Third de France, Stages 19 & 20

Pros: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Col de l’Iseran, 90km - Mountains, and Albertville to Val Thorens, 59.5km - Mountains

Me: 5m @ 100%, 10m @ 90%, 5m @ 90%, 20m @ 75%, 20m @ 85%

Well it’s been quite the weekend at the Tour de France! Friday’s stage didn’t get off to a great start with Thibaut Pinot, France’s great hope, retiring early with a knee injury sustained a few days prior. He had been in great shape in the Pyrenees and looked ready to shake up the race to Paris.

Mother Nature had other plans for the race anyway and dropped lots of snow and rain on the descent from Col de l’Iseran. So much in fact that water and ice started flowing over the road less than 10km from where the riders were racing the descent at 70km/h plus. In the end, the race organisers had no choice but to cancel the remainder of the stage, especially as video started emerging of mudslides blocking part of the route as well.

Saturday’s stage was also affected, with mudslides blocking the road down from Cormet de Roselend, leading to that being cut from the stage and a short 60km being all that was left. 25km on the flat to warm-up, then the 33km ascent up to the finish at Val Thorens.

As for me, well I got sidetracked on Saturday and didn’t leave myself enough time to ride my version of Stage 19, so I took advantage of the real life Tour chaos and just added an extra interval to make a combined Stage 19 & 20, riding that today instead.

Most of the riders aren’t going full gas on the longer climbs as they are out of overall contention, so my final intervals weren’t as intense as they might have been. It’s probably just as well, as Friday’s interval session gave my legs a good going over.

All the hard work is now done, and all that remains is an easy ride tomorrow to finish Stage 21.

Me: 55.5km, 1h 38m, 1034 calories, 102 TSS.

Pro: 175.1km, 5j 38m, 6195 calories, 405 TSS

Weight: 92.2kg - CTL: 47.1 - TSB: -15.1