I arrived in Corsica both excited and apprehensive, finally arriving at the hotel only 15 minutes before dinner and our first briefing. The following morning the apprehension had gone, I just had to get on with it now and do my best, whether good enough or not. The hotel car park was filled with many similarly excited riders, the anticipation was tangible. Phil rolled us out for the first time and our adventure began. We spent three days in Corsica cycling up the east coast, diagonally down the island then up the west coast. Corsica is a beautiful island and the riding was great, despite a small first day crash for myself. The third day was, by unanimous consent, the most spectacular days riding any of us had ever experienced.
After a very uncomfortable overnight ferry journey we arrived on the mainland, for a short time-trial day through Nice. This allowed us a well deserved afternoon off.
Stage 5 (we had now lost track of days and dates, only referring to stages) turned out to be one of the unexpected highlights of the tour. We rode from Nice to Marseille which was nice enough in itself. What made the day so special however was that we were accompanied by members of the Lorgues Cycle Club. We were to ride through Lorgues that day and Pete, one of the Tour de Force staff now lived there and was a member of the cycle club. Not only did we have the pleasure of the riders company, but their wives and families put on a spectacular lunch for us in the town square.
The next couple of stages took us along the south of France towards the Pyrenees, the first of the tours two visit to the big mountains. Though I’d thought some of the climbs up until now were tough I was about to get an experience of real mountain climbs. Stage 8 was actually a very good day, particularly completing my first HC climb, the Col de Pailheres. It also showed quite graphically just how slow I was in the mountains, as I finished that day after dinner had already started. It was Stage 9 however when some of the realities of riding the Tour came to the fore for myself and others. With five major climbs in the day it was always going to be tough for me. It got tougher on the downhill section of our second climb. I had been becoming quite good at descending, something I had been relying on to make up for my slow ascents. However, on the second descent I got a front wheel puncture and crashed quite heavily. In addition to yet more road rash I also hurt my back and ribs. After progressing up the third climb of the day I really started to struggle on the fourth climb and abandons about 2km from the top.
The following day was a rest day, though it did involve a lengthy bus transfer. This allowed me recovery time from my accident and I was ready to go again, helped by massages and a good supply of painkillers. Fortunately it was a flat stage and we took advantage to practice our group riding, actually getting a very effective chain gang rolling. We then had an excellent time trial stage into Mont-Saint-Michel, despite the rain.
The next four stages saw as cross the heartland of France, finishing at Mont Ventoux. The first three days were generally quite long and flat, nothing too taxing. The final day however was not only ending on Mont Ventoux, but also the longest stage of the tour. The 220km of the stage were not too difficult. The 21km constant climb of Mont Ventoux, on the other hand, was. Arguably the most difficult thing I had ever done. Starting the climb at just after 5pm, I completed it just before 9pm. In the almost four hours ride up the mountain I had to deal with 35C temperatures, lightning storms, hail, torrential rain in addition to fatigue, pain and cramps. It was at time hell, it was also the most amazing feeling to complete. I was also awarded the Chapeau award for my gutsy ride through what were abysmal conditions.
We followed Ventoux with a proper rest day, no transfers to deal with, and spent the day wandering the market, eating and catching up with some sleep. The following couple of days were also fairly short, allowing us some recovery before we hit the Alps, the Big Lumpy Triple as Phil called it, three very tough stages to end the tour.
The first of these was one of my favourite days, the double ascent of l’Alpe d’Huez. The first ascent of the notorious 21 hairpins was tough, in fact at the lunch stop at the top I really wasn’t sure I could go on, the thought of the upcoming descent was worrying me, I had become very nervous of descents since my crash. However, go on I did and after a long time descending I started my second ascent of l’Alpe. This time everything seemed to come together, I fixed my effort level at a certain cadence and pretty much maintained this the whole way up the climb, taking about 15 minutes off my previous time. Arriving at the top after a good ride was exhilarating and I returned to the hotel in very high spirits.
The next day was what I believed to be the killer stage of the tour. Many high category climbs with the HC climbs the Col du Glandon and the Col de la Madeleine right at the start. Completing these climbs I really struggled on the descent of the Madeleine, spending almost an hour in the drop position on the long descent. This unfortunately had my back again spasming in pain, and once again I had to abandon a stage early. I was reminded however that I did do two of the hardest cols in the Alps in a single day, quite an achievement.
The final alpine day and I was again ready to go (more painkillers) and we set off, a relaxed feeling in the air among the riders. It seemed most were out for a more relaxed day than previously. The first part of the day was a couple of climbs, then rolling terrain until the climb up the Semnoz. This climb we had been told was very challenging, averaging about 10% gradient. I really enjoyed this climb however, again finding a cadence I was happy with and just keeping to that the whole way up the hill. The cheer I got (being the last “lifer” home) was amazing, it felt great to know the other riders were so supportive of me, something that had become apparent throughout the tour. Dinner in Annecy was an amazing finale to our experience, everyone feeling that in reality, the tour was now over.
The final day saw us ride into Paris. The highlight for me was seeing the Paris boundary sign, knowing we had made it. Picking up our bottle of bubbly we arrived at the Eiffel Tower in celebratory mood. Bubbly drank, or sprayed around, and pictures taken we headed to the hotel, some celebratory drinks then off to the final night party.