Crisis what crisis?

Nick and Matt have found it really hard to knuckle down to the riding recently, so rather worryingly there has been very little training to blog about. The filthy weather has eliminated most opportunities for outdoor riding and anyway they have been at work most of the time so training has not really happened.  Last week there was a vague plan for Nick to join up with the rest of the Tour De Force riders (TDFers) for a training ride in Surrey on Sunday. The terrible weather on that day made the 300 mile round trip seem a bit unappealing so he stayed at home. The next chance for the dynamic duo to meet up with the other TDFers will be the first weekend after Easter when they will head off to Sheffield for another training weekend of 100 and then 60 miles with a few hills thrown in.

Satge 15. Click on image to enlarge.

As a motivational aid to fire them up Nick downloaded all the profiles of the mountain stages from climbbybike.com . He looked visibly paler after doing this and sat on the sofa with a very concerned expression frowning at a picture profile of Mont Ventoux (see below), Matt said he would look at it later - so no panic there then.  Mont Ventoux really does have Nick  worried, they will ride 130 miles to its base and then there is a 20 kilometre 9% gradient ride to the top, finishing at 1,900 metres!

Profile and gradients of Mt Ventouux. click on image to enlarge.

Bye for now.