Sponsor Ciaran Doran at : https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ciarandoranbeforethetour
How could they make today tougher than yesterday? I want to get to know more about the people who design the route of the Tour de France. They’re very experienced in designing competitive cycle routes for the top 200 cyclists in the world but they’re also a little bit sadistic !
With the video message from the cure leukaemia patients and staff still lingering in our minds we set off early to begin another gruelling day in the Pyrenees. Starting in Pau one is fooled by the rolling hills or inclines on the route to Lourdes. After Lourdes we were treated to three, yes 3, third category climbs, each of which drained us of a little more energy than the last. We sailed down through Castet to the road that leads to the bottom of Col d’Aspin and had a quick baguette lunch on the way. This was the first day on the tour that we had a sandwich lunch and while in one sense it was welcome due to the time saving it created in another sense we could have done with something more fulfilling before taking on such mammoth mountain climbs such as the Col d’Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet. Can’t win. If we had had a bigger lunch we may well have brought it all up again quite quickly as the mountain climbs are very aggressive.
I love these mountains. There’s something special about the scenery of the Pyrenean hills and there’s a real beauty here. I will, however sadly, not be sorry to say goodbye to these mountains for a little while. After yesterday and today’s stages on Le Tour One Day Ahead I’m not how I’m going to cope with another 5 days of aggressive mountains and hills.
Conquering Col d’Aspin was one thing as there was a breeze which always felt like a headwind whichever way he road turned. It was a nice cool breeze though that was welcome even if it was into my face.
Descending the Aspin was great too and nice to get to Campan where my family had a lovely holiday five years ago. Ascending the Tourmalet also brought back memories as both my sons Fergal and Aidan cycled the complete Tourmalet which at 15 and 12 yrs old was quite something.
Conquering the Col du Tourmalet this time was again tough, but it is never not tough. The heat was unbearable at points and the gradient was steep throughout, no let up in the pain. Many supporters were great in encouraging us and I still can’t quite understand how many camper vans must be owned in France as there were again about a thousand vans parked on these two mountains.
My descent of Tourmalet was just fantastic. We were told from the beginning to get behind the lead car so I did, and when I went fast, he went faster, so I went faster and guess what happen, he went faster again !
I’m nervous about looking at the download from my Garmin to see what speed I did but I do know that it was fast !
At Pierrefite-Nestales we turned left to take the final 10km that makes me consider the organisers as sadists. This, in truth, wasn’t necessary as it was a 10km climb; a steady 4% gradient of a climb but a climb nonetheless.
After much pain and grinding teeth I finally got to the ever elusive finish line where the bus and team vehicles were waiting along with a small crowd that had gathered to see this crazy team that was doing every stage of the Tour de France.
People were in awe of our efforts. Not sure how this will translate into hard cash for the charity but word does travel and with this great things can happen.
It’s our last night in Lourdes as our base and I didn’t even get to mass in the Basilica. I do pray that I and we make it through the next few days. Tomorrow is another tough day with four climbs, although none as high as Col du Tourmalet. I’m hoping for a little cloud cover so we have some respite from the sweltering sun and a chance to cycle without streams of sweat flowing down my face and stinging my eyes.
1,887km done out of 3,344km total. That’s more than half way by my reckoning. Stage 11 out of 21 is also more than half way. So there’s no turning back now and we have to finish what we’ve started.
Just a thought about the ride today. I was slower than I wanted to be. Ideally I would have loved to have ascended the mountains a little quicker but perhaps I didn’t lose as much weight in the last few months as I should have.
It’s not a race, though. Neither is it a race for one patient to recover from leukaemia before another. One patient might recover quickly and another more slowly but if they both recover then it’s a success. That thought kept me going today as I thought about the patients of Cure Leukaemia and their recovery.
The thought of being a piece of the jigsaw that helped find the cure for leukaemia. When I have my last and final moments, and all of us expect those moments to be a long time from now, then I want to look back over my life and see what I’ve done to leave the world a better place.
You can be a part of that too by contributing financially to the target we are trying to reach.
Pleas give as generously as you can at the link below.
Thank you.
Sponsor Ciaran Doran at : https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ciarandoranbeforethetour