Le Grand Depart

Le Grand Depart at last!

After the obligatory carbo loading on arriving in Rotterdam on Friday afternoon, it was time to meet all of the cast and crew for the first stage of the Tour de Force that was to be a ride from Rotterdam to Brussels. After a brief welcome chat and some notes on the first morning's schedule, it was up to the bedroom to get everything ready for the early morning start.

DAY 1

Wake up at 6am, bike and suitcase down to the hotel reception at 6.40; breakfast from 6.45-7.15; briefing at 7.30, on the road at 7.45am.

From the hotel we rode down to the actual Tour Prologue start, taking the opportunity to get some group photos before the day's riding could start for real.




Riding out of Rotterdam was taken nice and easy on the flat roads, a feature that was to be with us all the way to Brussels. Today's cycle is the flattest stage of the whole ride, but one of the longest. The cycle lanes in Holland were great, but not so great once into Belgium..

This is a typical bike lane (Holland side!). The real Tour riders will be on the main road shown on the right



We faced strong wind and rain for the first 2 hours, i actually spent the whole day in my jersey, arm warmers and a lightweight waterproof jacket (despite it getting to 17 degrees).

The support crew were fantastic. It will be such a fantastic help having them with us the whole way. After 40km we had our first snack stop - where we had the choice of fruit, cakes, sandwiches, drinks, biscuits to feast on for our 15 minute stop. Another stop at 95k meant jam sandwiches.. haven't had one of those in about 15 years, and it is amazing how good it tastes when your body is demanding food.. Lunch was at 150km, and a final snack stop was at 185km. Having 4 stops throughout the ride means that the 8,000 calories that we all need to consume during the day becomes much easier!

The adrenalin of the first day meant that time passed pretty quickly, and before i knew it we were seeing signs to Brussels as we approached our hotel in a group of 12 riders. Colin managed to puncture 200m from the hotel.. not bad going after 216km and 8 hours 28 minutes of cycling. All in all the easy pace and plenty of body fuel meant we all arrived in pretty decent shape, far from over doing it which is always a danger on the first day.

Arriving in Brussels



Day highlights

Rich trying to adjust his bike computer in the centre of Rotterdam and getting 3 fingers stuck in his wheel doing 20km/hr.. all 3 fingers are heavily bandaged, one of them needed stitches.
Bev trying to put high pressure gas into his inner tube, getting it wrong and spraying ultra cold Co2 directly into his face. His new nickname is Kelvin
Colin saying after 160km of the flattest day of the whole event "this is actually quite hard, and we've got 18 days of this!". "no Colin, it's 20 days"

Today's Stage Computer data click here

Today Distance: 216.26km
Calories burned 8,255
Hours cycled: 8 hours 23 mins
Average speed 25.5kmph
Average heart rate: 97

Tomorrow's stage going to be tougher with around 2,500m of climbing to get through..

Q