Category: Features

Le Tour One Day Ahead, an ambitious charity ride covering the full 3,344km 2015 Tour de France route with ambitions to raise £1m for Cure Leukaemia, captured the public imagination this summer. Amongst those taking part was ex-British triathlete Helen Russell (Gold medallist – 2011 ITU World Sprint Duathlon) and here, in the first of a three-part series, she shares her experience with Cyclo.

After cycling just over 2,000miles, including 40,000meters of ascent and burning an estimated 95,000calories I am back home in the UK having completed the Le Tour-One Day Ahead challenge for Cure Leukaemia. It was without doubt the hardest thing I have ever done and was a struggle both physically and mentally – not helped by the fact that I needed ten stitches on only the second stage! The first week of this year’s Tour de France was touted as being one of the hardest for years-and I can vouch for that…

The Tour started in the Dutch town of Utrecht with a leisurely team ride around the 13.8km opening prologue. If only each stage could be so easy! On paper the next day looked like it would be an easy first long stage, with a typical Dutch flat profile, but things don’t always turn out as anticipated. Unfortunately at about 100km into the stage one of my team members got their wheel caught in a bridge extension track near the town of Hellevoetsluis and came down bringing another rider and myself down. I landed on the second rider’s disk brake, which sliced open my thigh.

I looked down and could see that the injury was serious and thought that my One Day Ahead ride was over before it had even started. However, the team medic reassured me that he could get me riding again and gave me ten stiches in the mechanics van at the side of the road. I don’t think he quite expected me to be riding again quite so soon, as I insisted that I get immediately back on the bike to finish the stage. I just thought of all the people that had sponsored me and didn’t want to let them down. I was allowed to get back in the saddle, but only on the proviso that if I felt any tugging on the stiches – or if the wound started to bleed – that I would have to dismount.

I think I rode the rest of the stage on pure adrenaline; there was no way that I was not going to finish the first long day. I was, however, dreading the next morning when the adrenaline would have worn off and a decision would be made as to whether I could continue. I was relieved to have good travel insurance with SportsCover Direct, as I knew that if there were any complications or if I needed to seek extra medical treatment or even be sent home I was covered…

Due to the excellent work of the medic I was given the go ahead to start the following day and thanks to the rest of the team, who looked after me and kept to a slower pace, I was able to finish the stage up the infamous Mur de Huy or ‘Huy Wall’ – a 1.3km climb with a peak gradient of 25%.

Stage four was a stage that I had been very nervous about for weeks as, at 223.5km, it was the longest leg – but not only that-there was also the small matter of seven cobbled sections!

Not surprisingly the organisers were concerned about me riding the cobbles as a fall would almost certainly result in me going home. However, for me this was such an iconic stage that I really wanted to conquer it so it was agreed that I could attempt the first cobbled section and, if I handled it well and felt comfortable, then I could tackle the other sections. I had been told that the best way to ride cobbles is to attack them, ride quickly and don’t hold on too tight. I was already feeling angry about my injury and therefore channelled it into riding aggressively and much to my surprise I enjoyed the cobbles and felt confident, which meant that I could continue to the stage finish. I was grateful to have been given in advance the advice of wearing two pairs of mitts over the cobbles, as the constant friction had caused many in the team to get blisters.

After the cobbles my body was feeling very tired going into stage five (Arras to Amiens.) That evening my partner arrived for two nights and it was so good to receive a big hug and some TLC! It was just the lift I needed after a tough few days.

Abbeville to Le Havre saw the first rain of the Tour and the coastal route meant that there was a very strong crosswind, resulting in a tough stage.

Stage seven was relatively flat; starting from the cheese producing town of Livarot and going through rural villages and over rolling hills to Fougeres. Stage eight from Rennes to Mur-de-Bretagne was another rolling stage, with only two category climbs. However, one of them was at the end of the stage and after 180km in 35degree heat the 1.3km at an average of 8.4% was a real challenge. Still, the short 28km time trial from Vannes to Plumelec the next day offered welcome respite from the long stages and the team used it as an opportunity to recover. We headed out early as we had a long coach transfer to the Pyrenees, which was actually harder than the day’s ride!

