Cæsarean Cycling Club

Randonnées

L'Etape 2002

Official Site

 

To wear the yellow jersey in the Tour De France is possibly the highest achievement in cycling and just a dream for amateur cyclists. This year the Caesarean Cycling Club sent 8 riders to sample the dream by riding the Etape Du Tour, a stage of the Tour De France. The Pau to Bayonne stage was the last mountain stage in this year’s Tour and looked relatively innocuous on paper; a small hill soon after the start, a couple of steepish climbs in the middle and then downhill for the last 80km to the finish. A drive over the Col de Soudet (the first of the steep climbs) a couple of days before the event revealed 14km of very steep climbing that left the party subdued with apprehension. The descent was steep, narrow, twisting and very rough. Any remaining bravado quickly ebbed away.

CCC’s riders lined up at the start with sporting greats Miguel Indurain (winner of 5 consecutive Tours De France), Abraham Olano (Road Race and Time Trial World Champion) and Alain Prost (Formula One World Champion). The early part of the course had a number of rolling hills but with fresh legs this was unproblematic for all Jersey’s cyclists. Mike Harris and Dave Mayman rode strongly at this stage whereas Peter Hubert and Trevor Bertram, who had experience of this event last year, started more conservatively. The Col de Soudet was less difficult than had been feared, but still had the riders wishing they had a lower gear to ease the strain on the legs and lower back. Although the average gradient was 7.5% there were sections up to 15%. Perry McGuire caught Peter Hubert at the feed station at the top but dropped behind on the descent. Competence and confidence were the keys to the descent; nervousness burnt a lot of brake rubber!

The ascent of the Cote de Larrau at a near constant gradient of 10.5% was mercifully only 2.4km long. Then came the brutal Col de Bagargui. 8.8km at an average of 9.2% should have been manageable with a sufficiently low gear. In reality the bottom part was relatively gentle before it became very steep for nearly 7km. Bonne Nuit is probably the only hill of comparable steepness in Jersey. A glance up the mountain revealed a long continuous line of cyclists moving extremely slowly and in complete silence, each locked in private suffering, each trying to ignore the little voice gnawing away at their resolve, telling them to get off and walk. Dave Mayman was forced to walk when cramp made cycling impossible and Peter Glendawar was knocked to the ground by another rider who had come to a stop and fallen over. Many riders had to walk on this col and at least one was seen dry retching in the ditch. Once over the summit there was a short descent and a fairly gentle climb to the Col de Burdincurutcheta.

For those who made it this far, and all the Jersey riders did, there was a reward. The descent from the Col de Burdincurutcheta was on steep wide silky smooth tarmac with sweeping bends. Here it was safe to let the bike roll, only touching the brakes on the tighter corners, the exhilaration of descending at speed washing away the pain and fatigue of the Col de Bagargui.

The apparent downhill run to the coast turned out to be more or less continuous rolling hills, the last one in the final 5km providing something of a sting in the tail. The last 80km was also slowed by a growing onshore breeze providing a strong headwind which unfortunately meant that Jimmy Fullerton and Gary Carter were ruled out of time and stopped by the organisers after 142 km. To have succeeded in getting over all the major climbs in this year’s Etape du Tour was a very significant achievement. In comparison Miguel Indurain stopped before the climb of the Col de Bagargui.

Mike Harris was the first of the CCC riders across the finish line in a time of 7 hours 32 minutes which earned him a Gold standard. The other riders finished as follows: Dave Mayman 8:01(Silver standard), Perry McGuire 8:06 (Silver), Peter Hubert 8:13 (Silver), Trevor Bertram 9:30 (Bronze) and Peter Glendawar 10:22 (Bronze). For the record, when the Tour rode this stage it was won by Tyler Hamilton from the USA in a time of 4:59 riding with a broken collar bone.