My Tour de France One Day Ahead Blog: www.ChaqueEtape.com

Training for Le Tour One Day Ahead will come to an end on my trusty Trek SR tomorrow as I take delivery of a brand new Specialized Roubaix SL4 Expert with Di2 electronic gears. Talk about going from one extreme to another. My Trek is 10 years old and has seen tens of thousands of miles in training and many endurance rides from 5-Day Lands End to John O’Groats (TheRaceAgainstTime) and several London to Amsterdam rides for IBC2IBC, some of which were straight dash 24hours! All in all I will be sad not to be riding my wondeful Trek but times move on. I keep reminding myself that only ten years ago the pro teams were using such alloy frames with carbon forks and winning the grand tours.

So what of the Spesh? Well I have another 10 year old Specialized Allez Sport which I have to say is a true thoroughbred and a bike you simply can’t just ride, you have to “race”. I’ve only ridden a bike with electronic gears once before and that was in Aspen Colorado two weeks ago (with the @TdF1DayAhead team and Lance Armstrong). It was excellent, simple feathertouch gears that swich instantly and accurately. Very impressive that the gearing is so absolutely accurate, very heklpful on hill climbs.

A big thank you to the boys and girls at Banjo Cycles in Newbury, I always knew you were great but to help the team in this way is simply amazing and generous. We will remember to keep the publicity up for you throughout Le Tour.

Sponsore me here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ciarandoranbeforethetour