PH does the (UK bit of the) Tour de France

[Gruffy]

Hold on lads, I've got an idea...

Gather in York on a Friday evening in the spring and spend Sat-Mon riding stages 1-3 of the 2014 Tour de France to London and The Mall. There are some logistical issues to resolve - we'll find a way - but, in principle, any takers?

[Gruffy]

I did a little recce of stage 3 today and gave this some more thought along the way. I had a lot of time on my hands!

The beauty of this is that it covers a fairly large part of England which means it's accessible to many more PHers than any given sportive. We can do as little or as much as you're able to (1 stage / half a stage / all 3). Anybody can ride 50-100 miles, it's a matter of pacing yourself. At the very least it'll keep people honest over winter and through the spring!

Beyond that I'm wondering, if we can recruit enough PHers, if we can take it further and do some good with this (beyond our own fitness). It's enough of a challenge that I think sponsorship isn't an unreasonable proposition. Rather than a small contribution disappearing into a large pot I wonder if we can make a big difference to one or two individuals. Perhaps we could raise enough for a hand-bike for an injured cyclist?

Then I thought about the PR value of a bunch of cycling car enthusiasts, particularly those doing some good for cycling. Maybe there's an opportunity for PistonHeads/Haymarket? Enough to justify helping out with a support car(s) from the PH fleet?

Logistics wise I'd suggest we travel to the hotel (deal to be done with Travelodge?) by train with a single bag each. That bag can then be transported by the support car to the stage finish or that nights hotel (maybe musettes with post-ride essentials at the stage finish). Then it's a train journey (bikes by rented Transit van?) to the hotel close to the start of the next stage for malted recovery beverages and pasta.

From looking at the PH Strava club leaderboards there are more than enough folk who are already riding these distances (and many more who could). In any case there's no need to be setting speed records and I'm sure we can divide into several groups at different paces. I did spot a couple of lovely lunch stops along stage 3 today

[Gruffy]

It's definitely a big challenge, but that's the point. Bite off as much or as little as you need in order to make it challenging but achievable.

Stage 1: Leeds to Harrogate
200km and 2,750m climbing

Stage 2: York to Sheffield
200km and 4,000m of climbing

Stage 3: Cambridge to London
160km and 1,300m of climbing

I'm going to do it, even if it's a solo effort, so it will happen one way or another. If there's a way to get a bunch of PHers together and make a significant contribution to a fellow cyclist then so much the better.

[Gruffy]

Three mates have also thrown their hats into the ring. The more the merrier now.

[Gruffy]

j00pY said:

When exactly would you look at doing this?

TBC but May would seem like a good month to aim for. I'm still debating whether a bank holiday weekend would be a positive (no time off work, availability of support drivers) or a negative (busier roads, busier hotels, busier restaurants, clashes with other commitments/events). I think probably a non-BH weekend makes more sense overall.

[Gruffy]

I think the trick is actually becoming more proficient off the bike. I'm new to cycling but not endurance and the lesson I've learned is that it's all about recovery when it comes to multi-day efforts. Recovery nutrition, stretch, ice, foam-roller/massage, food & drink, sleep, repeat.

[Gruffy]

I'm under no illusions about the difficulty of it. I've ridden individual days like these and have always been happy to take a few days off the bike afterwards - and I consider myself relatively fit.

But, the human body is a remarkably adaptable thing and we have around 5-6 months before this would happen. That's plenty of time to train and grow more accustomed to back-to-back efforts. For anybody thinking of trying the full monty I would definitely advise building this kind of work into your training. Throw in a back-to-back big weekend each month, slowly ramping the distances up towards 150km in the month before. This would be a great excuse for some more PH meets and group sportives in the New Year.

[Gruffy]

Black can man said:

Sounds a good idea but i'm not sure i could do the distance either, Wouldn't a 100 mile jaunt around the New forest seem more do able ? or maybe a London to Brighton run

I do like the idea of a PH run though & would be very interested if i felt i could do it.

No reason we couldn't do both. A London to Brighton would make good training for the TdF run. Those doing the full monty could do London to Brighton to London.

