By ecook on 22/08/2007 08:20

As you may or may not have heard, I managed to finish L’Etape du Tour in one piece. Although I was not foolish enough to think it would be easy and I never considered not finishing, the event was much harder than I had anticipated, in fact 40% of the 8500 participants did not finish. After just over 9 hours 52 minutes from crossing the start line in Foix, I crossed the finish line in Loudenvielle emotionally and physically exhausted. This time placed me 2056 out of 8500 which put me in the top quarter, a goal I had thought I would like to achieve. I received a medal for finishing, which despite obviously not winning still meant so much to me as you will see from the following account.I rode for most of the event with a guy called Tim who I met on the trip out there and we set a good but sensible pace. We saw Dad and Tim’s sister, Hannah, videoing us and taking photos as we left Foix. It was not long before we reached the first climb which was not very steep and quite enjoyable, working our way through the field...

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