The last day in Cogolin was the day of the queens ride! A stage that would take us to the “roof” of the holiday, the Notre Dame des Anges at 780 meters. Or us… the day before the stage was planned, Bastiaan had a “jour sans” and decided not to cycle but ride the first following car. A wise decision as the queens ride would take us over 5 climbs.
The weather was briljant when leaving Cogolin. Morale was good and the first climb started out really well! The average speed was about 22 or 23 km/h. Until about 1 km from the top… There the climb got a bit more steep and stupidly I tried to reach to top at the pace I set earlier in the climb… a mistake… and I paid dearly for that mistake the last couple of hundred meters… Ouch… Knowing I only just begun and had 4 more climbs to do, morale took a big hit… Not helped by a Dutch couple that was also cycling in the area and at the top told me it was not a good day to cycle up the Notre Dame des Anges. Way to hot. But of course I was welcome to try.
After a short downhill, I rode up the next climb together with the Dutch woman. She rode a very relax tempo and at that pace I could ride all day! Before I knew it we reach the top of the second col. Another fast downhill. I left the Dutch couple behind when turning right towards the next climb. From this point it was only climbing for the next 15 km. There was not turning back now, the only way was up. I choose a lighter gear with a much faster peddling pace. A smart decision, as from there on the ride to the top became much easier. Pace went up and down but was always around 20 km/h and support was always there from the following car! On the first climb I got annoyed by my helmet, put up my hand and could throw it into the car. On the start of this climb I wanted to get rid of my helmet again, put up my hand but couldn’t be bothered to wait for Bastiaan to catch up in the car and just threw the helmet in the grass at the side of the road! :-)

Raining sunbeams! (3.6 MB)

When reaching the top of the 3rd climb (Col des Fourches at 535 meter) morale was at an all-time-high! Ok, I could definitely feel the effort in my legs, but I wouldn’t quite this close to the top! After a very short decent, the climb up to the Notre Dame des Anges started! Easy at first, but quite quickly the climb got really steep! Now it was serious climbing:

Serious climbing! (4.9 MB)

The pace dropped quite a lot the last couple of kilometers, but the feeling of being able to reach the top made even the pain in my legs disappear for a while. The last kilometer I rode with a big smile on my face! I was gonne reach the top for sure! :-) And I did, this is how my last meters looked:

Reaching the top! (15.8 MB)		A wide view

After a look around at the top of the Notre Dame des Anges and enjoying the far and beautiful view, it was time to go on again. The decent back to the top of the Col des Fourches went quite smoothly, but the next 9 kilometer downhill were just horrible… all downhill’s up to that moment were just great fun! 50+ km/h, fast corners, slow corners, good roads, good fun! But these 9 kilometers downhill were over a very bad road… unbelievable bumpy… After just a couple of kilometers my hands, arms, back… everything started hurting… This sucked big time… Downhill should be fun, not painful! :-|
When the 9 km were finally over, a long straight followed. 13 km with the wind in the back! That was very welcome. I could definitely feel the effort of the 4 climbs in my legs already.

The last climb was a struggle. A busy road, so the need to be very concentrated all the time. Some parts turned and were full against the wind, making the struggle even harder… Luckily I had a good moment halfway through the climb and was able to accelerate a little bit and keep the new pace until the top. Out of water at the start of the climb I tossed my water bottle to Bastiaan half way on the climb with the message for him to fill it up! He tried, but with his parking problems in the little village and the time it took to find a supermarket and buy a couple of bottles of water, I had passed him and was already in the 10 km full speed downhill (55+ km/h!!) and he could never catch up with me again. The last bit was pure joy! 81.82 km in 3 hours and 12 minutes and in lovely hot weather! I made it!!! :-)

The queens ride route

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 at 17:58 and is filed under Friends, Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.