54 and 2nd overall – Conquering Inferno France.

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Yeah, I’m all right. I won’t lie to you. I’ve had better days on the bike. [Music] We’ve had to put a stop to the to the race cuz having a a a rally and we can’t get through. My whole year has been focused on Inferno France and Doommites. And this video is the story of Inferno France getting a cold four days before it and some of the ups and downs that I experienced in the actual event itself. Now, I put out a questionnaire on my YouTube channel and across my other social networks saying, should I do a shorter video which a bit more sexy, or should I do a longer video chucking everything into it and telling you guys what went well, what didn’t, some of the thought process I had. And the resounding answer was, Simon, do a long one. So, bear with me, stick with it, cuz this video is for you. What I’m going to do is run through a little bit of an insight into each stage to start off with, let the video run, and then maybe talk over the top or cut in and talk about some of the things that I experienced on that particular climb that might be of interest. Let’s do some stats first, though. Stage one, 141 mi or 228 km if that’s the way you’re inclined with 5,600 m of climbing. Let’s give you a bit of an insight. So, I use an app called Epic Ride Weather, and you can put in your Strava route, and that shows you what the weather forecast will do across that route. Now, looking at it meant that we potentially might get a bit of rain in the morning, but most definitely by about 4:00, there was a thunderstorm rolling in. So, the goal was maybe to ride it a little bit harder to make sure I was at the hotel by no later than 3:30. Right, let’s start this video. Well, it’s pretty early in the morning. We’ve all had breakfast and uh we’re just about to head out to the start. So, we’re going to roll for about two and a halfk stop, have a quick brief, and then it stops. Well, that’s about as ready as I’m ever going to be after this cold. Right. So, that’s us off. And we’ve already got spots of rain heading our direction. So, not what I want to not what I want to feel at any stretch of imagination. No, we were actually quite lucky. Although, we did feel the odd big drop of rain hit us. That was it. That’s all we ever experienced. This guy up front was Phil and a super nice guy and he was just a next level cyclist and stayed up front all the way through the race. Look at that. This is epic. I’m jealous, man. Sun’s come up now. So, just trying to get into a rhythm. Still trying to find my pace a little today. Just need to settle a bit. Just hit bow foot. So, got a big climb coming up. Hopefully, I can get some water here. I’ve dropped all my bottles. It literally just thumped it down for a minute or so and now it’s stopped. Fingers crossed that’s what it does. I had to stop off at Bow and find a toilet. Like, oh, some of that uh energy mix that I had earlier that I don’t normally drink really disagree with me. So, I’m going to stick with the Stirka stuff. I’ve probably lost a bit of time, but I’d rather that than feel really horrible and digestively uncomfortable climbing. That’d be horrendous. So, I’m heading up colder, which is I think one of the toughest climbs today next to Isra. It’s super humid today. Super humid. Almost at the top of colder Rosalam where the next feed station is. I’m quite looking forward to that. I’ve drunk so much water. We need to get some more fluids on. Got about 2k to go. Take your bike. I’m just at the uh aid station at the top of Roseland. Got Nico who’s uh always at the front. And who’s this man there? Florian. Florian. and Florian. So, they’ve looked after me and now I’m gonna crack on, I think. What do you reckon? It’s gonna rain. No, no, you can ask for the rain. You look better now. If you watch the channel on a regular basis, you know, I posted a video 4 days previously to say that I wasn’t actually that well. I’d had a cold. And watching this footage back over the last few days and pulling it together for this, I realized actually I was feeling more dehydrated than I ever normally feel. So, that’s one red flag. And the other red flag was that digestively I wasn’t that comfortable on the first day. That settled down on day two and day three. Yeah, I know I’m coughing and it doesn’t sound too healthy, but actually I’m in good shape and I’m laughing and that’s always a good sign. Anyhow, I’m in second place at the top of the Rosland and I’ve just decided in this video I’m going to keep the descending as much as I took running because it’s a great descent. