I only started cycling in earnest a year or so ago. It helped keep me focused on the things I loved and on putting my life back together after years of alcohol and other substance abuse. I'm probably not the first, or the last, person with addictive/compulsive tendencies to discover the release that cycling offers.

I'm riding it for a charity called Get Kids Going, which offers mobility to disabled young people in the form of custom-built wheelchairs and trikes for sport and everyday use. I've said I want to raise at least 1,500 GBP for them. Actually I want to raise a lot more, but that's my minimum.

At the moment I'm getting out for about one ride of 30-40 miles (40-65km) per week plus another 30 or so in commuting and other riding. That's a generous estimation; I probably do less in reality. By June I'll need to be able to sit in the saddle for around 116.2 miles to finish the Etape. Oh and I'll need to do so while going up proper alpine climbs of 10% and more in some places.

So what do I need to sort out? Well here's a basic list:

• A training plan
  
• Stop smoking at some point
  
• Find a training partner
  
• Fund raising, once everyone's wallet's have recovered from Christmas
  
• Possibly a new bike
  

There's a whole load of other things I'll have to pick up along the way too: eating while riding, finding an energy drink that is bearable, learning how to pace myself up long climbs, riding in a group and most important of all developing the mental toughness and confidence to do it.

I've been off the bike since before Christmas due to weather and laziness but I can't wait to get back on it and get out there again. Not so much itchy feet as an itch in the thighs and calves to get pedalling and start building up to it. To start focusing on the goal and fguring out how I'm going to get there. It's not that I don't want to, more that I don't quite know how to.

So from tomorrow it's time to start finding time and going out, even if it is for just an hour's burst of riding as hard as I can, or just turning the pedals over. The most important thing is going to be developing the power I need for climbing and finding a nice rhythm to my riding.

I just tried the vanilla-flavoured Science in Sport Rego in my trial pack I bought and, good god! It was down the sink faster than it took to make it. I'm going to have to find something more palatable for after my rides.

Went out for my first ride of the year in the constant drizzle of central London to pick up a pair of Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase 7000x23 tyres to replace my 700x28 ones. I need to get used to a better quality of tyre and one that fits under my Race Blades mudguards. the 28s were rubbing at the back, something I didn't notice when I fitted them. In theory this means I'm on "racing" tyres, albeit training/durable ones.

What difference this will make is anyone's guess but it will probably see me skittering around corners like a giraffe on ice until I get used to them and pluck up the courage to find out how much grip they have.

I had to hose the bike down in the shower as it was filthy from a 1.5 hour ride during which I seem to have collected as much grime and dirt as is physically possible. Felt quite easy on the bike and I was fair clipping along (but remembering to adhere to the highway code as far as possible).

Part of me says I should forget about investing in a new bike and instead get this one sorted out properly. That said I wouldn't mind some carbon forks on it and given the amount I could spend I might be as well to get myself a newer bike at the next price point up, or perhaps the big splash out on a Specialized Roubaix Elite (subject to being able to get one with a triple) or Trek 5000.

Time for a shower and replenishment with pizza or something. It's not like I'm not using up the excess calories.

This sort of lack of motivation is just what I don't need if I'm going to start putting the hours in. A more hopeful view would be that it is stopping me overtraining and attempting too much too soon.

From next week I'll be making time in my schedule to get out and ride with a club or a group of fellow Etape riders round my area. For reference that's Chiswick in West London and we'll probably be putting the miles in around Richmond Park until the weather improves and it's lighter in the evening.

Perhaps it's the dark and the riding alone that seems so uneviable. Let's hope it is just that.

From home to East Dulwich in South East London, in the morning - mappy.co.uk says around 18km, I say further as it always goes for the shortest/quickest way to get anywhere. Actually I joined together a couple of routes that I know well enough to simplify the amounth of concentrating on directions I would need to do. So the first part followed my old route from Hammersmith to Westminister, as far a Vauxhall Bridge via Barons Court, Northend Road, Fulham Broadway, battersea Bridge Road and then flat out down Cheyne Walk. The second part followed the 185 bus route all the way to East Dulwich via Oval, Camberwell (I think) and Denmark Hill. All in about 45 minutes with a bit of a bump up the rise round Denmark Hill.

Then in the evening from East Dulwich to Spitalfields/Brick Lane via Elephant and Castle, Tower Bridge and Hackney/Whitechapel. Having consulted my A to Z before setting off I had a rough plan but once I had missed a turning in Peckham High Street somewhere it became a bit of a case of following my nose and looking out for signs to point me in the direction of landmarks, like Tower Bridge, and using a bit of common sense.

Finally, blasted home on late night streets - which were relatively quiet - down Old Street, Clerkenwell Road, Kingsway, Strand, Mall, Hyde Park, back up Kensington Church Street for some uphill, then down Holland Park Avenue, stop for bagels in Shepherds Bush and finally down Goldhawk Road and home.

One slight problem - it was very cold and quite damp yesterday which means I have developed a bit of a cold on my chest from all that hard breathing. hopefully it will shift soon enough. I have decided that I'm going to try and train three times a week and aim for a day on/day off routine so that i can fit things more easily around my other commitments.

It has dawned on me that I wasn't making much use of two out of the three rings on my chainset so I've been trying to get used to riding on the big ring and the small 'granny' ring when I can. In my slight haze this morning I didn't really notice that I hadn't dropped down off the big one as I was making my way up the incline from Highgate to Spaniards Way in North London. In fact I made it all the way to work without dropping down off it so now feel confident that I can turn a bigger gear more often. It also helps me get used to the useful habit of turning the pedals over to build up to the right cadence which seems to be easier to do when you've got something to push against.

I've decided to start wearing my glasses when I'm on the bike as much as possible so that I can actually see clearly where I'm going. I have, up until now, been quite happy to zoom around with blurred, astigmatic vision on the grounds that i can see most things but not detail. With my glasses on I do find it easier as I'm not straining to focus and so can concentrate more on what's going on around me. On the other hand they are a pain and I live in fear of them bouncing off the road in front of me. Contact lenses are the obvious solution but someone like me is bound to end up repeatedly stabbing myself in the eye with my finger trying to put them in.

I'm still suffering from a light cold from the constant damp at the moment. So the heavy rain on my way there and on my journey to work this morning were most unwelcome. It's difficult to enjoy it when you are being assaulted by sharp rain from all sides and you are feeling the chill. It's also rather difficult to see where you are going and hazards on the road. Of course the rain stopped shortly after I got to work and by lunchtime the skies were that lovely, clear wintery blue.

The bike needs a good hose down before I take it out again, which may be at the weekend to get some new blocks as I seem to have worn the current set quite heavily since they were fitted in the summer. I may even attempt to fit them myself in my ongoing quest to master bike maintenance. It'll also give me a chance to drop into Sigma sports in Kingston and consider a new bike and getting a 'bikefit' consultation to set up the existing one properly for my body.

So I finished the second lap then went and sat in the cafe for 20 minutes with a coffee and flapjack before I met up with another couple of guys who are doing the folly that is the Etape as well. I got back at 1:30pm after another three or four laps with them which were more to my liking. I'm now a bit knackered and need a lie down. I hurt a bit and keep on getting cramp attacks just behind the knee of my right leg.

I usually get passed by the groups when I'm out as they fly past. It's not that they're going much faster, just they are keeping the same even pace and working in a group is easier. I think I'll try and go out with them again at some point once I've got a few more miles under my belt, or just start in the slower group instead and keep a moderate gear while sticking in the middle of the bunch. My mistake was probably to hang on the back of the group rather than nearerr the front so, when the pace went up, there was nowhere for me to go other than out of the back.

It's a start though. By contrast I get a bit out of breath if I even attempt to jog from here to my mate's place, which is only round the corner, about 300 metres at most.

One thing I was reminded of as I struggled round is that what I do love is, when I'm in the mountains in summer, spotting a cyclist carving their lonesome way up the side of some monstrous climb. There is something deeply heroic and almost perfect about watching a man and machine working together like that against an immovable object and then overcoming it by force of will and through their own power.

It's not the longest ride in the world but it is one that I do frequently. Zipping up Holland Park Avenue, I found myself pondering why I struggled with the hills in Richmond Park on Saturday: up the hill from Ham gate towards Broomfield Drive at 12kph at times with no sense of being able to dig in for a little more energy. Yet there I was going up the slopes of another rich London quartier at about 25kph.

Wrong gear, wrong preparation on Saturday? It's possible that I had toasted myself trying to keep with a group that was too fast for me on the flat and had nothing left for the inclines. I'm pretty sure riding on the big ring did wear me out more than I expected so I'm back to abusing the middle one as much as possible, apart from for the downhill bits and the steep uphills.

Otherwise my main problem at the moment is that my hack bike got stolen at the weekend so I am in the process of replacing it, meaning that I am having to ride my good bike everywhere at the moment. Truthfully, I'm quite enjoying getting better accustomed to it and the way it rides in all situations. Hopefully I should have the hack replaced within a week or so with something from Edinburgh Bicycle Co-Op or a cheap second-hand from a local shop.

I managed a lap and a half before I found the cold was getting to me and I ran out of drink in my bottle. I still haven't got it into my head that, when I say I'm going out for an hour in Richmond Park, I need to factor in getting there and back which adds on a good 30 or 40 minutes to the ride.

Bar the joggers and other cyclists there's nobody else in there so you get full use of the road and can take the most aggressive line you like on the downhills and the shortest one on the uphills. And the deer; who it seems they are culling again in February. They are one of the main attractions for visitors to the park and are a fine sight to behold. Except when you are hurtling down the biggest hill in the park at over 50kph and one is running alongside you on the grassy verge, both of you with a look of utter terror in your eyes and not quite sure who is going to go which way.

Here's a picture of them that I took just before Christmas when I was out for one of my Tuesday afternoon rides.

I encountered a poor chap carrying his bike back along the stretch from Ham Gate to Broomfield Drive. Apparently his chain had started jumping and bent his rear mech out of shape. I felt rather sorry for him having to walk all the way back round in his cleats but he seemed to be resigned to his walk with good grace and did thank me for stopping to see if he was alright.

Yet again the cold and my innate propensity to defy any material known to wick away the amount of sweat that pours out of me on a ride meant that after one full lap I was ready for home. I had a bit of an existential crisis at the end of the lap coming up the slope (well it's not enough to call a hill) towards Richmond Gate. My ability to go up hills in the park seems to have gone and I once again found myself going backwards on the hills to a slow trundle regardless of how many gears I dropped down.

If anyone has any advice as to why this is happening, and only really happening in the park, then please feel free to add your comments. I don't get the same when I'm riding up any other hills that I encounter and it is starting to rile me in my head.

I'm going to try and get out again with London Dynamo on Saturday morning so i shall probably report back on my progress after that. Hopefully it will be a more successful outing than last week's.

It was an enjoyable 3 laps of the park for me with a bit of extra mileage today. The highlight of today's ride, with headphones in, was screaming down the big hill with Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a place on earth" blaring out. Through the sunlight, along the racing line; that's what cycling should be all about.

There were some interesting riders out today, some of whom are worth mentioning. First, the woman on her tourer or old-fashioned racer who I've seen the last few weeks. She is silver-haired and I would guess at least in her sixties. She goes round clockwise at her own very even pace and must do at least 5 or more laps i reckon. Sometimes her expression is one of fixed determination, otherwise she has slight smile and seems to be thoroughly enjoying it.

Then there was the girl on a nice-looking racer who was wearing what I though was a parka type jacket in blue and one of those big woven scarves that are popular with the sort of woman you see a lot of in the home counties and west London. I could have sworn she was doing laps in a skirt and tights. Although I am willing to admit it may have been shorts over tights.

The other person worth a mention is the chap on the "fixed" which I think was a cannibalised Specialized of some sort. For those of you who haven't dived into the world of cycling, a "fixed" or is pretty much what it sounds like. The back wheel is fixed so that you can't freewheel - you only go as fast as you can manage to turn the pedals and, if you stop turning the pedals, you stop pretty abruptly and messily. It's hard work but he kept up a pretty strong pace on the flat and the only time I felt I had the edge was on the downhill. We did a lap together and it was nice to have someone to tow round and to keep me honest. Sometimes it's very easy to not push yourself when you are out on your own and just work within your limits.

I popped down to Kingston-on-Thames afterwards to get some new brake pads from Sigma Sport which is one of the best bike shops around. A lot of places these days the staff don't really seem to know their bikes and don't carry an evident passion to enthuse the customer with. The couple of times I've been in to Sigma they have been unfailingly helpful and chatty. They've never tried to sell me something I don't need and always listened carefully. I can thoroughly recommend them and will be going to them for my next bike some time later this year.

Got home and threw the kit in the wash as I'd managed to sweat through my base layer and windproof jersey. Once I'm on a bike it really is like turning on a tap and I've yet to find a solution. No amount of technical fabric or wicking properties can cope. Roll on the warmer weather when getting a sweat on doesn't mean that you very quickly end up as cold as a bag of frozen peas.

Sadly I must report that I have yet to beat it. Again I found myself blowing up and having to stop just before the final bend. Admittedly, I had my rucksack on, with my heavy lock and dead weight of clothes, but that shouldn't excuse my lack of ability to climb something which is pretty basic compared with what I am going to face in July. I guess I need to go out and keep on attacking it until I master it. That's the proven way to master climbing - keep on trying until you gain some level of proficiency.

