Home Sweet Home

Great Holiday - and a great area.  Just back from Nice - (well more St Tropez).  Please don't fret - it was a caravan (mobile home) and just overlapping the school term time to be affordable.
I now have a tan - so can look quite like a pro cyclist - unfortunately - a week or so of lounging around - quaffing french beer and croissants and coffee has taken it's toll.
And the mountains casting a shadow over Nice from the Franco Italian border - wow ! ! ! !   Not sure I can handle that - and the etape is less than a month away.
With all this in mind - it is time to return to a semblance of a training plan.
Wiggle Sussex/Surrey scramble on Sunday - only the 60 mile route - as I reckon I can squeeze a few more miles on the return journey from Redhill back home.  I also have a choice of returning via:

1. Reigate Hill (busy two lane traffic)
2. Pebble Hill (nearly killed me last year on the Ride the Route Sportive, did kill my old VW about 7 years ago)
3. Box Hill (yawn) - it so busy on a Sunday I wouldn't be suprised to see towels draped over it.  
4. There is also the possibility of coming back via Pebble Hill - back down in to Dorking and up over the traffic jam that is Box Hill on a Sunday - the M25 for cyclists (are you getting the impression I think  it is a little busy on that stretch of road)?  that would give me two climbs for the price of one - and hopefuilly the Gold Medal from the 60 mile event wont be weighing me down too much ;)

Leith and Let Die

The Wiggle Ups'n'Downs - rearranged after the atrocious weather at the beginning of May.  And what a good call that turned out to be.  The weather on sunday was perfect for cycling - not hot, just cool enough.

 

This was my third of a three pronged back to back sportive event in my quest to prepare for the Etape Du Tour.  It should have been my first - thankfully it was my last.  It was a tough nut to crack.

Ninety six miles of hurt and a mocking northerly to make the return journey all the more difficult.  The sportive started with a climb up Ranmore Hill.  The tempo was quick - lots of very keen riders and it wasn't long before I was being overtaken by the group that started behind me.  Unlike the previous week's frantic pace, the quicks on this event were individuals and the attacks seemed to be pretty isolated and uncontrolled and I didn't feel the urge to "follow that wheel".  Some of the riders I did pass later, some I never saw again.

I now feel I know the North Downs as well as I knew the back alleys and rec's that I played on as a child.  I could map the potholes on White Down - and know where I am on Leith Hill by how much lactic acid is in my legs.

This sportive   once again - stacked the pain in the last 25 miles - which was ideal for the Etape.  Leith Hill and WhiteDown all making an unwelcome appearance in the last fifteen miles. 

 

I had a sports massage on Friday and I felt terrible for the first twenty miles.  I mulled the possibility of following the Fun route at the split - and a Sunday lunch in front of the telly rather than a gel in front of the backside in front of me ! ! !  the legs worked themselves out

 

The summary according to Garmin:
05:58 moving time - 06:08 elapsed time (missed gold by about 6 minutes - 11 of which were spent at the second feed station in a queue for water).
1,744 m elevation - this is a little over the Col de Madeleine, and about a third of ACT I in total !
2,592 calories - thats good to know - I can tuck in to a few more mars bars tonight then.

I still havent stopped beating myself up about missing the gold - but that is life.

On a brighter note - the Veho camera was trialled - and a link to the footage will appear shortly - though it is still a bit wobbly.