Etape 2015 advice

The Etape is similar to the Marmotte
You'll get some good training tips here: http://m.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=2057044244

From what you have said, you will be looking to get used to riding longer distances, which you can obviously do here in Ireland. What we don't have here are long climbs or heat, both of which you are likely to face in the Etape. You might also need to deal with cold and wet descents if you have bad luck with the weather (which happened this year), and I suppose you can train for that in Ireland, though descents will be shorter. The thing which I always find difficult in any long rides is eating, so you;d also want to think about that and get used to eating and hydrating properly before, during and after your event. For training roads, I would pick the steepest and longest climbs possible, but maybe after you've first got used to spending longer periods on the bike. From the Dublin area, the best climbs would be any of the roads up the Sally Gap and continuing on to the Kippure mast, and also the wicklow gap and on up to turlough hill-these roads offer long (by Irish standards) climbs, and can be steep in parts.

Food wise, I make my own breakfast bars from this odlums recipe, with a lot of added fruits and nuts. Great for slow energy release. Then just snack at the food stops, I found the tuc crackers and the French Cola good this year, there was some kick off the cola Fruit too, usual bananas and oranges. Then just a couple of gels for the climbs. They'd cakes and cheeses available too, I think they make an effort to use local produce so some will depend on the locality.
If I really put my mind to it I could have kept going without stopping at the food stops as the weather wasn't hot enough to burn too much energy.

DS2013 wrote: »

Loinnsigh, I understand it will be the Alps this year but they won't give the course details out until September or October.

Koobcam, thanks for the advice on routes to train on. I read an account of this year's event and understand the decents in the weather were very difficult. I will start to think about eating before, during and after the event. What sort of food did you bring on the ride and do the organisers supply enough food?

All sportives will have some sort of food stop, maybe several. However, if you are not among the fastest (and, unless you are at A1/ex pro level you most certainly won't be amongst the leaders at the Etape), you will end up spending lots of time queueing. Best to bring food with you-my rule of thumb is basically to bring either enough to get me through the whole ride or at least have money to buy food on the way. I find fig rolls and bananas suit me best-soft and easy to keep down, but everyone will have their own favourites. Wicklow 200 is a good case in point-unless you are off super early and can do a 29-30kph pace, I wouldn't bother with the food stops as you will just waste loads of time waiting around. Nothing wrong with the food at the stop, just the waiting is the issue. My biggest problem with food is actually eating it, I find it hard to generate an appetite while I'm actually cycling (horsing down a fridge load of food afterwards is no problem though). So, you should practice this-actually eating on the bike. If you don't eat on the Etape, you will definitely get a hunger knock and probably not finish.

Haven't done the etape but have done the marmotte, same thing basically. Glandon is deceptive as the numbers mask two downhill sections. Once of them is a fairly long, so the climb itslef is harder than it looks on paper. It is 25+kms as well, so yes somewhere in the region of 2 hours would be about right.

Try to get into a club for the winter, heading out on your own for 3+ hours is tough and going with a group can help on those days when motivation is lacking. It also gets you used to riding in a group which with 10k+ on the Etape menas that you'll likely always have people around you.

It really is all about climbing. Get as many hills as you can. And the longer the better. If Howth is all you can get to then so be it, but there is a big difference is climbing a short hill and then repeating after a downhill to having to continually climb for 60 minutes. I find that the climb up Killakee/Featherbeds/SG and up to Kippure mast is the best 'local' one. There is a downhill section in it but in effect it is +60 minutes of continuos effort. Repeat this as many times as you can in a day.

Also try to get as many sportive events done as possible. This covers a number of aspects. Time in the saddle, trying out your eating/drinking plans and having cyclists around you. Orwell Randonee, Mick Byrne, Evil 200, W200, and the 3 Peaks challenge are all good ones. There is a good one run by SERC at the start of April which I find useful in gauging where I am after the winter and 1st few months of harder training. If you can handle this well enough then endurance will not be such an issue and give you plenty to work on. Same with the others. They also give you something to focus on to breakdown your training into more specific targets rather than just waiting for the event itself.

The best piece of advice is to start now. Don't wait until January. You don't have to be doing intervals or anything crazy, but get used to time on the bike. Get your family/friends involved. Let them know what you are doing. You're not just heading out for a cycle anymore, you're going training. I find this makes a big difference. Look at your diet. Are there improvements you can make to start dropping some weight. Don't go for anything fancy, just cut out the crap as much as possible. Semi-skimmed instead of full milk, fruit instead of biscuits, limit the beer. Don't let weather (unless dangerous) get in the way. You can't train for 9 months, travel to France and then back out casue its raining!

At the end of the day, remember that this is just a cycle, it's not the end of the world. Enjoy it. Enjoy training for it. There will be times when it becomes a chore, when you don't seem to be losing weight/gaining performance. Days when the weather has been sh1t for 4 weeks straight. Days when you question the whole piont of it all. Work will get in the way. The kids will get sick, your friends will ask why they never see you. So make time so that. I can assure you it is all worth it when you cross that finish line.

One thing I'd add to Leroy42's post is descending. You're going to be doing 20-30 km stretches of downhill at high speed surrounded by lots of other people, some of whom descend better than others. You'll also be pretty tired on the descents, so you need to really be careful not to lose concentration. Great suggestion about the climb to Kippure-you could also try it from Enniskerry as that's I think all uphill more-or-less, though not as hard maybe as the climb from Stcoking Lane.

I think the etape route this year is really tough. Three very long and hard climbs. I drove up the Glandon in 2013 and it was hard enough in a car, some very steep sections, particularly towards the top. The good thing though about the route is that it's sort of based around Saint Jean Du Marienne, which means you are also very close to places like Alpe D'Huez, Les Deux Alpes etc, so you could spend a few days there and do some exploring.

Hoping to do this next year as well (fingers crossed on getting an entry). Have started doing a little bit more than just the regular commute (25k). Adding some extra k's on the way home when work allows. Get out most weekends for a longer spin but time is an issue and sometimes its just a quick 50 rather than 3 hrs +. Will start including a spin session when I can from now on.

I had spotted that climb Dublin up to Kippure and was going to use it as a training/testing run. Hope to get it in a couple of times before Christmas (living on the northside so its a 30k round trip to the start of that climb. Have also got family living south of Munich so going to get over there in May to get a day or two in the alps to get a better appreciation of the longer climbs.

Did the WW200 last year and get the pacing a little wrong as went a bit too hard on the flattish section from Baltinglass to the climbs so suffered alot. Went back and did it again during the summer and found it a lot better.

Started watching the diet as well cutting out some but not all of the crap hoping to get to down to about 80 kgs before the event, currently 88.

bazermc wrote: »

Hey Curnode, how does the entry process work? Does the event sell out quickly so if you are considering doing it you better act fast?

If you travel with a company i.e. onyourbike, do they also take care of the registration process or just getting you there and accomdation?

It can sell out relatively quick, depends on the route really. Some sell out in the day.

It's as good to register yourself anyway as its normally about €75 to register online vs ~€200 going through a travel agent.

Well Folks , Christmas has come and gone, so now the serious training plans must start to kick in ..........

Can you please advise of good upcoming sportives for Feb , March and April. These will be essential as interim targets to aim at with a view to developing the stamina and fitness levels required for later in the year.