2014 Etape Reports: Velonomad readers

Some of the very awesome Velonomad readers wrote in with amazing 2014 Etape reports and photos from their epic completions of Etape 2014.

Without further ado, we have reports from Paul T, Mario, Darren, Andrew, Bayne and Matt A.

Paul T, UK

Hi Tim

Hope you are very well – wanted to send you a note to say a big thanks for your help in the preparation for last Sunday's Etape (used the 2014 Etape Guide and the general Etape guide which were really helpful. Your packing list was a great resource – the spare derailleur is definitely a really good suggestion – I heard a rider at one of the repair stations at the village on Saturday being asked if he had a spare as the one on the bike had been bent in transit).

The Etape was a fantastic day despite the conditions going up and down the Col du Tourmalet being pretty challenging with the rain and cold…really great experience to have taken part in an event like this and was definitely worth all of the training!! It started raining when I reached the foot of the Tourmalet and even after I had put on full length gloves and helmet liner at the start of the descent it was really cold on the descent. However, thought the whole exeperience was brilliant and the support from the villages and towns was great even in the conditions and would definitely recommend this event and can see why riders return to do follow up Etapes…

Looking forward to watching the highlights show tonight when the Tour does the same route today (except a lot quicker than I did it). I am now having a bit of time off and will then start considering what the next event will be…

Thanks

Paul

Mario B, USA

Rain and cold descent out of the Tourmalet were too tough for me. Never descended on rain before with cold temperatures and limited visibility. I guess I should have trained for that. Going up the Tourmalet was not a problem: 2:36hrs.

Another small issue was the Stages [Ed: power meter]. It also froze…even before me!

I had an undershirt (polyester), the L'Etape top and a windbreaker. This was good enough for the Tourmalet ascent (since I was warmed up by the effort), but the descent proved too much for these clothes. I needed something to keep me dry at least. And definitely the gloves were inappropriate.

The first 3 hrs were perfect. The rain started hard at Campan. I posted the Strava activity if you want to see the average speeds for each part.

After the Tourmalet, I stopped at a little shack to see if I could warm up, but this only made it worse. I started shivering. I don't know exact temperature, but the feel going down was single digits Celsius for sure.

The hard effort was not the issue on this one but the lack of training descending under these conditions.

By the way, your Etape training plan\ was worth every penny. It was an easy-to-follow plan that helped me tremendously to build a baseline. I improved my time by 45 mins in other preparatory gran fondos after training with your plan. For the price, I could not find anything better.

Best, Mario

Darren R, UK

Hey Tim,

Just thought I would send you a quick email to thank you for the training plan for the Gran Fondo. I completed a very hard Etape in France on Sunday and without putting in the training Schedule there is no way I would have finished it! Thanks again, it worked a treat!

I finished 7624 from 8452. The abandonment rate was more that 15%, 13000 lined up at the start. The Tourmalet was the main problem… people were literally freezing on the descent. I stopped in a coffee shop half way down for over an hour to warm up, I've never been as cold in my life so I can see why so many stopped.

Cheers

Darren

Darren also dropped 8kg whilst training for Etape, so that's a win-win.

Andrew H, UK

Hi Tim,

I completed the Etape 2014, concur with others about the temperature coming off the Tourmalet as I was shivering uncontrollably despite wearing 4 layers (base layer, cycle top, plastic wind protector and waterproof).

Started at the back of the field from pen 11 so had the worst of the weather (the early starters surely climbed, and part descended the Tourmalet in the dry), and the only objective I had was to “beat the bus”. Being nearly 50, never having rode up a single mountain in my life, and having owned a road bike for just 12months, I'm sure the Gran Fondo 16 week plan was instrumental in getting me across the line in just over 9hrs 30, and living to tell the tale.

My climbing was slow (4 to 5mph up both Tourmalet and Hautacam), but I'm stubborn enough to grind it out. The descending in the wet was incredibly scary, especially when you're shivering so much that you lose control of the bike!

In July 2013, for my son’s 21st birthday, he asked for a new road bike, and suggested we spend the next 12 months training, and in 2014, do, or at least attempt, the Etape du Tour! It was his birthday, so how could I refuse – I even ended up getting us matching bikes.

I’m 49 yrs old, so was a sprightly 48 at the time he suggested it, 186cm tall, and weighing in a little over 92kg, I was in reasonable shape and quite used to regular exercise, indeed, I’d completed the NY City Marathon in 2003, so this seemed like a fun challenge.

It sounds odd now, but I hadn’t sat on a road bike for at least 25yrs, so a little re-familiarisation was all I could muster in the first few weeks. A family holiday followed, during which disaster struck – doing some sprint intervals on Marbella beach I aggravated an old Achilles injury. This took me off all exercise until late October, at which point I realised that more than anything, I needed a structured, sensible, achievable training plan to get the maximum benefit and bike fitness from an ever diminishing window of opportunity which included the winter months.

