Day 7 Le Col de 13 vents lived up to its name

Day 7  28 June 2013 Montpellier to Albi 205 km 4 mountains 1xcat4,2xcat3,1xcat2.

 

 

The rider’s hotel was in Montpelier which is quite a big city and so it was necessary to get to the start of stage 7. Phil Deeker used an excellent system to move all 60-70 cyclists out of the city this was called the man mark system. The leader rides in front and all follow in single file. If the progress of a rider is blocked or interrupted the person who is prevented from moving shouts wait. Then at the next junction the last rider waits to show subsequent riders the correct direction.

Moving a mass of cyclists through Montpellier

When those second riders stop they too shout wait to the new last rider who will wait at the next junction. These individuals wait and indicate the direction of travel until all other riders have passed, then they tag on in front of the back marker cyclist. In this way all junctions eventually are covered by cyclists indicating to the following group where to go until the entire group has passed.  The last person needs to be clearly identifiable as the end person so that all the marker riders know it is time to re-join the group rather than to wait for more stragglers.

Today was a long day with cool weather. The riders were caught in rain, with howling winds. In an attempt to get cover behind another rider Nick was trying to catch Rob but as he stopped at a junction Nick expected him to keep moving and he crashed into him and Matt fell on top of his father. Fortunately little damage was done but Nick picked up some road rash on his left knee, hip and elbow.

Because this region is flat it is also windy and their first limb was over the Col de 13 vents which certainly lived up to its name.



Peter and Chris at the Col



 

I was really surprised when Nick rang at 6pm. After what he had said yesterday I didn't expect them to finish riding until late so I thought I wouldn't hear from them at all because they would be shattered and indeed it was a difficult day. Nick crashed and came off the bike at one point  because he wasn't paying attention and went into the guy in front. Fortunately, he is ok except that his Tour de Force jersey got ripped which he is disappointed about. But Matt was riding really well today which has been the hardest day so far with (in addition to 4 difficult climbs) high winds and horrendous bad weather. (Am I the only one who can't see the fun in this!!!) It was much colder than expected and they weren't prepared for it so they were forced to cycle faster in order to keep warm and finish as soon as possible which is why Nick phoned sooner than expected.
210 km with 4 mountain climbs all bigger than Cheddar Gorge but Nick says he is enjoying it!!!!!! He feels that it is getting easier and Matt is getting stronger as expected because he is young, but Nick doesn't think he will get stronger now. At the end of every day Matt is relieved that he has managed to complete it but nervous for the next day because they know the next day it will be even harder in the Pyrenees and indeed tomorrow is a monster with 110miles, 1xcat4, 1xcat1 and one off scale!!!
 Oh why did I let them do this! I should have said no right at the beginning when Matt suggested doing it during his 5 week sabbatical from Nandos and if anyone has any more daft ideas after Nick gets back please keep them to yourselves!
You will notice that older ladies don't feel the same need to push their bodies to the limit as older men and the reason is, as a friend of mine pointed out, if you've had a baby you've already done that, several times in some cases!! I think you'll agree ladies, that is if there are any ladies reading this as I should imagine it is of limited interest and as my son Chris said makes pretty grim reading at the moment!
To compensate I am going to try to put in more details of Corsica and Open Gardens which incidentally raised over £4000 so it was well worth having to cope with that as well as setting off for the bike ride the same weekend. There will be more photos going on as well so do look back on occasions.
Starting to ramble a bit now so better sign off................................more tomorrow daaa,da,da,da................... daaaaaaaa!