News - Etape du Tour

10th July 2006

First it's important you know a little bit about our team...

My little sister, jenny, decided in January that she was going to do the Etape du Tour. Having never cycled before, she naively thought it would be a good challenge. and a good excuse to visit us in sunny Gap. She bought a bike and joined a cycling club. After her first 40km club ride she was wiped out for the week - this was when the enormity of the challenge ahead of her became apparent!Anyway, to give her credit she put the hours in and arrived in July pumped and ready.

Donald, is a hardy but warm weather Scot. That's why he lives here rather than Scotland. He's a mad cyclist and goes out most days. He's probably done the Col de Lauterat a hundred times! But this was his first Etape du Tour.

The other local was Roland - a seriously fit person who always comes in the top ten of any local races.

John, Colin, Ed and Hamish were our pure Scottish contingent. Not sure how we managed to end up with a van full of Scots but...! They certainly kept the van in good spirits!

Colin was actually recruited in Chaillol. He was planning on staying overnight in Alpes D'Huez and then cycling back the next day. It wasn't hard to persuade him to jump in our van!

There was also John's friend, Pete from Jersey. The Sunday before the race, he who bent over to fix his bike and pulled his back out . So after a trip to Gap hospital and a few painkillers he decided to join us as spectator! He did a very good job hobbling around Alpes D'Huez!.

We mustn't forget Wayne and Damien, our Aussie team. They came fully prepared with crates of beer to ease their sore muscles after the race.

It was an early start - 5.30 to be exact and everyone set off in high spirits, no-one committing to an ETA but all determined to do it.

Andrew, Pete and I had a leisurely drive up to Alpes D'Huez, occasionaly (but not too often) thinking about our team sweating their way up the cols, on probably the hottest day of the year.

My sister's support team (her boyfriend and my other sister) didn't have quite as much luck - they got stuck at the bottom of the Alpes D'huez and had to walk up!

As we sat drinking our coffees in the hot sun, we came up with the bright idea of making a sign to support our team as they slogged up the Alpes D'Huez. Could we find a marker pen anywhere in the station??? It soon became a mission and thirty shops later, armed with a double sheet and black marker pen we designed our work of art.

Then we hobbled with Pete down the hairpins looking for a suitable place to try and put it. We opted for a mud bank on one of the hairpins and got very excited about finding perfect pieces of twig to attach it with. We left it feeling very good about ourselves, happy in the knowledge that our boys and Jenny would see the sign, smile and sprint finish!

Of course only two people actually saw it!! The others had their heads down pedaling away and were not the least bit interested in a stupid sheet with names on!

After our sign escapades we headed up for lunch and waited for Susie and Alex who were walking up. They arrived at about the same time as the first cyclists.

For some reason we all panicked a bit that we were going to miss our team so we decided to head up to the finish so we'd be there when they arrived. Three hours later with neck cramp, sunburn and sun stroke, we were still standing there and no-one had come through! But we couldn't leave in case we missed one of them!!

Then finally we were rewarded - John arrived. Actually Roland had already been through but we missed him. He said it was the hardest thing ever, he felt sick and he was going to go and sleep on the grass by the van.

Well if John thought it was hard, how was my poor little sister going to feel.

Next in was Donald, who confirmed John's description! Oh poor Jenny. Maybe there was a good reason there were only 150 women in the 8000 competitors.

Next in was Colin in his cow shirt. His first words were - where's the food? But somehow he managed to miss the food tent and ended up at the van where he stayed until he could muster enough energy to walk back up the hill to the food tent!

And then Jenny arrived - SMILING! 'Wow wow wow' was all she could say - ''that's the best thing I've ever done!' She breezed it and had energy left at the end. This was eveident in her amazing climb time of 1 hr 26 mins up Alpes D'Huez - 1 minute slower than Chrs Hoy and faster than all our boys even Roland who was most miffed at being beaten by a girl and not just any girl, my sister!

We waited and waited for the others and started to wonder if we had missed them. John and Colin reckoned Hamish had passed them near the beginning so were sure he must be here. We went up to the information and checked all the lists - no sign. They must still be on their way. Just as we were about to leave the information Hamish appeared - looking for a phone to call us!

He had just finished and was exhausted and he reckoned Ed was still cycling. He said it was the hardest thing he had ever done. The Scots are a hardy lot but they're not used to the sun and this was a very hot day.

Wayne and Damien made it and were last seen planning their way back to their beer!

The sweeper van was on its way and we still hadn't found Ed. Andrfew was waiting at the top and I stayed at the van with all the poor exhausted cyclists, most of whom were asleep. If anyone spoke it was to say ''Whose stupid idea was this?'

My phone rang and it was Ed in a very small voice, 'I'm here'. He made it 10 minutes before the sweeper van! Andrew went to meet him. He could hardly walk and was so dehydrated he was almost hallucinating. All the water stations had run out of water by the time he had got to them and he hadn't been able to refill. But he made it!

Everyone relaxed for a bit longer on the grass and then we decided to join the traffic jam down the mountain. We had three extra passengers - Jenny, Susie and Alex as their car was still at the bottom! The boys, probably for the first time in their lives, point blank refused to have any of us girls sitting on their laps, so we squeezed extra bums on the seats horizontally!!

John got the champagne out and we spent the journey back recounting the days events, drinking champagne and eating flap jack!

Everyone was in a fantastic mood, the little sleeps on the grass had obviously rejuvenated everyone or was it just overtired giddiness! Banter carried on all the way back and there was talk of doing La Marmotte next year but we'll wait and see!!

We, being the hardcore spectators and drivers, enjoyed it so much we have signed up to be official partners next year and are also talking to the Marmotte organisers about doing a package with them. With Embrunman on our doorstep, and some of the best cycling in the world, we might just also put somehting together for that so watch this space....