Enter the 16 week Gran Fondo plan (I figured I could go through it more than once!)

Within two weeks of following the program, I could feel a difference, I could see it too as almost all of the sessions were on my Tacx turbo trainer so I could see wattages, distances, speeds etc. – I liked the turbo because whatever hill angle or length I wanted was no more than a button press away – seeing progress certainly helped me stick with it as it got progressively harder. I also emailed the author with a few questions and was pleasantly surprised to get answers and suggestions the next day. We’ve emailed a few times since, usually when I need to ask a stupid question, and without fail, I get answers!

Come race day I weighed in at 76kg, had lost over 2 inches from my waist, and had legs firmer than I can ever remember. There was hope that I could actually complete within the time allowance.

Having no previous form, times for Sportives or evidence based estimated completion time, we started the Etape at the back of the pack – just in front of the Sweeper-Wagon. My sole aim during my training was to get to the point where I could finish inside the time limit, in front of the bus! If I’d just gone and cycled more, I’m sure I would have gotten fitter, but equally sure I wouldn’t have seen the same level of progression.

The Tourmalet just happened to be the first mountain I’d ever attempted to cycle up … so it’s testament to the training plan that I actually did, the only stop being at the feed station in La Mongie, 4km from the summit to replenish bottles and take on some cake – not a single step walked, despite the horrendous rain. (see picture taken at La Mongie)

The descent was treacherous: steep, fast, poor visibility and wet road surface – my lack of technical competence in such circumstances making it truly terrifying, very slow, and painful on the shoulders and triceps through braking virtually the whole way down: no doubt the new brake pads I put on for the event were essential, but I’d say there wasn’t much mileage left in them after that one. Not long after the foot of the descent there was a sign indicating 25km t the finish – I genuinely felt for the first time, that I was going to finish, rather than I might.

The final climb, Hautacam was even steeper than the Tourmalet, but thankfully shorter, alas I only arrived 10 minutes before the 16h30 cut-off so decided against a stop at the feed station at the bottom and just ploughed on – again, I managed the entire climb without a single step walked, in fact, this one had no feed station on the climb, so it was a case of grinding it out to get to the “Arrivee” some 1000m up.

Being nearly 50, never having ridden up a single mountain in my life before Etape Day, and having owned a proper road bike for just 12months, I'm sure the Gran Fondo 16 week plan was instrumental in getting me across the line, in just over 9hrs 30, and living to tell the tale. Thanks Tim.
Andy

Bayne Shaw, Canada

Hey Tim,

Just wanted to say thanks for the training plan-it really helped me with the Etape du Tour !!!!

I finished in 8 hours cycling (9 hours total with stops and having to go into a sports shop after tourmalet to buy new dry socks ). Truly a brutal event.

Bayne.

Matt A, Australia

Matt grew up in Melbourne, lived for a time just up the road from where I am now, and now works in the USA. He compiled this report for us.

After doing the 2013 Etape I was so psyched I managed to talk my wife into doing it with me in 2014, and today was the day! We'd spent 7 months training for this day, but we were both nervous. The weather was iffy though not as bad as forecast earlier in the week, and at least it wasn't raining coz starting in the rain is always a pain (not to mention the waiting at the starting line). But, we had our wet weather gear and fuel (gels) so we were as ready as we would ever be.

We were in the 10,000's and eventually set off around 8:20, leaving Pau through throngs of cheering spectators. I must say that even though I was amazed last year at the number of spectators, this year there seemed to be even more, all along the route. Marg in particular got lots of cheers like “Courage petite madame!” (loosely, “Go girl!” :-). And the brass band in Bagneres-de-Bignorre was extra special!

Ahead of us were two Cat 4's followed by Tourmalet, a 2115m HC starting around the 75k mark, then finishing with Hautacam, just 1520m but classified HC as it was the final climb; this started at about 135k and finished at 148k. That is, a long way away with more than 3000m of climbing in between!

The first “flat” section is a bit of a blur. I remember cresting the first cat 4, Cote de Benejacq, but the second one, Cote de Loucrup seemed to just peter out, with no real “at the top!” moment. We stopped a few times on the way, for water, toilet breaks, and wardrobe changes, all costing us time but we never felt threatened by the voiture balai (broom wagon) so didn't stress about it – after all, our goal that day was simply to finish.

