The MapMyRide Le Tour Challenge had me out riding everyday in winter for the first 16 stages of the real Tour de France. Unfortunately, I missed the last five stages with an out of town wedding, and the gentle Wellington breeze gusting at 130km/h, which I felt was slightly excessive to be cycling in. Perhaps I am getting soft, letting the elements stop me getting outside to play?
Certainly, without the reward of logging in each morning to see where I came the previous day I probably wouldn’t have been out there putting those miles in at that time of year. The lure of this competition was awesome motivation.
I had climbed up to 85th in the rankings before inevitably falling down to 186th with no activity logged during stages 17-21.
I never worked out any obvious ways to “game” the system, to ensure better results for myself. My best results were on the mountain stages. I am sure that this merely relates to the lack of flat terrain to cycle on in Wellington rather than my hill climbing abilities at this moment in time. I was delighted with my best placing of 32nd on stage 7.
After a long period of doing more climbing on average than the real tour, as the real Tour hit the mountains I found myself falling narrowly behind on a metres climbed per 100km travelled basis. Including my commuting it was narrow victory to the ProTour – with 1159 metres climbed per 100km travelled to my 1135m/100km.
| Craig Vs The Tour | ||||
| Distance | Ascent | Ascent/100km | ||
| Tour de France: | 3324km | 38,533m | 1159m/100km | |
| Craig (All riding July 4-26): | 812.76km | 9223m | 1135m/100km | |
| Craig (Le Tour Challenge): | 493.94km | 4150m | 840m/100km | |