What caused me to stop was that I had dropped down as many gears as I could to see if I could spin my way up the hill without coming out of the saddle. At some point habit kicked in and I sprung out of the saddle to give myself a quick jolt and to keep the momentum going. I must have been way down the sprocket as, as soon as I kicked down on the pedal, the bike shot foward and the pedal felt light under my foot.

It threw me totally off my cadence, which had been good and even up to that point, and I just couldn't settle back into the saddle as the bike lost its initial thrust and slowed under me. Perhaps hills in town aren't the best place to be learning these skills and that sort of trial and error should be reserved for somewhere a little less busy with traffic.

Which brings me to the next issue in my preparation - cadence. It's the rate at which you turn the pedals and is key to efficient cycling. The old wisdom was about 60 revolutions per minute but more modern opinion say that, post-Lance Armstrong era, the optimum rate is somewhere around 90. I actually find that an awkward rate and feel more comfortable at a lower cadence. But I have been trying to get used to the technique to give me a point of reference and so that I can start finding my own ideal compromise.

Day off this evening in part as I had a ride yesterday, as detailed, and in part due to the face that it is flesh-stripping cold out there.

The broom wagon is what happens to those who simply haven't got what it takes to reach the time-checks on the course. I desperately don't want to be one of them. I've been worrying about what sort of set up to take and what gearing is going to work for me. All a handy diversion from my day-to-day worries but not really getting me anywhere.

so I turned to Ron's etape site - http://www.etape.org.uk/. It's a very useful resource for anyone doing the Etape and has raised my spirits somewhat. He's reminded me that I don't need to be ready now, but in July and that when it's as bitingly cold as it is this week there is always the gym. So tomorrow evening I'll be popping down my old gym and sitting on the cycling machine for a couple of hours pounding out a hard session to make up for it.

I somehow feel like I'm riding within my limits at the moment and not really improving on my fitness level. I'm still struggling on actually getting up the roads that should be a doddle. Perhaps my recovery rate has improved and I haven't noticed that but I just don't feel like I'm developing the power to take on the mountains.

There's the urge to get out there and really push myself but it has to be tempered with the knowledge that the target is a long way off yet. In the meantime I suppose I can still keep wondering about which bike to buy next. The Focus Cayo from Wiggle is certainly tempting me, being lightweight carbon, with a 10-speed range on the sprocket and the new compact chainset which in theory gives me almost as many options as a triple. Otherwise, I'm looking at the trek 1400 or similar spec.

I feel like my best option, not necessarily in terms of price, is to go to a shop and get myself fitted properly on a bike that will fit rather than risking one that might fit off the internet. What I save in cost I may well lose in service and actually getting the right piece of equipment for the job.

They were showing off some of the new range and had the chaps from Cyclefit (www.cyclefit.co.uk) down to tell the 20 or so riders, who had been swift in replying to the invite, about their service and some of the issues for getting the right bike. I probably should have badgered them a bit more afterwards to find out what I can do about my nagging lower back problem which I need to get looked at.

Instead I spent most of my time discussing their new designs with the designer fella, whose name I have forgotten (rather embarassing how bad I am with names these days). We even had his pantone block out to check colours. We also discussed the Massif Central with me extolling what a great place it would be for a photoshoot. Their upcoming tricolore range looks very cool, especially the France one, and there are some really strong choices of colours that will look as good off the bike as on.

I still can't wait for their bib shorts to become available (probably March) as that's the one item I am still missing in my wardrobe. By the sounds of things they will fit perfectly with my aesthetic, having black-on-black logos rather than the annoying white-on-black that so many companies insist on. I just think that it ruins the line visually to have a blur of logo jumping up and down on the leg. On the jersey, fine.

I also spent some time discussing the Etape with a lady called Jo who reckons it's going to be a hot time on the ride this year, given how far south the course is and the time of year. I think she could well be right, but knowing my luck it'll be cloudy and grey. She's ridden it before and fired up my enthusiasm again - so I went flat out all the way home in the icy high winds which are rather torrid today.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the gym owing to the cold. I tried various things, including what it's like to output the 300 watts or so needed for an event like the Etape. I lasted about 5 minutes at most, struggling at a low cadence and sweating like a leaky showerhead. After much dithering and avoidance I put in a few sessions that can't amount to more than 20 or so miles but at a high work rate and heart rate. I feel alright today which is unusual.

Maybe my fitness is improving after all.

That's how I explained it to the lady who I stopped to help at the bottom of the big hill. She was struggling with her brand-new Specialized Dolce and a jumpy chain. She said that it was coming off when shifting down on the hills so I suggested she try shifting down a chainring before the hill, rather than as she came onto the initial incline and then balancing it out on the sprocket by going up a couple of gears. It's a problem I had when I first started riding my current set-up. I'd try and drop down too late and end up with the chain jamming and bringing me to a grinding halt.

Despite the lovely sunshine it was still definitely winter out today. Popped on a nice thick jersey under the windproof top today to combat that cold Russian wind that has been sweeping in from the East. Still didn't stop the icy windchill creeping in along with the dampness of sweat.

Today it was a case of the usual three laps and home again which, all inclusive of getting there and back, amounts to about 50 kilometres. I recently figured out that there's about 8km between my house and the Richmond Gate, which counts as a pretty good warm up and a nice top-up to my training distances.

A quicker second lap on which I pushed a bit harder counts for trying to raise my fitness levels but I still don't feel like I'm improving as much as I would like. It feels like I've hit a bit of a plateau and unless I start working harder I worry I'll not be where I should be in the grand training scheme.

Tuesday I plan to go out and take on a good 50 miles plus just to guage where I am at in terms of being able to do the distance. I'll probably pelt down towards Dorking and the Surrey Hills and have a tilt at a few hills out that way.

The night before was spent tinkering with the bike to sort out my saddle position. It had been annoying me for a while that it wasn't quite level but I hadn't quite go round to unravelling the mystery of which bit was stuck and refusing to allow me to adjust it. A liberal dousing of WD40 and a bit of what is known as "twatting it hard with something heavy" revealed that it was one half of the clamping bit (I should know the name of it). Once released and adjusted my saddle position was far more comfortable, although it has led to a slight problem with a bit of chaffing towards the back of the inner thigh.

So from my house the route was relatively straightforward and as follows:

Over the Hogarth roundabout and Chiswick Bridge, up to the Richmond Gate, down through Ham and on to Kingston. From there following the A307 down to Esher and left towards Leatherhead via Oxshott. From Leatherhead (following a slight bit of dithering) pick up the road towards Mickelham and make use of the rather Surrey cycleway as far as the bottom of Box Hill then up the Zig Zag Lane side. Stop for coffee and flapjack and then make return journey, including a quick sprint through Richmond Park.

The most enjoyable part was probably discovering the Surrey cycleway which is reasonably wide and well maintained strip adjacent to the main road which I bombed along without having to worry about traffic. Sometimes a well maintained route like that is better than having to share to road and compared to many of the deeply compromised cycle lanes and routes I see around London it actually seemed to show some thought for cyclists of all persuasions.

Box Hill didn't prove as much of a challenge as I had expected. Or rather, it didn't at the speeds I went up it - a stately but consistent 15-16kph which may have dipped down to 11-12 until I found my climbing legs for the first time. I didn't particularly push myself though as, with the air temperature around the 6 degree mark, the windchill factor meant it wasn't much above freezing even at those low speeds.

When it came to descending, full of coffee and flapjack, I discovered that I had sweated my way through my breathable/waterproof layer. At 50kph this became rather painful as the cold goes through the damp bits and right to your core at this time of year. Not even the weak winter sun could help me out with warming up, making the ride back a determined effort to ride harder to warm myself up.

All in the ride took me roughly four hours, including coffee and flapjack, getting a little lost a couple of times, negotiating traffic and waiting at various sets of traffic lights. For a solo ride, averaging nearly 23kph according to my computer, in January conditions I'm fairly happy with that. In a group I'm sure I would have gone along quicker and in warmer weather I certainly wouldn't have held back for fear of freezing. If that reads as an average closer to 25-28kph by the end of March then I'll be happy.

Next on the list is to start with the fundraising which has been going pretty disastrously thus far with only Jon Richards having chipped in. This is probably because I haven't got round to asking everyone in my email address book, just a few. I suppose I'd better start soon.

Instead of the usual constitutional three laps of Richmond Park I thought I'd try something different. So after two and a half laps at a pretty average rate I decided to do some hill practice on Broomfield Drive, which is "the big hill" in the park and the one I usually enjoy thundering down. So I went up and down it five times in total trying to find a technique that suits me. It may have been four times as I got a bit confused after having followed a man on a push-scooter up it.

He is an equal first for odd things I saw today. He was on one of those chunky-wheeled scooters that you see in the windows of skate shops and when the hill sharpened he'd hop off and jog up with it. But his competition is quite the oddest thing so far this year in the park - three girls wearing rucksacks and climbing harnesses, each dragging a tyre behind them around the park. I assume they are off on some sort of trek in one of the polar regions. If not, that's just plain odd behaviour, says the man attempting the Etape.

But back with my hill-climbing practice and the news is that I haven't quite got the hang of coming out of the saddle on the climbs. I'm far happier dropping down to the small "granny" ring on my chainset and turning that over than trying to power my way up on the middle ring, which I think is a 42. This will obviously annoy purists who think your bike should one be a 53/39 combination; mine's got something like 50/42/30. None of which makes much difference to the fact I'm still relatively slow and was down to less than 10kph on the steepest bit of what is no more than about 500 metres of climbing.

I find that when I get out of the saddle my breathing and power fade right away in a matter of pedal strokes but if I stay in the saddle, I can still generate the power but with much more control and over a longer period. This fits with the general wisdom in cycle training, so at least I'm not an abberant freak or complete disaster. But I'm going to have to be able to do both if I am to make it round the course in good time so I need to work on that area.

It was the usually disastrous situation of trying to balance warmth with breathability today meaning that once again I came in soaking wet all the way through. I can't wait for it to warm up enough so that I can go down to base layer/vest and my sportwool jersey with arm warmers. Perhaps then I can start to get in the longer distances without ending up with a chill or drenched in sweat. Or maybe I'm just a sweaty beast in all weathers.

I'm still quite tempted, if I can find time and money, to take off down to Murcia to visit my friend Alex and do a nice week of training in warmer climes in March just to get my fitness levels up. Then again, I might do just as well to go see my doctor and get some nicotine patches so I can lay off the cigarettes properly for a few months. Yes, I smoke which is probably not the brightest thing for someone doing an actvity demanding aerobic prowess. Perhaps I'll explain my weird and warped haemocrit level theory at some point soon. it's barmy but it migh just work.

I've gone for the 2005 Giant T-mobile Hybrid on the grounds that, at the price it's at, it represents incredible value and pretty much everything I need: a triple, a light part-carbon frame, Shimano 105 throughout. With the money I've saved on the list price I'll be able to afford a Specialized Alias saddle, some decent Look or Shimano SPD-SL pedals and some Specialized BG shoes to complete my kit. Here's a picture of the creature which I'll be picking up next weekend probably.

Yes there's those who will say that the colour scheme is a bit "strong" but I'm not going to be looking at it when I'm riding. It will probably go quite well with my black Rapha top which has a similar-coloured trim.

Back to my ride, I overslept and didn't get out until late due to a broken shower which needs fixing. The plan was to head out to Box Hill but plans went awry so I put in four laps of Richmond Park at about a 25 minute lap average. Not particularly quick but consistent. I'm still struggling with getting the miles in at the moment, at least in my head. I just don't feel like I am improving in terms of fitness, even if I possibly am.

Certainly I don't feel like I am getting any quicker up the hills. I'm still stuck on a fairly sedate 16kph or so up most things that are more than a bump. Nor have I mastered "honking" (riding out of the saddle) without finding that my heart rate races right up. As I've said before, sitting back and digging in are going to be crucial to my attempt at the mountains. On the flat I'm going a bit quicker so at least I can work on putting plenty of kilometres between me and the broom wagon before I hit the Izoard.

On the plus side a chat with my friend Olly, who is far more knowledgeable on cycling than me and whose father was a pro, revealed that Mario Cipollini was a smoker throughout his career. This would probably explain the annual ritual of him abandoning the Tour De France at the first sign of serious mountains.

Olly also told me that his dad used to train with lead weights on his wheels so that come the start of the season he would feel he was flying. I'm carrying enough extra weight as it is so have no need of the weights at present.

At the moment I've only really been getting out properly once a week, which I suppose is maintaining the level I've built up over the winter. 50 miles is a comfortable ride for me and 60 or 70 doesn't hold much fear. But that's on the relatively level surfaces of London and the South East. Now's the time I need to start thinking about hills and how to get up them quicker before March arrives and the big three month push begins towards the final goal.

My biggest problem is not motivation so much as time. My life off the bike is complicated by more things than I can throw a spanner at: very imminent redundancy and lack of job to go to, new flat/flatmate needed in June, finding time for my friends who hardly ever see me.

I guess as it is getting lighter - it was still light at 5pm today - the time factor should become easier to manage as I can ride in the evening after work or before work if I get up. In theory redundancy should give me more time for riding while I'm looking for a job but I'm finding the stress of it quite tiring. The flat problem should sort itself out somehow and is better than when I thought it was the week before the Etape.

And as for my friends who are peering into the internet abyss to find out what I am up to, you may find me on your doorstep with a bicycle at some point in the coming months. I apologise for the fact you will see me early morning and late evening looking exhausted. I thank you for putting me up and watching me head off into the wilds with my bike.

