Thankfully, most of the ride went fine, just the climb up the Campan side of the Tourmalet. An “easy” 100k ride to see today’s Tour de France stage, only it appears I have some issues when it gets really hot. Dang, I used to do pretty well when it’s hot, and I still do fine (better than fine, actually) on the flats and even into headwinds when it’s hot. But today on the Tourmalet, that was not my finest two hours.
Kevin had no such issues; he could ride at whatever speed he wanted up the hill. But starting at about 8k from the top, I was sweating more than normal, I was losing power, and finally had to do the unthinkable. Yes, I actually walked about a kilometer up hill.
At least I didn’t lose anything permanent, like Cadel Evans did today. Another 4 minutes off the pace, so there’s no way Cadel can even hope to make the podium in Paris this year. Me? I just lost face to my son, although there was some measure of redemption on the return when we hit quite a headwind on the gentle lower slopes of the Tourmalet, and I had quite a train of riders drafting behind me for quite a few miles. That, I’ll admit, was fun.
You know, this doesn’t really surprise me. I remember a very hot summer day about 10 years ago when you looked like absolute hell at the top of Sonora Pass. Absolutely covered in salt and riding much weaker than usual. Your Trek rep (whose name I cannot remember) and I were debating if we should demand that you NOT continue down the eastern side because we were worried you’d never get back up and over the top again.