ECFR06 - Ready to Rumble 24/6/06

Since arriving last Monday I’ve driven over 1000km up and down the Pyrenees checking out the route. I was joined by Gordo & Monica mid trip as we ventured from Pau to Font Romeu.

Let’s put is plain and simple. This is going to be one bloody hard camp. Just take a look at the profiles from a few selected days – that doesn’t include all the other days where we climb EVERY day.

Gordo and I took at run at Font Romeu (altitude 1900m) a couple of days ago. Holy crap I’d forgotten how much harder running at altitude is. I was bent over double when we came to the top of one of the long climbs. Gordo reminded me of the good old days when we were living in Hong Kong. On the odd occasion he actually heard me breathing he knew I was pushing the pace – I didn’t remind him that was all part of my game back then, you can’t let the opposition know how you are feeling on the inside. Whilst we were on our jaunt around the village we saw a number of opportunities for ‘Events Day’. Normally we hold the events on the last day, this time they will be mid camp….stay tuned. The altitude is going to make some of our planed events very nasty indeed.

Today the athletes began to arrive. The Epic vets are telling stories from camps gone by – the tales seem to get longer as time goes by, that’s part of the fun. Meanwhile the epic virgins have are looking rather apprehensive, quietly crapping themselves.

Tomorrow the rest of the athletes arrive before we get underway on Monday