The daily routine of early breakfast, packing, preparing, riding, eating, massage, recovery, briefing, more food and sleep all went smoothly, thanks to the help of the Haute Route staff, the many motorbike marshals, police and volunteers for the whole week.
Highlights include great scenery every day, climbing the Tourmalet in perfect weather, as opposed to the rain and cloud of the Etape du Tour 2001 which was hypothermically dangerous conditions for all. Due to flood damage to the western side of the Tourmalet the descent was neutralised so the stage finished at the top and we were able to rest and take in the awesome scenery, buy the yellow and white souvenir milestone, eat and drink at leisure. This however was still a knee breaker for me, my favourite climbs would have to be Pla de Beret, col d'Aspin and I could include Hautacam as I rode well on the time trial day. The climb up to Superbagneres was a tough finish to a stage, perhaps tougher than Alpe d'huez as its steep at the finish and has no easy sections in its entirety.
In general, the climbs were steeper in sections than the Alps. The comparable average gradients are misleading, all (except Aspin?) had uncomfortable steep sections where the lightest riders would continue upwards and I fell off the pace. This gave the whole event more of a punchy race style than the long long climbs of the alps. Maybe I was able to keep up with the leaders this year, or at least I was trying to stay in contact for as long as possible. With half the number of riders as last years Alps edition, the aim was to be in the top 50 this year, which I was able to achieve each day.
Another highlight was having Greg Lemond around for the event. He gave a nice blessing for the race at the welcome briefing in Barcelona, then we were happy to find we stayed in the same hotel so able to exchange a few words at breakfast before the first stage, which he rode (not sure if he rode all of it). We didn't see him until the final presentations in Anglet/Biarritz, but it was great to meet him he is such a friendly guy and never gets bored of posing for photos.
