Alternative Etape Race Report!!!......

As mentioned in Dawns report, Graeme Robb was also out in action at the Etape following a long lay off from injury (injuries). Here is Graemes view of the event.....   

For those of me that don't know me in the club, its no surprise - other than a few short swim sessions I have been injured for most of the last 8 months - aggravated Achilles, scaphoid fracture, snapped Achilles.
The etape is the first event I have entered in Athelites colours and was keen to wear a top of some kind and managed last week to buy gillet (yet unpaid for ).

Like Dawn i was in the race last year and i was a bit peeved about teh tack incident and signed up for this year in may 2009 so I could do a proper time.
Due to injury I had forgotten I entered and only decided last Sunday after my first leisurely bike run of the year to turn up and see how I got on.
With no training, only out of my magic boot 4 weeks ago, a note from my physio and sheer anguish of my wife and armed with a new compact chainset I set off early on Sunday morning to Pitlochry.

My aim was to try and finish the event without standing on the pedals I had to do the whole race including the climb sitting down, I didn't care about a time.
The roads were a bit busier than last year and I missed my starting spot I headed off with a slower group who turned out to be a bit fast.
I was going along the top side of the lochs well in a group but every time we hit a hill I was dropped and had to downhill / sprint to get back on. After 18 miles of interval training my bad leg started to tighten up and I realised that I could not keep this up.
I was resolved to a long solo ride, mentally I wasn't too sure if I could finish as I was at the furthest point out with still the big climb to go. Just at that point I was caught by my friend Pete who I hadn't seen since the Etape last year. From then on we sat 2 up and caught up on gossip from the last the last 12 months, we were not bothered about a time only finishing.
From then on we made a point of stop at each Food Station, Pete is from Sunderland and he also had the urge to stop and admire the view in fact we spent a whopping 15 minutes of non cycling time on our sportive hardly competitive cycling.

It was a wise decision, when Dawn passed us with 13 miles to go it was obvious she was going for a time. We passed a few words like " I've broken a spoke" and "its a Gillet not a tri suit" then she was off.
The last 13 miles were hard, the photo over the line shows the relief.

Anyway all in all not a bad performance. As for the time I was officially 1 minute slower than last year so at least I am consistent.
Looks like I can start training after all.
It is a good event well organised and worth giving a go next year.