"The toughest day of my life"

Round the world sailor Emma Westmacott tackles cycling's 196km of L'Etape Du Tour

Long before the cycling Tour De France got itself embroiled with it latest performance enhancing scandal I was pushing the hard miles in England, preparing for one of the toughest challenges in my life so-far. I didn't know it yet but L'Etape du Tour (one stage of the Tour open to the public) was to push me to my limits as I scaled five mountain peaks and a total distance of 196km. And just 12 hours to do it in.

We took on the challenge - a bunch of sailors - organised by OC Group's Mark Turner we were to tackle Stage 15. Normal people riding in the most extreme cycling event in the world, one of the hardest most demanding endurance events around.

Now I say a bunch of sailors, but I am told this is not so! I have sailed around the World in four campaigns – the Jules Verne Non stop Around the world challenge in 1998, and 3 Volvo/Whitbread challenges. Nick Moloney, raced in the America’s Cup, Trans-Atlantic single handed, Vendee Globe single handed, Whitbread/Volvo amongst others. Sydney Gavignet, America’s Cup, numerous Whitbread/Volvo races. Deborah Searle, Rowed across Atlantic. Mark Turner – walked to South Pole, OC Events CEO, trans-Atlantic. Added to our group were some die hard cyclists enthusiasts but we all had something in common- knowing the meaning of pushing hard to achieve something.

For me it was an amazing experience, the challenge is 196km over five mountains in the Pyrenees – 4460m of climbing in total in possible 40 degrees of heat. Any of these challenges individually is achievable, but all together? And to make it worse there is a time limit of 12 hours, with cut off points along the way. So preparation was everything, as was pacing oneself to last the distance.



I had been out in May with Nick to ride the route over a week end – two days and we had not even completed it then, due to weather, bad preparation – my tire blew, no long pants so got really cold, etc etc. Plus we were not fit enough then, could we really do 12 hours in the saddle?

Sports specific training – we hear this all the time, but what does it mean? It means that when the challenge is riding in the mountains where you are either going up at 10km per hr for an hour, or down at 40km per hr, there is just no point in training in the UK by doing miles of cycling at a high RPM (cadence) on the flat, the challenge is about cycling under a high load for hours, these climbs are between 9 and 20km, so it is not a quick 10 minute burst, but a 45min – 2 hr crawl!! How do you train for that here? Well you get on the turbo trainer and you ride at a high load in and out of the saddle for a minimum of 1.5 hours, but how do you train for that last hill when you have ridden 160km and done 4 mountains already?!! Well you just have to go out there and do it, and in retrospect if I did it again that is what I would do – go out and train out there more.

So I changed my regime, I had been training since Jan, which when I look back I did an average of 4 days a week, nothing less than 1.5 hours, and at the end long rides of 4-6 hours. I did want to ride the distance a few times before – and by myself so that when (not if) I got dropped from the peloton I would not worry about being able to ride the distance. There were some considerations though – there are five mountains each taking about 1hr to climb and one taking two hours, so I knew I had six hours of climbing and so by default about three hours hrs of down hill/ easy pedalling and then one hour plus of flat. So a minimum of ten hours riding!! Mentally this is the hard bit.

The day before I was amazingly calm – after all there is nothing more one can do. My bike was prepared, with good gearing (I had changed it to go better up the hills), fully serviced, I had a small bag filled with cut up sports bars on the cross bar, I had my drinks mixed up with 2 litres on the bike and 2l in a camel back on my back. I had all the gear for fixing chains, punctures etc, I had a length of white electrical tape on the cross bar with the top of each mountain – the distance and time I needed to be there to avoid the cut off. Nothing else to do. Not dis-similar to dinghy racing! So I went to bed at 8.30 for a 5am rise!