I have some plans for developing this blog over the coming months, so watch out for some exciting developments hopefully - like me actually putting a decent design on the place.

I am tending towards going with gels on the grounds that it seems like the lowest risk strategy: no fiddling with homemade batches of powder trying to get them into water bottles which will involve being stopped and which could just get blown in the breeze. Instead, If I can get six gels down each side of the top tube and secure them with a bit of gaffa tape, I will have them to hand and available while riding.

That means only having to negotiate getting water at the feed stations, and maybe solid foods, to refill bottles before getting under way again. It also means that I can keep my pockets free for additional gels or food and light items. I don't want to be weighing my body down with items that can bounce about, and even out of, pockets and which will bang against me. Given that I get quite sodden with sweat at the back, having things slapping against my lower back could be a real irritant and quite uncomfortable.

I've not found an energy drink that I like but I may pack a couple emergency sachets in my jersey. As accessible as the pockets usually are, I would rather not have to be fiddling around trying to fish stuff out of them in a big peleton or on a climb.

I would be very interested to hear from experienced Etapers as to whether they think this makes a sensible plan. I seem to remember reading one who went with gels for similar reasons, but I don't want to find myself out of energy halfway round having made a disastrous planning error.

Went out on Saturday morning with London Dynamo for an excellent ride. As there were quite a few new riders they put together a group for us and we got through four laps at a fair old clip. I quite enjoy the riding in a group element as it makes the training go faster and feels a bit more affirming. Also getting out at 9am in a mist coated Richmond Park and blasting through four laps in under two hours means that I don't use up the whole day on training.

The final lap when the pace went up killed me. An extra 3kph and I couldn't get through. I could get onto the wheel in front but couldn't get past. The group was a bit quicker, at that point, than I'm used to going and maybe I just need to dig a bit deeper but I could feel a bit of a bonk coming on so ducked it out and then spent the rest of the lap trying to get back to the group which was a nightmare.

I'm fairly certain I'll be trying to get out with them more often from now on, either on the Saturday ride or the Sunday one. It make sense for what I'm aiming at to get used to riding in a group and keeping with the pace. I met up with Rhyddid as well and we put in an extra lap afterwards discussing tactics and so on.

Like many Etapers the biggest challenge is the time management, or rather juggling, to fit in the hours on the bike around our everyday commitments of work, friends, domestic and all the other bits. As I don't have a long commute to work at the moment I can't use that as an easy source of mileage through the week, whereas others can find this their main source of training.

I guess I could ride more in the evenings once it gets lighter but, after a long day in the office, sometimes that's the last thing I want to do. Once I get out there though and start turning over the pedals my mood tends to change and I fancy it again. The biggest problem is actually persuading myself to get out and ride as I prefer to go on well lit roads than out into the quieter country lanes.

I probably should tell you about the new bike, but I'll save that for when I have ridden it more. Suffice to say my first impressions are that it's a vast step up in my cycling experience. It's far more responsive and I feel far more comfortable on it, even if I think I might need a slightly shorter stem fitted. Nigel at De Ver's has said I can pop back for that in a few weeks once I've given it a proper testing and settled into it a bit more.

Now about that sponsorship (I really need to start getting a shufty on with it)...

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, I've been having trouble with blogger.com and my hosting service. I'm trying to get it sorted but blogger aren't being particularly helpful, nor are my hosts. So if this post doesn't appear as soon as it should then you now know why.

Took the new bike out this morning and after three laps my back was killing me. This might be down to the stem being too long but I need to ride it a bit more to decide whether it was just the conditions or the bike. So far it is proving to be a lovely ride: the carbon rear and forks make everything so much smoother and there's no waiting for the bike to come into line with any extra kick on the pedals.

I'm feeling more confident about my fitness levels even though I'm possibly not putting in quite as many miles as I shuld be. The next couple of weeks I need to put in a couple of longer rides just to keep upping the distance. 60-70 miles shouldn't prove too much now but I need to make sure I keep the pace up. I'm recovering quicker off the little hills in the park and keeping a faster pace up them. I just need to start riding some longer hills to get used to pacing myself up them.

I was meant to make it out tomorrow for 60 miles with Rhyddid and his mate Nick but other commitments mean I can't. As March gets under way I think it's the time when Etaper riders across the globe start to focus on the goal and training can start to pick up a bit more intensity and the weather gets milder.

I'm hoping to get out to Spain some time in the next couple of months for a decent week's hard training. My best friend Alex lives in Murcia and has helped find a very useful resource which gives the full course for the Tour of Murcia route:

http://www.regmurcia.com/servlet/integra.servlets.ServletLink?cat=568

It's got all the routes for the stages, including very complete directions in Spanish. So the plan is to get out there and take on perhaps three of the longer stages in a week to gt some proper climbing in.

It's the one area of my riding that I need to practice. I have been trying to simulate the effort by riding hard on the flat to generate the power. What I feel I need to do now is working learning to pace myself and to deal with the psychological aspect of a long climb: not getting disheartened, setting markers to break up the climb, focusing on keeping my form and rythm on the bike and remembering to keep topped up with fluids and food.

One of the advantages of getting out early on a Saturday is that it gives me time to get other stuff done. So I'd better be off and do them before I have to cycle across town and up a few hills.

In my mind I've already thought out my strategy. So long as I can average 30kph for the first couple of hours and then keep it steady up Izoard at around 10-12kph, then I should be OK for avoiding the broom wagon and getting a reasonable time. Lauttaret is just sitting tight and finding a wheel to keep me around 16kph - I'm not scared by 4% for an hour plus but I suppose that climb will be all about keeping it together and fuelled. Then Alpe D'Huez is everything and the kitchen sink in a death or glory attempt at finishing.

Does that sound like I've cracked already and am dreaming or a realistic strategy? I'll be trying to increase my mileage and intensity once this bitingly cold patch has passed but have I left myself with too much to do?

I'm also still having problems with blogger which aren't looking likely to resolve themselves so I am looking at switching to Movable Type at some point soon as well as switching my hosting ISP. At the moment I'm publishing to blogspot's hosting and keeping the site in a frame, which is not ideal really.

Finally, I'm unemployed as of Friday due to redundancy so I may have a week or two during which I can get back on top of the training with a couple of long rides and maybe a trip north to the Peak District. I wonder if I'll bump into David Millar if I do: he's meant to be using it as his patch for training.

Went out with the slow/steady group which got a little too fast on the third lap but that's longer than I usually last. I feel so much better for having put in that longer ride today as now I'm not fretting so much about where I am up to in my training and know that I can get a good long ride in before the afternoon on a Saturday.

I got a few twinges of cramp on my way round, mostly in my right calf and quad. I suppose I might have been a little low on electrolytes so might have to ensure I remember to pack something in future that's a bit salty to deal with it or I could just give myself a lick - when I got home and wiped my brow it felt like I'd been attacked with a salt shaker.

I was quite pleasantly surprised that getting round that sort of distance on the relative flat of Richmond Park only took about 4 hours. I'm not feeling too sore despite ending up in a chain gang of sorts trying to stick with the "rather quick bloke with one leg", who is one of the cult figures among Park cyclists. As one of the more experienced riders who had been out with the steady group said "If he had two legs we'd all be fucked."

About five of us got round at about 30kph for a lap or so, even into the headwind down the Roehampton side, and the other three laps were of an equally steady pace. I'm definitely feeling more comfortable with riding in group now although I still fret a bit about moving onto the front of a group for fear of clipping a wheel. As I understood it, it's up to the person behind to worry about what's in front in general but I do glance under my arm before I move in again.

Similarly I'm still nervous about reaching down for my water bottle in a group. We discussed this on our second lot of laps and it seems like the best thing to do is to grab a swig whenever you can, thirsty or not. So whenever the group is sorting itself out, eases up or is coasting. I live in fear of dropping it and taking down everyone behind me.

Rhyddid, who I've been riding with since January, reckons I'm doing stronger than I was at the beginning of the year but if he decides to attack he still leaves me for dead on Spankers Hill. I'm tryng to figure out whether I need to put in more leg strength work or whether I'm riding too hard on the flat and just don't have anything to spring out of the saddle with. But that can keep until April or when the longs come off. Next weekend it's probably the Surrey Hills on the Sunday after the regular Saturday morning.

And this week I might buy some bib shorts and a vest to complete my kit list. A pair of Lusso Coolmax bibs seems reasonable and Rapha may see more of my money for a sleeveless base layer.

This is how it always seems to go when I have time for training and a desire to get out there for the sheer pleasure of it. I might get out for an hour or two in the failing light now though.

Due to of it's proximity to civilisation, the sodium glow of street lights spills into the park and keeps it from being too dark. With the patchy cloud allowing the moonlight through my little lights were virtually redundant other than to let others know I was there.

Some of the other cyclists I passed had a different view on what constitutes being visible and came tootling down the road lit up like the spaceship from Close Encounters, temporarily blinding me. Luckily this only presented a problem once when I couldn't see the joggers ahead of me. Runners in the park seem to feel no need to let anyone know they are there and seem to relish running down the middle of the road practically invisible until you are on top of them.

As for the deer, they seem to observe The Highway Code and look before they cross the road. It's a bit easier to pick out several hundred kilos of venison in your path that 70-odd of human but their vigilance was much appreciated as I came hurtling though a bunch of them trying to chomp my way through a rather tough flapjack.

I manged to get in about 40 miles in total and made use of the dark to get used to finding my bottle cage without looking and to try some eating on the bike. I'm not quite up to the level of hurtling along at pace eating but I have managed to find a suitable technique for unwrapping stuff without having to sit up too much.

I rest my forearms on the flat of the bar so I retain some control over the bike rather than trying to take my hands off and fiddle with wrappers. That way I find I can keep an eye on the road ahead and don't get so nervous as I'm fiddling with tin foil and trying to leave a trail of it along the road behind me.

Sunday is a trip to the Surrey Hills with Nick and Rhyddid and tomorrow is the usual training laps with London Dynamo. I'm getting a bit conscious of trying not to overdo it, which is a ridiculously quick change from a couple of week's ago. I guess fitting in the miles at one end of the week could be seen as block training.

In my hurry to get out the door I managed to forget my membership cheque for London Dynamo but did remember to pack enough flapjack and drink to last me through the session and then four laps with my training buddy. Once again I managed to get dropped by the first group I went out with after a lap and a half. It's becoming such a regular occurrence that I've actually stopped worrying about it. It ensures that I am pushing myself harder than I would do on my own or in a group I can just sit in comfortably so that can't be a bad thing, right?

Sat up and tagged on another bunch of riders until the next group came through and I jumped in with them and then hacked my way along in the headwind, determined to get round without coming off the back of the last group. I don't think I was the last one into the cafe, so I have awarded myself a moral victory there.

I'm waiting on my new shorter stem (a 110mm rather than the 130mm the bike came with) which should make life on the Giant a bit more comfortable. I've become used to being low and long on the bike but on the last lap or two the backache really kicked in hard. I probably need to do some core strength work to help with that but a more relaxed position should help as well. I really don't fancy finding myself unable to keep going due to back pain and I'm guessing there's only so many painkillers you can take when on a bike.

My training buddy Rhyddid pointed out that Ron Cutler's excellent www.etape.org.uk/ has an update on the route for the course this year and information on where the possible time control points will be. It looks like there's going to be no slacking off and enjoying the scenery on the Izoard or Lauttaret as the controls are at the bottom of the descents in Briancon and Bourg D'Oisans respectively.

Tactically this means that the emphasis now has to be on getting over Izoard quickly and without stopping. One possible method is to make use of the possibilities offered by stuffing as much food as you can in your pockets, taped to the bike frame and tucking a bottle or two of energy drink into the your bibs, or relatively securely in your jersey. I've seen this recommended on the cycling plus forum I think, or at least the idea of stuffing a couple of bottles of Lucozade sport in the jersey.

Given the 500ml bottles are a nice thin shape i reckon this is quite a practical solution. Two or three of those round the back of the bibs, that can then be shifted round the front to fish them out, would mean not having to tuck into my bottles until the first hills and the approach to Izoard. which would mean not having to fill up both of them at the first control. A few flapjacks, a sandwich jambon beurre or two and I reckon the Lautaret should be one big moving picnique. Who am I kidding? By that stage I'm going to be sore and grouchy and cursing all and sundry while trying not to get swept up.

As you can see the site has got a fancy new colour scheme to it, which I have spent the whole of yesterday tinkering with. Which is my excuse for having not written this week so far.

On Sunday, still suffering from Saturday's exertions, I decided to take it easy and head over to my girlfriend's via Highgate Hill West on a gentle 19km or so ride in the first decent sunshine of the spring.

I can only assume that the outbreak of relatively warmer weather - 9 degrees celsius instead of about 4 - persuaded me that the big hill would and could be easy, but go up it I did and was pleasantly surprised to find I only had to put my foot down once.

Now, in theory, I shold be able to scoot up 1km of average 10% in no time and without too much trouble, but it is one of those deceptive hills where I always go a little hard at the bottom and find myself tying up just as I get to the really steep bit.

Once I had got over this and conveniently blamed it on the weight in my rucksack, I settled into a steadier cadence and determinedly chugged my way up the rest of it, refusing to be unsettled by the very uneven surface under my wheels.

More importantly I didn't feel shattered by it and was able to get back into my stride almost as soon as I crested the hill. It did however remind me that I should get round to getting a 12-27 cassette on my other bike before the Etape to ensure I have a gear that I can keep turning over whatever happens.

