Moments in Time

Another long day in the saddle done and all in all it went pretty darned well, my major measure of the success of the day is being safe and sound at the other end of it, which I am. I'm delighted to say that the regime adopted with my knee seems to be paying dividends and there was a definite improvement today which was great and a huge relief, long may it stay that way, especially with tomorrow being the longest stage of the 2010 Tour de France.

I firmly believe that the use of my SKINS RY400 compression gear has helped me not just get ready for the next stage but also with this knee issue, the compression does make it feel more comfortable and wearing them for around 7 hours a night is I feel very beneficial to me.

Reaching the sunflower fields was a real highlight for me though all the scenery was generally very enjoyable. The roads in France just seem to stretch out in front of you for mile after mile, at the moment shimmering in the heat. This is not a trip for someone weak of will and sometimes the best thing to do is to concentrate on the next mile ahead and to break the whole thing up into more manageable pieces, I never think further ahead that the next water stop.

Went through some lovely little towns and managed not to get lost, the little markets are lovely and it would be nice to have the time to dally awhile and sample the local fare (which looks fab) but that is for the future with Lorena, hopefully in a camper van, that would be a really good trip to make one day soon.

Spent a bit of time this evening cleaning some of the debris off the bike and generally checking things over and, touch wood, the old steed seems to be bearing up very well, haven't bothered switching over to the ZIPP wheels yet as these seem to be rolling along nicely, might well make the switch at the first rest day but there are 3 more stages to ride before then, and it's going to be getting very lumpy soon.

Disappointed to see the protest on Le Tour today with the sprint not being contested, I think because a descent was felt to be too dangerous. Certainly the surface was pretty bumpy when I went down there but it would be a different matter in a large peloton. I reckon it's a great shame for all the people that have turned up/tuned in to see the show to have it essentially cancelled but that's just my opinion. I'd be pretty surprised if they are very happy when they see the final bend before the finish of stage 5 in Montargis where I finished today, could get very messy.

Anyway, off to sleep now, thank you for stopping by to check up on my progress, much appreciated.

Photographs from Today:

No, I'm not lost, it's just market day, every day is market day in France!

The trusty support vehicle.

I've reached the sunflowers!

Sunflower field – I'd always wanted to see them :-)

Today's Weather:

Very warm again with a crosswind for much of the day which became more helpful for the last 25km or so.

Ride Time: 08:09 hh:mm

Work Done: 3394kJ

Training Stress Score: 280

Intensity Factor: 0.615

Normalised Power: 188W

Variability Index: 1.35

Ride Distance: 116.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 5344 feet

Maximum Power: 741W

Average Power: 139W

Average Heart Rate: 116bpm

Average Speed - True: 13.9mph

Acute Training Load: 147.1

Chronic Training Load: 103.6

Training Stress Balance: -31.2

The comment of Christian Prudhomme

The finish of the Tour is still a long way off - it’s not yet time to celebrate with champagne… Leaving Epernay, the pack will barely glimpse the surrounding hillsides of the Champagne region. The race will then pass through Brie and Gâtinais and finish in Montargis. A stage that is tailor-made for sprinters.

To see an interactive map and explore the stage with Google Street View click here.

Excellent day today, very hot again but the humidity was lower with a clear blue sky and the winds were not too strong which made a big difference. In terms of scenery and weather this was probably one of the finest days of cycling that I have experienced but….

I have unfortunately developed some right knee pain, not in the joint itself but lateral and proximal to my patella. This is a bit of a worry and is a lot of an inconvenience and not something I have ever suffered with before. The current plan is to reduce pedal pressure as far as possible and to take some analgesics and anti-inflammatory pills and hope for the best, not much else I can do really.

Interestingly with today's stage being a bit shorter than previous days at just under 100 miles I felt very fresh throughout and not at all tired by the finish in spite of taking just under 7 hours including all stops for photos, food, drinks etc. So, very happy with today's progress in spite of the knee.

As you can see my CTL has now fallen back to the point where I would normally be taking a break to let it bounce back but on this journey that isn't an option and never has been, goodness knows how low it will get before the finish but it's going to get pretty low for sure.

The SKINS clothing I'm using continues to perform superbly. I'm sticking with the C400 range bibshorts which are proving to be an excellent long distance product as well as having the compression benefits of the range. I'm coupling the shorts with the C400 non-compression tops at the moment because of the heat and at night I've been religiously wearing the RY400 compression tights, to excellent advantage. Over the next day or so I'll be trying the ICE range of clothing for it's cooling effect, more on that soon.