So there we were – starting numbers of 1019! So up the front with more than 7000 people behind us, mostly unable to get on their bikes for about 30mins until the rush had gone. Hundreds of bikes and people, and count down was on, what a feeling to ride under the same arches as those amazing athletes, and know you are about to embark on the same route, nothing easier, just more hours! It is not like sailing an easier boat around the world or using an easier racing car, one is on a bike, going down the same route as the pros, and reminded of it every time you see their name on the road scrawled by some fan!

This was the hardest day of my life. The most challenging endurance activity I have ever done in my life.

Luckily it was over cast so we had some respite from the heat – which had been 38 the day before, but still my heart rate monitor read off 42 degrees in the sun. In the beginning I got taken away by the moment and swept along by this train of cyclists, I found myself climbing the first Col with a heart rate of 165bpm, too high, far to high for someone who thinks they are going to last 10 hours!!! I had been going 2 hrs and the excitement made it feel like 15minutes. So I had to slow down. By the end of the day I found myself struggling to even see 135bpm as exhaustion set in.

It was gruelling, the only thing to do is break these mountains down and by the last, when I gazed up and saw this never ending trail of switch backs I looked at it thinking – no way – but realising – no option! – and saying to myself 'Four corners, just 4 corners to pass'. It is amazing how ones attitude and sense of distance adapts to the challenge.

I was pretty self sufficient – another way of me coping – knowing I don’t have to worry about drink, or where I will get more energy from, I knew I had enough on me. I had the knowledge all along of the support of my sister – Susie – who had come out to be there and support, I owed to her and all those meals she and Tommo had cooked for me when I was too tired after training, I owed to everyone who thought I could do it – to do it!! We had to take our phones so I kept her abreast of where I was! Texts reading – “top of 1”, “top of 2” - then by the last it was too hard to text so a quick call of how far to go.

I was two and half hours ahead of the time at the bottom of the fourth and penultimate climb. By the top I had lost 30mins, and by the top of te fifith I had lost another 45 minutes. I had to finish!

The elation of achieving – I went over the finish line with a huge lump in my throat and dry tears in my eyes – I did it! Man, I had finished the most tiring thing I had ever done, and I had completely prepared myself that perhaps I would not achieve it. 10 hours 55 minutes of cycling! That is a long time! And Alexandre Vinokourov who won the stage, stage 15, – did it in 5 hours 35mins.



But we had done it. It is great – the bond created between people who have al achieved the same challenge, sailing through the Southern Ocean in gales, and smiling at your opposition because you know what you have gone through.

I heard Lance Armstrong once say – riding the tour hurt him as much as the average club rider physically and mentally, the difference was that he was just going quicker!

One has to admire these Tour de France riders. They are amazing, I know the sport is fraught with disrespect right now due to drug scandals – which is wrong and must be discouraged. One cannot take away from these guys how amazing they are in their never ending training regimes, their endless hours on the bike, and the fact that they do what I did in half the time – and for days on end. I was so sore the next day, in fact for the next 3 days!

The facts:
• Km 27 Col de Port Climb of 11,4 km at 5,3%
• Km 98 Col de Portet d’Aspet Climb of 5,7 km at 6,9%
• Km 114 Col de Menté Climb of 7 km at 8,1%
• Km 159 Port de Balès Climb of 19,2 km at 6,2%
• Km 184 Col de Peyresourde Climb of 9,7 km at 7,8%

So I came:
30th in my category, out of 65
49th out of 100 Females that finished
3103rd out of the total entrants, around 8000
Finish time of 10.55.38

I also had had great support form Gary, John and Matt in my bike shop – GA Cycles in Shirley, Southampton ( http://www.gacycles.co.uk), all their advice on gearing and motivation to keep at it with the training rides, to my colleague Helen and Shaun at Firm Move Personal Training, who never for one minute let me think I would not make it!

Anyone who would like more information on this amazing event or some motivation to get out and train for their sailing can get information from emmawestmacott@compuserve.com


Mark Turner (left), Emma (centre) and sister Susie.