The Road to Ventoux: Part II

So, we were off...the pace at the start wasn't too frenetic, but I knew I had to try and get on some wheels going in the right direction, and at the right speed.

I caught a man and a woman in Irish tops who were cycling side by side, which meant that people were having to take a wide berth around them, leaving a bit of clear space just behind them...perfect.

Then I caught the wheel of a big guy in a Lampre World Champs kit - I always think the folks wearing world champs/polka dot/yellow jerseys are enormously brave....I know I couldn't get away with it!

Over the course of the next ten miles or so, I caught these wheels and other recognisable ones a few time, but I was overtaking more people than were overtaking me, and was making good progress. I'd added 'average speed' to the data fields on my Garmin 705, because I knew I was going to have to maintain a speed of 12.5mph plus over the course of the Etape.

After twenty minutes or so, I'd been doing an average of 18mph without seriously pushing myself, so the anxiety started to abate somewhat. I'd known all along that I'd be almost certainly be able to get significant benefits from drafting, but you always worry that it's never going to turn out quite how you want it.

It was at this point, after about 6 miles, that I saw my first puncture of the day...really felt for the poor guy. Because we were so far down, he was in real danger of being eliminated before his ride had even begun. You'd hope that the organisers would show some mercy, but you just never know.

My concern had been that having a crappy start number would mean that the riders coming back towards me would be going much slower than I needed to be going, and there wouldn't be enough riders coming up past me at the speed I wanted to be going. In the end, I think things worked out ok, and there was always someone to latch onto.

The thing that was really noticeable was that nobody was really working together. Because I was generally catching lines of riders, I was on the back, but expected people to take turns, eventually bringing me up to the front. That just never happened, which was good in the short term, but probably bad in the longer term, as groups working together more efficiently would have been better for everyone.

The Cote de Citelle, the first climb, came up pretty quickly. I felt good on this one, even managing to keep it out of bottom gear I think. Because it was still pretty crowded, there was no real pressure to kick on, but it never became a bad bottleneck where you had to slow down or stop - so perfect for me really.

The wind turbines at the top gave you a target to aim at, and before long we were there, ready to start the steady descent. Although it wasn't at all steep or technical, we had to slow down past the aftermaths of at least 3 crashes. A couple of them looked pretty serious, and you could see people reining themselves back a bit in response. It must have been sheer weight of traffic which had led to the crashes...touches of wheels and the like...and I was doing my best to steer clear of the more erratic riders. The lack of front brake wasn't seriously tested.