Eventually we reached Campan and we knew it was about to get serious. We'd both ridden up the other side of Tourmalet once before, and I'd ridden this side, so we knew roughly what to expect. This is where our race plan kicked in for real – ride at constant power at a rate we can maintain “for a while” – for me, about 200w, for Marg about 160w. As we ascended into the clouds it got wetter and cooler. Never really pouring but a constant drizzle. After a little over an hour we reached La Mongie, where we'd originally planned to have a long meal stop, but it was just too cold and wet and we'd have lost too much heat, so we grabbed some food and water and headed straight out again, reaching the summit 1:46 after leaving Ste Marie de Campan below.

Riding up hills, even big hills, is really pretty simple: push one leg down, push the other leg down, repeat until you're at the top. We lurv our power meters because once you know what you can sustain it's a simple matter of watching the meter and telling your legs to STFU – eventually you'll get there! You do tend to ignore the scenery though, which didn't matter this time as there was only cloud and rain to be seen.

At the top we stopped for yet another wardrobe change. Unfortunately, it was only 5 degrees (C) and changing wet clothes with frozen hands is a painfully slow process. We did have the brilliant idea of keeping spare long fingered gloves in a baggie so our hands started out dry if not warm, though our jackets were soaked. Mind you, Marg did say that next time (oh yeah? 🙂 she'd bring bigger gloves so they'd be easier to put on. This all took time, at least ten minutes, during which precious body heat leaked away, so we did star jumps to warm up. I practically ordered the shivering English woman next to us to join in to warm up; it is a good way to force blood to the fingers and toes.

The descent was, well, miserable. I shivered uncontrollably the whole way down, visibility was crap, the roads were wet, and my glasses were fogged, beaded with water, or both. However, I think we were right to not join the folks who'd stopped on the side of the road to warm up – after failing to do so standing around at the top we couldn't see how it would help – so we descended non-stop and actually didn't stop again until we reached the finish. I think we set personal records for slowest descent ever that day, in stark contrast to my last time on this mountain when I'd achieved two personal descending goals: cracking 80kph and passing cars while descending!

The best part of the descent was how rapidly conditions improved as we went – by the time we left Luz St Sauveur it was almost sunny! We were actually warm enough, just, to enjoy the beautiful gentle descent beside the gorge along the D921, though we took it pretty easy because our hands were still fairly numb.

Just after the roundabout where you turn off for Hautacam we managed to jump on the tail of nicely paced group for the stretch to Ayros-Arbouix, the start of Hautacam. We were warming up slowly, we were taking it fairly easy, and making a good pace (for us), so all was good. We blew through the feed station at the bottom as we just wanted to get this done, and we had plenty of water and gels.

Now, Hautacam had a special place in Marg's heart – she hated it and called it Hurtycam. We'd been up once before, but I'd left her behind and it was up to a great friend of ours to coax her up (with a short recovery rest on the way). She wasn't a happy girl that day! But, this was two years later, she was much stronger, and she knew what to expect, and in the end it wasn't a problem (she even tried to beat herself up afterwards for not going as hard as she could have!). I think even she knows she's tamed Hautacam now.

Again, the game plan was locked in place, albeit at slightly lower wattages, and whenever it levelled out (that is, briefly went to only 5-6%!) we eased off rather than maintained our target power. Sadly, these were few and far between – I had remembered it as tough but I thought it eased off at the top … nope! It was a grind all the way to the finish, but at least it was only damp and a little cloudy, not actually wet! We held hands as we crossed the finish, 8:15 after starting, and promptly turned around and rode back down! We have no idea what was at the top, all we cared about was getting warm and dry.

Last year the ascent and descent at the finish were “unpleasant” – the road up was really crowded with people paying no attention to staying on the right; I even touched wheels and fell briefly. This year felt much better: less crowded, and the lack of witches hats dividing the road meant the ascenders could use more of the road while the descenders hugged the right. And maybe, being a tad later this year also helped?

L'Etape is a wonderfully well organized ride, but unfortunately this year the post-race village was a debacle. The roads in were choked with cars, buses, trucks, and semi-trailers trying to get out – the roundabout was completely seized. We eventually got to the medal collection point and joined a huge throng moving inexplicably slowly as folks traded the sticker given at the finish line for a medal. We were still cold and miserable so we hightailed it out of there to our accommodation just a few kms away, mission accomplished!

If you've ever been tempted to ride L'Etape, my advice is simple: do it!

It's a fantastic day, well organized (mostly :-), exciting, challenging, and you really feel like a champion riding through the cheering crowds.

I would especially encourage female riders – very very few do it (275 out of 8,458) but as Marg can attest it's easily doable with some training and the encouragement you'll get en route is just fantastic. My one word of caution is the portaloos, as there just aren't enough of them and paper runs out fast; they really need to have a bunch reserved for women riders.
See you at Etape 2015!?

Etape du Tour training plan

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