Tuesday 6 July 2010

Stage 6

This was a biggie, the longest stage of the 2010 Tour de France and it went well, I felt great and seemed to be feeling stronger as the day went on though I'm not sure how I will feel in the morning! Knee now seems to have settled down pretty much completely which is great, I can't possibly explain how relieved I am about this.

Continuing with my use of the SKINS RY400 recovery gear, no way I'm going to change what seems to be a winning approach to recovery. For the last couple of days I've been wearing the long sleeved C400 jersey in white because of the heat and it's been amazingly comfortable. I guess it reflects the heat, allows very rapid evaporation of sweat to aid cooling, and also provides UV50 protection. I actually found the long sleeved jersey more comfortable in the heat than having the sun directly on my skin, I've never tried that before.

Rolling countryside all day so not easy but the hydration, nutrition, and recovery all seem to be working out well. Great to see the countryside all being prepared for the arrival of what for me is undoubtedly the greatest show on Earth.

Met up with a nice American guy called Ron who rode along with us for a while which was great, he's booked in at the same hotel now so I'm not sure if I'll be seeing him tomorrow but we shall see.

Tomorrow sees the first real test in the hills with the ascent over a number of very significant climbs up to Station de Rousses, if that goes well it will give me a lot of confidence for what lies ahead and if it goes badly I'll just have to shut up and get on with it anyway!

Delighted to see tonight that I'm now being followed on Twitter by the BMC Pro Racing Team :-) I think it's unlikely that they are trying to recruit a somewhat overweight 51 year old to ride for them but hey guys thanks for getting in touch and good luck in The Tour!

Limited data from today's ride because of another Garmin download failure, hopeless, but the ride isn't about data, it's about the ride, the journey, and the experience.

Photographs from Today:

Another lovely French town, another market on the Tour de France route :-)
Lovely church in Varzy.
The country getting ready for the arrival of The Tour.
Today's riding countryside.

Today's Weather:

Hot and sunny again, very hot this afternoon rising to around 30 degrees. Light wind which was sometimes actually helpful!

Ride Time: 09:59 hh:mm
Ride Distance: 143.6 miles
Average Power: 134W
Average Heart Rate: 115bpm
Average Speed - True: 14.38mph
Acute Training Load: 168.5
Chronic Training Load: 109.2
Training Stress Balance: -43.5

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