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] So that’s me now climbing up colder Isaran. And it’s a long old climb. It’s about 2 hours. It’s pretty full on. [Music] That’s me out of Valdair heading up the last part of the climb of Cerran. I don’t think it’ll be as snowy as last time. [Music] Almost at the top. I won’t lie to you. I’ve had better days on the bike. Legs don’t feel great. But hey, last kind of day, so it’s all downhill from here, apparently. [Music] Well, that’s the top of colder and that’s the last of the climbing. You’ll have heard me say as I was climbing up colder that I just didn’t feel so great. Now look, this was at the end of the day last climb and that definitely was still carrying part of that cold. But actually, when I looked at the date when I got home, I was pretty much holding decent watts from the bottom to the top of that climb and nothing untoward on heart rate. So, it’s just my head playing silly games with me. And I think that’s just down to the fact that I was a little dehydrated because of the cold. I drunk plenty of fluids. And you know, when you’ve got a cold, you just get a bit more dehydrated than normal. Anyhow, I did feel good by the end of it. We had 30 kilometers from the neutralized top of the last climb at colder to get home. And I still rode that quite hard because I wanted to beat the thunderstorm that was coming in which I did by about 5 minutes. Stage two stats. So around about 90 mi or 144 km with 4,700 m of climbing. Looking at the Epic Ride weather app, we knew that actually that thunderstorm was going to stick with us all night. So we we decided that we’re going to start an hour later in the day, which was quite a cool decision because it did rain in the morning, but it stopped. And it’s crazy in France when the rain stops, what you notice is the roads dry out really quickly. So once that happened, it was a little warmer. We all kicked off. And again, I needed to go to the Lou first in the morning, which is kind of unusual for me. And it meant that I started a little bit later, which is why when you see me in the in the race, I’m literally passing everybody, having a bit of a chitchat with everybody and then I’m back into second. I was never going to beat Phil. He was way too good. Well, in true Inferno style, it’s threatening to rain and it’s definitely not going to be warm, but fingers crossed. Fingers crossed it’s coming to us. I think there’s way too much chatting here. So on today’s menu, we’ve got coldraph and then cold the galib, which are the two toughest climbs of the day. And it’s supposed to be cold, but it’s not. It’s quite warm. As you can see, it’s got super misty. It’s still warm and humid, but I reckon it’s going to be cold at the top. So, the game plan today is just to ride at 210, 220 W max. I’m going to get steep, proper 250, nothing more than that. As long as I can hold it there, depending on its steepness, just to try and save the legs. I don’t feel bad, but I don’t want to push it today. Got a big day tomorrow. Just wow. Absolutely amazing. I’ve got 11k of the Gibby to go. I’m hoping it stays dry. It looks like it will. Famous last words. Just watching some of this video footage back, I realized that actually I was climbing for about 2 hours. Uh, and I was in summer kit and even though it was overcast, I wasn’t sweating that much. So clearly I’m still not right because trying to control my body temperature is all over the place. And it’s only when you start looking back at these things, you start noticing these little telltale signs that I still wasn’t that well. So, I’ve got about 3k to the top. Starting to get cold now. Feet are frozen. Literally almost at the top. I’m going to keep this descent running as for as much as I videoed this because it’s utterly stunning. And the cool thing about this, as you can see, is I’m weaving sort of 1 minute intowards clouds and out into sun. And I was really excited about trying to get down the valley to get into warmer climates. And the other crazy thing is, you’ll notice that me and a motorcyclist get fairly close down this descent. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up Well, the descent of cold is insane. I’ve forgotten how good that is. It’s so long. Just makes you smile. And this bike handles it so well. Literally just pummel it down fast. It’s been brilliant fun. And now I’m heading up Cole to Lizard. Lizard. Lizard or I don’t know. I can’t say it right. But it’s 19k to the top and the weather is very different. Crop are going to be hot this one. Hi. Yeah. just at the top. I won’t lie to you. I’m very glad that it’s an aid station here. I’ve run out of everything. Now, you might be able to see this in the video footage, but look at the ground. It’s sparkling. And I actually honestly thought for a moment that I was dehydrated so much that my eyes were playing games. But when I was chatting to everybody else, they also noticed the same thing. [Music] Hey [Music] [Music] Last climb of the day. About 17k to go to the finish line today. I’m actually feeling pretty good on this climb. So, it’s 19 km uh right to the top and we had to pass the hotel on the way up which could mess around the head a little bit. But I think what was really cool is that there was a fair bit of climbing and then some flat sections that really got the bike flowing again. So, when you got those moments where you’re thinking, “Oh, this is tough.” You got some speed and it made everything change for the better. [Music] [Applause] You can sit down. Something hot. Maybe tea. Have a bit of a Do you know what? A cup of tea would be amazing. Yes, please. Well, that’s the top of Cold of Coldar. Look at this. It’s absolutely stunning. Right, that’s stage two done and I’m at the top of Civar. Now, my legs are feeling pretty good at that moment. I’m actually feeling not bad in myself, but still sounding pretty horse and coughing badly. So, as much as I think I’ve got over that cold. Well, you’ll find out more in Inferno Donommites. I’m feeling good and my body’s giving me everything, but it’s like it’s not good in the long-term future prediction. Anyhow, enough