Getting Started – A Rough Guide to Riding the Tour de France Route

The Tour de France is one of the world’s great sporting events. A national institution in France and cause of great celebration around the world. Roughly 3500km long and over about 20 days it is a gruelling test of body and mind.

In 2007 I rode the entire route 1 day ahead of the professionals and thought I would put together an overview of my trip and provide some pointers for others tempted to tackle a stage or the whole route. This is part 1 of a series of articles documenting my story.

An epic personal Tour de France

In March 2007 the company I had founded and run for 10 years went bust. I had been working 18 hour days for years, smoking 60 cigarettes per day and hadn’t done any exercise in years. I decided that getting fit would take my mind off things and help rebuild my confidence.

I joined a gym and started using their indoor exercise bike. I found I enjoyed it and ended up buying a bike, my first in 23 years ! I started riding daily, using it for transport around London and on the odd longer ride but nothing beyond about 30 miles. Still training daily in the gym for an hour or so I gradually got fitter. But nothing spectacular.

At the beginning of June 2007 the London media was full of stories about the coming TdF which was due to start in London that year. This sparked my imagination and brought back memories of 2 great books I had read about amateurs riding the whole TdF route (French Revolutions and Riding High) and on a whim I decided to tackle the event myself.

I rang my 68 year old mother who lives in France and is just about as impulsive and crazy as I am and asked if she fancied coming with me and driving a van in support. She immediately said yes and asked what she needed to do. I was completely stumped having no idea and only 3 WEEKS to go before the start. I asked her to bring the family transit van, sort the route planning and buy some food supplies. And that was it she hung up and I was left thinking Oh my God, what have I got myself into.

The story might possibly have ended there as another of my flights of fancy except that I really did want to do it. But what now? What about training, equipment, clothing, nutrition etc. i just didn’t have a clue. I had never done any endurance riding before. the longest ride I had completed was 35 miles, I had never ridden up a big hill let alone 6 mountain stages in the high alps and Pyrenees.

Like a true bloke, the first thing I tackled was the equipment. If I was going to ride the TdF route I believed I needed the best equipment so took my bike along to Condor in London and following their advice had it “pimped”.

This ended up costing about £3000 and included a compact chain set and a rear cassette with a very low gearing to help me in the mountains. A new set of wheels, peddles, ultra light shoes and I also bought my first pair of cycling shorts in white (more on this later !!) and a bright pink Rapha cycling top which I loved, again believing I needed to at least look the part even if I couldn’t ride it!

Lessons Learnt with the benefit of hindsight….!

1. Knowing nothing about an event is not necessarily a huge disadvantage. Provided that you are prepared to ask lots of questions and act upon the answers.
   
   
2. Enlisting the help and support of someone you trust and can rely on will help share the bourdon and will be there to push you on when motivation is flagging
   
   
3. Reading books about other peoples experiences in your chosen event is VERY VALUABLE. It gives you a clear insight into what is likely to happen. What the problems and difficulties are and allows you to arrange solutions in advance
   
   
4. Equipment Lessons 1 – To do endurance style cycling events you DO NOT NEED AN EXPENSIVE ultra light bike. Yes it is nice and will make a small difference but it just isn’t that significant and if you are tight on money don’t bother. I ended up with a £5,000 bike which 6 months after the TdF was stolen and with no money to replace it I bought a £200 second hand bike and in all honesty it just doesn’t make that much difference for medium paced endurance riding.
   
   
5. Equipment Lesson 2 – gearing is very, very important. I was incredibly well advised by Condor, though not being technically minded I cannot remember what they gave me but suffice to say it was a compact chain set and the largest 10 speed rear cassette that was compatible. And I needed every one of them. There were times in the Pyrenees particularly which are steeper than the Alps that I would have begged for an even lower gear! I didn’t ride a triple more out of vanity however I would strongly recommend that you do.
   
   
6. Clothing Lesson 1 – Buy and take more than 1 set ! I had no money left after spending it all on the bike so could only afford one pair of shorts and one top. This quite obviously wasn’t enough. And left my mother with the nightmare task of daily trying to wash my stinking shorts and top in a bowl in the back of the van.
   
   
7. Clothing Lesson 2 – If you are only going to buy one set don’t buy white shorts and a light pink top and expect them to remain anything like clean after 21 days in the saddle!

This story continues tomorrow as I begin my 3 weeks of training for the 3500km ride. As you can imagine it doesn’t go that smoothly! Read Part 2

To watch the Sky News interview with Luke in Paris Sky News

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• Part 2 – A Rough Guide to Riding the Tour de France Route
• Part 4 – A rough guide to cycling the route of the Tour de France
• Part 3 – A rough guide to cycling the Tour de France Route
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