I'm pleased to have now got my appetite back with a vengeance and my hydration plan during the day seems to be working well, currently getting through around 8x750ml bottles a day which is 6 litres and that seems to be sufficient for a stage of around 100 miles, more on other days.

Epernay to Montargis tomorrow, 116 miles, couple of 4th category climbs early on but nothing immense, yet :-/ Managed to watch the pros in the last part of stage 1 today, what a mess! They should consider riding with me for 3 reasons: I could ride behind them, they would be much safer, and they would be further down the course by now, I'm leading the tour!

Photographs from Today:

Premont British War Cemetery.

Marle, town square.

Tour route countryside – Champagne Region.

Tour route countryside – Champagne Region.

Today's Weather:

Hot but not too humid, steady wind from the SW.

Ride Time: 06:55 hh:mm

Work Done: 3046kJ

Training Stress Score: 220

Intensity Factor: 0.584

Normalised Power: 178W

Variability Index: 1.36

Ride Distance: 97.65 miles

Elevation Gain: 4771 feet

Maximum Power: 518W

Average Power: 131W

Average Heart Rate: 114bpm

Average Speed - True: 14.1mph

Acute Training Load: 130.5

Chronic Training Load: 99.3

Training Stress Balance: -22.9

The comment of Christian Prudhomme

A short 150 kilometre route will take us from the capital of the famous mint-flavoured sweets, known as "bêtises", to the capital of champagne. There will be no major hurdles on this slightly undulating stage which should honour sprinters in a bubbly finish. Nevertheless, beware of possible breaks in the pack towards the end of the stage in a plain buffeted by the wind.

To see an interactive map and explore the stage with Google Street View click here.

Stage 3 completed including the infamous 7 sections of pave which I took very steadily, my primary focus being on not falling off and doing myself some serious mischief, objective achieved.

Felt much better today than yesterday, down I am sure to a great extent to the SKINS recovery clothing I'm wearing to sleep in every night. I had a bad feeling about today as I wasn't in very good shape after yesterday's very hot stage but I recovered well and I was really pleased how today went, though it was a long and challenging day. Rode at a very steady pace, which has been my plan all along. The average speeds and time by the way include all stops, I start my watch when I set off in the morning and leave it running throughout rather than pausing things at all.

As you can see from the pictures there were a couple of memorable scenes today, the wildflowers at the sides of the pave were truly beautiful, the finest mixture I have seen. There are already a few camper vans appearing at the sides of the road on the sections of the pave so those people will be there for a few days before the peloton comes thorough. It was nice to be clapped and cheered by a couple of people as I bashed my way over the cobbles, it's an interesting thing about the human psyche how people enjoy seeing others suffer and will applaud it!

Suffered my first *uncture of the trip today, always happens when it's wet doesn't it. A sharp flint had embedded itself in the tyre and down it went but it was soon fixed and I was on my way, may change the tyre but it's Ok for now.

Shorter stage tomorrow so am hoping to make it to the finish a little earlier but one can never predict how each day is going to go, fingers crossed for a good one. I hope all is good for you all back home and that you are enjoying The Tour now it has started, I'll watch the recordings when I get back! :-) Must admit I'm a bit jealous to be missing it all!

Photographs from Today:

Lovely market day.

Time to hit the pave – ouch!

Fabulous wild flowers.

Today's Weather:

Much cooler, rain showers, breezy, massive thunderstorm mid ride, filthy by the finish.

Ride Time: 10:30hh:mm

Work Done: 4085kJ

Training Stress Score: 259

Intensity Factor: 0.522

Normalised Power: 159W

Variability Index: 1.34

Ride Distance: 131 miles

Elevation Gain: 4959 feet

Maximum Power: 598W

Average Power: 119W

Average Heart Rate: 118bpm

Average Speed - True: 12.4mph

Acute Training Load: 119.2

Chronic Training Load: 96.3

Training Stress Balance: -9.3

The comment of Christian Prudhomme

This is unquestionably one of the highlights of the first week of the race, and a major first for this stage start and finish. Cobblestones haven’t been negotiated on the Tour since 2004. There will be 7 cobbled sectors over a total of 13,2 kilometres, including the Haveluy sector, only ten kilometres from the stage finish. The finish line will be located at the entrance to the notorious Arenberg Trench, the legendary backdrop to Paris-Roubaix.

To see an interactive map and explore the stage with Google Street View click here.

