Day 20, Stage 15
Pontarlier – Verbier, 207.5
Today sucked. It was our worst day for the tour so far and probably the worst ride I’ve ever had. It was a hard enough course to begin with (with 6 categorised climbs) but we were just absolutely hammered by the conditions. We had the worst headwind of all time and it was absolutely freezing. We had 4 x category 3 climbs, 1 x category 2 and 1 x category 1 climb to get through which meant we were working very hard and getting hot and sweaty which made us even colder when the wind blew straight through us.
To give you an idea of how windy it was Dales’ sunglasses actually got blown off his face while he was riding! That’s pretty windy!
We entered Switzerland, our fifth country of the tour, which was a bit of a buzz but not as much of a buzz as it would’ve been if it wasn’t zero degrees Celsius, overcast and we weren’t freezing our bits off.
Dad was stopped by police in a town where we were lost and told to hurry things along a bit as he was driving slowly in front of us riders to direct us through town. It wasn’t our last meeting with police for the day.
We were back to our bad old ways of the early days of the tour by getting lost in two towns today. The first time was hard to avoid as there are lots of roadworks along the tour route and our GPS lost the plot a bit as we ran into some major works in the first town. The second town was human error and we messed around and wasted about an hour which made us all quite angry.
When we regrouped and got back on track we thought that mum and dad should do some grocery shopping for the day so us three riders sat in the car and tried to thaw out while they were gone. I’m not sure if is school holidays here or not but there were children everywhere and every single one of them that walked past our 3 bikes stopped to have a look (and usually a touch) before moving on. One group of kids started to pick up the bikes and treat them a bit rough (they didn’t realise we were in the car a few metres away) so I gave them a blast of the horn and their reactions were priceless. They jumped metres in the air, looked very guilty and quickly departed the scene. Sadly, that was our highlight for the day up to that point! I’m not sure how many other children past by because all 3 of us fell asleep in the car and didn’t wake until mum and dad returned.
We had still only ridden about 75km for the day so we decided to push on for 100km before lunch. The headwind was extreme, we were very cold and our legs were stiff. It was looking very unlikely that we would even make 100km for the day at this point
It took us 9 hours to do the first hundred kilometres (just under half of the entire stage). We weren’t all that thrilled with our progress and less impressed with the conditions but we had a better run in the afternoon.
A gradual downhill straight after lunch helped the mental state a bit and reaching the category 2 climb was satisfying as it was a small milestone that we had been struggling towards.
We had our first view of the Alps today and they appear bigger, more rugged and more intimidating than the Pyrenees. That doesn’t bode well for our days of climbing in the Alps but they do look impressive.
The category 2 climb started off extremely steep but gradually improved as we surged higher. There was a great reward waiting for us with a huge, fast decent down the other side. This also felt like the warmest part of the day which was weird as the descents are usually the coldest parts of the day. Dale reached a max speed of 79.5kph, so again he has just missed breaking the 80kph barrier. There were a lot of roadworks on the descent and a highlight for me was stopping behind a car at a temporary red light and just standing in the warmth of their exhaust for a few minutes. It was the first time I felt warm for the entire day.
The clouds cleared at one stage, as if choreographed, to reveal some massive snow-capped peaks which stole my concentration from the 50+kph descent and nearly threw me over the edge.
Just when it looked like we were going to complete the whole stage, which looked impossible earlier in the day, Dale was unlucky enough to get a puncture. He fixed it in no time and we were off again. I had enough energy back in the legs to lead the group towards the final climb but wasn’t as sharp as I should’ve been and just missed a big rock which Dale, who was following me, hit. He got his second puncture in a matter of minutes. He again fixed this one in no time at all and off we went. We only had about 20km to go and we were really determined to make it after the shocking day we’d had even though the light was getting quite bad. We came to a tunnel that was 2km long. There wasn’t much traffic so we decided to go for it. Dad was in the front car followed by the three bikes and then mum was following with her hazards on. The tunnel had a speed limit of 60kph and we thought we could do over 30kph on the bikes so we didn’t think we would delay anybody too much.
Just before we entered the tunnel Dad let a few cars through ahead of him and I realised that the last one was a police car. There were four policemen in there and they gave us a bit of a funny look but continued on so I thought that all was well.
