The End

So its as tardy as ever but here we are.  A full write up of the day could take up pages and pages, so again I'm going to go for the bullet point summary:

The Timings

• I finished in an official time of 9hr 06mins.
• This was 16 minutes outside the gold time.
• Timing was a source of confusion this year. The Glandon feed stop and descent was stated on registering as not being timed, due to accidents, but the certificate at the end did include this time.
• This annoyed the hell out of me because I used the "neutral" zone to have a longer than normal rest.
• The official results now do not include the neutral zone time.
• I don't believe the standard times were adjusted for the section not being timed, so I don't think the gold time was really 8hr 49mins. 
• My total time was 9hr 55mins. So I think its fair to say that I was a way off a proper gold standard.
• Either of these times puts me just inside the top 50% (in total and for age group).

The Bump

• At 6 miles in (well before the start of the Glandon) I got pushed over into a metal crash barrier by the side of the road. This left me with a sore left thigh (felt like an isolated dead leg) and very very sore ribs on my right. So sore in fact that I could not breath deeply for the next 2-3 hours.
• Initially I was fairly distraught at the result, but now in perspective I think the time was ok, and given the pain it was a reasonable effort to finish.
• After the finish I couldn't lift my leg high enough to pedal, so had to walk back to the hotel.
• Ribs are still sore, although about a week after the ride I started to sleep properly.

The Route

• The route itself is mind blowing. It is pretty beyond words.
• I feel it a privilege to have been at the top of the Galibier. To have gone up there (looking back down as I rode up) it seems almost surreal that I did it by cycling!
• I spent most of the time on the climbs passing people, despite the pain, so it felt like things were going ok. Bear in mind we did start pretty near the back.
• Some very, very good riders enter this event. Really good.
• In the restaurant later we came out as some cars went past with lights and horns blaring as they escorted the lantern rouge up the last few corners of the Alpe. This was fantastic, the road was suddenly full of people (coming out from their dinners) to go bananas, cheer the guy on and give him a push! Great moment.
• There is nothing I've ridden before that compares to this, certainly nothing in the UK even comes close. The Marmotte makes (and I say this with all due respect to a ride that I love) the Fred Whitton look like a challenging club run.
• Never drunk so much on a ride, energy drinks / water, just couldn't get enough. Haven't eaten as much either.

The Post-mortem

• My LT zone is higher than I thought, which caused me to back of a little at times. HR indicated that I was in the bottom of zone 5 when I was actually in the top of 4. Obviously this is wrong as I can't maintain low zone 5 for about 6 hours as the data indicates! Update... LT was 169 but is now set as 173, which has significantly altered my zones but does show I was climbing at the right effort.
• I will go back, not sure when though, to have another go. Hopefully then the timing will be sorted out and I can have an uneventful ride.
• I feel much more comfortable descending on my HED Ardenne wheels than my Lightweights. I am guessing this is due to the pressure I'm running (I think it's too low) so rather than take the tubs off for the rest of the year as I had planned I'm going to do some more experimenting with them first.
• I'm rubbish at descending, really crap. Just have no confidence, but I have to work on and improve this. Would have saved me 10 minutes at least this year.
• No mechanicals, phew.

The Advice

• If there is only one thing I would say from all this, for all the kit, toys, gadgets etc, if you have some money you feel a need to spend then there is only one thing you need: a coach!

The Stats for the Year

• Stats for the years training are on the right hand side.
• One thing that surprises me is that how different the training has been this year with my coach, bearing in mind that my goals was a ride with mountains in it! To give some idea of how different the training was - of the total climbing I did this year 19.5% of it was in 2 rides (being the Fred Whitton and the Marmotte itself)!

The End

• So that's that. I guess I can happily say I got fit again.
• I had a planned 2 week break which it turns out would have been required due to the ribs. I'm training again now and really enjoying it.
• The training I'm starting is to build on the fitness I've now got and start preparing for next years goals - whatever they may be.
• If you've read all of this then thank you. I hope you don't feel like you want the wasted hours of your life back :-)