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Tour de France

Posted Monday, July 23, 2007, 8:55 AM by Lonely Planet

This time it's for real. Today around 200 of the world's best professional cyclists tackled Stage 15 of the Tour de France, covering almost 200 km over five mountain passes through the Pyrenees, the hardest day of this famously tough three-week bike race.

This evening (Monday), I was glued to the TV, watching the Tour de France big boys do their stuff, as exactly one week ago I pedalled, puffed and panted over those same mountain roads. I was with a group of friends from Britain and about 7000 other cyclists from around the world. We were taking part in the Etape du Tour, a chance for non-professionals to get a taste of the real thing.
And it was just a taste. Last week, most of the Etape riders took between 8 and 11 hours to cover the route, most stopping at least for a few minutes to refuel along the way. Today, the Tour riders did it in five and a half hours - non-stop of course - riding UP those 15% gradients that drag on for 20km or more, almost as fast as we came down them. And (to get technical for a moment) where we were using compact chainsets giving gears like 34 x 28, the tour riders seemed to cruise along in 38 x 23. And where we were exhausted at the end of our ride, the Tour de France teams do it again, day after day for three weeks. Respect. Utter respect. Or, as they say in France, 'chapeau'.

Watching sporting stars like Rasmussen, Contador, Vino, Evans and the rest is undoubtedly inspiring, and it certainly brings back great memories of riding the Etape. But will we do it again next year? It's still far too early to say...

Etape Memories #1 - The Author. The Day Before. Calm and (appearing) confident.

Etape Memories #2 - The Author. The Final Mountain. Totally shattered.
Lonely Planet author David Else was in France to take part in L'Etape du Tour - cycling through the Pyrenees on part of the route of the Tour de France. This is the 8th (and final) of a series of blog posts.

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