A 'depot de pain', first malfunction and UCI approval of ibuprofen

Just when we thought it was about to get tougher from a riding point of view (which is tough enough!) Chris had two hours sleep last night, shivers and shakes and an unplanned course of ibuprofen, we checked with Ride 21 rules and UCI protocol to find that neurofen is allowed (only kidding here!), it has no performance enhancing effects other than to deaden pain, which was the order of the day!

Another early start on Stage 14 from Saint Pourcain followed rolling, forest covered hills and wide
sweeping valleys heading South East to Lyon.

Pain and suffering! 

Five Category 4 climbs in total with two Category 3 climbs in the middle of a 190km route. One bike suffered a mechanical malfunction half way through and will be off the road until we find a bike shop, nothing serious, just one of those little things that you find you don't have the right tool or widget for. The first Cat 3 climb Cote de Thize-les-Bourgs was tough even with the assistance of ibuprofen, just before the climb and feeling very jaded we passed a sign for a roadside cafe signposted 'Depot de Pain', it was very apt and only served to heighten the sense of suffering and pain on what should have been a more straight forward day. Two choices, dig deep or give up.



Green with suffering on the day!

The roadside Tour decorations continued, if only to rub salt into the wound of suffering today's decorations were themed 'green jersey' conjuring up thoughts of maximum power, maximum effort on a day that proved to be about digging deep and just staying with it, whatever it took, at times there was no real power.

Sun baked roads, humid tree lined forest roads stained the blue 'Ride 21' jersey with heavy and noticeable salt marks, much more than normal, it would have been easy to just get off the bike! Feeling quite weak at this point and still relying on ibuprofen meant struggling over a long climb up the second and final Cat 3 climb of the Col du Pilon (it reminded me of the lower part of the Peyresourde in the Pyrenees, which now seems a lifetime away), it was worth it as the summit of the Col opened up to a 35km descent, looking down over a vast pine covered valley, it was amazing, long sweeping bends to the bottom of the valley and virtually effortless, it save the day. Just three short Cat 4 climbs followed as we approached Lyon, leaving the last 10km to the traffic to get back into the support vehicle to head onto Givors, our overnight stopover and start point for Stage 15 tomorrow.

 

Stage 15, a super long stage of 242km ending with one of the toughest and most legendary climbs of Mont Ventoux at the end. We will take inspiration from Chris Froome's win earlier today and also pay our respects to Tom Simpson as we pass his memorial, it will be quite a day, hopefully less reliant on ibuprofen.

Legendary!

As we finish writing this post it seems that France has finally started to celebrate Bastille Day, after deserted roads and villages we are now being lined up for a night time of fireworks and outdoor celebrations, unfortunately, we won't be joining in, ear plugs maybe called upon!

From the rider and crew of Ride 21, supporting Action Medical Research we hope to bring good news tomorrow that we managed to conquer Ventoux, not as impressive or as fast as Chris Froome but just simply to reach the same heights.



www.action.org.uk/tourdefrance

Twitter @chrisarmishaw

''dream big', dare to fail'