With more sunny weather i popped out for what is essentially a constitutional ride of 50km on Wednesday. Again I was amazed at my lack of tiredness afterwards, which means one of two things: either I'm riding well within my limits out of laziness, or I am getting there gradually in terms of general fitness.

A couple of trips to town and back using the "hell for leather" training tactic for short journeys means I'm feeling quite strong this week. For those not familiar with the aforementioned technique, it involves taking a short journey of around 10km, such as my ride into central London, and riding it as harder as you can, allowing for traffic, red lights and other hazards.

If nothing else it gets you there quicker and feels fun. I'm another one of those strange types who enjoys cycling in amongst the traffic most of the time and relishes short sprints away from the lights and along fast moving bits of road.

Finally, my membership of London Dynamo came through, so I shall be taking things even more seriously for the next few months until the Etape is done and probably riding with them at least twice a week.

The question is do I chance my arm tomorrow with a medium-paced group and then drop back when I get shot out the back, or do I stick with the steady and try to stay in for the full four laps?

A full four laps in the steady group, without getting dropped. Yes, we got lapped by two groups, although we may have unlapped ourselves from the second on the final stretch, but I made it round without having to do a solitary trudge to the cafe as i usually do.

It's a small achievement but one that feels oh-so-very good. With three months to go, I finally feel like I have a half decent chance of being able to make it round the Etape. Now it starts to get serious as I look to start working on climbing hills faster and generating more sustained power all round.

I'm pretty sure I can manage at least 110km already, or about 4 hours in the saddle at a steady pace. To aim for a decent time round the Etape I'll need to be able to do double that time in the saddle with the added pain of climbing for long stretches and relatively slow speeds.

I might go out tomorrow and take a longish run round the Surrey Hills if the weather holds out. Since Saturday morning I've been out on the bike three times and got soaked to the bone twice as a light shower turned into a heavy downpour with no sign of stopping. I actually don't mind getting wet, it's the wind and cold I can't stand.

Fortunately spring seems to have sprung, judging by last weekend's milder weather which meant that I could ride without my gloves on sunday as I pottered gently into town and back for a Mother's Day lunch. I'd forgotten how slim my handlebars and levers are without gloves on and how nice it feels to have a bit of air on the backs of the hands.

By my reckoning I've done about 110km since Satruday morning which puts me on target for a good week distance-wise as it's only Monday now. A midweek ride and a couple of shorter trips and I'll be ready for another longer session at the weekend.

P.S. You may have noticed a few extra links on the right of the page, I hope you find them useful and interesting.

Went out on Tuesday inbetween the cloudbursts and managed to get soaked and frozen. It was sunny when I left the house but grim and wet by the time I got home.

I headed out to Richmond to try and get three laps in but on the second the weather came in, harsh, grey and cold, flipping my mood from "getting round at a reasonably fast pace" to "just want to get home and put the kettle on". I eventually did, but not without having to shelter under a shop awning to avoid the heaviest of the rain. Such are the joys of the English spring.

I was going to get out today but www.metcheck.com is predicting scattered showers so I am skiving indoors. I might pop out for an evening ride as it's meant to be drier later on. If not tomorrow looks promisingly dry for a longer ride into the Surrey Hills.

I've been reading Geoffrey Wheatcroft's Le Tour (which you can purchase from amazon.co.uk by clicking the image) to start filling in the gaps in my knowledge of the history of the event. It's a recommended read but I find that sometimes the chronology gets a bit lost as he moves from one year to the next.

One thing that has struck me is that for all the talk of how legendary Alpe D'Huez is as a climb and an arrivee, the Col D'Izoard has a much longer pedigree as a climb on Le Tour and is the one on which the quality of my Etape will be decided. I've lost track of the number of legendary names I've read of alongside words to the effect of "escaped over the Izoard" or the number of times I've told people that it is the one climb I am really worried about.

Looking at the profile of it on Kap's site (see link on right) the profile seems more unforgiving that Alpe D'Huez in that it doesn't ease off towards the top and there are some unpleasant looking stretches of 10% average to sting the legs just that little bit more. Hopefully adrenalin and tagging onto a suitable group will carry me through the worst of it.

I'm slightly muddy as I managed to have my first big fall of the year. Coming down a descent at about 50kph, misjudged a righthander, hit loose gravel and a rivulet of water, aquaplaned and then got thrown sideways off the bike. Luckily I landed in a muddy bank. Thank fuck for that bank.

Surprisingly little damage apart from pride but that took a battering anyway as I got dropped on ever hill of about a 100km ride. Everyone kept on having to wait for me at the top of hills which was quite embarassing. Otherwise I enjoyed my first trip out on the Sunday ride through the Surrey Hills with the Dynamo lot.

More annoying is that one of the little plates from the top of my levers came off and so I need to hunt down a replacement for it. Or I could just wear the lack of one as a badge of honour.

The bike really needs a proper clean but I need takeaway pizza so it'll have to wait until this evening to get a full hose-down and scrub.

Post-bath analysis shows I have a bit of a bruise on my left shoulder at the back of the arm and a little stiffness in my left arm. Otherwise it's the usual aches and pains of someone who has ridden further and faster than usual.

it only occurred to me when I got in how fast I was going. And that the banks on Alpine descents aren't as soft, so I'll be trying to avoid doing that again. I've taken plenty of pictures of the state of me for my records that I can file under "first big fall" and some of which I'll pop on here at some point soon, hopefully later today.

Below are a few photos I took when I got home this afternoon after my fall. As you can see, mostly just mud on me but a couple of dings on the bike.

My Rapha top took the worst of the mud, right on the white bit which meant a good hard handwash to get it out. It could have been much worse if I hadn't landed straight into a soft bit or there had been trees or bushes in the way.

I did manage to lose the little plate that goes in the top of my left-hand lever, which will now just remind me of what happens when I come off. I think I lost an energy gel as well which I didn't notice until I really needed it up one of the climbs and was trying to force some flapjack down my throat while gasping for air.

Not sure how this happened but, by the look of it, that's where my right foot came over the bike as it whipped round past me. It might have been from when the bike landed. Another reminder of why falling is a bad thing. I've cleaned down the bike and can't find any other damage to speak of which is definitely a good thing.

There's one band whose name is instantaneously invoked by cyclists everywhere: Kraftwerk. Those metronomic Germans have something of a monoppoly on Le tour, musically speaking.

Their 2003 album, Tour De France Soundtracks, is fairly constantly on my iPod when I'm out riding on my own and is just about right for the average training ride.

But when it comes to going full tilt on a ride and pushing myself harder I usually go for something a little more rocking. Currently doing the job for me are Hot Chip's Over And Over and The Delays' Valentine.

I was going to try and link through to a few of my favourites on iTunes but it seems you can't do that on their affiliates programme. I'm going to start adding regular playlist tunes from my cycling list for you to enjoy as well. It's something I've meant to do for a while now along with ads to see if I can't raise a little money that way.

Yes, the numbers are up on the official site. Go to http://www.letapedutour.com/ and make sure you're in the French version. It's under "La liste des inscrits". you enter you surname and it should produce a list including yourself.

This has made me incredibly nervous and excited. As you can tell from the post title my dossard is number 5577 and I'm starting in pen number 6. it looks like there are 7 pens in total, although there might be 8. So, as expected, I'm going to be starting nearer the back than I would like.

One might suspect that all those who have entered via a tour company have been lumped together, despite the draw being apparently a "tirage au sort":

1 - Regroupement par paquet de 100 enveloppes de l'ensemble du courrier. (Grouped into bundles of 100 envelopes from the total mail)

2 - Tirage au sort des paquets d'enveloppes du premier jusqu'au dernier. (Drawing of lots from first to the last)

3 - Les enveloppes seront alors ouvertes dans l'ordre et, tous les bulletins s'y trouvant et compris dans le quota d'engagement prévu, seront retenus pour participer à l'épreuve. (Opened in order and all entries in envelopes, up to the foreseen quota, retained for particpation).

In fact it seems more than likely all our entries were in the same envelope. Other Etapists I've already spoken to are back in the same sort of area, pens 5-7, so it's not just me.

If you are a fellow rider for Get Kids Going! or London Dynamo please send a comment with your dossard number and pen and I'll add them all in here. then we can see if we can't get a "Team GB" group going to work our way through the field in the early stages. A few English speaking voices should make life easier for us all when it comes to working in a group.

For the first time in what seems like ages I didn't go out riding on Saturday. Instead I went off and did other things with my day and saved my energies for the Sunday ride through the Surrey Hills.

The difference was marked and worth noting: My legs felt stronger, I found myself riding on the front for extended periods and some insane urge found me attacking the hills from the outset. I felt much more at ease with the pace and less exhausted on the climbs overall though - even the long drag of Ranmore Hill didn't kill me.

Admittedly these attacks on the hills were more foolhardy than advised as most people came winging past me about 500 metres later and I spent the rest of Sunday lying down in mild agony. For me the important thing is that I felt I could go at the hills rather than just try and survive them.

So this shift in schedule means I shall take a gentle ride into town later today to drop off some documents and call it a recovery ride, then I shall wait until Wednesday before going out for another decent ride which will be all about trying to work on my power and thresholds. From Wednesday it's time for a rest before Sunday again, with maybe a couple of gentle rides inbetween.

As I'm starting a new job next week which involves a decent length commute of about 9km my mileage should start going up again meaning less need to worry about base miles and more time to concentrate on power which is where I feel I still need to do some work.

On the list to do before I start work again are:

Take the bike in and get a 12-27 block fitted. This is a bit of a priority as I'm finding that I can handle a 42/27 ratio but that 42/25 is just a bit high for me. Admittedly I'm covered by having a triple but I would feel more comfortable having that extra bit there as most of the time I can manage without having to shift down. Plus when the worst comes to the worst I need that emergency 30/27.

Remount my computer. I just need some cable ties really but I've been lazy about it/unable to figure out how to get it on the strange shaped forks. I've also been considering getting a new, flashier computer. But beyond current speed, average speed and distance I try not to pay too much attention to the thing and ride as much as possible on feel. Maybe it would be better if I knew cadence and various other things, or is it just more to obsess over?

Now I just need to finish getting myself ready. I fitted the computer and got the cassette changed at Sigma Sport, who managed to fit me in and do it all in about 10 minutes.

The bike will probably go in for a final checkover about a month before the event, maybe some new tyres and new bar tape when I get out there. As for me, I'll get a feeding of silly amounts of pasta and carbohydrates along with enough fluid to fill the Panama canal.

I've checked that there is a Decathlon in Gap which may want to stock up on cycling equipment as it's not unlikely there'll be a few of us descending on it for last minute emergency purchases, depending on the conditions.

Over on the Cycling Plus forum there's an interesting thread on Etape jitters - http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=93849 which I have thrown my two pennorth in on. Elsewhere, on Etape or Bust, it seems that a few people are having problems with their doctor's certificates. I do hope it sorts itself out as I can imagine nothing worse than coming this far and then not able to go.

I'm currently living in fear of injury as I've got a bit of a niggle in my left quad which really needs seeing to. It means I've been taking it easy this week, although I did do my 16-20km up through Hampstead and Highgate in the middle of the week and didn't feel too bad. Might pop out later today for a 30 km dash round Richmond Park at a reasonably high intensity if it brightens up.

There's always plenty of it around, nowhere more so than cycling messageboards. It can range from the have-a-go-heroes telling you you're not training hard enough unless you are riding every hill in sight in some monster gear to the genuinely informative, like the following one from Ed In Vercors on the Cycling Plus forum, which breaks down the course into the key elements and perhaps helps think about how best to ride it.

http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=93849

As posts have a tendency to get lost as they get older and are archived, I've taken the liberty of reproducing it in full below, something which I hope Ed and Cycling Plus won't mind.

"I have ridden this years Etape stage a couple of times already & have pretty good experience of French Sportives etc so I hope the following guidlines are usefull additions to the other posts.
1. Gap start. This can be one of the hottest places in France in July. Arrive early & start drinking bottled water. If you have spent a lot of time/effort/£'s getting this far don't waste it by taking chances with different food & water. Use PSP22 or similar, GO, for the event itself.
Check the weather forecast. Back page of the Dauphiné paper will give you an indication, otherwise just ask the hotel or have a look outside the tourist office. They have the next days forecast on the door. Or, check with race organisation.
2. The route to Embrun & Guillestre is open & generally flat. This can be windy & exposed. Stick in groups & stay at a comfortable pace. Take on fluids.
3. Col d'Izoard, major altitude at 2360m. The climb starts soon after Guillestre & upwards for about 25km. It is particularly demanding once out of the trees & into the rocky, scree type landscape near the summit. Here is where you will notice the altitude if you have not acclimatised beforehand.
4. Descent to Briançon, good, safe, fast downhill, few hairpins.
5. Briançon-Col du Lautaret, short sharp climb out of Briançon which hurts after the long descent. Long steady climb on a rough road up through Serre Chevalier. Can bit a bit of a downer here as the Col can be seen from a long way down. Sit on wheels here & get some gels down.
6. Lautaret-Oisans, you may need a gilet before dropping down into the valley. Watch out for potholes, subsidence, tunnels, traffic, cattle etc. Otherwise enjoy one of the tdf famous alpine downhill sections. More food/fluids on the final flat section into Bourg d'Oisans.
7. At the bottom of the Alpe take on fluids even if you feel ok.
8. Alpe d'Huez, it will be carnage on the road with people walking, sitting on the barriers etc!? Go at your own pace particularly for the first few bends until you find a rhythm, then get on a wheel if you can or stay in a group. Break the hill down into sections as you tick off the numbered bends or km's to go.
Have a good ride, enjoy the atmosphere. It is not too late to get out & ride the route now. Good luck.

