Today is day five of the flashback series. I'm putting these posts up unedited in all of their retro glory.
In hindsight, I'd never expereinced an alpine climb before and inexpereinced me was so excited.
This post originally published on or around 13/08/2008.
A big but happy day. An hour and a half on the bus to the starting point of today’s ride. The plan was to get on to the course and climb the last last 1st category climb of the day – the Col d’Aspin. The first km was probably the hardest of the day – as they took us through some back streets which were some of the steepest roads that we climbed all day. My theory was that they used that first little bi to shake the group down and sort the bunch into order – it worked.
We then rolled out through the country-side to the base of the climb – where we joined the course proper. The road was closed – but there were people everywhere walking and riding up the climb to find a vantage point to watch the race come by in around 4-5 hours time. I quickly fell into a rhythm the plan being to ride conservatively with a view to tomorrow’s monster climbs. When we got to the bottom we could see the road snaking up the hill – behind and up – far up, from where we were. It was like nothing we have at home.
An hour or climbing later and I was at the summit – along with thousands of other riders and spectators taking photos and generally being amazed at the view and crowds. I spotted Phil Anderson riding his new Malvern Star at the summit. I didn’t stay at the summit for long as it looked like it might rain.
The descent was not as bad as I thought. There were far fewer people on that side of the mountain and it was a nice easy ride with some headwinds along the course until we were marshaled off with around 200m to go to the finish line. We then found the busses, changed at headed back into town – waiting an for a couple of hours for the race to arrive.
After the finish it was back to the bus and on to Lourdes – a city where the Roman Catholic church meets the Shopping Channel. I have never seen more tourist shops in one place in my life before. A four course dinner in the hotel with a brief talk from one current and one former pro in Alan Davis and Dave Mackenzie. Straight to bed after dinner but still a late night at around 10:30. Tired but very pleased with myself.
