Transvesubienne

I've entered another race. Following the 24hr World Champs in May I would be kicking my heels for a week in north Italy and the south of France with a bike in the van and nothing particular to do, it's a tough old life, so I have entered the Transvesubienne. Yes, I know it's supposed to be a rest week but this looked like too much fun to miss!
It starts somewhere in the Alps and finishes 100km later at the seafront in Nice, the total descending is around 13,500ft, not all straight down though, there is a fair bit of climbing too.



Survol Transvésubienne 2010 sous Google Earth (parcours prévisionnel !) from LudoTA on Vimeo.

I was looking for more info about the race and found this video, oddly enough on the Indyfab owners club website.

As it is the week after the Worlds I won't do well, I will probably still be struggling to keep awake for six consecutive hours, never mind ride a bike for that length of time, so I'm just going with the intention of having fun.
I am slightly depressed in that I am now officially old, this will be my first race in the 30-39 age group. Technically I have been eligible for about a year now but my Elite licence has kept me from racing with the old men, but as I have never done a race like this before I have to start with the masses.

I have decided that beefing up one of the XC bikes for the race isn't really practical, partly because they both have ISPs which may not be a good idea on some of the descents and partly because they may not be in very good condition after the 24hr race, so I have decided to lighten the big bike for it instead.


I know it's retro but it still works and I'm very fond of it, did my first ever race on it back in 1999. Bit of a Trigger's Brush, or a bit like my Grandfather's Axe for those of you more familiar with the works of Theseus than John Sullivan, only the frame and seatpost are original, and the post won't be there much longer, dropper post already ordered. Let's hope the old girl is still up to the job! I would love to have a Yeti 575 or similar for this race but sadly the budget won't permit one of these.

I need to go and have a chat with the guys at Mt Zoom about this bike, see what they advise. They are more used to turning light XC and road bikes into very light XC and road bikes, so turning a heavy trail bike into a mid-weight trail bike should be something a bit different for them to think about.

UPDATE: Found out how it went here (prologue) and here (main race).

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