Ed
www.bikeandski-vercors.com

Sunday's club ride felt good in my legs and I found myself comfortably sitting on the front for plenty of the ride and really going at the hills with purpose. By the time I got home I felt I could have gone another hour without too much suffering.

Admittedly as I pedalled up my street I noticed the odometer reading 119.50km, so I did a cheeky lap around the block just to make sure that it ticked over the 120km marker. It's a strange feeling finding yourself pedalling just to turn over the numbers and give yourself a sense of achievement.

I tried out a new gel on Sunday, the Powerbar blackcurrant flavour with caffeine, which seems to do the job. I had the usual spot of retching and mild nausea I seem to get from all the gels I have tried but it passed as soon as it had begun. Not ideal but I'm struggling to find a better way of getting the maximum of energy out of the minimum of volume.

The other half of my riding energy supply is at present a 50/50 mix of orange juice and water with a pinch of salt. This isn't going to be practical for anything like the duration of the Etape but, if I go with the musette bag/bib shorts full of lucozade sport that I have been considering, then my two bottles of it should see me over at least the first climb and down to the first feed station proper.

I am of course assuming that I'll be able to fight my way through the feeding frenzy and grab both juice and water to refill my bottles with. It could be where my French comes in most handy, apart from understanding what's going on in a group and the abuse being bandied about at the Rosbif refusing to take his turn on the front.

Some french phrases

I've just had to look up the French for "pothole", a phrase which should be good to know for the descents. According to my dictionary it is "un nid de poule", literally a chicken's nest. for the less familiar of you, that will sound like "need duh pool", although I presume the shout will be of "need" for the sake of brevity.

A simple hole is "un trou", with sounds like "true". I'm sure there's a cyclist's lexicon somewhere that I should hunt down. Team T-Mobile have a Cycling dictionary on their site but I can't find it in there.

"Pousse" means that they want you to take you turn on the front and push the pace along, something I'm sure they'd do better to avoid letting me do but if they insist it shouldn't take long for them to see their mistake.

As Brendan has commented, quite rightly "Put it in the little ring (or middle ring for those of you with a triple) and suck wheels shamelessly for as long as humanly possible". It's a great comment and, despite being a novice myself, I have to agree that there's too much fear mongering amongst some of the types on the various forums. You can read his comment in full here: http://www.atomicecho.com/etape/2006/04/well_thats_the_bike_ready.shtml

Ed in Vercors may be able to help if you need a transfer from the airport for either La Marmotte or L'Etape:

"There obviously seems to be a lot of interest in these 2 events at the moment. I was wondering if there are any independent riders out there travelling on their own or as a group/club/team who need transfers to the start/finish of either of these events at Gap or Alpe d'Huez? I have VW 9 seater minibus & custom built bike trailer available if required? If there is a demand for people coming into either Geneva or Lyon I could bring a tool box & track pump along so you cant sort bikes out then I can move bike bags over to Alpe d'Huez, hotels. Then transfer riders back to the airport after the event(s). Bearing in mind this is about a 900km round trip journey! Is there a requirement out there for this service to riders? Feedback welcome. email: info@bikeandski-vercors.com

Ed
www.bikeandski-vercors.com"

Please get in touch with Ed directly if you are interested.

It's not so much a physical one as a mental one - My left knee has been feeling a bit sore since Monday and I haven't been out on the bike to stretch it out yet. I'm going to get it looked at just to be sure but that hasn't stopped me worrying.

The "what if" element of the situation is proving difficult to deal with. I would be distraught if it were something serious enough to stop me riding the Etape, but would probably end up trying to ignore it and ride through it. There's less than 3 months to go and nothing is going to make me back out now.

I shouldn't really mock the idea of taking a positive mental attitude to get me through it but I can't resist finding the idea that "thinking positive" can deal with a physical problem slightly preposterous.

Preliminary advice is that it might just be down to stiff hip flexor muscle, which would explain why my left side is feeling a bit weak in general.

I've been trying to do the stretches as recommended by cyclefit on their stretching page which are helping relieve the pain and ease my ongoing lower back ache:

http://www.cyclefit.co.uk/stretching.htm

I have a suspicion it's spending too much time sitting on a poorly designed chair in front of the computer that is the problem. I suppose I could sit on the bike and balance the latop on the handlebars instead. Or I could get out on the bike and ride it off and stop saying "tomorrow I'll do it."

I've said it before but of the three climbs the Izoard is really the one with true history, character and dramatic views. Most famously Coppi and Bobet's rivalry through the 1950s is celebrated by the monument near the summit.

It's been part of the tour since 1922 and the list of riders to have crossed it in the lead reads like a rollcall of legends from a golden age. www.ledicodutour.com gives a list from 1947 onwards that includes Robic, Bobet, Coppi, Bartali, Merckx and Bahamontes.

I would like to think I will be adding my name to that list this year which, in a way, I will be. The Etape is going over it a week before the peleton proper does so, by the use of the logic beloved of amateur sporting legends everywhere, I will cross the Izoard ahead of the peleton. This is of course the same by which I have never been beaten by Lance Armstrong for the reason that I have never competed against him.

I always think I've seen the Izoard in the race more times than I actually have. I can vaguely recall Botero going over it in 2000 but not Garmendia in 2003, which is probably down to the lousy UK television coverage of the event.

It's strange that it isn't more often eulogised by those writing about Le Tour since that golden era of the 1950s when it was crossed more frequently than it is now. There's a musuem near the top, which I would love to visit but which I doubt I'll want to stop for on the Etape unless I get a chance to ride up there on the Saturday beforehand.

Similarly part of me wishes I had more time to take pictures on the day as we ride up through the alpine scenery of the lower part of the climb and the unmistakeable Casse Desert, a landscape often described as "lunar" by journalists.

Sunday's club ride was a proper battle with the elements that constitute the glorious British Springtime. It clocked up 125km in total but it felt like a lot more.

Looking out of my window at 7.45am I was rather surprised to find that the dry, sunny day I had been expecting when I went to bed had been replaced by a damp, overcast blanket of grey. Time to break out the waterproofs and put the raceblade mudguards on the decent bike. The blades went on fine, as did the waterproof, a battered 7-year-old item that as one rider commented "could probably keep out the Antartic winter".

Off I set in the drizzle to meet Rhyddid and head down to the meet, picking up his mate Nick along the way. Neither of them had mudguards on their bikes and nor did anyone else when we got to the start point for the ride. Which of course meant that everyone looked like they'd been out on a Paris-Roubaix re-enactment by the end of the ride, myself included.

I'm sure some may have benefitted from tucking in on my slightly dryer wheel and my feet certainly benefitted from not enduring all the splash off the frame and front wheel so perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea. But if it's wet on the Etape, I'm not going to stand on ceremony or politesse - the guards will be off.

A slightly different route this week and a couple of hills I hadn't tackled before. It may have been the lack of a proper breakfast or having riding a little too hard on my trip across town on Saturday night but, when we hit the first long drag up, my legs were burning like well stoked boiler fires and the power just wasn't there. It could also have been the cold and wet sapping the energy away. Whatever the case, my climbing legs were definitely not with me.

By the time we got to Ranmore Hill I was sweating like a Festina rider at a dope control. I unzipped my jacket and looked down to find two minature ornamental ponds had formed in the folds which then gushed out. By the time we crested Box Hill for tea and flapjacks I was safely damper on the inside than out as the rain eased off.

At this point I discovered that carrying notes in sealed platic bags isn't always a good idea, especially when they are a tenner and you haven't noticed them falling out when you were fishing about for your phone. Luckily Robin stumped up for a cup of tea for me, which I shall repay next week. And next week I will beat him up Box Hill - he nipped passed me on the final stretch last week and this week was way ahead of me.

By the time Rhyddid and I crossed Richmond Bridge the thought of doing a few more laps of the park to push up to 150km was abandoned as we fel absolutely knackered. So it only remained for him to bag a puncture as we came past Kew Gardens, bringing the total for the ride that day to at least 3.

I got home and collapsed on the sofa, shoving the filthy bike in the kitchen and a pizza in the oven. After a bath and a snooze I felt remarkably well considering how much like hard work the ride had felt. This seems a good sign to me.

So once again I look out the window on a Sunday morning and I'm confronted by grey skies and patchy rain. I could have gone back to bed and pretended, to myself, that I overslept or wasn't feeling right. Instead I pulled on my kit and prepared for another wet day in the saddle.

When I got out to Hampton Court there was only one other rider there and I was still wondering if leaving the house was such a good idea. By the time we set of there were five of us, three of whom are regulars on the Sunday ride and who were determined to keep it very steady. So not really enough to even constitute a group given that when it's dry there's about 15 riders out.

Riding in the wet is an odd experience for me because I don't notice how much I sweat when I'm drenched so all wicking of moisture becomes redundant.There's also the constant fizz of water being sucked up and spat out by the tyres instead of the gentle hiss of rubber on tarmac . Coupled with that is the constant vigilance that it requires and the heavy braking which really tires out the shoulders and hands.

Last night's heavy rain left the roads greasy and littered with gravel and debris that had washed down. Unfortunately that made falling a greater possibility and it befell Robin to be the one who took a spill, hitting gravel and losing the front wheel. It was a heavy looking fall and it took a couple of chunks out of him and a fair few minutes to recover his composure.

From that point on I think we were all a bit edgy about descending at anything above a gentle pace until it dried out towards the end of the ride. Certainly I was busily trashing my way through my brake pads in the name of safety. I can't figure out why my back ones seem to wear through quicker than my front in the wet. Maybe the front wheel is so slicked with water they can't get any purchase or there's more grit and gunk hitting the back wheel.

After about an hour or so my hands started to lose feeling as the temperature started less to resemble the last day of April and more the middle of December. It was about this time that the hills started meaning that my gear choices became a bit limited and braking a bit challenging.

My left hand was far worse, meaning I was stuck in the middle chainring with a lowest gear of 42/27 which I can manage with most of the time. Which would have been fine if I could have got down to it. My right hand wasn't exactly co-operating either and I couldn't find the strength in it to change down. By the time we got to Ranmore Common I was having to resort to using my forearm as leverage to pull the shifters across.

As experiments go, attacking the hills in too big a gear and trying to tough it out is not one I plan to repeat. After belting 500 metres in a silly pro-sized gear up one hill I could barely breathe and couldn't see much either. And my knee was starting to hurt which is never a good sign. I've iced it since getting in and it seems to be OK now.

By the time we got to Box Hill the feeling was coming back and I was able to really attack the hill, pulling hard all the way up it as the rain eased off and the sun came out. Never have I enjoyed a coffee and chocolate cake so much. Actually I was really gasping for a cigarette which was an odd sensation and a craving that I am still indulging in small doses after rides and when I'm out with friends.

All in it was a 125km ride today but allowing for the battling with the elements it certainly felt like a longer one. I'm hoping that there's some drier weather in the coming weeks because I'm getting tired of beign exhausted by rainfall rather than pedal strokes.

As I'm now day-to-day commuter I've taken to using the 30 minute ride each way as an opportunity to do some of those short intervals everyone talks about. Well, it's one way to liven up the grind of going from red light to red light and I suppose it gets me there quicker.

Actually, depending on the route, I'm actually riding much of the prologue course for Le tour's arrival in London in 2007 - The Mall onto Constitution Hill and up under the Wellington Arch and along South Carriage Drive are the bit I take in on my way home and I bag South Carriage Drive on the way in as well.

It's a lovely straight strip of road to really power down, marred only by the appalling road surface which makes it a little more like hard work. I find that I can get up to a nice clip and feel like I'm hitting one of those nice sweet "zones" that HRM fans talk about.

I'm not a fan and don't use one. I understand and can appreciate that they do have definite benefits when used within strict testing criteria and with parameters clearly established. But for the type of riding I'm doing, in terms of times and variable conditions, I just think that the parameters become so fluid that trying to apply precise science to it is a bit of a false exercise.

For example, my resting heart rate is not going to be constant because some mornings I'm in a hurry and a bit stressed, others I'll be practically horizontal I'm so relaxed. Equally I'm not following an obsessive dietary regime so that can vary wildly on the input side of things.

Instead I prefer to let my body decide when I'm overdoing it and to trust my ability to know when I need a rest. So far it seems to have worked.

A strange sense of trepidation over one line in the information pack I received today from Velo magazine - "The maximum time limit will be calculated according to an average speed of 19km/h." - I have no idea why one measly kilometre an hour worries me so much, maybe because I've mentally worked on the basis of 18km/h so far.

It's full of the little bits of information that will be useful. It confirms that the ravitaillements stations for water, food and so on will be at Guillestre, Col D'Izoard, Briancon and at the foot of Alpe D'Huez. On my club rides we usually stop for coffee and flapjacks on Box Hill which I think is about 80-90km into the ride. That would correspond roughly with Col D'Izoard, which I was thinking of skipping in favour of waiting until Briancon and the first elimination point, on the grounds it could be a bit of a bun fight.

Would an alternative strategy be to go relatively flat out to the first one at Guillestre, at about 54km, and put some time between me and the broom wagon then refuel, recover and stretch there before the Izoard? That way I would break the ride into 4 sections rather than 3, but would the time lost be worth it?

