2010 Tour de France time-trial, ridden

I’m a lucky sod. I know that. I appreciate it quite often, to be fair, but today was one of those days where I really get it. I’ve had a brilliant day.

I left the house about 9.00am and drove the hour or so down to Bordeaux. I parked up in a  supermarket car park just inside the ring-road and on the route of stage 19 of this year’s Tour de France; the 52km individual time-trial from the centre of the city to Pauillac on the Medoc, the world famous wine region north of Bordeaux. It was a beautiful morning. I got the bike sorted, filled my bidons and set off.

After crossing the ring-road, the route heads out towards Pauillac on the D2. As I wasn’t starting right in the centre of the city, I reckoned I was cutting the first five or six kilometres from the route. As it happened, about a kilometre down the D2 I met roadworks and had to stop. Now, normally I’d soft-pedal past the barriers, sneak past whatever works were taking place and crack on. I tried that today, but the workman insisted that the road was unpassable and after I’d had a look myself I couldn’t argue. A whole section of road about ten feet wide and six feet deep was missing. Clearly it’s something they need to get sorted in the next couple of weeks…

But as the workman said, “you’re a sporty-looking fella, you can do the diversion…”

So I did, and pretty soon I was back on the right road. So, what can I tell you?

As mentioned before, it’s flat. The lowest point is at sea-level; the highest at 18m above that. There are sections which are very straight and very level and in which you can really get a good rhythm going and mash through a few kilometres. That said, there are also a few sections which are more rolling, and during which you feel like you’re always either going slightly uphill or slightly down. Less easy to find a rhythm. This particularly lovely stretch is one of those. On the left you can just see Chateau Pichon-Longueville; on the right is Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande and, just in front of that, the entrance to Chateau Latour.

That’s the other notable thing of course. As you get out of the Bordeaux suburbs and into the Medoc as it runs close to the Gironde estuary, it’s bloody beautiful and about every 500m there’s another stunning chateau. It’s just amazing.

The road surface is great in the main. In fact between the villages (as so often is the case here in France) it’s really excellent and much has been resurfaced. In a couple of the villages, where responsibility for the state of the roads falls to the local Mayor rather than the centrally-funded department, surface conditions are more variable. Soussans was the worst surface and Cantenac a bit dodgy, but neither were that bad. And the level-crossing in Labarde is a bit bumpy. Unusually, the wind today (and there really wasn’t much) was coming from the north-east, so pretty much on my nose. Prevailing would be west/south-west, which would be slightly on the tail. The lack of hills – and only vineyards to disrupt it – might mean that wind is a factor. But if it’s following it could be a bloody quick time-trial.

With the diversion by the time I reached Pauillac I notched up a shade over 50km in a little over 1’40″. I don’t think it’ll cause Cancellara many concerns, but it might worry a Schleck…

The stage finish in Pauillac is along the quay, a long wide stretch that would make for a fantastic group sprint. They’ve already got the banner up on the finish line, and are making sure the road surface is spot on. A hot day plus fresh surface on the road does not make for happy tyres.

I took a little video on the way into Pauillac. In case any of the riders have forgotten that they’re in a time-trial, they created a rather nice reminder that it’s ‘contre le montre’ before they head to the quayside and the last kilometre or so.

I stopped for a proper lunch in Pauillac – three course for 15 euros, can’t argue with that – and headed off on the return journey, taking some pics on the way and keeping an eye out for some likely camping spots for when I return with friends and kids in a couple of weeks. The trip back was a little bit more relaxed and slightly shorter – I ended up covering 99km in 3’30″. A good day’s ride.

When I got back to the car I was so inspired by the countryside in which I’d been riding that, given I was parked outside a Bordeaux supermarket, it seemed churlish not to pick up a few bottles. So I did, and I’m very happily ploughing through a bottle of 2005 Prelude a Grand-Puy Ducasse. This one in fact.

Like I say. I’m a lucky sod.