Mark Smith(right) and Tim Clipstone at the start of their epic Tour de France mountain stage ride. (Photo by Mark Smith)

After months of early mornings, long weekend training rides from the Airport to West End and back, stiff legs and sunburnt arms. Myself and Tim Clipstone lined up at 6.30am on a chilly French morning at the start of the 15th Etape Du Tour in the town of Foix in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

The Etape Du Tour takes place every year and is put together by the organisers of the Tour De France on what is know as the "Queen Stage" of the tour. This is considered the hardest stage of the Tour De France and this years stage from Foix to Loudenville is reckoned to be the most difficult chosen for the Etape yet.

The route is closed to all traffic for the duration of the race, there are feed stations and water stops and thousands of spectators line the route to cheer on all the riders of the 126 Mile course.

This year Tim and I had decided that we were going to raise money through sponsorship for 2 local charities VISAR and the Kiara Foundation so we had extra incentive to complete the ride.

The day started at 3.30am with an alarm call. We were staying in Toulouse, over an hours drive to the start in Foix and we all wanted a nice big breakfast to fuel us up for the day ahead, so fully stuffed with Croissants, Pastries, Bread and Fruit we got on the bus and attempted to get a little more sleep. We arrived on the outskirts of Foix as the sun was coming up and had to ride to the start line in the center of the Town.

Tim and myself were in the last of the six starting pens, along with 2500 other riders. This immediately put us at a disadvantage, as at the back of our pen was the timing car and if this passes you then that's it, your race is over and you have to get into the broom wagon and spend the rest of the day on a coach to the finish line. When we reached the pen we anxiously waited for the 7am start. The organisers had placed loudspeakers all the way along the starting pens which were about 2 miles from the start line to the back of our pen so we got a chance to listen to the various VIP's being intereviewed, including previous Tour De France Winner, Greg Lemond who when asked if he was going to win said that he would be happy to finish, he's carrying a bit more weight these days and we didn't think he was joking.

7am soon came and over the loud speakers we heard the start count down, as we were so far from the line we didn't see the start, but 15 minutes later we could see some movement in the distance, and then we heard the sound of a thousand cyclists' clipping into their pedals. We were off!

5 minutes later we crossed the official start line and the timing chip on our ankles started the clock ticking.

Up to the week before my plan had been to have a fast start and attack the first 2 climbs, I wanted to finish in under 9 hours and was hoping to get a silver medal, but a crash in the Mountain Bike race the week before had aggravated an old ligament problem in my left knee I was struggling to walk on Monday and Tuesday, an appointment with Dr Glenn Moore soon got me mobile again but I was worried that the injury would get worse after travelling and then starting the tough climbs.

So with the injury worry at the front of my mind, I decided to take it easy from the start and just be happy to finish the race.

However as we were a bit too close to the broom wagon for my liking I decided to try and put some distance between it and myself and started working my way though the crowd of riders. This was when I lost sight of Tim as the volume of people riding through the narrow streets of Foix made it hard for us to stick together.

The first climb of the day came after just 5 miles, a small hill about 3 times the length of the Baughers Bay Hill and about the same gradient, this was dispatched fairly easily and the ride to the base of Col De Port took a little under an hour, the Elimination time at the top of Col De Port was 9.30am and I was confident that I would make this with plenty of time to spare.

Cyclist winding their way up the Col de Mente.(Photo by Mark Smith)

The climb up Col De Port was the 2nd longest of the day at just over 7 miles up to 4,100 feet with an average gradient of 5.3%, I found a good cadence and settled into a rhythm for the climb. The sun was now up but I was finding it cold, the sky was cloudy and although I had a thermal shirt on underneath my BVI jersey the cold was getting to my legs.

By the time I reached the top of the climb the temperature had dropped to the high 50's and I was shivering. The descent was fast and technical with some sharp corners, the organisers put warning signs before the tighter corners so you knew to slow down in time, however I did see a few crashes on the way down, but the medics quickly got to the fallen riders and the ambulances weren't far behind. At points the road narrowed to a single lane as we passed through some of the small villages on the mountain.

The ride from the bottom of Col De Port to St Girons was through a picturesque valley with a river running alongside the road, I got onto the back of a train of about 200 riders as we steamed along at a fast pace towards St Girons and the first feed stop.

I learnt from my mistakes of last year where I rested at food stops and generally soaked up the atmosphere, this time I parked my bike, loaded up with bananas, gels and cheese and ham sandwiches and quickly set off to start on the 20 mile ride to the start of the 2nd mountain, Col de Portet d'Aspet. This was the smallest climb of the day, an uneventful and easy climb, however there is a sobering monument on the descent to the Italian cyclist Fabio Casatelli who was killed in a crash on the way down in 1995.

Even though I'd studied the profile of the ride, the start of the 3rd climb of the day, Col de Mente, came as a bit of a surprise after only a short descent, we took a left turn and the road kicked up to a 12% gradient at the start of the climb.

By now the sun was out and the temperature was rapidly rising, I settled into a steady pace and started the climb, about halfway up I looked down to check what gear I was in, I thought the going had been a bit harder than it should have been and I discovered I was stuck in my 23, the rear derailleur wouldn't shift up to the easiest gear and I didn't have a screw driver to adjust it! Mentally this was a bit of a blow and even though I still felt OK this started eating away at my climbing confidence and with Col de Mente having the steepest average gradient of 8.1% this wasn't boding well.

