Gosh they’re fast

It’s Tour de France time. Yay!!

Now that I have a smart trainer and a subscription to the BKool virtual cycling platform, I have access to the “Stage of the Day”, where I can go on the back patio and pedal away on a course that simulates the day’s Tour stage.

Usually they just give us a portion of the route, since 7 hours on the stationary bike is not something most people do. But for today’s short individual time trial stage, I got to do the same effort as the pros. 22.6 km, with 644 metres of climbing. That’s a fair bit of climbing, actually, an average grade of almost 5%. But in reality it was two steep climbs and some flat / downhill bits in the middle.

It took me about 1:08… not my absolute best effort but pretty darn close. By comparison, the slowest TdF rider was just over 43 minutes. That includes riders who crashed, and riders who were told to save it all up for tomorrow. Even if I were riding on perfectly flat ground many of the riders would have smoked me.

And of course I would have been much slower in real life. On the trainer there’s no penalty for my civilian-quality equipment, my suboptimal aero position , or my cowardice through the corners. No heat, no wind.

I think I would enjoy watching the Tour anyway, but being able to see and feel just how amazing the riders are definitely adds another dimension.

And the race? I like Tadej more than Jonas, but I like Jonas’s Jumbo team more than the UAE squad. So I’m looking forward to a few more days of combat but either way works for me.