Day 2 - Epic Camp France - Vaison La Romaine to Embrun

For the second day in a row I’ve had to extend the 12hr training window. It was another big one!

Run – 35mins easy group run

Bike – 170km Vaison La Romaine to Embrun + 40km tack on = 210km (bike file is up on Strava)

Swim – 3km very easy open water. 

As they say in the tour de France today was a transition day between one big mountain climb across to the Alpes for the rest of the camp. Mt Ventoux, which we rode yesterday, is a bit of an anomaly being all by itself in the middle of Provence.

We opened the day with a very gentle 35min tourist run around Vaison La Romaine before back to our hotel in the medieval village part of the town (The hotel was La Fete en Provence – I’d recommend it).

After starting day one mostly as one large group the athletes had quickly identified their riding partners and a number of grupetto’s shot out the door early. Today’s profile looked up and down for the most part with a descent climb at the end however when you looked at total elevation of over 2600m within 170km it was a big day.

We rolled out with my garmin course taking us through the centre of the town which normally would be fine but today was market day and the stalls were all setting up as we came through. We were on and off our bikes, walking, riding on foot paths but we got through OK. If you ever want to ride in France you must get a garmin edge 810 where you can plot your courses on websites like ridewithgps.com then import to your garmin (remember to turn off rerouting and turn on turn guideance). It’s near on impossible to get lost but you need to check your routing does not take you off on any side roads!

After yesterdays epic climb where most athletes struggled like hell it seemed the feeling was today was going to be an easy day in terms of intensity. Whilst I didn’t really want a hard day I did not want a super easy bunch ride so I got on the front and rode ~ IM effort for 1hr to set the mood for the day. I wasn’t really sure what to expect on the scenary front today except I knew there was some sting in the tail as we got to Emrbun where we had been once before on camp. Again we were blown away by the roads going along side rivers, through gorges and over low gradient climbs. It was another stunning day.

With 30km to the hotel we turned off the main road and started a tough climb then traverse along the side of a mountain that overlooked a massive lake. I suggested we all hit the cruise button and take in a beautiful section of riding which is part of the iconic Embrunman triathlon. There were no complaints and with hardly a car in sight we enjoyed the vista’s on a country road.

By virtue of being in the yellow jersey I’m somewhat obligated to defend and make the challengers have to work to get it off me. Adam is obsessed with getting yellow and decided that given we had made good time today he would tack on bike miles. You accrue a point for every 30km and if you go above 200km you get 2 bonus points. We had 170km on the clock so the thinking was that today might be the only chance to get in 200km and if you are going to 200km you might as well go to 210km given the extra 10km will gain another point. I was a reluctant starter for the tack on as I’m here to enjoy the camp and whilst I do want the yellow jersey we are only at day 2. It was not a particularly enjoyable 40km with myself Phil and Rob Mohr taking 5min turns to get the job done. We were certainly in worse shape for the extra 40km and had to turn around straight away and head to the lake.

We closed out the day with a 3km lake swim which was quite possibly the slowest  swim of my life but nice recovery all the same.

It was another big day but I’m feeling OK. With all the climbing in and out of the seat and the smooth roads your butt does not get as beat up over here. Day 3 tomorrow see’s us hit the Alpes with the Col D’Izoard which I’m really looking forward to.