I was looking forward to my first day in the Pyrenees, as I usually love mountain climbing. However, I got a shock when we reached the first mountain stage finish at the Hors Category Col du Soudet, making its debut appearance in the Tour de France. I didn’t have as many gears as I usually use in the mountains and felt like I was grinding all the way up the 15km climb. I just couldn’t get into my normal rhythm and contemplated getting off the bike a few times. However that morning we had seen a video message from Leukaemia patients at the Clinical Centre for Excellence at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and I knew that the pain they had been through and in many cases are still going through, was much worse than what I was feeling and so kept on grinding to the summit, where my frustration took over and I broke down in tears. That evening the team’s mechanics realised that if I were to survive the rest of the Pyrenees then I would need some extra gears and so, much to my relief, changed the gearing.

The next morning there was a sense of trepidation on the team bus as we would be climbing the infamous cols of the Aspin and the Tourmalet. After my struggle up the Soudet I was really hoping that the extra gears would make a difference.

We reached the Category 1 Col d’Aspin in the afternoon and much to my relief the new gearing meant that I was able to comfortably reach the summit. The second major climb of the day was the Hors Category Tourmalet – at 17.1km at a gradient of 7.3% it is a legendry mountain of the Tour de France. Lots of the cols have kilometre markers that count down how far you have left until the summit. I focussed on reaching the various landmarks of the climb, including snow protection tunnels, hotels and shops whilst counting down those markers… As we rode into the finish at Cauterets we had conquered six categorised climbs!

On the final day in the Pyrenees we were due to climb three cols and tackle our second mountain summit finish. However, after climbing the Porte d’Aspet and the Col de la Core we were informed that the Port de Lers was closed due to someone sprinkling tacks on the descent and therefore we wouldn’t be able to do the climb. I was absolutely shattered at this stage and when given the option of going up an alternative col or heading straight to the final col I took the latter option and joined the others in the team who had ridden the alternative col at the foot of the Plateau de Beille.

This was without doubt my favourite climb so far on the One Day Ahead challenge. Almost the entire route of the 15.8km climb was lined with spectators from all over the world encouraging us to keep going and many recognised us as being part of the ‘Geoff Thomas Challenge.’ There was an incredible party atmosphere with music and pop-up bars along the climb. I reached the top just after 8pm – it had been an incredibly long day but we were all excited and slightly anxious about what the following day and what our guest arrival would bring…

Part Two of Helen’s Le Tour One Day Ahead feature will be published on Cyclo soon – follow us on Twitter for all the latest news, plus feature and review alerts.

Further details of Le Tour One Day Ahead at beforethetour.com and, most importantly, you can help add to Helen’s incredible fundraising total for Cure Leukaemia by donating at JustGiving.

Photo Credits: David Walsh and Joolze Dymond

Good hydration is crucial and with warm weather here now could be a good time to think about how you will make sure you are correctly hydrated so that you get the most from your training, and recover fast.

Before Training

The first goal is to be in good fluid balance at the start of your training session.

To do this, you just need to drink sensibly during the day. It is a myth that you should drink eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy, and there is no evidence at all to say that this much helps you with your training. Instead, drink when you feel thirsty, and take a drink at meal times.

Most people don’t need more that about 2 litres of fluid per day. This fluid can come from any source – water, juice, squash, milk, tea, coffee, food – so you can see it is quite easy to get most of this through normal meals and little more than a couple of cups of tea.

To make doubly sure you are ready for your training, you could drink 250-500ml about one hour before your session. It is perfectly okay if you drink a bit a little more here – you will just get rid of the excess when you take a visit to the toilet before you start your exercise.

During Training

What you should drink depends on the duration and intensity of the training, and your goals.

Duration: How long are you training for?

If you are training for one hour or less, then it doesn’t really matter if you drink or not; it is very unlikely that you will become significantly dehydrated in an hour, even if you are exercising hard in hot conditions. Your body has enough energy stores to easy cope with this amount of hard work, so you do not need to take in anything that contains energy.

If you are training for more than one hour, then you may need to replace the energy/fluid that you use. Plain water is not a great choice here – choose squash or a sport’s drink instead or consider electrolyte replacement tablets such as H2Pro or VipVit’s ZV0.

Intensity: What kind of session is it?

