What's in store?

Day 1 22 June 2012 Porto-Vechio to Bastia 212 km with1x 4^th cat mountain climb

Day 2  23 June 2013 Bastia to Ajaccio 154 km 4 mountain climbs 3x3 cat and 1x2 cat

Day 3  24 June 2013 Ajaccio to Calvi 145 km 6 mountain climbs 1x2 1x3 and 4x4 cat

Day 4  25 June 2013 Nice to Nice 25km time-trial no mountain climbs

Day 5  26 June 2013 Cagnes-sur-Mer to Marseille219 km 4 mountains, 1xcat3, 3xcat4.

Day 6  27 June 2013 Aix en Prevence to Montpellier 176 km one cat 4 mountain

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

Day 8  29 June 2013 Castres to Ax3 Domaines 194 km 3 mountain passes 1x4,1x1,1xHC

Day 9  30 June 2013 St-Girons to B’de Bigorre 165 km 5 mountains 1xcat2, 4xcat1

Day 10  1st July 2013 Rest day

Day 11  2 July 2013 St Gildas des Bois to St Malo 193 km 1 mountain pass

Day 12  3 July 2013 Avranches to Mont St Michel 33km time trial no mountain passes

Day 13  4 July 2013 Fougeres to Tours 218 km no mountain passes

Day 14  5 July 2013 Tours to St Amand-Montrod173 km 1 mountain climb category 4

Day 15  6 July 2013 St Pourcain sur Sioule to Lyon 191 km 7 climbs 5xcat4 and 2xcat3

Day 16  7 July 2013 Givors to Mt Ventoux 242km with 3 x 4^th cat 1x 3 and 1HC climb.

Day 17  8 July 2013 Rest day

Day 18  9 July 2013 Vaison la Romaine to Gap 168 km 3 climbs 1x cat3, 2xcat2

Day 19  10 July 2013 Embrun to Chorges 32 km time trial. 2 climbs, both cat 2.

Day 20  11 July 2013 Gap to Alpe d’Huez 168 kilometers 6 mountains, 1xcat3, 3xcat2,  2xHC

Day 21 12 July Bourg d’Oisans to Le Grande Bornand 204 km 5 climbs 1xcat2, 2xcat1, 2xHC

Day 22  13 July Annecy to Semnoz 125 km 6 mountains 3x cat3, 1xcat2,1xcat1, 1xHC

Day 23 14 July Versailles to Paris!

THEY’RE OFF!

 

 

Day 1 22 June 2012 Porto-Vecchio to Bastia 212 km with 1x 4th cat mountain climb

Much of the route they will be riding is mountainous and to understand the blog it might be more interesting to know the categories of climbs.

Categories of mountain climb.

Cycling climbs are graded from 1 to 4 according to their difficulty. Four is the easiest and by comparison the toughest is awarded a grade one. Cheddar Gorge in the UK is a category 3 climb with an altitude gain of 250 metres, if it were longer or steeper it would be a higher category. Norfolk has no categorized climbs. However that is all too simple as there are some climbs which are so long or steep that they are given the HC grade or “beyond categorization”. This sounds dramatic but they are real monster hills and always involve climbing at least on kilometre in altitude, some almost two. More than 500m of altitude gain is approximately a category 1. You can work the rest out yourself but these cats are a little loose and categorization is not an exact science.

One down! Only 41 left.

The Tour has not started yet but a lifer is down. Martin has withdrawn for some reason. This is sad news because he was very, very, keen, pretty athletic and seemed to have done loads of training. It’s a real shame for him to get this far and to then withdraw, let’s hope he is alright and not too depressed about it.

Our camp has had its own fitness crisis but Matt now seems to be in good spirits and pain free though that may be because the chaps haven’t done much riding for the last couple of weeks. All will become apparent in 48hrs time. 

Knees seem to be a problem with the lifers. Of the remaining band of 41, four have at least one dodgy knee or have had problems recently. TDFer, Chris messaged everyone yesterday, just two days before the start to say he had developed severe pain and was going through the usual; rest, ice, non-steroidal painkiller ritual. This will not be the last we hear about knee pain. If this trip is anything like the LEJoG  the most memorable features will be the scenery, the food, and the pain.

