Stats

Start time 7:20am
Exercise time 9hrs 26mins
Max HR 157
Av HR 131
Zone 133-143
In Zone 2hrs 18mins
Above 2hrs 05mins
Below 5hrs 02mins
Kcal 6233
Distance 161Km
Av Speed 19.9Km/h
Max Speed 67.2Km/h
Av Cadence 78
Max Cadence 101
Ride Time 8hrs 04mins

Settings
Weight 76Kg
Height 169cm
Birthday 01/04/75
HR Max 168
HR Sit 54
Sex Male

Pictures

Pictures from the big day are here

Done!

Unfortunately I didn't quite make the summit of Mont Ventoux at the end of the ride, I got within 6km of the summit and I had to walk 10km to get there. My legs had completely gone and my thighs were cramping up just trying to get my leg over the top of the pedal stroke. Thinking back it's easy to think that I could have just walked the last 6km, but I had completely had it. I'm pleased with my effort though, it was quite an achievement to get to where I did. There were broken bodies all over the road on the way up Ventoux, the ambulances were stopping, putting drips in people and carrying on to the next casualty, they were very busy! People were lying down all over the place and there were plenty of them uncontrollably retching (nice!), it is a brutal climb after the previous 4 Cols and 150+km. We managed to stay 1 hour ahead of the broom wagon all of the way, which was pretty good also taking into consideration that we started about 25minutes after the official start, due to the amount of starters (10,000). I felt fine at the base of Ventoux (Bedoin) and managed the first section up to the forest no problem and we had 3+ hours to do the climb, which I thought was plenty, but then the road just goes to 12% for 10km and it was too much. I got to the water stop, mainly walking, at Chalet Reynard (6km from the top) and they had run out of water, but there was a man with a hose pipe filling up bottles. I got there just after the end of race vehicle. It was still 25degC at Chalet Reynard, which is about 1600m, it was very hot all through the ride, not a cloud in the sky all day, it must have been well over 30deg C. The coach thermometer read 17deg at 4:30am before the sun came up! I had at least 8 bottles of isotonics, about a million gels and extra water and fruit at the feed stations and paracetamol (to stop the cramp) and I still got cramp. It was a good experience and I have lots of photos and even a video whilst we were riding along. I'll put them on my Photobucket site tonight and send out the link.

The pros do the course on Saturday, so I'll be seeing how easy they make it look!

Ready to go

I'm all ready to go now, the bike is packed and the trains are booked. So far managed to avoid the swine flu as well, which seems to be rampaging around our area at the moment!

Resting and eating loads of pasta is fun.

Total training effort

Totals
28 weeks training
Turbo trainer - 3,395minutes (56.58hrs)
Road riding - 2,338minutes (38.96hrs) - 949km
Off road riding - 510minutes (8.5hrs) - 55km
Total Time 6,243minutes (104hrs)
Total Distance 1004km

Non specific training - riding to work (approx)
Commuting - 5,600minutes (93.3hrs) - 2, 240km

Final training

Week 27
07/07/09 - Turbo 90mins in Endurance HR zone.
10/07/09 - Turbo 90mins in Endurance HR zone. Felt good, plenty of energy!


Tonight will be the last session on the turbo.

Final leg

Week 26
29/06/09 - Turbo 90mins in Endurance HR zone. Felt really tired with 20mins to go, which was probably due to the exertion of the previous ride kicking in.
03/07/09 - Turbo 60mins in the top end of the Endurance HR zone. Felt tough.
05/07/09 - Turbo 90mins in Endurance HR zone. Felt good, plenty of energy!