[Gruffy]

Time for a list to help gauge provisional interest…

1. Gruffy - Full Monty
2. M3John - TBC
3. Tony Hetherington - Full Monty
4. Anthony - TBC
5. Marcel - TBC
6. JT - Fully Monty
7. Marcellus - TBC
8. waterwonder - TBC
9. Nikolai - TBC
10. pablo - TBC
11. bakerstreet - TBC
12. Johnny - TBC
13. j00py - Full Monty
14. tobinen - Stage 3
15. pembo - Stage 3
16. pembo's +1 - Stage 3

[Gruffy]

1. Gruffy - Full Monty
2. M3John - TBC
3. Tony Hetherington - Full Monty
4. Anthony - TBC
5. Marcel - TBC
6. JT - Fully Monty
7. Marcellus - I'd give the full monty a bash
8. waterwonder - TBC
9. Nikolai - TBC
10. pablo - TBC
11. bakerstreet - TBC
12. Johnny - TBC
13. j00py - Full Monty
14. tobinen - Stage 3
15. pembo - Stage 3
16. pembo's +1 - Stage 3
17. GarryDK - Stage 3 (maybe more)
18. Black Can Man - Stage 3
19. Pete R - Full Monty

[Gruffy]

Marcellus' better half has generously volunteered her help but are there other cycling widows or local pedal powered PHers who would be up for supporting roles?

[Gruffy]

AndStilliRise said:

I am a long distance runner (marathon runner), can I come, or is this for the real cyclists?

I will have the endurance and can handle a bike reasonably well.

Will I be able to cope?

There's only one way to be sure but I do think it'd be optimistic to translate your running endurance straight to the bike. Your engine may be more than up to the job but you'll reach fatigue in very different parts of the body. Your arse won't be conditioned. Your neck and shoulders will suffer from extended time in the riding position. Your hands won't have toughened. There'll be lots of small positional corrections you'll make that you may only learn about after some big days in the saddle.

The idea is open to anybody but I think you'd be wise to test yourself with some long distance rides and, ideally, some big back-to-back days on the bike. Then you'll know how much you can bite off and still have a good shot at finishing it.

[Gruffy]

T' Tour is 1-3 May but I think we'd actively try to avoid bank holiday weekends, despite the time-off advantage. My thoughts are to aim for Friday 8th to Sunday 10th May. This means the popular stage 3 can be run on the Sunday to suit the most riders but also avoids any chance of taking 20 broken riders through London rush hour traffic.

Apologies in advance to those riders who will be cursing the dates. It's always going to rule somebody out.

[Gruffy]

numtumfutunch said:

As posted previously the bit from Leeds to Harewood House is dual carriageway ring road type material and really best avoided in peak hour traffic
A handy get out is that the Tour was neutralised until Harewood so you could legitimately duck this bit

I've met with friends who, between us, have ridden all three stages and they've also flagged up a few sections that are best avoided. I don't think there's any issue with tweaking the route to make it more appropriate for riding without closed roads. As long as we cover the official distance along a broadly similar route I won't feel like I'm cheating. If anything we're likely to add a couple of kms to the distance in trying to avoid some direct 3-lane carriageways.

[Gruffy]

I've mentioned it to the chaps at PH. I think it'd be a great thing for PH to be involved with but hopefully we'll find out if they agree soon enough.

[Gruffy]

They do. Watch this space.

[Gruffy]

I don't think you are either. If you can do L2B on a MTB then I reckon you can already do 100 flat-ish miles on a road bike, with a group.

[Gruffy]

1. Gruffy - Full Monty
2. M3John - TBC
3. Tony Hetherington - Full Monty
4. Anthony - TBC
5. Marcel - TBC
6. JT - Fully Monty
7. Marcellus - I'd give the full monty a bash
8. waterwonder - TBC
9. Nikolai - TBC
10. pablo - TBC
11. bakerstreet - TBC
12. Johnny - Full Monty. What's the worst that could happen..?
13. j00py - Full Monty
14. tobinen - Stage 3
15. pembo - Stage 3
16. pembo's +1 - Stage 3
17. GarryDK - Stage 3 (maybe more)
18. Black Can Man - Stage 3
19. Pete R - Full Monty
20. Swerni - full monty. ( someone's got to make you lot look good) wink
21. SixPotBelly - Stage 3
22. richardxjr - Full Monty

[Gruffy]

I agree. The big focus for me will be on the volume of climbing and recovering from back-to-back big rides. So I'll be ramping up the climbing, including some longer steep climbs (or repeats) and trying to fit in at least one 150km + 150km weekend in per month.

And I'll be trying to replace The Mighty Triban with something more suitable.

[Gruffy]

For a single ride of 100 miles it really just needs pacing and good nutrition. Stay out of the red and keep the food and water going in. Then you need to build up your body's tolerance for that much time in the saddle. The only way to do that is to build up your time in the saddle. If you can work up to 75 miles in April you'll be able to bridge the gap on the big day.