Essential nutrition for Tour riders.

It will be sensible for those doing all stages - the lifers, to take it slowly at the start. Other riders doing only one or a few stages can really go for it but Matt certainly, will be taking it very cautiously on the first day. Fortunately, there is only one category 4 climb on the 212km (135 miles) ride from Porto Vecchio to Bastia. The weather in Corsica is really hot, so dehydration is going to be another problem but at least team Woodall will be well protected by 2 massive tubes of factor 50.

First the gates opened, then the Heavens!



Hailstones collected in the flower beds

Well, the Gardens of Eaton opened at 10:00 on Saturday 15th of June. At 10:05 we had our first thunderclap and the hailstorm started at 10:10. Things could have started better and it looked as if everybody would stay at home but just as the prevailing mood was darkening the skies lightened and the visitors came out in numbers. HQ was suddenly full of horticulturalists sporting guide sheets and asking searching questions of the under gardener. He deferred to higher powers and set about making cups of tea. The whole thing went off very well and lots of money was raised for the windows in Christ church Eaton.
 

The riders will now be appropriately attired

Pace setter and style guru Bruce decided that the Tour de Force shirts were not sufficiently patriotic and that since it is a British venture Union flags should be worn. He very kindly sent the riders a pack of three Buffs (seen below). The selection of Buffs will redress this imbalance and ensure adequate British recognition. The riders will now be appropriately attired for the ride. Look out for them in the pictures taken en route (if we ever get any).

A real game changer

The trip to see Matt Jackson has been a real game changer. He closely scrutinised Matt's legs at

Point of pain and tenderness

some considerable length and attributed his pain to excessive pressure on the medial meniscus. The remedy was to insert some cleat wedges which produced an almost immediate improvement.

Cleat wedges

After this appointment at 3pm on Saturday Matt was in an exuberant mood so he sped off to Streetlife shop and celebrated by purchasing most of the contents in order to prepare for the bike ride. A new helmet, a multi-tool, electrolyte tables, brake blocks inner tubes, a chain, spare spokes, he got the lot. Today there has seen a massive improvement in Matt's knee. He went off at 07:30 for the club run with Nick and on their return they were both in very high spirits.


Club run stats

Matt was now comfortable and able to put some real power through his dodgy knee. It looks as if he will be ready to ride in France after all - phew - relief all round!

Breakfast in Southwold

 It's Saturday and today's cunning plan was to do some training. The Norwich, Southwold, Bury, Norwich loop is becoming one of Nick's favourites and Matt enjoyed most of it last time so the plan was to do it again. Unfortunately Matt's knee is still a problem so he will be doing some light turbo work and then he has an appointment with Matt Jackson to see if he can help with his knee problem. Nick managed to cajole Bruce into keeping him company today and as they are both early risers they made an excellent start at 07:00. With the wind behind then they were soon sitting in the pier cafe at Southwold having "the full English". The breakfast was nice but there was not much change from £20 - it will need to be the Starwars cafe in Bungay next time.

 

The full English in Southwold

The Southwold/Bury leg was uneventful and a little dull really, they avoided major roads and the countryside was quite flat so there was little to report, not even a puncture this time around. Initially the wind was kind but they knew it would be in their faces for the last 30 miles. By the time they got to Bury the pubs were open and Bruce was feeling a little dry so he decided to try some of the local real ales and take the train home.

             

Nick plodded on to complete his target of 130 miles. His training plan is entirely different to Matt's and because he has managed to remain injury free .....so far, he is just trying to get used to doing massive stints in the saddle. His aim has been to clock up 200+ miles at the weekend for as many weeks as possible before the ride. He feels the trip to Tonbridge Wells and the 3-day Tour of Wessex really improved his fitness. Meanwhile Matt is becoming progressively more anxious, as he can see the effort Nick is putting in but he dare not push himself to do the same number of miles. This is a real worry for both but on the ride they will be able to work as a team and help each other. It looks as if Nick will be in his best shape at the beginning and Matt should get stronger as the ride progresses.