Today was one of the glamour stages of the camp with the classic climbs of the Toumelet, Luz Ardiden and the Solour. If came in a 180km and had a bit of everything. I got off my lazy butt and was biking with the guys. With 1 ride over 3hrs since January it’s fair to say I’m not in great shape but I was determined to give today a good crack. The pressure was on as everyone wanted me to give Mike Montgomery a hurry up on the KOM as he’s been kicking butt all camp. My tactic was to start at a good clip and drop as many as possible, consolidate during the middle of the climb and then kick from La Mongie with 3-4km to go to the top. Well the first two part of my plan worked well but not the finish. Mike surged at the at start of the climb and I let him go then surged up to him with Grodo in tow. Mike kept attacking and I rode my pace keeping him at an even distance then Gordo dropped. My HR was sitting at 165 (which is bloody high for me) but I felt OK. This climb is 17km long. At around 10km Gordo came steaming past and he was working very hard. Should I go with him or stick to my pacing, I did my own thing. The gradient was fluctuating from 8%-10.5% (every km there are signs on the side of the road telling you what the gradient is for the next km). Gordo bridged up to Mike and then they stayed at around 75m in front of me. As we approached the ski resort of La Mongie (the Tour often finished there) we went under a number of avalanche bridges which was cool. I passed a guy in a polka dots jersey and we gave each other a glace. Our expressions said a thousand words “this was one long, hard climb”. About 10mins later as I rolled into La Mongie the wheels all of a sudden fell completely off. I was gone for all money and every pedal stroke on my 39:28 was killing me. I quickly made the decision that I was now simply aiming to get to the top. As I went around a few switch backs I had a good look behind me and nobody was in sight, at least I would get 3rd to the top. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out the last 3km was going to take around 18min at the speed I was gone, shit this was going to be hard!! I battled on but saw the man in the polka dots jersey who I’d passed earlier coming back at me. Then at the next switch back with 1km to go I saw Molina. I was barely moving at this stage and knew he would come flying past before the top, he did and I had no response. Whenever I tried to stand my legs were buckling. Well I finally made it but holy crap I was toasted.
Next up was Luz Ardiden – a 12km climb. We started at a gentlemanly pace which was nice and all was going well until 2km from the top when we felt a few spots of rain. About 2mins later we were in the traps of a full on storm with gust of winds and heavy, cold rain. None of us wanted to turn back as we were nearly there so we lowed on. As soon as a hit the top I turned straight back down and froze all the way to the bottom. I was so cold my arms were shaking and I couldn’t stair straight, my teeth were chattering and I couldn’t feel my hands. As it turned out Scott and a few of others broke into the ski school and found a coffee machine. They hung out there wainting for the storm to clear. It didn’t, and they too had to bike down in the rain. At the bottom it cleared up and I rode solo for the last 40km (including the long climb up the Col Du Solour. I actually recovered somewhat on the final climb (amazing what 2 cans of coke and a bag of chips will do for you!).
So that was my epic day. I’ve warned my room mates there might be a little snoring tonight.
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