L’Etape du Tour 2007 took place from Foix to Loudenvielle in the eastern Pyrenees on Monday, 16 July - a distance of 196km. Five major climbs means this is not an event for the faint-hearted! Three of the climbs are rated “HC” – the highest/hardest category in the Tour de France. The climbs mix traditional tour climbs and new ones – they include the Col de Portet d'Aspet where Fabio Casartelli tragically lost his life in 1995, and the Col de Menté where in 1971, according to the plaque halfway down the descent, 'with the road turned into a torrent of mud by a thunderstorm Luis Ocaña, wearing the yellow jersey, abandoned all his hopes against the rock'. Ocaña had crashed and remounted with little damage when several following riders ploughed into him, leaving him unconscious. New for this year was the newly surfaced Port de Balès, which is the most challenging climb of the race, with the last 8 kilometres averaging 9%.

Donations to Wooden Spoon have reached £1,500. Neil commented, “I am grateful to everyone who supported me. I often thought of this support when the mountains became steeper and I had been climbing for over one and a half hours in the heat.” Neil completed the course successfully in 10 hours 7 minutes, and what a day! The winning time was 6 hours 30 minutes by an ex-professional rider. Around 7,500 started but only just over 4,300 finished, with Neil coming in about 2,300th.

“All in all it was an extremely tough day with 123 miles on my bike computer and 4,500m of climbing. Temperatures touched 39 degrees and the tar on the roads melted in a number of places. “We climbed for nearly seven hours with a single continuous climb of just under two hours. We descended like men possessed and reached top speeds just under 75 km/h. At times we sped along in groups of over 200 riders, at others we climbed in solitude at around 8 km/h. We passed many, many cyclists walking or just completely shattered resting along the route, unable to continue” said Neil.