The last mile or so of the climb is a series of switchbacks with an average gradient of 10%, I could see them coming and with the rising temperatures I stopped and took off my thermals. This brief stop gave me a little burst of energy to take on the switchbacks and when I got to the top I rewarded myself with another brief stop to take a picture of the line of cyclists making their way up the mountain.

At the top was the 2nd feed station where I took on some more water and a couple of bananas and looked for some more energy gels to replace the 8 I'd already gone through however there weren't any. I wasn't particularly worried as I still had a couple of power bars and granola bars in my pocket to get me up Port de Bales. There was also a service stop where they gave my bike a quick service and got my gears working properly.

The descent of Col de Mente was fast and exhilarating after the efforts of the climb, but once on the flat we got a rude awakening with a 5 mile ride along a dual carriageway with a strong head wind, I could see another peloton of about 50 riders about a third of mile in front of me so I used a bit of effort to catch them and then drafted with the pack all the way to the start of the 4th climb, Port de Bales.

This was the climb I was dreading, all the reconnaissance reviews I'd read and the video of the climb I'd watched suggested that this climb was going to be torture, and they weren't wrong.

The 12 mile climb started off benignly but the gradient soon sharpened, it was only recently that the road over Port de Bales had been cut, there are no towns or even buildings on the climb just a road that winds it's way up the mountain. Again I settled into a rhythm and started to climb, I was conscious that I had to go up this climb in under 2 hours to make sure that I wasn't going to get swept up by the broom wagon and after all, 12miles in 2 hours shouldn't be a problem so I was quietly confident.

This confidence was shattered when I tried to eat, I'd been feeling a bit off since Col de Mente but hadn't really thought anything of it, but as soon as I took a bite of one of the power bars I puked. This wasn't good, I could tell my energy levels were low and I badly needed to take on more fuel. I tried to eat some more but every time I took a bite I was sick. Despite having a 2 litre camel pack and 2 water bottles the heat had meant that the camel pack was empty and I was down to half a bottle of water.

I carried on the climb having to stop 5 or 6 times when I simply couldn't turn the pedals. All along the route were people sitting at the side the road, the temperature had now reached the mid 90's and a lot of people had simply given up and were waiting for the broom wagon to come and get them. I was seriously considering joining them and at this point wasn't even thinking about making it to the finish line, I'd be lucky if I could make it to the top of the climb.

I'd just finished my last drop of water when I found a mountain stream by the side of the road, there were a couple of guys filling up their bottles and I figured that as there were no buildings on the mountain the water would be drinkable. So I filled up both my bottles with ice cold melt water and refreshed myself.

I also managed to eat a power bar by taking a bite and then washing it down with water. This gave me the energy I needed to make it to the top of the climb and the next feed station at the summit of Port de Bales.

This feed station had gels! I grabbed a big handful and stuffed them into my Jersey pocket, filled up my camel pack and both bottles with energy drink, grabbed a banana and some slices of orange and then got back on my bike for the descent down the other side of Port de Bales. We had been warned that this descent was dangerous, the road was new and they hadn't installed the safety barriers yet, if you went off the edge you'd need a parachute.

However the road surface was glassy smooth, the riders were stretched out from the climb and this made for an extremely fast descent, at one point I registered 49.8mph as I sped down the mountain to the start of the last climb, Col De Peyresourde.

This is a 6 mile climb with an average gradient of 7.8% but after Port de Bales it felt a lot easier, and all I had to do was make it to the top and I would be as good as finished. Again I tried to eat, but couldn't stomach the power bars, but I could swallow the gels, so I ripped open 3 packets and sucked them down, almost instantly my empty stomach digested them and I was ready for the climb. I jumped onto a group of 5 riders, one on a very old steel bike with 5 gears and started the grind up the Peyresourde.

Despite it being late afternoon it was still hot and as we passed through the villages on the mountain the spectators did their best to cool us down by pouring water over our heads or spraying us with hose pipes. The sheer number of people out watching us was amazing, the French love cycling and it certainly showed on this climb.

The final mile was a combination of switch backs with a stretch of climbing of about 300 yards between each, the whole side of the mountain was packed and the boost from so many people shouting "Allez" and "Bon Chapeau" helped get us up to the summit.

Cresting the summit, I felt an enormous sense of satisfaction and my emotions started to get the better of me, I knew it was mostly all downhill to the finish line and there was no way the broom wagon would catch me now. I had to pull myself together for the high speed ride down the mountain, I recovered enough to manage a sprint finish over the line to finish in 11 hours 6 minutes and place 3,522nd.

This year's Etape was always going to be harder than the 2006 version. There had been warnings about it's difficulty with one magazine advising that anybody who was contemplating this as their first Etape would be better saving there money and staying home. It certainly lived up to it's expectations and it will be interesting to see what the pro's make of the stage on the 23rd July.

The top place finisher this year was a former pro who completed the course in 6 hours 21 minutes. Greg Lemond, the former Tour winner managed a time of 8 hours 41 minutes. Tim finished in 12 hours 30 and part time BVI resident Bill Kinkead put both of us firmly in our places by finishing in 10 hours 26 minutes.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored and supported us and an extra special thank you to Anna and Asko for putting up with us disappearing out of the door early in the morning every weekend and leaving them to get on with life whilst we put in the training miles.

© Copyright 2003 BVI Cycling Federation

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