Your Pictures And Stories

This section presents an opportunity for riders to tell their story, be it a tale of woe or a tale of joy.

To add your story, or pictures, e-mail them to us

Our first submission is from Jenny, who completed the Etape du Tour in 2007.

L’Etape du Tour – 16th July 2007 Foix to Loudenvielle

7.17am and I finally cross the starting line at Foix. My strategy is to push the pace for the first 15 miles to ensure that I have passed the stragglers before the first climb. This works reasonably well and the ascent of Col de Port passes without incident. The descent is 5 miles, followed by a 20 mile section of gradual downhill. Fantastic, this is easy!

The next climb, Portet D’Aspet, comes after a 15 mile gradual climb into a headwind. Thank goodness for being small enough to sneak onto the back of a big group and do as little work as possible. After an all too short descent I am straight onto the ascent of Col de Mente – 7 miles at 8%. This is now becoming seriously hard. Many people are walking and the temperature tops out at 40C. I am very relieved to reach the top and down several bottles of water.

20 more miles of undulating countryside later the much dreaded Port de Bales looms. The first 5 miles are fine, 3 – 4%, and again I am lulled into a false sense of security. Then the fun really starts: there are km markers telling you how far from the summit you are and also the average gradient for the next km. This eventually tops out at 9.5% but small sections are definitely much steeper than this and I really start to suffer. My cadence is less than 40 rpm. All around me people are walking. I battle on, I know that if I get off I probably won’t get back on, even though the other voice in my head says ‘what harm can it do?’ Finally after almost 2 hours I reach the top. I can barely get off the bike at the aid station my back and hamstrings are so sore. After a reviving ham and cheese sandwich and a sit/lie down I am able to straighten and face the final hurdle.

Climb 5 (Peyresourde). This is another 6 mile slog but the gradient is steady and it is just a case of toughing it out. All along the route the support from the French has been brilliant. As one of only 200 women I get loads of extra cheers and extra pushes and that forces me on. I nearly burst into tears at the top of the Peyresourde I am so relieved. There is a 6 mile descent to the finish (with the exception of a nasty little soul destroying uphill kick 1 mile from the end) and I have made it in 9.45 and silver classification. Job done, but it sure was hard.