The challenge this year may be shorter but is no less tough! Having grown up watching the Tour De France and dreaming one day of maybe taking part, the lack of talent and the fondness for cake precluded me getting anywhere near the race for real. However every year the Tour organisers ASO put on the worlds biggest and one of the most challenging sportives taking in the perceived hardest stage of each years tour. I've always talked about taking part but the strict time limits, massive climbs and the fitness you need to complete it has always put me off.
But after doing JOGLE last year me and Dec got together in Sept last year and decided to take the plunge! With Michael Timmins and Mark Noble who also joined us on bits of the route last year also up for it, entries were done (after some help from google translate!) and there was no backing out! To quote Jake Elwood from The Blues Brothers "we're getting the band back together!"
The route announced is Megeve to Morzine, taking in 4 Alpine climbs with over 10,000 feet of vertical ascent over the 93 miles and to make it we've all been putting in some hard training over the last 7 months, I've done over 3000 miles in that time much more than I did for JOGLE.
And all of a sudden the trip is upon us! With over 1,000 mile drive to get to Megeve the original plan was to hire a van and slum it, but Michael came to the rescue with his Land Rover and 4 bike rack on the back and the journey would be completed in style!
With Mark and Michael setting out from Newcastle at just after 9am on Thursday morning, just a few hours later they had reached my house to find me surprise, surprise cocking about and no where near ready! While Michael strapped my bike to the back it was a last minute dash round for helmet shoes passport etc and just after 12 it was Mark's turn in the driving seat with Michael sprawled out in the back trying to work his TV's in the back which had never been on! Much to his delight he found there was digital TV in the back and spent the rest of the journey down to Decs with the head phones on watching that days stage of the Tour
With Mark taking the stint down to Newport Pagnel services it was time for a subway and driver change with me taking the wheel it was time to sit on the M25 past Heathrow for an hour or so, until Dec phoned asking when he needed to put the kettle on. After a lecture from him on why the way we were going through East Grinstead was completely wrong, we had arrived at our final destination for the day. We had originally planned on driving through the night, but with the football on, and Decs new loft conversion he said there was plenty of space to stay over.
He had mentioned that it wasn't completely finished but the "Trainspotting Chic" as I like to describe the room we ended up sleeping in wasn't quite what I had in mind....! However as Dec pointed out we were all just dirty northerners and were used to this sort of thing!
The welcome from Ali and the boys and even more importantly the fantastic rhubarb crumble and turkey lasagne more than made up for it. As you will have noticed from last years bog, I would imagine food will once again be the dominant feature of the trip with the cycling a distant second!
With a plan to be up and on the chunnel for 8am it was off to the cell for a good nights sleep, there was a long day ahead of us tomorrow....
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