis after I’d been there in 2017 and I’ve ridden Ventoux and the Galibier and the Tourmalet is on every single cyclist’s bucket list.
It was for this reason that I didn’t finish stage 1 because I just didn’t know what I had to give and the lesson (at least to me) of the cut-short stage 2 and the prospect of trying to have a go at the Tourmalet.
These events are tremendous because they promote a sense of proper ‘selfishness’ that I don’t really get anywhere else in my life.
The ‘off the bike’ has been fantastic with Carl and Louis and Alex and we work together seamlessly as a team to get everything ready, to cook in the evenings and to sort out all the kit which is huge but when we reach the start line, we instinctively separate into our appropriate places.
Louis gets as far up the front as possible so that he can race with the experts, Alex positions himself somewhere around the 20% mark (that’s astonishing to be anywhere near the top 5th of a group of cyclists like this) and I roll in at the back and see the same familiar faces from the last 2 days and the comradery is fantastic.
We help each other as much as we can but, in the end,, in cycling, you are the only one who can get you to the top of the hill.
This was Louis’s best day so far. He finished 45th and moved up to 58th on THE GC (General Classification). Louis is closing in on a top 10% finish as a 19-year-old in a race full of seasoned cyclists and former professional riders.
Alex also had his best day so far, with an extraordinary ascent of the Tourmalet, only putting his foot down once after he dropped his phone taking a photograph of the incredible views.
I climbed the first climb of the day which in any other circumstance would be a monster and felt pretty good at the top with my little band of brothers (and sister) who got together at the back, including Matt from Largs in Scotland which is 2 towns down from where I grew up and Al from Cheshire and Fran from Oxford.
We’ve developed these tight friendships that happen during events like this where we look out for each other.
We had a quick stop at the top of that hill and then a massive, rapid descent (Fran is a national cross rider and she knows how to handle a bike down a hill, so we just followed her line at up to 40 mph down the slope. Both Louis and Alex would touch 50 mph).
And then, the ‘valley chase’, this is where you race between climb to climb hoping to get in a group about the same level as you and work hard together to cut down wind resistance and use minimal amount of effort to get to the next climb.
That was spectacular but soon enough we found ourselves looking down the barrel of the monster of the Tourmalet.
It’s listed as a 19km climb but it’s a little bit more like 30km.
It’s 2 ½ hours of uphill for me and when you’re travelling through the valley with the headwind in your face pushing you backwards, it feels like you’re never, ever going to make any progress.
These are the dark points in the story wheel (see the blogs next week) where the ‘hero’ reaches their doldrum only to try to pull themselves out of it again to win the battle.
That is actually what it feels like.
From about ¾ of the way up the Tourmalet you can see the ski station at the top.
We might as well be on the moon.
By the time we got to the last 10km, it was only Fran and I left from our group as the rest had fallen away and so, by some weird and strange turn of events I was stronger than her and so, I was able to help her and lead her up the climb to the summit where we could look back down the valley, have a photograph beside the Tourmalet sign and a piece of salami and then head down for 27 miles of downhill to the finish.
That was it.
That was my whole ride right there.
After the year that I’ve had and the stuff that has happened and the way that I have felt and the things that I have missed, that was everything.
And then, a tearful video at the top to send to my team to say thanks for all their help this year because I really felt the need to say thanks to people who’d looked after me.
We finished in the most beautiful of places in an equestrian centre in the middle of Tarbes where we could get a massage and some food and meet together again and share our days and the things that had happened and then go back into the routine of cooking and eating and resting and getting everything ready for stage 4.
Throughout this process we decided to raise money for Cancer research in conjunction with the guys at The Campbell Clinic in our two-pronged attack.
Some of the team decided to take on the Race for Life on the 26th of June and some of the team decided to take on the Haute Route Pyrenees.
At the time of writing these blogs, our combined efforts of fundraising, including gift aid, are at about £15,000. You can still donate here for the Race for Life or here for the Haute Route Pyrenees and we’d love you to help.
Blog Post Number - 3135
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