Haute Route Alps, Stage 7, many cock up....

Stage 7 and the final stage of the Alps route was a little bit of a nothing day to me. Firstly my knee was still sore, that does not inspire you to work as you know you are only hurting it more. Secondly, the route involved plenty of timed descents, not my fav. Finally there was no real big climbs to get your teeth into, some were very low gradient, some even had down hill sections i them (one of these I made a big error, I shall come back to this later on).

The day started on a bad note for me, those that know me will know for sure my obsession with porridge, oh how I love it!! I was already running low and probably have two or three days left of the stuff. I had made some with the boiling water in the hotel and started to chomp away at the lovely gear. Then I do not quite know what happened but I had somehow caught the spoon in the bowl in my hast to consume and threw half the contents on my lap and the floor.... The porridge on my lap was fine as I could still eat it, the gear on the floor was now out of bounds! Breakfast done, I got into kit, did all my checks and was ready to go. I decided to roll the 5k with three of the other chaps in our group. I found out one of them (can't remember his name as usual) I did some running with at the local athletics track I used to run with a couple of years ago. We were approaching a rail crossing and I always get nervy on these, I certainly did not fancy a silly tumble. So for the two guy behind me I signalled the track sign with my hand. Then in addition said it too, and finished my safety ptotocol by saying I was pulling out to go over then at 90 degrees (the tracks were at 45 degrees to the road). I did this and bumped over the tracks. A tiny sign of relief, then bang someone had hit my back wheel, then followed that (rather regular now) sound of bike hitting the floor. Bloody terrific. So another bad thing, that was two already and it was only 07:15. I continued to the start and found my usual few guys I knew on the front of the lead bunch. Waiting for the countdown we were being given some horrid music in the background (some trance or boom boom stuff). With a minute to go the start line which is a blown up tube type structure started to deflate. Oh god, so thats three cock ups... hopefully things come in threes and thats the end of it.... but not today they didn't! We'll be keeping count later on....

So on to the racing bit, the stage roughly looked like: 7.4k (which was actually 5k) of neutralised riding then off onto the first little climb. As soon as we rolled out I was trying to stay in the front ten or twenty so I was not going to miss selection on the first climb. Unfortunately the stage to Ventoux gave everyone the confidence to roam the wrong side of the street, charge down to the front then brake hard and cut in so within 2k I was at the back of the lead group of 75. Brilliant! Almost instantly I was losing the will to fight for places, and the constant efforts of sprinting out of corners in what was meant to be a "neutralised" zone. In the dolomites people knew who were in GC contention and were allowed to stay there. Here in the Alps that did not matter, every man for himself it seemed. So once we crossed the line (early), I was at the back of the front group. Inside a minute I was meandering my way past a dozen of more people a minute. The issue with this is the leaders who have a faster start than me had gone through the line maybe thirty seconds ahead of me, and these people I was overtaking were taking the racing line so as I was moving through them every now and again I would have to slow right up as they cut me up, even though you shout them (on your right, or a droite).

Never the less I spotted Sergio (another guy riding the three weeks). He was a decent starter in the early part of the climbs so I caugh up to him and tried to hold his wheel knowing we might still have a chance to catch the lead group or maybe second group. He had also started at the back with me as he got knocked off the day before and I think he was also a bit annoyed about the craziness at the pointy end of the race sometimes.

Soooo, I am currently about to leave our overnight stay in Montpellier, half way through our transfer to Barcelonna. So I am going to have to leave you hanging (queue the eastenders "doof doof doof" music). Hopefully I can get more wifi later today.....

TBC....