An update on my Tour de France 2023.
As I wrote in my previous post, the Hochsauerland trip was a bit of a struggle due to (additional) physical problems.
While I was in a similar pickle last year, the bruised or broken ribs sustained the week before, at least had time to heal before my Tour de France 2022.
It didn’t end up as a good training for that Tour and this year, that scenario repeated itself.
With an additional sting…
As stated, I had time to heal last year and I was “only” looking at a short Tour.
The murderous heat made it a hell, but the year before, I blew myself up during stage 12, which should have been a rest day after the previous day’s Marmotte anyway…
As you can read in my reports / reflections countless times on this blog, I’m not best known for my ability to learn from my mistakes.
And I’m not sure I will be lauded for my tries to increase my tolerance for pain by any sane person either…
However, now that a particularly painful herniated C6-C7 disc is adding to the fun of my ongoing hip problem, I’m seriously starting to doubt my usual strategy when doing my Tours.
I still have a faint hope that my hip problem, if it’s not stemming from my herniated lower spine discs, might get sorted out before we depart.
But the neck hernia is almost definitely not going to be any less of a torture by then…
This means that taking on as many passes as I can during a day’s stage and just see how long it will take before I crash, will probably not get me through the first week.
So, short(er) stages, less passes per stage, longer (lunch) breaks – I seriously don’t know what to plan for.
More car transfers is also on the table, I guess.
There’s – obviously – a route and an alternative one between Bagnères-de-Bigorre and Argèles-Gazost, but I’m pretty sure that those 35 kms are traveled faster by car.
They both also make a nice short/recovery stage in between when cycled as a round-trip…
And I definitely need to be in Argèles-de-Gazost for climbs like Hautacam, Col d’Aubisque, Luz Ardiden and the other end of the Tourmalet.
To name just a few…
So, I’m still working on my road book and I still have time to do so 😎
