Etape preparation 2 months to go

I have at last been able to crank up the mileage in May with around 850 miles in about 55 hours.   A couple of roadraces (in which I was dropped late on, rather than humiliatingly early), one Surrey League Handicap Race; two tough cyclosportives; a few races at Hillingdon a few commutes, a club run and a ride from Dorset to Berkshire have meant a fairly active month.  I am building up endurance now rather than strength and will try to keep up the mileage in June (though sadly without the ultra-challenging Gran Fondo Sportful this year) before easing back in July.
Still no entry number.

Etape preparation 3 months to go

Despite the vast improvement in the weather and the welcome switch to British Summer Time, I find I have done about the same number of miles as in March with 592 miles in 36h52m.  I have done more racing though with 5 evening races at Hillingdon and 1 at Eelmore.  I entered two Road Races, the Peter Rigby Memorial in Hampshire and the Thames Velo in Oxfordshire but was dropped both times.  Add one 10 mile TT (substantially slower than this time last year) and only about 5 commutes into work.  The only moderately long and moderately hilly ride has been one 82 mile club run.  It is going to be necessary to crank the mileage up significantly in May.
Rather more positively I have booked the trains:  Eurostar to Paris and then the overnight sleeper down to Pau booked precisely 3 months ahead to get the best 'Prem' fares.  I have not tried a French sleeper before and look forward to the experience.  Accomodation is also sorted with 3 nights in a modest hotel in Pau.
Booking the French trains was rather easier (and cheaper) than booking myself and bike onto a Virgin West Coast train up to the Lake District for the Fred Whitton Challenge in May.  It has been incredibly hard to get them to confirm a bike reservation with frustrating hours spent on the telephone to a foreign call centre most of the time on hold.   Integrated transport still has a long way to go here in the UK.
My start number is as yet not available which leads me to suspect that I shall yet again be one of the last off.

Etape Preparation - 4 months to go

March was not a great month for my training.  I covered about 600 miles in around 40 hours on the bike.  My racing since the end of the Imperial Winter Series has been abysmal; I gave the Winter Series at Upavon Circuit a go and The Spring Chicken Road Race but was dropped both times.  The Oxonian 3up Team Time Trial was an interesting experience not least because the course around Brill is very hilly.  Of the three teams that showed up in the pouring rain we came third, not aided by my having to stop twice for a detached saddle bag and a dropped chain - still, good enough to get our time in Cycling Weekly!  My high point of the month was the Solihull CC Reliability Ride run in bright conditions but in a powerful north wind.
We all go through poor patches but I now definitely have some catching up to do.

Etape preparation - 5 months to go

The weather has been slow to improve but I have at least built up a bit from the freezing January.  The last two winter series at Hillingdon took care of the top end and I managed the Hemel Hempstead and High Wycombe 100k reliability rides, the latter in grim conditions when I was beset by two punctures.  The commuting has again been limited due to a lot of freezing weather and I have abandoned any plans to go out today due to the heavy rain.  The six recent days on my club's training trip to Spain has saved the month though and given me some climbing, including a couple of time trials up the Coll de Rates.
So I have managed 815 miles in 52:52 (average 15.5 mph) with 15,115m of climbing.

Etape preparation - January 2010. Six months to go.

Really struggling to get off the ground this year.  My plan for doing the Team Quest Reliability Ride today was upset by the weather.  With a very sharp frost and some ice on the roads I did not want to risk a repetition of my fall two weeks ago.  I did, however, venture out for my 3rd Thames Velo Club Run of the month instead.  The 5 Imperial Winter Series races I have done this month at Hillingdon should help with the top end stuff.  Add in a very little bit of commuting to London and I have managed just over 500 miles this month in 30.75 hours on the bike.  Should be easy to build up from that when the thaw comes and as I continue to recover from that spill.  For next month, I hope to get a couple of reliability rides in and, of course, the last two races of the winter series, before 5 days of bliss in Spain.

Etape preparation

It is the Tourmalet for this year's etape and since I enjoyed it so much in 2008, I cannot resist doing it again on the 100th anniversary of its first inclusion in the Tour de France (when mountain roads were tracks, cyclists were superheroes and organisers were "assasins").

Time to begin some preparation then, which I shall sporadically chart on these pages.

The Entry Form.

This is one of the trickiest aspects of the etape.  The etape rules require a medical certificate stipulating that competitors are "fit to take part in cycling races".  Until recently production of a BC racing licence was an acceptable alternative, but the organisers have wised up to the fact that anybody can obtain such a licence and have become fed up with their ambulances, laid on for accidents, being increasingly filled with those whose cardiovascular systems were never likely to see them through a mountain stage.  A quick call to my GP surgery was met with news of a £100 fee to stamp my medical certificate.  This seems to me to be a little steep.  If I were unfit, unwell and a frequent attender at my GP, he would provide me with Med3 certificates indicating what I cannot do, all as part of the service.  Prevention is a lot better than cure.  Wouldn't it be great if certification of what we are fit to do was provided as part of the service constituting a small encouragement towards an active lifestyle steering us away from obesity, diabetes, heart disease and numerous other conditions that it would cost the NHS dear to treat?

Rides

The easy part then should be getting the miles in.  I was to start yesterday in a modest way with the Wycombe flat 50 reliability ride.  However for those of us who thought the thaw had arrived with the heavy rain on Saturday a real shock awaited.  The roads around Wycombe had indeed got very wet but then had frozen overnight.  I was one of many riders to come a cropper on the black ice and as I type I still have paraesthesia from elbow to finger tips and a square inch of skin missing from my hip.  The event has been postponed for a week as have my plans to get in some miles.

On the positive side, the Thames Velo team of 11 including me have had our entries accepted for the Fred Whitton Challenge in May and I have been using snowbound time to organise the club's Spanish Training trip in February.