Cycling is a great leveller. I very quickly found myself in the company of 117 cyclists from all backgrounds, ages and parts of the world. Interestingly there were only 9 women in this group. There were 5 Canadian women who had invested over a year of intensive training to ride all 21 stages. They looked fit and raring to go! We were told that as amateurs cycling repeat stages of the TDF puts us into the elite category so the pain we’d feel is elite pain. Elite pain was repeated constantly through the tour!

Life on Tour is crazy. It is definitely not a cycling holiday. The days are insanely long, and exhausting. We spent a lot of time in car parks. They became hubs for transfers, food stations, loo stops, massage, dinner and briefings. I think when I wasn’t cycling, most of the week I was in a car park somewhere! Organisational skills need to be fine tuned and there certainly aren’t enough hours in the day.

A typical day starts at 5am. Radio Tour sends out essential timings:

• 5.30 luggage on the van
• 5.45 Breakfast
• 5.45-6.15 Day Bags on the right van
• Departure 6.30.

There are four feed stops during the day, roughly 40km apart. Vans cover stops 1&3, 2&4 so you have a day bag for each van that you access at feed stops for extra kit, suncream, electrolytes etc. Making sure the right kit goes in the right bag is a challenge! This year I doubled up and kept the same stuff in each bag so I didn’t get it wrong!

Then we cycle….. occasionally we cycled from the hotel but most days there was a transfer to the start of the stage. Car park faff, checking tyre pressures again, loo stop and off you go. The first 40km each day is neutralised. No one can leave the first feed station until the last person has arrived. This encourages people to meet and cycle with people that would normally cycle at a different pace. It also paces those who would be tempted to tear off too quickly. I saw the first 40km each day as a warm up and it was usually a fun, chatty ride.

Days in the saddle were long, generally between 165-209km daily. The heat at the start was brutal. It was hot – the sun, the wind, and freshly tarmaced roads all threw heat back from every direction. We all struggled. The metres of climbing increased too especially as we hit the Pyrenees and the high category climbs. We cycled from one extreme to another, there was cloud cover to the point of being freezing at the top of climbs requiring long gloves and jackets from day bags to descend. I reached the top of Col D’Aspin in drizzle and cloud so thick I couldn’t even see the feed stop vans! With good visibility it was a joy, cycling through towns and villages decorated and ready for Le Tour passing through the week after us. Locals clapping and shouting Allez, Allez, Allez as we passed through gave much needed encouragement and smiles.

I broke each day up into feed stations. This made the day much less daunting and achievable. Just get to the next one…..

I learnt very quickly not to loiter at feed stations. Sign in, drink, fill bottles, eat as much as possible then go. It was easy to chat but the days are long, keep moving. Generally I’d reach the hotel or finish point by 7pm. There would be just enough time to wash out bottles, check bike, wash kit, repack bags for next day, if lucky have a massage, then make it to dinner and be briefed for the next day. Eat, sleep, ride, repeat!