2006 l'Etape du Tour
In an attempt to raise £1,000 for Action Medical Research I rode this years l'Etape du Tour.
On Monday 10th July I rode with and against 7,500 other amateur cyclist over the very same course as the worlds top pro's raced over in Stage 15 of this years Tour de France. The stage involved 188km (116miles) from Gap to the summit of the legendary l'Alpe d’Huez via the Col d’Izoard and Col du Lautaret. Two Hors Category climbs and one Category 2 climb making a total of 4,100m of vertical ascent. There was also a time limit for the event which to achieve meant an average speed of 19kmh had to be maintained.
When the pros raced the stage on Tuesday 18th July, the winner was Frank Schleck of CSC and all the pros that finished completed with 36 minutes of his time of 4hours 52mins.
The fastest amateur completed within 6 hours and 1 minute. Of the 7,500 starters I was 5,603rd to cross the start line and some 9 hours 21minutes later I was the 3,506th to cross the finish line.
Whist the stage was both hard and challenging I thoroughly enjoyed it. The heat on the final climb of l'Alpe d'Huez was debilitating and caused me to slow drastically and also forced me to two additional unplanned water stops.
I'm thrilled that I completed the stage, it is without doubt the hardest bike ride I have done and I'm pleased to report that I have so far been able to raise £1,400 for Action Medical Research.
My online sponsorship form can be found here (www.action.org.uk/~roblines).
Thanks
Rob Lines (roblines@yahoo.com)
