Today we headed from Sistron to Bourg-les-Valence, a route that took us out of the Alps and into the Drome region. One of the Tours ‘easier’ days, but as we are all fully aware of by this stage there really is no such thing as an easy day!
Williams and I study the route profiles (the gradient profiles in the pictures at the top of each of these posts) each night before turning in and we were definitely looking forward to today and had even started referring to it as the ‘Downhill Day’. One relatively flat section, a straight forward climb up the Col de Cabre and then downhill for the rest of the day.
The day started well, a quiet flat section of road surrounded by the mountains and the an initial short spell of climbing before a drag up the Cabre. The view of the Alps from the top were fab, and the descent down on newly paved roads (again in preparation for the Tour) was sublime. The general downhill nature of the stage continued and we rattled along at a good speed until around midday when we were confronted with a massive headwind that would stay with us for the rest of the day, turning what should have been an easy run in into something much more challenging.
Even though the roads were still either flat or generally downhill the headwind meant that we had to maintain a single file line all the way for the afternoon with the person at the front battling the wind whilst the others hid behind them. To do this effectively requires a lot of concentration as you need to be very close the rider in fronts rear wheel. Most of the afternoon was spent looking at tarmac and a rear wheel or fighting the wind at the front... the countryside passed us by. People were already tired and this type of riding is pretty mentally draining.
To compound this we faced temperatures of around 35 Celsius for the majority of the day. Again hydration was very important.
A stage to easily forget.
We did, however, manage to arrive back at our hotel in very good time (by 5pm) and found that we were staying in a villa complex that had a pool. Result!
After arriving back yesterday Beard pedalled out with us this morning. He hadn’t ridden a back since heading home last week and the doctor’s prognosis wasn’t promising. By the time we reached the first feed station he was already struggling and he attempted the Col de Cabre in a lot of pain. After a descent (no pedalling) he had to jump in the van. Poor guy has booked himself out on the first train home tomorrow morning. He has taken it remarkably well, but must be gutted.
Beards trip did mean that Williams got his replacement bike. A nice Specialized Tarmac a slightly more aggressive looking bike than his (stolen) Dutch style Roubaix. Looked good.
Tomorrow is (another) big day... no surprise there though.
S
Time: 6hrs 57mins
Distance: 177.7km
Av Speed: 25.6km/h
Total Ascent: 1208m
Av HR: 116bpm
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