I've also spotted an amusing typo in the program of events whereby, in the English translation only, the first competitors will finish before they have officially started. If only such super-human feats were possible!

I'm also a bit torn on the fashion front. Originally, I had planned to wear my Rapha Tour of Britain jersey but part of me says that I should dispense with style in favour of loyalty and wear my London Dynamo jersey instead. In favour of the former is that it has a zip pocket for putting a bit of loose change, in case I fancy buying a sandwich or something other than what's available at the ravitaillement points, as well as my mobile phone which I might use to take some snaps on the road for posterity of the event.

I do hope it brightens up tomorrow for the ride as a third week of rain would really annoy me.

Sunday's ride turned out to be a little quicker than usual as, in the absence of the usual moderating influences, the pace shot up from our the usual "steady" to something closer to "moderate".

The only evidence I have for this is that my average speed on my computer went up a from 23.9km/h, after last week's 126km, to 25.0km/h after 270.9km. That and the anecdotal evidence that every time I looked down the current speed was between 30 and 33km/h rather than the more stately 27-30km/h range I have grown accustomed to on the club ride.

Not that I'm complaining you understand, I managed to stick with it pretty well, even managing to chase back a couple of times when I found myself out the back. OK, I was last as usual up every hill and sweating like a garden sprinkler at the end of it but I felt I had the right legs on.

My "right legs" do however seem to be the ones that encourage me to attack a hill from the bottom and then find that everyone else starts to go past me from about halfway and I have to apologise for holding things up when I get to the top and everyone is waiting for me. I've tried to curb this instinct as best I can and nearly found the right balance on Ranmore Hill but was still last up there.

There was a curious incident on Box Hill as both London Dynamo and Sigma Sport arrived at the bottom around the same time and it got a bit competitive. I found myself pushing really hard all the way up and fair clipping along by my standards. When I rode up there earlier this year I was struggling to go above 15km/h, now I can hammer up the steepest bits at about 16km/h and feel much stronger.

I'm still struggling to find the time to get in the mid-week intensity sessions that I really need to be doing to cope with the long climbs of anything up to two hours. I've been trying to ride hard to and from work to make up for this but it's no real substitute for an hour in Richmond Park trying to do three or four fast laps in succession.

On the way back on Sunday I ended up waiting with Hugh, on of the other riders, who had got into an argument with a driver after he had squeezed him to the kerb and Hugh had banged on his door to let him know. As far as I could see Hugh was ahead of him on the road and the guy gave him no room, having tooted him, as he tried to squeeze through the a gap that wasn't there.

His strange defence included "You were riding too wide/aggressively on the road" and some strange invocation that there was some variation in the Highway Code for Surrey which meant he was right. He was adamant that we should go to the police and discuss the matter but rather unwilling to discuss my point that he was behind the cyclist and should have given him room.

Eventually I got home at about 3pm with 145km in my legs and a little saddle sore in the usual spot that i get one from a bit of chaffing. It's gone down now but by god did it hurt on Monday morning. I'm assuming it's just a blocked follicle that sorts itself out with a bit of rest. And on that medically undignified note I shall leave you until my next post.

But not before a final appeal - Please give generously in sponsorship, I have been lousy at fundraising so far and I'm getting more and more concerned about it as the day approaches, It's very simple and just involves hitting the SPONSOR ME link on the right, or indeed that link just there that you've just read.

I've still not fully recovered from Sunday's ride which was a bit quicker than usual as some of faster boys came out to play. But I just about managed to hang in there and it seems to have done wonders for pushing my fitness level along a bit.

The first half hour was fine, rolling out toward Esher and Chobham, then we turned off into the country lanes and it all got a bit hectic. I came off the back and spent half an hour chasing to get back on, sweating like a sieve in a shower and hurting like hell but determinedly keeping the group just about in sight.

Eventually I caught up as they waited at one of the rally points along the way. Rusty who was leading the ride stuck me up the front to keep the pace down for a while and I happily sat in and recovered at a pace above my average one. In fact, my average speed has now gone up to 25.5km/h over the last three weekends, from 23.9km/h after the first ride.

I got brutalised up the hills again and went beyond the point where I couldn't do anything other than just find my own rhythm uphill and hope I could stay with the group as we flew along at speeds which for me are fast but for most of the others would be a gentle tootle. Luckily riders kept on dropping back to make sure I didn't get lost along the way.

I'm starting to rein in my urge to go at the hills hard from the outset and have almost got to the point where I can stop myself trying to follow wheels that are too fast for me. I haven't entirely stopped, I just drop off them before I start to hit to my thresholds.

I'm being positive about it because riding with quicker riders in a group means I am extending my ability level. I still feel I need to get in a session in the middle of the week but I have been feeling a bit worn out and had a few too many other commitments this week. So I have been making the most of riding at intensity on my commutes, in part out of necessity as I keep on leaving the house too late.

As I was making my way home today I had the strange sensation of feeling like I was operating at a higher level than usual, turning over a bigger gear without straining and really flying along. Or maybe everyone else was just going a bit slower today.

Among my list of things to do still is flipping my stem over to raise my position up a bit as I'm still finding getting on the drops on descents a little uncomfortable. My reach feels about fine but I get a twinge at the base of my neck when I try to look ahead, unless I sit right back off the saddle.

I just wandered off and did it while I remembered. In terms of aesthetics, it's not great but I shall give it a go on Sunday and see how it feels. I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make, although my bars and saddle are pretty much level which is supposed to be a good thing. Actually I can't stand how it looks and I'm worried that changing my position this late in the day is going to cause trouble.

Other things to do: buy a big box of gels when i get paid, buy a rain jacket that'll fit in my pocket (probably get the Respro one I saw which is clear and seems to do the job), keep training.

I can't make flapjacks of my own at the moment as our oven is knackered so it looks like I'll be sticking with jaffa cakes, which I have been trying the last couple of weeks. Not as filling but supposedly energy-filled, they seem to be working and are certainly easier to stuff down my throat as I go along than flapjack. I wonder if I can get them in France or whether I'll have to pack my own supply.

I'm a bit behind with these posts, largely due to another busy week, so apologies in advance. I'd love to be able to claim it's because I'm spending more time on the bike to and from work and riding harder and faster than ever. The reality is that I've been putting off my writing up the blog through laziness.

Last Sunday's ride was a hill-avoider - a dash out to Windsor and back at a fairly nippy pace along relatively flat roads. It still added up to a 110km round trip so it wasn't really a short ride. It was wet though. Very wet. And I forgot to pack any waterproof clothing in my pockets.

Working against the time worn principle that what you don't pack you will need, I foolishly went out in gilet and armwarmers under a very heavy grey sky. I wasn't entirely awake when I left the house a bit late and had to TT it down to Hampton Court to make sure I wasn't too late. That bloody well hurt.

Once again the quick boys were out in force and we were soon belting along a route very similar to the London to Windsor ride I did last summer with my mate Stef - him on his Dahon folder comfortably staying with my on my Trek apart from on the more severe up and down bits. I say belting but for most of the club members rolling along at 35km/h was probably a reasonably steady pace. For me it's probably medium to fast.

Looking at my computer it says my average speed is now up to 26km/h from 23.9km/h three weeks ago. that surely counts as progress of some sort in the right direction - a quick start is going to be key to a good time. Maybe I'll find I'm blowing bit hard an hour or so in but by them I should have put some distance between me and the wagon balai.

But I took my turn on the front and pushed it along as best I could without dying. Unfortunately, my turn on the front coincided with the only bit that could be described as a hill. I went belting up the first rise and over it just as I was starting to tie up. Then I realised there was another longer rise to come and cursed my stupidity as everyone else came flying by me and I was forced to wrestle the bike up the rest of it.

Having finally got back on at the next stop point we launched onwards to towards Windsor Great Park and the next challange - gravel. Now there's riding in the wet - it was starting to tip down by this point - and then there's riding in the wet on an uncertain surface. The pace went down to gentle until we found the hard-topped stuff again but there was enough loose stuff for me to end up with a chip out of my front fork, probably from a loose stone being squeezed off the road.

By Windsor town centre it was bucketing it down and a coffee stop was scrapped in favour of making the return journey. We had been promised a following wind on the way back but it never materialised to my slight annoyance.

More annoying was that I had only cleaned the bike down on Saturday night and it needed another turn in the shower to rinse out the drive train and all the grime. My socks were black t the top with filth so got an approximation of a handwash in the bath with me wearing them like mitts.

Having tried the trick of flipping over my 110mm one to give a more upright position I finally came to the conclusion that I was going to have to go short rather than up. So I've purchased the shortest I could get - an 80mm version of my existing one.

I thought about going for a 90mm but then I applied my brain for once. My everyday bike has an 80mm stem but a few more spacers on the steerer tube. So I belmed myself as I measured up both bikes and came to the blindingly-obvious-to-sensible-people conclusion that the discomfort I had been experiencing was down to being overstetched on the bars rather than too low.

The difference between the two is minimal, in terms of set up. Take a look at the images below for comparison of how they are now:

So on Sunday I'll find out if I've gone the right way with my educated guesses or whether I would have been better going to cyclefit in the first place.

Which brings me on to my next consideration - what to wear on the day. Originally I had planned on wearing my Rapha Tour of Britain top and going for a "classic" look. Now I'm tending more towards wearing my full London Dynamo kit as it is the club I ride with and I really should represent them on the day. There's a few other Dynamos going so it might help pick them out in the pen and get our own grupetto going to work our way through the peleton.

Then again it all depends on the weather as well. which reminds me I need to buy a decent one that will pack down small for the summer. The Montane ones are currently top of the list. Any suggestions are welcome but please don't encourage me any more to get one of the Rapha Stowaway ones. They look ever so sexy but they are ever so expensive and I so want one.

Time for bed as my eyes are fading and my typing is becoming as erratic as my pedal stroke when I am knackered.

All this riding faster than usual is still hurting far too much for my liking. I say this as I hobble about the flat in between cleaning the bike and avoiding smoking.

I've finally committed to stopping smoking after all these months. It's proving tougher than giving up drinking was, maybe because I gave up drinking: What the hell am I meant to do now when I go out with friends other than sit there and sip soft drinks like some sort of sick puritan?

I made the decision as I tried to push my pace up Box Hill and kept on slumping back into the saddle unable to raise my tempo. I really want to do this damned thing in a time I can be proud of and I don't want to spend the entire day weeping in pain and half-conscious as I crawl up the climbs. Yes, I did have a couple of cigs when i got in but I've not had one since yesterday evening.

As with everything I set myself to, this involves sheer bloody minded determination, much like yesterday's ride. I wasn't feeling entirely on the pace to start with and kept on sliding down the group on the hills. I tried to pace myself as best I could up them but the extra pace on the flat left me with not much for the gradients and a horrible stinging sensation nagged my legs all the way round.

Despite all these frustrations I was going fine, until I punctured halfway up Ranmore Hill. Normally you are meant to let people know if you've got a mechanical problem. Unfortunately I'd just come off the wheel of the rider ahead of me and was wheezing copiously, so this proved impractical.

As I tried to change my inner in a slightly confused state I cursed a bit and hoped someone would realise I'm not that slow and come back down to investigate. Which Justin did, luckily enough, as I battled with mini-pump hell and general mental fatigue. I would get a big Zefal pump if I could figure out where to store it on the bike. Actually I might sort that issue when I take the bike in for its service mid-June.

On the way back I put in a lap and a half of Richmond Park with a drink stop and a stretch for my sore legs. I felt I could have kept on at the easier pace I was rolling along at for a good deal further but as I had to go into town when I got in I thought it best not to kill myself out.

I'm doing at least 200km each week in total at the moment and making best use of the commute for a bit of intensity training but by Friday last week I felt absolutely dead so I'm going to try and allow a bit more recovery time this week and not ride so hard every inch of the way.

With six weeks to go I should be looking to be near my peak soon. I've done a 150km ride but not the full distance yet. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can put in at least a imperial century/160km ride before I start to taper down a bit before the event. I think the weekend before I go out I'll look to do either a park ride or a more gentle Surrey Hills one. But that's all a long way off yet and there's still four weeks to really get myself much fitter.

Having had a through check of the tyre it seems it was a flint that did the damage. I've just plucked it out. At least I now have the excuse I need for some new tyres on the bike.

I think I'll go with the Continental GP4000s which are essentially the top of the line version of the Grand Prixs that I've gone on the bike at the moment. There are so many tyres on the market these days that it's hard to tell which one is the best or what advantage, other than personal preference, is offered by the range available at any given price point.

I'm sure every rider has in their memory a particularly shoddy brand or model of tyre which they have sworn never to ride again. I think mine must be a horrific Continental tyre on my old Raleigh hybrid. It came with one of those ridiculous names that are meant to impress ouy into buying them - Doublefighter. It certainly didn't impress me in use as it picked up punctures with alarming regularity.

Then again my Continental Grand Prix tyres certainly seem to be a little less edgy than the Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase which are fine in a straight line and round gentle corners in the dry but rather like ice skates at all other times.

Next week I'll be looking for excuses for the following - Rapha Stowaway jacket in charcoal, new bar tape in white, new sunglasses that don't slide down my nose so much, new Zefal pump. I'll probably find excuses for a couple of those - new bar tape obviously, perhaps new sunglasses.

