randonnees tour / pipe band music

[Stevie Blom]

good day folks !!!

 

im back from the tour of the randonnees!

just to let you guys know that i had a great time and found heaven whilst climbing those alps .

completed the entire tour and we all got those fancy medals , some people did not complete the tour which made me feel good as some of those geezers had been cycling for many years as for for me this is my 1st year!!.

it was that hot that 2 guys even blacked out in the hotel rooms after a days cycle.

 

 

some of the scenery was just amazing and words can not describe

how beautifull those alpine passes are.

i would recomend any1 to go on one of baxters sporting tours as they are well organised.

the main problem was the heat average 35 degrees celsius!!!!! .

 

i dont think i could have completed the tour if it wasnt for the pipe band music

pumping through my heeed phones just to remind me of the training that id been doing over mount top endless times and other weeeee lumps(i right).

 

i was feeling great each day and had a fear that my weee legs would feel as if they wid huv been stuck in a vice , but all was cool and just took my time and most importantly found my own pace!!!!! in 53 x 12 all the way!!!!! (39 x 27)

as this was a holiday , we had several coffee stops on the way and enjoyed the view with our cameras snapping away paparatzie style .

 

most of the bigger cols such as the izeran , vars , restefond etc was a bit tricky as you did not know how far you could push your body to climatise to the heat plus your food and drink intake.

thankfully i pulled through and had enough water and food to get me up plus the back up vehicle was within a 10k radius at all times for you to get some supplies.

the amount of water consumed by me could have helped the drought in africa alone - i mean i got the shits big time each morning and lost the power of my legs as i got glued to the toilet seat - no joke its not a laughing matter when your system cleans you out.

 

i did the restefond 2808 m in 2hrs 35minutes , but hey wait for it wee

chippo van der white heed did it in 1hr 48 with scoot not long behind the pair of them was waiting at the top of the alp for me to get a team photo but both of them started to get frost bite in the tampon with wings part of your cycling shorts which consisted a tub of savlon etc .

 

anyway wee mark was on form each day and he inherrited the name the "badger" - as a peloton from machester was with the tour these guys just blasted though each col and was back in the hotel 5hrs b4 any 1 else????

so mark decided to sit in front of them on the col val di ser!! he was so fast that one of the manchester guys tried his hardest to keep up and then decided to call it a day with a classic cyclist lie " expletive deleted guys i need to go to the toilet".

now that was minted it was almost as good as asking a cyclist you have not seen in a while the question "hows things" and he would reply not bad not been doing much - ?????? lies lies lies and more lies.

 

 

 

some of the decents where just amazing but some where very scary , i nearly went over a hairpin bend coming down from the col de roselond - i mean i just did not see it untill the last second and nearly went over the edge heading down 2000m to the deck . i just managed to pull the bars jan ullrich style.

it was nice to see the names on the rd of pro cyclist during the tour.

 

we ended up talking to the other foreign guys on the tour who came all the way from the land of oz!!! one of them said to me(with strng oz accent) "stevie

when you are going down the alp and you got no barriers on the side , no trees , no bushes , well mate struth your %$&*ed.

 

i would like to tell more but i just cant remember it all to put on to paper but im sure mr scott donaldson will have a good disortation to hand in with some amazing photos.

 

on the 2nd last day i decided to tackle the 1st col of 6 as fast as i could - i climbed 1700m at 7.5 - 9mph to the top at 7.5 - 8 % i was impressed with my ability but unfortunatly later on that day i started to get the bonk and just managed to get back to "grass" to the hotel.

 

im proud to say that i only had 1and half power bars and did not take any protein drinks carb drinks or any other type of dodgy powders!!!!!!!

 

scott had all that type of stuff and he swears by it and is very keen on the nutrition side of the things.

 

for me the best decent was down the "gourge" just outside of St Etien - speeding up to 45+ mph through tunnels and bridges, past on comming cars and dodging rocks that where edging out of the side of those moutains which could have given you a nasty malky to the coupon if in direct contact .

 

the most fantastic times was when we all started climbing some of the highest and hardest climbs and some of the tourists in cars was passing you - some of the looks you got from them was either "my god what a guy for doing this" or "are you aff yer nut".

 

as we where going through some of the main tourist sites we must have paid a high rate for some of the food and even thatt made the uk look like as it had been hit by U.N. food parcels.

 

it really made the uk lood 2nd rate i mean we had some minted pizza etc - i just wonder how hard it must be to prepare a bit of breed and chuck a few spoon fulls a tomato and chees on top - like glasga , pure grease man dripping oot the loaf but the tally's they know how to make food.

 

it wasnt untill i got back to sunny johnstone and seen a local NED with the usual skipped kap , white trainers and shell suit on with the white socks up to his knee caps - that s when i realised that it was over ooooooohhhhh nooo

please.

 

cheers and see you all later

 

stevie blom.