If the session is long, warm, and at a high intensity, then along with losing water (in sweat) and using up energy, you also lose electrolytes (salts) in sweat. To replace the electrolytes, you should definitely consider something with replacement salts in. You could add a small amount of table salt to your squash (a pinch per pint is the rough rule), or choose a sport’s drink – for example Lucozade Sport or Powerade ION4 – or, again, use electrolyte replacement tablets.

What are your goals?

If your goal is to lose weight, then you should not replace the energy that you use. Instead, you should choose a drink that does not contain much energy. Water could be good here. However, if you are sweating a lot and need to replace your salts, make some sugar-free squash and add some salt (you could add salt to water, but it doesn’t taste too good). Alternatively, there are some sports drinks formulated to contain electrolytes but not sugars – Powerade Zero, for example.

How much should I drink?

You can sweat quite a lot before dehydration starts to affect performance. A good rule is to drink just enough so that you don’t lose more than about 2-3% of your bodyweight. For a 70kg person, this means losing no more than about 1.5kg – three pint glasses! But how long does it take to lose 1.5kg (or 1.5 litres) of sweat? Of course, this depends on the weather conditions and the intensity you are training at. Also, everyone sweats at different rates, so it is a good idea to find out how much you sweat. To do this, weigh yourself before and after you exercise. For example, you weigh 70kg at the start, and 69kg at the end of a 1-hour ride. This is a loss of 1 litre of fluid per hour – typical for hard exercise in warm conditions.

Now let’s say you are doing a two-hour ride. You are okay with losing 1.5kg, but we know that in two hours you will lose more than that: 2kg, in fact. Therefore for this length of ride, you should drink about 500ml on-the-go. There are a number of hydration calculators available to help you with this, both online and as smartphone apps – see the Cyclo feature here.

After Training

The aim after training is to get you back to where you were before you started. If you haven’t lost any weight during your training, then you don’t need to drink more than your thirst dictates. But if you have lost some weight, you need to get back to where you were before. To do this, drink up to 500ml in the first 10-15 minutes after you finish training, and then take sips, or drink to thirst, for the next 3-4 hours. Don’t rush it. Weigh yourself again to check if you have made it.

Feature by Stephen Fritzdorf  - Stephen is a Sport Physiologist, a lecturer at Lund University and creator of the Quench hydration app. He worked with the Danish Olympic Team 2008-2014, and before that with the English Institute of Sport. Details of the Quench hydration app here.

Anything you can do we can do… well, in a different but equally intriguing way. Eroica Britannia is inspired by the original L’Eroica (The Heroes) born in 1997 to celebrate Tuscany’s Strade Bianchi – White Roads – with the UK version blending a love of cycling, history and the environment into one jam-packed weekend event.

Like its Italian cousin Eroica Britannia adheres to strict rules of ‘vintage’. Bikes must be pre-1987, gear shifts on the down tube only, no quick release pedals, even the number of spokes is specified (32 or more please.) Vintage or ‘era-specific’ clothing, although mentioned generally in the rules, is so ubiquitous as to be practically compulsory. We assume it’s up for friendly debate whether your reproduction gear is convincing enough.

As it moves into its second year, the 2015 Eroica Britannia will feature three days of family focused festivities celebrating the ‘Best of Great Britain.’ The line up includes live music and entertainment, shopping at the ‘British Bazaar’, the ‘World’s Greatest Bike Jumble’, Food Festival and Sports Day. The main attraction is, of course, the rides of 30, 55 and 100miles over the white roads and gravel tracks of the beautiful Peak District. Villages on route will be holding their own mini festivals as well as providing much needed refreshments.

All routes start and finish in Bakewell on the banks of the River Wye and head on to the Monsal Trail, which for most of it’s length, follows the course of the Old Midland Railway line (complete with tunnels) through the heart of the Peak National Park. The route then takes all riders through Millers Dale where the fun really starts. You choose from:

The Short Route

A 30mile option with an ascent of 2528ft (771m) and an off-road element of 25%; refreshment stops are at 14 and 21miles. Described as: ‘a great choice for riders of all levels of fitness. It is fairly undulating but definitely enough of a stretch to give you a challenge’. Don’t miss out on Eyam the famous ‘plague village’…

The Medium Route

55 miles with an ascent of 6113ft (1864m) and an off-road element of 30%; refreshment stops are at miles 20, 37 and 52. Much more of a challenge, this route is billed as: ‘a bit more adventurous and does require you to be reasonably fit.’ You might consider a stop at Hartington Village a bustling market town and the home of Stilton Cheese; you may need it as the next stage is all uphill to the Tissington Trail.