I'm sitting here on a glorious Sunday afternoon when really I should be out on the bike. There's two explanations for this:

1. I am waiting for someone to turn up with our new cooker and install it. An annoyance, yes, as I would much rather be out putting the miles in round the Surrey Hills. I'm pretty sure I'm due a "lighter" week in my training though as I've been feeling rather tired recently so maybe I'll make up this week with a couple of sessions in the evening working on my speed and threshold. Everything I have read says you need to put a week into your schedule where you take it easy and allow some proper recovery so I am claiming this week as one of those.

2. I have an ice pack on my left leg and I'm panicking about a bunch of slight twinges from yesterday's session. For me it was a disastrous 60km on the Saturday Park Ride. A lovely day for riding - sunny, not too much breeze - but also the sort of weather that seems to bring out the urge to go very fast indeed.

I hopped in with the second group out which was supposed to be medium pace. I was doing fine with this for the first half lap as far as the bottom of Spanker's Hill (titter ye not) where I unceremoniously came off the back and decided that I probably should drop back to the next group. The pace of around 10km/h faster than I'm used to had probably done for me leaving me riding almost at my limit on this short bump up.

So I sat up, sucked up fluids and waited for the third group out which picked me up at the top of the fast descent of Broomfield Drive. I felt a bit tight while I was rolling along waiting but put this down to being a bit dry and over-exerted. I got on the group and stayed on but my mind goes hazy here and I can't remember whether it was for half a lap or more. The pace didn't seem any easier than the group I'd dropped out of. Someone paced me back in when I came off the back up to Richmond Gate and by the bottom of Spanker's Hill I was almost back on.

I came off again up there and went through the same painful routine enlivened only by a chat with one of the veterans whose name I don't know and a fellow London Dynamo member who had also come off the back of a group. With two groups down I was assuming that I'd be left with at least a couple more that I could jump into. So it was a slightly mixed feeling as the group that I usually recognise as "steady" came hurtling up the road and I tried to get on.

I think I lasted a lap with them but I must have been having a blank patch as I really am not sure. My computer says I did 60km so I assume I did four laps in total. By the third one I think the over-exertion was starting to tell and my left knee was aching a bit. I probably should have rolled home then but, like stubborn fool, I carried on rolling convinced it would pass.

I've been finding some encouragement in Bradley Wiggins' column in today's Observer. In which he talks about the bottle needed to wait and resist the urge to overtrain for your goal. I guess I need to show some of that resistance now rather than letting it wind me up and stress me out. Tomorrow's commute will either be very leisurely or I'll catch the tube depending on how it feels.

Saw an osteopath today who has figured out the root of my problem: lack of flexibility. so I'm on a strict diet of stretching to regain some. He reckoned I am only about 30% as flexible as I should be which is what has been causing me all these aches and pains. So I can get back on the bike this weekend and take it fairly gently.

I will have to get some new cleats though first. I did actually buy some cleats today, sadly I bought the wrong ones: I got Look Keo rather than the standard ones which are called Delta or something similar. So if anyone needs a set of Keo cleats, the red ones, please feel free to drop me a line and you can have them for a tenner if the nice man in Evans on Rathbone Place won't take them back.

I was entertained by an article in The Daily Telegraph (yes it does happen) entitled "My name is Toby. I wear Lycra which struck a chord with me. In it the author talks about the obsessional nature of cycling and how you can start out just enjoying going places on the bike but at some point you can become obsessed.

For me I replaced the obsessional buzz of alcoholic oblivion with cycling. Being out on the bike pushing myself with my music on is a place where I can switch off my head and just go completely blank. No worrying about fixing the shower or whether I've left another lazy typo somewhere in this blog. Not even about how fast I am going or how long it will take me to get up the next hill. There's just me an the bicycle going somewhere and enjoying the sensation fo doing so without a care in the world.

This may not be the best sort of training but it is definitely the best sort of riding. Yes there is something to love about pushing yourself to the limit up a hill or on a training ride in the sense of overcoming a challenge but for me it doesn't compare to the thrill of finding yourself rolling along at a fair clip without a worry in sight.

Perhaps my favourite album for doing so is The Memory Band's eponymous debut. In particular, Madlove and the Bee is about as great a piece of music as you'll ever chance upon for those lovely days when you are rolling through the cool woodland and warm lanes of Surrey.

You can, and should, pick up a copy from Amazon.co.uk:

And now I must away and try and get these stupid wrong cleats changed at Evans. This should prove a challenge.

Put in a tidy 130km at an average of 26km/h on Sunday. As recommended by the osteopath, Dave Knight, I didn't push it too much and came in the moment I started to feeel a twinge in my left calf.

I've been doing my stretches and trying to keep to a regime of at least doing them in the morning and at night before bed. I feel a lot better for it and the nagging aches have subsided a bit, but not entirely.

I kept it gentle today on the way into work and back, although the last part of the journey home was steadier than usual due to me buying too much at Waitrose. By "too much" I mean I saw a number of organic steak cuts on heavy reduction and filled my rucksack with them for the freezer.

This in turn meant I ran out of space for my normal food shopping and was forced to cycle from Kensington with a baguette poking up out of one side of the rucksack. As packing goes it was fine until it snapped in half at the lights and I was forced to negotiate a right turn with a demi-baguette in my hand. All good practice for eating and dressing on the bike.

Turning to thoughts of the course, Rapha have published a very thorough guide to the course which breaks it down into six sections and makes it seem much more manageable:

http://rapha.screen-play.net/index.php?page=183

I'll be using this as one of my main sources of notes and things I need to remember in my strategy. Doubtless over the next month we will be bombarded with other articles about Alpe D'Huez and its mythical status, whereas what I think needs to be remembered is that there's 170km of tough riding and two elimination points to get through before you can put on your best "Tour legend" head and take on the 21 hairpins of hell, as best you can.

I imagine I won't be paying homage to Pantani with my time, nor brutalising my fellow riders with an Armstrongian display of power. I don't think Cippolini ever made it as far as getting up Alpe D'Huez but I would guess, much like him, I'm going to be climbing with all the grace of a dog being dragged along by the lead: slowly and with an apparent desire to go backwards down the hill at every opportunity.

The organisers have started adding more detail to the site now including a schedule of timings for the event here:

http://www.letapedutour.com/2006/us/itineraire_horaire.html

As I have already posted elsewhere:

"I certainly am going to enjoy the moment as it's something I've wanted to do for as many years as I can remember. I'm also going to pedal like Billy-O to make sure I don't find myself in the broom wagon and that I get a time I'm proud of."

"I've never ridden in the Alps so I am rather filled with trepidation. I've ridden in the Massif Central but only in a gentle 'take your time' way. This will actually be my first proper cycling event. God, I've made myself all nervous now."

Indeed I have made myself a bit nervous staring at the timings and doing pointless maths in my head. Kap on the Cycling Plus forum has just been out there and describes the Izoard as "brutal" which is good and bad. Good in that it confirms my suspicions about it, bad in that it's going to be tough.

He even goes so far as to suggest that British riders with no Alpine experience will struggle to finish. Now, being a stubborn mule when it comes down to it, that sort of provocation has only made me all the more determined to get round.

Looks like I'm going to have to start putting in those intense hour sessions again, which I haven't done for a while as I've not adjusted to the new volume of riding that I do now I commute about 10km each way most days. I'm trying to use stretches of the commute for some form of interval training, although today's was interrupted by a military band marching down The Mall which put paid to that interval.

Here's a clip of Kap from the Cycling Plus forum doing so last week. How much am I looking forward to it watching this? A whole heap.

This is the hairpin section at the top

And this is the straighter bit down towards Briancon

After being rudely awoken by some numpty from Curry's, who was meant to be fitting an oven but took one look and said "no can do", I did actually get out for the club ride. Admittedly, I was a little light on breakfast but I took half a dozen jaffa cakes and a few gels to see me through.

It was warm out but a little less stiffling than last weekend, and for some unknown reason I sat on the front for the first section, all the way out to the first section of the Surrey Hills. This would probably explain why I found myself puffing and wheezing my way up that bit despite trying to rein in my tendency to go winging off and then slump backwards through the group.

But riding on the front did give me a chance to chat to Rusty who had recently returned from doing the Izoard and Alpe D'Huez, as well as bumping into Ivan Basso and a group of CSC riders including former Tour winner Bjarne Riis. You can see some of his pictures at www.roadcyclinguk.com in their report on encountering one of the leading contenders for the maillot jaune this year.

Rusty reports that the Izoard is tough but if I concentrate on keeping hydrated it shouldn't prove insurmountable and I should survive it. I'm trying to ignore all the scare stories on message boards because it all seems just a bit too much like "fishing stories" to me. No doubt I will change my mind when I'm grinding away up the mountain, much as I will regret ever saying "I could walk up here faster" about Alpe D'Huez.

What worried my looking at those pictures was that Riis was not only clinging onto the team car but also seems to have been turning over a gear that looks like 39/25 or, if it's a compact, 34/25 or so. That's former Tour winner Bjarne Riis - who, I think this is right and not myth, once stopped on a climb, got off, let his rivals go past and then remounted and rode up and past them - using a gear I would probably just about cope with. I assume it was a really steep bit.

I battered my way through the remaining hills, including the nasty side of Leith Hill on the 30/27 feeling a bit giddy and confused, possibly due to the weird heat - not outwardly hot heat but just enough to make you sweat heavily. Once I found my rhythm up Ranmore Hill I enjoyed it for once or maybe I was just high on Powerbar sugars.

For once I found my sweet spot on the bottom section of Box Hill and belt up past the first car park and hairpin rolling really easily. But as I came out of the second hairpin it just disappeared and I had to dig in and battle on with that empty legs feel of just not being able to touch on that sensation of being in the groove.

Downed jaffa cakes and coke at Box Hill and felt fine coming back in, again riding on or near the front, even stuck in a lap of Richmond Park to make it up to 120km and managed to get up to a fair old tilt on the final sprint in to Hampton Court.

So all fine until I got home and realised exactly how exhausted I was. I managed to do some stretches before falling fast asleep on my living room floor in front of the football for about four hours. I missed pretty much all of the Brazil vs Australia game and whatever the other one was before managing to stumble into the bath and order a pizza before collapsing on the sofa. for the rest of the day. I was out like a light once bed time came around. And with that I bid you good night.

Truly I suffered like a nag ready for the knacker's yard today. I drifted to the front again and may have accidently pushed the pace a bit on the way out to the hills but that doesn't explain why I was going up hills with all the pace of a hearse.

Leith Hill turned into a season of pain as we managed to get a bit lost and carried on right up and over it. Luckily Brendan was chivvying me along up there as I ground it out in 30/25 and eventually 30/27 when I remembered to check if I had any more gears left.

My reasoning is that I've been pushing the commutes to hard this week and haven't really recovered properly from sprinting up and down a bit of next year's TDF Prologue. Or that I was just having one of those really off days.

Still, I managed to fit in 138.6km at an average of 25.4km/h. Admittedly I had wanted to do at least 160km but there was the small matter of an England game to get home for. Yes, I was hurting like hell when I got to my front door but I did feel like I could have plodded on a bit further and that I wasn't totally done in. Sitting here typing this my legs don't feel too much like planks so it can't be that bad.

Today's ride was really enjoyable and there was plenty of chatter and excitement among the group about the Etape Du Tour and La Marmotte, which runs a few days before and does five climbs before finishing at Alpe D'Huez. It's probably tougher than the Etape so you won't catch me doing it in a hurry.

There was a real sense of excitement as it's only a fortnight away now. One last Sunday ride next week and about 120km perhaps then it's relax and stay off the bike for a few days, clean it and pack it in my massive new monoc hardcase along with all my other bits as there should be plenty of space.

I really can't wait now - I'm a strange mix of trepidation and nervous excitement. I know the Izoard is going to be a real challenge for me but I feel that if I can just get up and over it in a good time then I might just be alright for the distance.

So in a fortnight's time I'll probably be enduring a nervous sleep before an early start to get on a coach down to the start for the ride of a lifetime.

On Monday night I accepted the kind invitation from Jack Thurston to appear on The Bike Show on Resonance to talk about the Etape and be a studio guest. I very much enjoyed it, even if I am a bit rusty at the whole live radio guest thing.

You can listen to me, as well as an interview with the legendary bicycling beardy that is Sheldon Brown and with the DS of the Rapha Condor race team, Dominic Gabellini, at the following link:

http://bikeshow.blogspot.com/2006/06/26-june-2006-extreme-cycling.html

It's available as a podcast/download or streamed mp3 as well as in ogg vorbis format so that should cover most of your needs.

I've promised Jack I'm going to bring him back a package from the Etape about my experiences. Hopefully I'll find some interesting people to interview along the way. If you are an Etapist and wouldn't mind being interviewed in Gap on the Sunday and you see me wandering around with a minidisc, microphone and an air of desperation then don't be afraid to say hello.

Good article here:

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article.asp?UAN=1436&v=1

On planning your eating, energy drinks and so on for the distance from Tim at Science in Sport. He should know what he's talking about, even if he did suggest that I should reconsider on my jaffa cake intake and go for something more tailored to the job instead. I was not a happy bunny I can tell you.

But this Sunday I will be giving a few different products a try to see which one I get on with best. Then I'll be buying some of the sachets as apparently I can mix them on the weak side and still use them. All a bit last minute I know but I guess it makes sense after all.

Sunday's ride was meant to be a tapering exercise - sit in the middle of the group, take it steady up the hills. Unfortunately it didn't work out like that as I ended up trying to lead the group with Toby. So I found myself at the front again for long stretches.

