Etape du Tour 2007

nurul

Would like to hear from anyone who rode this year's Etape.
I live about 3hrs drive from the start of this year's Etape but doing the stage with very few miles in my legs because of work meant that it would be physical challenge too. In the end it wasn't my legs which packed up but my rear tyre. On the descent of the Mente I punctured at over 80kph. Unfortunatley, my valve extensions did not have a thread at te top to screw on my co2 bottles and amazingly the Mavic Service Neutral Service car did not have ANY valve extensions. After a 45 mins wait for them in the shadeless 35c sun I bailed at the final abandon zone as I watched thousands of people glide by at 20kph, ready for the penultimate horror climb....
In and around Barcelona we have a ciclo-sportive every week but here they are treated like amateur eye balls out road races. We don't have the same Cat levels (1-5) like you guys in the UK and USA have so you are either an Amateur or a "cyclo-tourist" which is the name for anyone who doesn't cut it as an amateur From cylclo-tourism we have ciclo-sport which is pre-Amater or Cat 1. Pretty frustrating. It means you gotta do the first cols at 25kph an hopefully recover for the next 3 climbs.......
The ciclosportives here are so fast that it is easy to see 60-65kph as you rol lout from the start. The first climbs sort out the men from the flamers as some of them can be up to 25kph in length. So how was your Etape? Did you see that terible accident on the descent of the Portet D'aspen? This old guy crashed heavily like poor Fabio, but missing the stone blocks with his head, unlike Casartelli. That descent is so fast and it has super long sweping left handers with stone blocks all the way down on the right Scary stuff
Have you ridden a ciclosportive in Spain??

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Bike ridden in Spain:
Scott Addict 2008
HED JET 50mm 2007
Chorus/Record mix
12-25 53-39
7,1kg
Also ride in the UK:
Cannondale Six13 Pro
Rolf Vectpor Pro (1805g)
Chorus/Centaur 10v mix (2005)
12-25 52/39
7.5kgs

limerickman

Fascinating.

I was in Barcalona three years and I wondered when I saw what you refer to as Cyclosportives.
I caught one of these races when I was over there.
I thought it was a professional/semi professional race because the riders were literally flying up climbs.
Watching it from the roadside, I'm amazed to read that some of these guys could have been amateurs.

I didn't do the Etape, you referred to.

I did the Etape in July 2004 : tough day.

__________________
.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

nurul

If you were in the city then the only race that would have passed through or around would have been the Montjuic hill climb which is a professional event to round the year off. The Volta does sometimes come through, like this year, when it finished on Montjuic. It was great to see vino attacking and Sanchez killing himself to win on those 25% bends!!! The Setmana Catalana also may come through too so I supsect you saw a pro race. but you are right in general, the mateurs use ciclosportives to train and they go damn fast. I can normally hold them onthe first two climbs abd then game over!!!
The problem is that they do go at 60kph from the gun and there are so many riders occupying illegally the entire road and local councils and the police do not look well on our activities. However the worst is where the amateurs at the front really turn it into a road race, taking risk and causing serious crashes, something which happened at the Tierra de Aigua last year frocing the entire sportive to a halt and really pissing off the normal guys. this not only puts peoples' lives in danger but gives the Civil police a reason not to allow this type of event to run in the future.

__________________
Bike ridden in Spain:
Scott Addict 2008
HED JET 50mm 2007
Chorus/Record mix
12-25 53-39
7,1kg
Also ride in the UK:
Cannondale Six13 Pro
Rolf Vectpor Pro (1805g)
Chorus/Centaur 10v mix (2005)
12-25 52/39
7.5kgs

UncleFred

Here's my story....

http://www.bvimtbclub.com/etape