From smiling to a painful end

stats of the week: run 16 km, cycled 247 km, hiked 7 km

The day of the Gran Fondo Mont Ventoux was a day as piping hot as last year, perhaps even hotter. The maximum temperature in the valley was 37°c in the afternoon when we turned back to Vaison-la-Romaine. 

I had hoped to repeat my last year's performance or even improve it by a few minutes as last year's time was kind of disappointing with cramps close to the finish and very slow final 5 km. But this year turned out to become more disappointing. Early in the race I recognised that my legs felt less strong compared to the training the last 2 weeks. I limited the climbing sections by 150 Watt. That made me slow and finally did not help to stay strong. The final 5 km were as bad as last year, no cramps at least, but an additional break just 1 km from the top, and I was totally breathless after crossing the finish line. 

However, the result list doesn't look too bad. 36% of all finishers behind me. And 46% of my age group what sounds okay as my age is the oldest in the group of 60 to 69.

Photos: from smiling to the painful end