Then we had our first accident of the year (other than straightforward falling off) when Kimbers got nailed by a wing mirror as we came round a narrow bend and met a car going a bit too fast for such a narrow bend. It's the same one we came round once to be confronted by a pair of horses, one of which bolted.

Luckily Kimbers came off with only bumps and scrapes but we had to endure a tedious and long rant from the woman in the passenger seat who was adamant we were a menace and it was all our fault for riding two abreast, etc. This went on for a good 30 minutes until the police (who she had insisted her husband call) and ambulance turned up. Then another 30 minutes while statements were taken and Kimbers checked over by the ambulance crew.

I think this waiting around might be why I felt so distastrously wrecked when I got in: an hour standing in the sun meant we all got through a lot of liquid so, by the time we got to Box Hill, we were a bit dehydrated. Despite taking on plenty of fluids there, I was in utter hell by the time we struggled through Richmond Park on the way back.

By the time I got in I was all over the place and ended up slumped on the floor of the shower for quite some time. This has re-inforced in my mind the importance of keeping well fed and watered on the Etape. Even if it costs me a few minutes it's going to be worth making sure I stop at all the ravitaillements to take on as much as I can carry in both water and food.

I'm going to get some sachets of the PSP22 and Go to put in my pockets and then mix it on the weak side. I get through a lot of fluid anyway so I'll not be skimping on getting the carbs down in fluid. That teamed with powerbar energy gels and some solid food (cereal bars or jaffa cakes) should see me round.

I'm going to make sure I take some Euros in change to buy a sandwich and a can or two of Coke along the way. I think something savoury and the treat of a Coke should help break up the monotony of powdery drink and syrupy gels.

I've not started packing yet so i guess I'll need to spend the next couple of days sorting things out - a trip to Condor is needed for sachets, overshoes and knee warmers as the weather forecast isn't exactly 110% sunshine and there's a bit of a threat of cooler weather or even rain. I might even get a new waterproof, albeit a cheap one.

And then I really am going to stop spending money on cycling stuff for this year, hopefully.

I'm incredibly excited to finally be getting out there and doing this at last. And I'm also really chuffed with how the fundraising has gone so far. I had hoped to go to 2000 quid but that might have been ambitious. So far I'm up to 800 and with a bit more nagging of folks and emailing I might be able to make the 1000 before I go.

Chris Hoy, one of Britain's top track cyclists is riding it to raise money for Children with Leukemia, according to a story here:

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/article.asp?UAN=1447&v=1

So you can sponsor him or you can sponsor me, but please sponsor one of us as it is in a good cause. Now I know he's quick on the track and starting a few pens up from me (he's in four, I'm in six) but I've now pinned a vague hope on passing him or at least catching him on the road.

Ron Cutler's Etape.org.uk site (see link right) has a very good piece on strategy and how fast you need to go where to make it round. you can read it in ful here:

http://www.etape.org.uk/Strategy.htm

At some point tonight I need to crack on with washing down the bike and preparing for packing it tomorrow evening. Then lunchtime tomorrow it's one last dash round Condor for stuff I need and haven't got yet. More spending, I know.

With much swearing, sweating and shoving I packed up the bike into the case last night before indulging in a pizza as just reward for wrestling it into the case. Luckily I had popped into Borders at lunchtime to read Cycling Plus' guide to packing a bike which was most helpful in picking up things I hadn't thought of, such as removing skewers and rear mechs.

I've filled out the space in the box with all manner of clothing and parts plus energy drink sachets and gels. There's my helmet and all my race day kit in one space, my other kit in another and lots of things secured with masking tape.

I'm really looking forward to it now and can't wait to get out there. I'm taking my cameraphone for taking snaps. I do have a decent Leica camera but it would be just one more thing to lug around when all I'm going to be doing is taking snaps. I don't want to risk carrying more than I have to and the cameraphone is idea for taking pics on the move. Ideally I'll bring back some from the ride, if I have time to take any.

Better get a wriggle on and do some of the last minute stuff I haven't done as I ahve to be at Euston to catch a coach by midday.

To everyone who has donated money: Thank you ever so much, it is deeply appreciated nd has motivated me a great deal to not disappoint you.

To everyone who has been reading: I hope you have enjoyed it, a full report when I get back, hopefully with pictures.

To everyone riding: good luck! You've put in the time, now reap the rewards. And don't forget to enjoy it. I'll see you out on the course. Remember pen 6, number 5577.

Here's my initial report as posted on my club's forum, when I have time this week I'll do some further stuff including my pictures:

"Firstly, huge congratulations to the Dynamos who made it to the top of Alpe D'Huez. I salute your efforts because that was just a plain brutal day in the saddle wherever you got to on the course.

Gap to the Izoard - Saw Richard (sorry don't know your surname) at the start as the sun rose into a clear sky that would gradually become infernal. Was out of pen 6 and flying down the road in next to no time. Was really hard to find groups to sit in on as the only things going were either moving too slow/fast or really disorganised. Every time I looked behind me I could see a long line of lazy sods sitting on my wheel and refusing to come through.

Heard a cry of "go on dynamo" and saw one of you go flying past faster than I could manage in one of the litany of fast moving pace lines. Rolled over Lac Serre Poncon in good time and felt good as I approached the first feed station at about 9:10, 30 minutes up on the time limit.

Was met by a solid wall of cyclists dismounting at the most ridiculous jam due to the feed station being stupidly placed before the roundabout rather than to one side of it. Ended up losing about 25 minutes trying to shuffle forward before i grabbed what I could and set off up the Izoard.

The Col D'Izoard - As soon as the road turned uphill through the first section there were already people walking and scattered by the roadside. Saw a couple more Dynamos go past me as I grabbed water at a fountain in one of the villages along the way as the temperature was already rising.

As the gradient kicked up I was joined by Neil Jones and together we battled our way up the seemingly endless top section, having to stop with alarming frequency just to get our heart rates back down. This was hellish and there were hundreds of people walking already. Made it to the top inside the limit of the merciless "vehicule horaire" to find there was no water left so we were forced to grab a can of coke amongst the carnage of people already suffering dehydration.

Gilets on we took off down the sharp hairpin section hoping to make back some time before Briancon. Took the first few fairly steadily but as it became apparent we were among the last to have made it off the Izoard before the gendarmes I put aside caution and followed Neil's instruction to "show these French how to descend".

We flew into Briancon with a few minutes to spare only to find the vehicule horaire practically sitting on our wheel. When they started shouting "two minutes t get away or you are eliminated" I got spooked and took off down the road with my gilet still on and as much food and water as I could grab down my jersey.

Col Du Lautaret - Belted up the vicious little brute of a climb out of Briancon and onto the road to the Lautaret. After about 5km I started wondering when it was going to kick up and where Neil had gone.

Then I realised that there were no groups left on the road, just a desolate column of riders strung out like ants of the length of the climb. Fortunately and sturdy-built English chap came past me and I sat on his wheel for as long as possible while I tried to recover and soak up some fluids.

At one of the villages they were already aware of the lack of water and had formed a long line of people at the fountain so that all I had to do was try and recover while they held my bike and filled my bottles. This was such a blessed relief as I passed groups of riders huddled in the shade of buildings and collapsed by the roadside. Heatstroke and dehydration really took their toll and I was starting to feel it.

Still, no sign of the time limit car as I put my head down and kept on turning ridiculously low gears against the imperceptible but ever-present headwind. It seemed far more physically sapping and mentally draining than the Izoard had.

Then, just as the tunnel before the summit came into sight, I heard the familiar drone of a skoda signalling the time limit car. I wasn't going to give up without a fight so as it moved alongside me I threw everything I had left at it to keep up with its 19km/h. The gorgeous french girl in the passenger seat rewarded my efforts by handing me up a small bottle of water which half went in my mouth and half in my face.

In turn I rewarded such generosity by pulling in front of it and blocking its progress - I figured that if it couldn't pass me then, according to the rules, they couldn't eliminate me. I kept up this ridiculous game until about 1km from the top when cramp overtook me and I wobbled out of its way. But I reckoned I could still get over the top and down to Bourg D'Oisans in time for the 4pm cut-off.

At the top of the Lautaret I was met by a line of gendarmes aggressively stopping riders from continuing passt the time limit car. So, with a suitably gallic shrug and while they were trying to stop someone else I shot through and took off down to Bourg D'Oisans. A little under and hour to make it but I was fairly sure that it was still possible.

The descent of the Lautaret actually achieved the impossible by being a worse surface than most of the really bad roads in the Surrey Hills. But putting aside any cautions whatsoever I slapped into the big ring for one last charge down the absolute limit of what I could manage, making full use of every inch of tarmac and the lack of other riders on the road.

The headwind up the valley meant I couldn't relax at any point and had to keep on pushing even in the Tron-like tunnel with surreal blue lights. The speedometer was clocking no less that 45km/h all the way down until it levelled out and the cramps started coming in waves.

I was nearly at the foot of Alpe D'Huez and I thought I could make it just in time to sneak through again but, as I turned into the feed station, I could see they had put a barrier across the road and the time reading 4:10pm even though the time limit car hadn't passed me on the way down. There was no way of sneaking past this time.

I handed over my transponder as they were practically ripping them off riders and slunk off to try and find some water which was yet again near impossible to find.

Then the waves of nausea washed over me and I stumbled to the nearest medic who led me to the first aid tent where they told me I was dehydrated and unsurprisingly suffering from exhaustion. After a rather emotional hour in pain I stumbled out again to face the indignity of getting on the broom wagon.

In total it seems like around 3000 riders ended up in the wagon and they were still stopping riders all the way up the Alpe. Given the heat - around 35C plus in the shade - and the lack of water it's not surprising so many didn't finish.

I'm glad that I got as far as I did and was probably one of the last to be swept up but mighty peeved I didn't get to take on the Alpe. Once again, hearty congratulations to all who did finish. I'm off to bed now to lick my wounds and plan my assault on next year's Etape."

Here's Paul Kimmage being his usual moaning, miserable self about doing the Etape:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2271966,00.html

And here's my holiday snaps from the adventure:

http://homepage.mac.com/atomicecho/PhotoAlbum9.html

See if you can guess which one of me was taken at the top of the Izoard and which one at the bottom of Alpe D'Huez after failing to beat the elimination time.

Having watched the stage on the big screen yesterday at Rapha's little soirée off Brick Lane and then watched Landis go from nailed on for winning to "I can't find him in the CG" today I've started to remember what it was about cycling and Le tour that first captivated me.

Much as I loved the sheer power that Armstrong displayed during his reign, I am a huge fan of a race as open as this and where so many different names have written themselves into the story. We may even get this one going right down to the final day's racing. I can't remember the last time that happened.

So where from here for me as a cyclist? Well I've just sent the following email to the charity I rode for this year:

"Just a quick email to say how much I enjoyed raising money for Get Kids going! by doing the Etape du Tour this year. I enjoyed it so much I am really keen to ride it again next year and, if possible, do so and raise more money for your cause. Would it be possible to get my name down early on the list for next year's team?"

So fingers crossed I'll be stronger, fitter and there'll be plenty of water. I've got a taste for these events and renewed determination to achieve a decent standard.

This year I've raise £1,153 so far. If you would still like to donate then it would be much appreciated. Next year I would like to raise a similar amount.

The strangest side effect is that, since coming back, I've suddenly feel like a smoother, faster rider. It feels like I've unlocked whatever fear it was that was holding me back - as Stu said on the cycling plus forum those hills that we used to battle with a mere pimples now.

Now the moment the road stiffens a bit I don't sit back and wait for it to swallow up my momentum. Instead I'm out of the saddle and with a quick flick of the pedals I carry on over it. Hills that previously were a bit of a battle up a kilometre or so and still work but nothing I can't get over.

When winter comes I'm investing in a turbo trainer and working on increasing my threshold level and power output. I think that's the part of my riding that is most lacking. The endurance bit I can do, the gritting of teeth and fighting through pain likewise.

If I want to be quicker up those hills I've got to develop the power to go up them. This year I think I fell into the trap of trying to do too much distance work, or at least distance pretending to be work, rather than focusing on pushing up my threshold levels. Of course I'll still be doing my club rides at weekends but I hate riding in the dark and rain so a turbo makes sense for doing those intensity workouts of an hour in measurable circumstances during the week.

This weekend I'm taking the bike up to Sheffield and will take it for a spin up into the Peak District, perhaps up Snake Pass and back on Sunday morning. Then I'm going to have a serious think about doing some racing, either at Eastway or at Hillingdon. I'd like to at least do one race at Eastway before they tear it up.

As you may remember I was a guest on Resonance fm's Bike Show a few weeks back. On Monday 24 July 206 my report on the Etape should hopefully go out on the show. It might sound a little dated as I did it before the stage was run but I hope you enjoy it. There's a few familiar voices from my trip in there so listen out for yourself Stu and Peter, and Simon.

http://bikeshow.blogspot.com/ and http://www.resonancefm.com/ are where you can find out more about it as a podcast or live show.

You can find it here:
http://bikeshow.blogspot.com/2006/07/24-july-2006-remembering-major-taylor.html

Along with a very interesting report on Major Taylor which is well worth a listen. That's me almost done with this blog now but it'll hopefully be back for next year's Etape. I may also do a more general cycling one when I get a moment to sort it out this summer - I'm going to try my hand at criterium racing and broaden my experience a bit.