Day 21, Martigny Rest Day
Today was meant to be a relaxing rest day in the Alps but because we didn’t finish the final climb yesterday we had to go back and do it today to successfully complete the stage.
This was a real pain as I had a great friend of mine from Switzerland (Carole who I used to work with at the Grand Prix Circuit) coming over to visit and show us around her homeland and my relatives from Italy (Gian Luca and Gabriele) coming over to spend a relaxing day with us.
We went into town to the bike shop to get Dale’s bike fixed (by Ben Afflleck’s twin brother) and then ended up chatting with Carole, Gian Luca and Gabriele for a couple of hours before bidding them farewell and starting our final climb.
We paid the category 1 climb up to Verbier absolutely no respect and were lucky it didn’t make us pay. Standing around in the sun for hours and not drinking any water is no way to prepare and we didn’t have any lunch which didn’t help as we left at about 5pm with no fuel to help us up the climb. We were all a bit sluggish and in rest day mode so it was slow going but it was a beautiful climb and descent and despite the lack of energy it was quite nice.
We had a great dinner back at the restaurant where we are staying and had lots of laughs with the waiters. We made sure that we fuelled up adequately in preparation for tomorrow’s two monstrous climbs after slipping a bit with our nutrition today.
Today we were also joined by our neurokinesiologist, Margaret Stuart, who has been working with us to prepare us for the huge task of riding the entire Tour de France route. A massive effort for her to make her way over to Europe to join us and ensure we are mentally on track. Greatly appreciated.
Today’s images can be viewed here
Martigny Rest Day Video Diary
Sponsor Profile:
Sponsor Name: Bicycle Victoria
Sponsor Level: Project Partner
Sponsor Website: www.bv.com.au
Bicycle Victoria’s mission is “More people cycling more often”
Bicycle Victoria have provided logistical and technical assistance to Damian throughout the course of the project and allowed Damian to have an expo booth at Bicycle Victoria events and promoted the Crohn’s Crusaders project via their publication “Ride On” and e-newsletter “In The Loop”.
Bicycle Victoria says: “It’s great to see a Bicycle Victoria member changing the world through his riding. Damian’s enthusiasm and willingness to achieve something fantastic is infectious. We’d love to see his determination not to let a medical condition dictate his efforts to inspire others.”
