Craig vs The Tour

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

Craig vs The Tour – Stages 1 to 5

The Tour is well underway with five stages completed. I have also completed five stages in the Versus-MapMyRide RoadID Le Tour Challenge. It has been a lot of fun and has certainly seen my mileage suddenly increase regardless of dark and cold of the southern winter.

 

It is always nice to find some sort of measurement in which you succeed. At this point, and before the Tour de France hits the mountain stages I am exceeding the tour on an altitude gained per 100km travelled basis. Ahh, the gently rolling Wellington hills :).

 

Craig Vs The Tour Stages 1-5
	Distance	Total time	Ascent	Ascent/100km
Tour de France:	511.55km	15:07:49	3,422m	669m/100km
Craig (Le Tour Challenge):	96.59km	3:47:46	805m	833m/100km
Craig (All riding since July 4):	269.48km	11:27:03	2,921m	1098m/100km

 

Surprisingly only 36% of my total ride distance has counted towards the Le Tour challenge so far. One instance of MapMyRide not liking the XML file data from my Garmin Edge 705, although Garmin Connect had no problems with the same data. Last Sunday’s ride also did not count, because it was still Saturday in the EST timezone in which the contest is operating.

 

I have been having a lot of fun in the Le Tour Challenge, currently placed 117th out of 9000 or so riders. I have no idea how their virtual model works out the results, but enjoy checking the results every morning :). But best of all I am having lots of fun spending more time out on my bike – even if it is winter.

Tour de France; Le Tour Challenge and other competition fun!

 

Well, the excitement of the Tour de France is now before us. Some awesome competitions going on. I will be trying to get out on my bike everyday during the Tour de France for the MapMyRide contest. The Garmin Edge 705 is going to busy collecting all of those stats for uploading to MapMyRide.

 

The VERSUS-MapMyRide.com Le Tour Challenge gives cyclists of ALL LEVELS a chance to compete in the 2009 Tour de France in your own hometown against Lance and the other top pros for tens of thousands of dollars in incredible prizes!  Some of the amazing prizes up for grabs include bikes from Parlee and Cervelo, and a Grand Prize Trek Travel Trip to watch the final stage of the Tour in Paris!*

The Le Tour Challenge is simple:
1. SIGN UP at http://www.MapMyRide.com/tdf
2. RIDE your bike on the day of a stage
3. SUBMIT YOUR RIDE
4. We'll COMPUTE your Virtual Time and give you an ENTRY into the daily prize drawing
5. Win PRIZES and JERSEYS
6. COMPETE in as many stages as you'd like!

I'm still not quite sure, what kind of prize a trip to the Tour de France is when

* airfare not included

Still sounds like it is going to be a whole lot of fun in any case. Besides, you need an American postal address to win anything. This is awesome, as I will be stateside shortly after the Tour de France is complete. I'll be giving FedEx just enough time to make it with the loot.

 

It will be very interested to see how competing virtually works. So many variables to decide who wins on virtual time? Plenty of hills here in Wellington. How will they be accounted for? Can I look forward to a polka-dot jersey?

 

Meanwhile, locally roadcycling.co.nz has a competition of their own up, with the first price and sweet ride with a BMC Racemaster up for grabs (pictured right).

 

And in Wellington,  On Yer Bike have a 10km indoor time trial contest running.

 

Do the On Yer Bike 10km

Indoor Time Trial

Ever pretend that you're about to win the Tour de France prologue while churning it out on your indoor trainer?  From July 5-28th you can live that dream in public.  While the Tour de France is running we are holding an indoor time trial contest at the Vivian Street store.  You race on your own bike, it costs $2 to enter, and at the end of the month the fastest man and woman on the leaderboard split the total prize pool.  Drop in anytime, or if you'd like to know more (or need some encouragement) call us or drop us an email.

 

But the real challenge for me is going to be resisting all the yet to be announced sales in the local cycle stores for the Tour de France time period. Can I resist? Or will they win and extract the cash and mothballs from wallet?