Charity - Alex Rides Etape du Tour!
Alex Warwick took part in the 2006 ‘Etape du Tour’, which translates literally as ‘Stage of the Tour’.
Each year, the organisers of the Tour de France select a particularly gruelling stage of the three week race, to be the one at which the amateur cyclists get a go. The 2006 Etape was no exception – it took in three mountains in the Alps, the finish line being at the top of the last mountain, Alpe d’Huez after 187 km (117 miles).
Alp d’Huez itself was preceded by the Col du Lauteret and the Col d’Izoard, both being monster climbs going over 2000m and being up to 20km long.
Alex has been a racing cyclist all his life, but this was nonetheless a very big challenge. He trained for a year, got a new bike and even a set of corporate cycling clothes!
Unfortunately, none of this was especially helpful on the big day itself. He set off at 7am with 8000 others, and by lunchtime, somewhere at the foot of the second mountain, he was beginning to wish he was somewhere else. He had stomach cramps, was dehydrated, could not eat and, like many others around him, he was suffering.
After 110 miles, Alpe’d’Huez was a furnace. It was 43° C. This was dangerous. Cyclists were lying in the road, semi-conscious, vomiting, staring into the middle distance, crying – it was carnage. And everyone knew that there was still 10km of climbing to go, and not much time left before the ‘cut-off’. Finish too late, and you were disqualified.
The world record for climbing the Alpe is 37 minutes. 
Ten years ago, Alex could climb it in 54 minutes. He had 2 hours 30 mins to get up it this time. Easy? No. It took him 2 hours 17 mins and he was practically on his hands at knees at the summit.
Alex would like to say that he enjoyed the day immensely. Unfortunately he endured the day rather than enjoyed. He completed the course inside the time limit, but only just – 11 hours of agony. 2000 other competitors were disqualified.
Nicholls Colton is pleased to have been associated with this world class event. Slow as Alex was, it does not alter the fact that NCP made a donation to Glenfield Cardiac Care Unit in Leicester (where Alex was a very seriously ill patient in 2003 – you may recall he nearly died in there).
We are proud Alex finished the course, and we know how disappointed he is with his time. He is going back to the same course in 2007, to ‘do it properly’ and complete it in the 8 hours he expected. We wish him luck!