The Long Route

At 100miles with ascents totaling 9252ft (2821m) and an off-road element of 25% (refreshment stops at 10, 37, 51, 63, 78miles, and finally Chatsworth House at the 94 mile mark.) Eroica Britannia say this is ‘…a real challenge which covers all the very best of the Peak District National Park’. The route features a number of climbs including a 2-miler over the dramatic Mam Nick rising to 15% at points.

So, to the details: Eroica Britannia is centred on The Bakewell Showground, Bakewell, Derbyshire, starting on Friday June 19 and running until Sunday, June 21. The inclusive ethos is underpinned by the ticketing policy that enables a family of four to park, camp and enjoy the three days and nights of the festival for under £100. Tickets for the rides cost an additional £60 and are going fast and are best booked in advance online.

Although marketing statements like bringing the ‘…Handsome back into British Summertime life’ and finding the ‘…romance of heritage, sustainability, environment and lifestyle’ might make it sound like hipster hell, don’t be put off. Any event that attracts 200 vendors, 2,000 riders and a crowd of 30,000 in its first year must be doing something very, very right.

Cyclo will be dusting off that 1970’s Peugeot, knitting some woolen shorts, and heading for the Peak District…

Further details and tickets for Eroica Britannia at eroicabritannia.co.uk

Without question, Britain is blessed with some of the most idyllic cycling routes in Europe of which so many are perfect for the whole family. But when that curious itch sets in and the call for adventure further afield must be answered, just what kinds of delights await across the Channel?

To explore Europe by bike is to enjoy a uniquely privileged vantage point from which to take in the sights, sounds and flavours of so many different cultures right on the UK’s doorstep. And, with such simple transport links available, a summer cycling holiday on the continent really has never been a more realistic or rewarding prospect for the family.

Take, for example, France – home to sumptuous food, arguably the world’s finest wine and the prettiest of villages basking in the warmth of summer sun. What France delivers is the perfect blend of relaxation and invigoration, as you and the family make your way around majestic chateaux, sprawling vineyards and beautiful beaches. What’s more, France is home to some of the safest, most enjoyable and most expansive cycle lane networks to be found anywhere in Europe. All of which set the scene for a glorious family trip.

One of the most popular cycling regions in France is Brittany which delivers everything from rolling hills to stunning golden sands all within a short ride of each another. France’s ‘summer playground’ can be reached with ease – regular UK to France ferry crossings from the likes of Brittany Ferries will get you, the kids, the car, your bikes and all your luggage there for next to nothing.

If however you’d like to take your journey into the continent in a different direction, take the same Channel ferry crossing and plan a relaxing drive to Belgium – another European family cycling haven and the continental and spiritual home of the bike.

For example, Bruges happens to be not only one of the most beautiful cities you could ever hope to see, it’s also a city best explored by bicycle. While so many of Bruges’ visitors never look further than the famed cobbled streets of the city centre, a gentle ride beyond the city limits will bring you and the family right into the heart of what could be considered the real Belgium.

With landscapes ranging from sandy beaches to beautiful nature reserves and an endless networks of riverside cycle paths to explore, you’ll get a taste for the stunning side of Belgium seen only by the privileged few. The whole experience has the feel of a fairy-tale, which is made all the more indulgent with the decadent local cuisine you’ll find yourself falling head over heels for. After all, there’s more to Belgium than moules-frites and beer…

Another option for those looking to take the family on a genuinely thrilling cycling holiday can be found just a little further in the tulip-laden splendor of Holland. It takes less than a day to ferry the whole family over to France and set out on an exciting adventure to the heart of the Netherlands; Amsterdam in particular having a well-earned reputation for sublime cycling.

Something of an unofficial cycling capital for Europe, the bike really is the only way to travel in and around the Dutch capital. After taking in the sights of the city itself, you’ll cruise a little further afield to pass the picturesque windmills and canals that make this wonderful corner of the world so unique. Take the car to the famed tulip fields in the springtime for a sight the whole family will never forget, before returning to the city’s iconic parks to soak up the best of the summer sun.

For family cycling at its finest this summer, Europe is hard to beat and so easy to reach.