We got through the tunnel OK but just after we reached the daylight on the other side one of Dales spokes broke. It just really wasn’t our day. Mum and Dad pulled up at a nearby service station to wait for us and found that the police who Dad had let through in front of us were waiting for us and told us to pop the bikes on the roof and call it a day. We were still determined to get up the top of the climb so that we didn’t have to do the remaining 20 odd kilometres on our rest day tomorrow but it was nearly dark so we did the common-sense thing and packed up for the day. We were all disappointed as we knew we could’ve made the end of the stage if it wasn’t for mechanical problems and getting lost a few times earlier in the day. It was a massive effort to make it this far though after the atrocious conditions we were faced with. With our wrong turns and getting lost we did 201km for the day so we were happy that there was something positive to come out of it because 100km looked near impossible for a long time this morning.
We will just finish the rest tomorrow after fixing Dale’s bike and then put our feet up for the remainder of the day.
After all of this happening you could imagine that we weren’t in the best of spirits but thanks to my mum, Nancy, who has provided us with so many moments of pure gold during this project she managed to get everyone laughing again with one of the best quotes of the tour to date. When we were at the service station feeling a bit angry at the whole situation and a little bit down on life Mum broke a moment of silence with “If you’re only 33 years old Dale, why do you have so much grey hair?” This came totally out of nowhere and had everybody in stitches and is a great example of Mum’s influence on the trip and her ability to keep everyone in high spirits.
The other classic quote came earlier in the day when I imagine the temperature would’ve been zero degrees Celsius, it was overcast and dark and really no reason for anybody to be wearing sunglasses. Marika noticed Dale was wearing his glasses and asked “why are you wearing your glasses Dale?” “Just trying to keep my eyeballs warm” came the reply. It really was that cold!
My ears were ringing extra loud tonight from the constant headwind all day.
Swiss castles would have to be the most impressive yet, and there have been some pretty impressive ones along the journey to date.
We are staying high in the hills and it is beautiful.
Crohn’s Fact
With approximately 776 new cases of Crohn’s disease diagnosed in Australia every year, Crohn’s Disease is more prevalent that epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, road traffic accidents, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema and schizophrenia
Crohn’s Profile
Name: Kylie
Age: 34
Lives: Gold Coast, Australia
Age of Diagnosis: 27
My Story
7 years ago I packed my backpack bound for Europe for the trip of a lifetime. I lasted 1 month in London before symptoms started: excruciating abdominal pain, no energy, no appetite and I lost 12 kilos. I pushed myself to do some temp work to pay for visits to the doctor and support myself. I was alone, very sick and I had no idea what was happening to me. I was sent away from medical centres being told my symptoms were from the change of food and water in a new country. Four months later after many misdiagnosis I was told I had Crohn’s Disease.
After a year of fighting the disease and little improvement, doctors sent me home to Australia. I spent the next four years trying different medications but never really found relief. I came to a point where I wanted to see if my body could stand up to this disease on its own. 21 days off all medication I ended up in emergency in hospital. In and out of hospital over the next few months my body rejected all medications. I spent close to a year at home unable to work or leave the house.
That was 18 months ago now and since then Infliximab was placed on the PBS. I got approved for the treatment and visit the hospital every 8 weeks for my Infliximab infusion. I call it the drug that gave me my life back – I was able to go back to work and start living again.
This treatment is still only a band aid, I still take Immune suppressants everyday and I still suffer daily with pain in my joints. I have days where I can’t pick up a knife and fork to eat my dinner because of the arthritis in my hands. Despite the pain and lack of energy I still push myself to get through every day with a smile on my face. These are the cards I have been dealt, and I have spent 7 years perfecting my “I’m fine” poker face.
My message
I have spent 7 years keeping my disease a secret because I never wanted anyone to pity me or treat me differently. I realise I am not helping anyone by staying silent. In the past year during my treatments, I have met many serious sufferers of this disease and now I know the only way to help myself and my friends is to share my story and help raise awareness. We need your help, please dig deep and donate anything you can, read our stories, support the Crohn’s Crusaders, tell your friends and help us find a cure.
Stage 15: On The Road
Today’s images can be viewed here
Sponsor Profile:
Sponsor Name: Winners Sports Nutrition
Sponsor Level: Official Energy Bar
Sponsor Website: http://www.winnersbars.com/
Winners Sports Nutrition have provided the Crohn’s Crusaders team with over 350 energy bars to keep them going strong throughout their ride. Full product and nutritional details at www.winnersbars.com (Damian’s favourites are “Cadel’s Mountain Mix”)
