MONDAY JULY 16TH
STAGE SEVEN
BOURG-EN-BRESSE TO LE GRAND BORNAND 197.5 km
TEAM Thomas is two years older in our Tour de France exploits but we could
certainly never be accused of being any the wiser.
Having finished last night in Bourg-en-Bresse, on the edge of the Alps, it
should have been a simple task to roll out of the hotel this morning on the way
to Le Grand Bornand and the first mountain stage of the 2007 Tour.
Of course, what actually happened was that we found one of the support
vehicles had a flat battery and, when we left without the cars, we took the
wrong turning out of the hotel and headed off in entirely the wrong direction.
And so, a leisurely 9am depart turned into a frantic 10.55am start and we spent
most of the day chasing the clock.
In fact, it was a good job our guest rider Dan had one of his pals, Simon
Burney, driving alongside us because he realized our mistake and turned us
around after 5 miles or so. Without him, and with the tailwind we had behind us,
we would have been back in Belgium before we realized our mistake!
In vintage Team Thomas fashion, we looked for a scapegoat and many fingers
were pointed. The easy way out would have been to blame our German friend
Markus, from the documentary crew, if only because he flew home from Geneva this
afternoon and wasn't around to defend himself.
In the interests of fairness, however, the blame eventually settled on an
Englishman who shall remain nameless (though his initials are Pete Slater) even
if he is still refusing to accept the blame and being sheepish about the subject
as I write this!
Anyway, on the road, it was a dispiriting first couple of hours until we
started heading deeper into the Alps and found ourselves in a nice river valley.
A quick stop at a picnic area also raised spirits although the afternoon brought
some sad news with Phil.
Bully had really been struggling with his knee injury for a couple of days
now and, eventually, after battling on manfully, the pain became too much to
bear. I know a thing or two about knee injuries and even I could tell Bully's
was in a bad way and was quite badly swollen.
It was sad to see him forced to pack in halfway through today's stage but, as
was the case with Matt Lawton when we did the Tour two years ago, sometimes
there is just no way around it. In any event that lasts 21 days, injury and
illness are going to play their part. The pros riding the Tour are in the same
boat so it was sad, if inevitable, that one of the lads would go down.
Bully was obviously disappointed when he first came off the bike but I guess
being through what he has been through gives you a healthy perspective on
things. Within a couple of hours, he was back to himself and encouraging us and
helping the support crew.
And we needed all the help we could get on the Col de la Colombiere near the
finish. A beast of an 18km climb, it's maybe the hardest climb I've ever done.
The Galibier was horrible two years ago, mostly because of the weather, but this
was possibly worse.
It is a relentless climb, particularly steep near the top, and the last few
kilometers shoot up in a straight line alongside the rock face. You can see the
top in the distance but you pedal and pedal without ever seeming to get closer.
Because of our late start time, it was dusk by the time we all got up there
which meant we faced descending the mountain into the finish in le Grand Bronand
in the near dark. With my dodgy eyes, that was a particularly tough challenge
and meant I could barely see a thing on the way down. It's not a cycling
technique I would recommend at home, kids!
Still, for all the problems and near disasters we live to fight another day
and, thank goodness, the rest day in Val d'Isere is now only one day away.