about that. top of the culivar. Feeling good, lying in second, and our hotel is 3 kilometers back down Culvar, which we have to climb the next day before the race even starts. It’s pretty mean of Inferno France to do that, don’t you think? Stage three of Inferno France, and I think this was my best day on the bike. It was 141 mi or 228 km with about 5,120 m of climbing. Hey. Hello. So day three and we’re climbing Culdevar to pretty much start day three which is pretty mean of inferno France but hey we’ve come to expect that we’ve got Phil and then we’ve got John in front of us and Phil’s in first and John’s in third. So the boys were right as we dropped off colder far. It was absolutely freezing and now we’re getting up called the bonet. It just gets progressively warmer and warmer. I was just thinking it’s the perfect blend of cold and I’m hot while climbing. It’s going to get hot today. Really hot. That’s so cool. [Music] [Music] Almost to the top of Cordonet and they’ve got us going right to the top to take a selfie to show that we’ve done it because they can’t get right to the top. Was otherwise, get my words out, they’d put the feed station there and they can’t cuz they can’t take cars up. So, the selfie is the proof. The biggest clam of the day was Colder Bernette. Um, rather sadly, my video footage I thought I’d press record didn’t actually record, which is gutting because as you go around that pinnacle to the top of colder bonet, um, you can hear the mountain on your left hand side still throwing little rocks down on the left and it’s it’s like it’s saying, “I’m alive. Respect me.” It’s scary and exciting all at the same time. And I think you’ll agree once you get stopped the view is utterly stunning. Selfie done. Again, I’m going to keep the video footage running on the descent because the video footage is cool. So, sit back and enjoy. And watch out for the Roman village that I passed through. It’s pretty epic. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] You are I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am Heading [Music] up colder San Martin and John keeps catching me up on the flats and the long descents with headwinds. He’s on a trek mad. He just slices through the air and he’s slightly heavier than me. So, he’s caught me up. But back on the hills, if I stick to my numbers, I’ll start making space again. So, it’s going to be a game of cat and plow. Cat and mouse. Cat and plow. Cat and mouse. Right on cold to the tini. I managed to drop the bullet pro. So I hope I’ve not broken it and it’s recording. But second to last climb now. Ah tough. Thank you. Well, we’ve had to put a stop to the to the race cuz Cerini is having a a a rally and we can’t get through. So, we’re having to stop here and figure out what to do next. Anyway, these things happen and uh that’s what happens if you go from one side of the country to another. But, let’s see what happens. One of the reasons why I like to do the Inferno is yeah, it’s a race, but it’s a race for yourself and it’s a challenge for yourself. So regardless of whether at the pointy end or at the back, it’s still a race to try and get there in the cutoff times cuz these races are brutally hilly. But the other reasons why I like to do an Inferno race is cuz anybody that does these is bloody nice. They’re just good people, right? Um, and the cool thing is is when we realized that the race had been kind of neutralized and we’d all been pulled together and sat down and eaten food and we had another 40 miles, 50 miles to go, we all looked at each other and went, “Look, we know what the outcome’s going to be. Phil’s going to be first. I’m very possibly going to be second and then John is going to be third.” So, is there much point in actually kicking each other to bits on the last climb? And we were like, “Nah, there isn’t.” So, we didn’t. And we all read together. [Music] So, not thinking we were going to go up the Colder Mone, we are actually going up the Colder Mone. So, we thought because the race is neutralized, we’d chitchat from the bottom to the top. To be honest, he’s been chatting. I’ve been breathing hard. [Music] Well, that’s us at the top of the MONE. I tell you what, what a day. That’s been epic. Um, I’ll talk about it later. Well done. Just Yeah. Otherwise, the pedling for absolutely nothing. If that deleted, you and I. And there you have it. That’s Inferno France done and dusted. I came second. felt like I rode pretty okay. I realized now looking back at the footage that I was still carrying that cold and it was going to come back and bite me on the ass later in Inferno Doommites, but I’ll talk about that in that video. I hope you’ve enjoyed this. It’s been fun trying to put it together, and I won’t lie to you, it’s been hard to put it together because it’s taken a lot more time to put it together. So, if you haven’t done already, hit me a like and then hit me a subscribe and maybe look, do you know what? Share this with your friends because I am trying to grow this as a YouTube channel. I’m not an influencer or a YouTuber, but I am 54 and I’m going to be 55 soon. And I’d quite like to show people that at this kind of age, you can have a lot of fun on your bike if you train specifically and go and challenge yourself. go and do an Inferno race. Look, you know, I’m not sponsored by these guys, but 100% they’re bloody good fun.