Défaillance
I’m really enjoying le grimpeur blog’s series on Défaillance (links below). I love this image of Greg Lemond, bent over his handlebars as his strength ebbs away on Le Col du Tourmalet in the 1991 Tour de France. It reminds me well of going up Alpe d’Huez on July 4. Now that most of my posts fall into the armchair category, it feels apt to reflect on a waning of form.
LeMond watches the ‘91 leaders ride away on the Tourmalet. [via le grimpeur
Défaillance. A sudden weakness. A synonym: un jour sans. A day without. All cyclists experience it sooner or later, from the most hardened professional to the lowliest amateur pretender. It differs from the ‘knock’, when the body runs out of energy, and the remedy for the knock is simple: take on more sustenance. Défaillance is something else, more insidious, its symptoms like a creeping dread. On a climb, one struggles to find one’s rhythm, or settle into the saddle and spin, to find a gear that feels comfortable, to follow wheels as they pull inexorably ahead. The remedy is also not immediately obvious. Overtraining? Undertraining? A myriad of other possibilities, physical or even mental.
By the way sort out your post tagging grimpeur!
Jonny emailed the link to the Hell of the Ashdown 2010 this morning. Registration is open for the first sportive of a new season. It begins.
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