Very limited ride data today, for some reason the Garmin 705 won't download the file properly and it seemed to be doing odd things during the ride with peculiar lines on the screen. I suspect that the problem might be heat related having been in direct sun in 35 degree temperatures all day, who knows, we will see what happens tomorrow. I'll see what can be recovered from it when I get home but in the meantime will post whatever data I have at the end of each day.

Felt pretty good for the majority of the day but the heat hit me in the last 90 minutes and I was also low on energy, it's really hard to eat enough when riding in these sorts of temperatures and I have never had a problem eating enough before! All I could do was keep plugging away and in due course arrived in Spa which seems a really nice town, though there is no chance to explore.

I've added things up and in total today I drank about 7-9 litres of fluid, a mixture of water and energy drinks and I still ended up dehydrated, I can't really see how I can drink more! All I can do is try to make up the difference back at the hotel.

So, all that said, though this has been a very difficult day, the 3 cat 3 climbs at the end will I am sure keep the pros entertained when they reach them. The main thing is, difficult though this has been so far, I'm really pleased I'm having a go at it and I'll do all I can to keep going. A guy in a garage said that the forecast is for it to get cooler, I really hope that's right.

Today's Weather:

Extremely hot, 35 degrees with a wind that was rarely favourable and felt like a fan heater.

Ride Time: 10:55 hh:mm

Ride Distance: 124.1 miles

Average Heart Rate: 129bpm

Average Speed - True: 11.35mph

The comment of Christian Prudhomme

The first part of the stage will be flat before a more hilly final stretch. The race will follow a portion of the route taken by the Ardennes Classics and notably the Rosier hill climb, which will be tackled in the opposite direction to that of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The final difficulty will be located twelve kilometres from the stage finish. Punchers will have the chance to break free from a mass sprint.

To see an interactive map and explore the stage with Google Street View click here

Stage one of the Tour ridden and all has gone well but it took a long time and it was very hot. Take heed anyone coming to The Netherlands cycling, the use of the cycling routes is not an option it is MANDATORY, as I was informed by the police on two occasions when I strayed onto the proper roads :-/

As you can imaging this makes it impossible to follow the route of The Tour exactly as the cycle routes are often not that close at all to the actual route which will be taken by the peloton but there is nothing that can be done about that! Anyway, the main inconvenience was to us as it made navigation a lot more difficult as well as making the ride significantly longer, but hey, I never thought this was going to be easy!

The heat was a major factor today as well as the wind off the sea which was never really helpful and was often a significant hindrance. However, on the +ve side I actually felt absolutely fine today both during the ride and at the end and was particularly pleased with the comfort offered by the SKINS C400 bibshorts which performed extremely well, probably the most important item of clothing I have with me.

As you can see above some memorable images which will stay with me for years, and all in all a memorable day. Good meal this evening and am hoping for an earlier finish tomorrow with more time to relax and recover. For now it's on with the recovery tights and hoping for another good ride on stage 2 tomorrow, much more hills to deal with but I'm hoping the wind might not be so much of an issue and also we won't have the cycle paths problem to deal with. 143 miles on cycle tracks, that's just unreal!

More tomorrow.

Photographs from Today:

Flowers in the Netherlands countryside.

Netherlands sea defences.

Here comes The Tour!

Finishing straight in Brussels.

Today's Weather:

Windy, unfortunately mostly a headwind. Very hot – between 30 and 35 degrees all day.

Ride Time: 10:46 hh:mm

Cumulative Tour Time: 11:23 hh:mm

Work Done: 5029kJ

Training Stress Score: 337

Intensity Factor: 0.576

Normalised Power: 176W

Variability Index: 1.28

Ride Distance: 142.6 miles

Cumulative Tour Distance: 149.59 miles

Elevation Gain: 4018 feet

Cumulative Tour Elevation Gain: 4309 feet

Maximum Power: 659W

Average Power: 137W

Average Heart Rate: 131bpm

Average Speed - True: 13.2mph

Acute Training Load: 76.8

Chronic Training Load: 87.3

Training Stress Balance: 36.9

The comment of Christian Prudhomme

After leaving Rotterdam, riders will head for the Zeeland polders for the first part of the stage, with an itinerary sandwiched between land and sea. They will then cross Flanders and pass through Antwerp and Malines before arriving in Brussels via the town of Meise where Eddy Merckx lives. This is a stage for sprinters that should meet with massive public acclaim.

To see an interactive map and explore the stage with Google Street View click here.