Prologue

[by Simon]

Can you have a prologue after an epilogue? The Tour de France (one of the many "half the reasons I wanted to do this trip", making this trip worth at least 3-and-a-half other trips) begins with a prologue, a short but hard time trial, typically about 7 miles. We ended our own tour of France with a prologue of our own, deciding to test our newly-acquired fitness on a local evening 10-miler. The results are interesting... I came into the tour with a high level of cycling strength from regular short MTB trips round and about, but not much fitness. Rob came in with huge rowing power and excellent base fitness, but no regular cycling practice. The result was that we toured at wonderfully complementary speeds, an asset that really helped the holiday along. The tour really boosted my fitness and so left me finishing the 10 within 20 seconds of my all-time PB, but despite cycling at the same speed as Rob for 650 miles, I was able to put 3 minutes into him over 10 miles - reflecting the difference in our abilities to put power onto the pedals, and of course the difference in equipment. Still, Rob compared the TT to a 5k ergo, and I dread to think what the margin of his victory would be on one of those infernal machines over that distance, were I ever to go near it...