Seven (of 21) stages in, women on Tour de France ride face realities of challenge
Strong winds on Stage 2 led to a tumble.
(Photos © Michael Robertson/Velodramatic)
(Photos © Michael Robertson/Velodramatic)
The Reve Tour is getting real. The six amateur women riders tackling the entire, 21 stage Tour de France route have completed seven days of riding. That’s about 905 miles and over 40,000 feet of climbing. And they’re only one-third of the way to Paris.
The team’s correspondent, freelance journalist Heidi Swift, has been sending dispatches each day via Twitter and Peloton Magazine. Here’s what she wrote after Stage 4:
“At night when we finish I want to cry. In the morning I want to jump out the window. By 6am I am ready to fucking go for it again. It’s a constant process of destruction and resurrection. A daily face-kick to non-believers, including the one that lives inside of me.”
A post this morning after Stage 7 was more optimistic: “Hip hip hooray!” she wrote on Twitter, “The #revetour ladies and I celebrated our one week anniversary by crushing stage 7. Including the death climb at the end.”
Just how brutal was that “death climb”? How about averaging a 10% grade for four miles, with several sections at 15% and topping out at 20%. “You got to recover at 9%,” Swift wrote.
Swift is one two women on the team that hails from Portland (initially there were three Portlanders on the team, but Susan Peithman did not end up making the trip to France). Jennifer Cree is the other.
I emailed with Jennifer’s husband Russell Cree this morning. He said the team is “doing great” and that they’re eagerly looking forward to the first rest day on Monday. “They are very tired but things are going smoothly and so far everyone is doing very well,” he said, “Each week brings a new challenge.”
The first big challenge was a very windy stage two, which caused the group’s only crash thus far (it caused only minor road rash). What awaits the women after Monday’s rest day are the Tour’s legendary and massive climbs; and the long and fast descents on the other side of them. Russell says the team has packed lights and they, “Expect some very long days on the bike.” So far, they’ve put in about 7-9 hours in the saddle each day.
Beyond the obvious physical challenges of the route and the glory that the women enjoy back home as they attempt this feat, there are other dynamics at play. Not one to gloss over reality, Swift shares some of the tribulations in her most recent dispatch:
“The thing about this is that it is so incredibly physically challenging that every bit of effort saved or expended is critical. Over 21 stages the sum total of those things will affect whether or not we can finish. We have to learn to make the choices that are best for the team as a whole. What is the best way to get to Paris?
We came here together, six near-strangers and started the most stressful and taxing endeavor that any of us has ever undertaken. We’re tired, we’re rushed, we’re eating unfamiliar foods and we’re riding until we can’t see straight. Yeah, there’s gonna be some shit.
But you know what?
In the meantime, we’re crushing it.”
Getting to Paris, together, as a team (which is how I think each of them measures success), is far from assured. “But they’ve shown they are strong and they are in this to finish it,” says Russell, and “They are going for it.”
— Follow the Reve Team’s daily rides via Strava and Peloton Magazine.
Categories: Road Bike Tags: 6am, 99999999999, Amateur Women, challenge, Correspondent, Dispatches, Document Write, Face, France, Heidi, Journalist, Michael Robertson, realities, Rest Day, Resurrection, ride, Seven, Seven Days, Stage 2, Stage 4, stages, Strong Winds, Tour, Tour De France, Tour De France Route, Twitter, Two Women, Women
Still time to apply for cycle challenge
Virginia Guard engineers clear undergrowth for community reclamation project
Image by Virginia Guard Public Affairs
Williams: Projects could spur revitalization on North Side
www2.timesdispatch.com/news/local-news/2010/jul/24/mike24…
Mike’s Take – Cannon Creek Greenway (Added: July 23, 2010)
By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS | TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST
Once upon a time, suburban farmers traveled Richmond-Henrico Turnpike by horse-drawn wagon en route to the produce markets of Shockoe Bottom.
More recently, this North Side Richmond area known as Cannon Creek Greenway — a 1.4-mile stretch that includes a forested ravine between Valley Road to the south and Craigie Avenue to the north — has been a dumping ground for tires, mattresses, furniture and other debris tossed from the turnpike.
"You can put the energy and effort into cleaning it up, and you come back the next day and you see the trash that has been left," lamented Raymond Turner, president of the Highland View Civic Association.
But yesterday, members of the Virginia Army National Guard blazed a trail for Cannon Creek Greenway — not as a community eyesore but as a key to the revitalization of this area of North Side.
Members of the Guard’s 180th Horizontal Construction Company and its 276th Engineer Battalion began clearing a 20-foot-wide path above the creek between East Brookland Park Boulevard and Dove Street — the first phase of a plan to create a park with picnic areas, benches and encircling nature trails to be utilized by students.
Across from this park, new homes — part of a planned Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority mixed-income development — would face the greenway.
"That means a lot of young families, as I can see it, and this park will be a real plus for them," said Charles Price of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club.
On higher ground across the turnpike from the proposed park, plans call for the construction of a bicycle and pedestrian trail. Officials hope this bike path might someday link to the East Coast Greenway and to the Virginia Capital Trail running from Richmond to Jamestown and Williamsburg.
"That’s thousands of bikers coming from Maine to Florida," with the resulting economic benefits, Price said.
The Richmond City Council is slated to vote Monday on whether to endorse the cycling and pedestrian trail.
Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson sees the plans as a means "to get people to get reoriented to the Cannon Creek as a linear park they can enjoy," instead of a dumping ground.
Throughout the city, "we have not used our green space effectively to attract pedestrians," Robertson said. As a result, such spaces too often have attracted crime or garbage instead.
Turner stressed that no transformation can take place unless residents take ownership by discouraging further roadside dumping. But standing beneath a canopy of centuries-old trees that Price described as "like a nature cathedral," people dared to dream.
In an area once occupied by since-demolished Dove Court, Carrington Gardens and Northridge, the RRHA is slated to begin construction next year on low-income, work-force and market-rate apartments and single-family homes.
The city is trying to come up with creative financing for a new school at the former Virginia National Guard Armory site to replace nearby Overby-Sheppard Elementary in Highland Park, Robertson said.
She projects that all the pieces along Cannon Creek Greenway could be in place by 2015.
Price, meanwhile, envisions a day when suburban cyclists use the Cannon Creek trail to commute to work downtown, alongside the turnpike that once carried farmers to the market.
Still time to apply for cycle challenge
There is still time to get involved with the Community Cycle Challenge. 2011/01/10 10:53:12
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Watch: Members of Vampire Weekend and the Black Keys Goof Off on “The Colbert Report”
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Categories: Biking Legislation Tags: 276th Engineer Battalion, apply, Army National Guard, Cannon Creek, challenge, Community Eyesore, Craigie, Cycle, Cycle Challenge, Dispatch Columnist, Dove Street, Horse Drawn Wagon, Park Boulevard, Pedestrian Trail, Picnic Areas, Project Image, Proposed Park, Reclamation Project, Richmond Area, Richmond Redevelopment And Housing Authority, Sierra Club, Still, time, Virginia Army, Virginia Chapter