Diagonale No. 2 // Build Up

Just after the dust had settled on PBP 2019 thoughts turned to whats next… I only had 1 Diagonale under my belt and there are 8 more to do, so why not start planning for another one?

For my second diagonale, I was again keen to end up in Dunkerque. I had previously considered Hendaye-Dunkerque for my next attempt, but I was not fixed yet. My friend Jim (another diagnonaliste) had a strong desire to attempt Perpignan-Dunkerque, and after a bit of back and forth text messaging, we had the loose idea to ride this diagonale attempt together as a two man team.

That lone diagonale needs a companion Andy. You are aware that P-D has a formidable reputation, with more failures on this one than any other? True! However, we wont fail.

Message from Jim September 2019

Jan 2020 // Route Planning

So that was it, both Jim and I set about looking at possible routes leaving Perpignan for the direction of Dunkerque. We quickly concluded that there is no easy route out of Perpignan, with little choice heading North and relentless up and down heading West before we could head North again. Timing wise we thought about June 2020 as a target, I had put together a draft route on Ride with GPS going as directly North as possible whilst trying to minimise ascent, informed by the routing history available on the DDF website.

Life happened and time went by, Jim and I checked in every so often with each other, but the planned diagonale was sufficiently far off for us not to discuss a great deal.

March 2020 // Pandemic

Covid-19 hit the World and the UK found itself in lockdown, with plenty of time at home for Jim and I to start discussing routing options, revised timings and lots more details. Clearly, in the spring of 2020 this was all speculative and dependent on the outcomes of Covid-19 responses from the UK and France, but it was exciting to have a serious challenge to plan out and use as a target for training and a bit of escapism from reality.

May 2020 // Virtual Cinglé

I saw a Strava post form the Club des Cinglés du Mont Ventoux (a club that I was a member of from my 2016 Cinglé) offering a virtual challenge of all 3 ascents of the bald mountain, to be made within the Rouvy online cycling platform.

I got to work on sorting that out, applying for the paperwork and making myself more familiar with the platform, and then I got the challenge completed in May 2020. It was a long time on the turbo (6.5 – 7hrs) but was good to have a challenge to do during the lockdown periods. Also, the piece that I wrote up on this ride was read by a guy in Canada called Rick Smith, who contacted me to ask for a little guidance on attempting the same. I gladly helped Rick, who went on to complete the challenge himself (including descents…).

June 2020 // Lockdown Lifts

With the pandemic rumbling on the UK lockdown restrictions began to be gradually lifted in June 2020, this allowed me and my family to move house, a major undertaking which brought with it a lot of demands on my time. Actually moving was big – its ridiculous how much stuff you accumulate, and then once moved in to the new place it was weekend after weekend of work, decoration and DIY.

Needless to say, my available time for cycling and distance training was next to nothing, I didn’t even have my turbo trainer set up anywhere usable. This left me totally de-conditioned and under trained for where I should be with a diagonale on the cards in a matter of weeks. We hadn’t yet made the application for the diagonale and the attempt date was floating due to local French restrictions, date moves of Le Tour (to early September), and the potential for August to be a tricky month in France – the place is on holiday for the month, and it can be difficult to find food when you need it, and accommodation options could also be a challenge. So, Jim and I had decided to change the planned timing from June to September, in order to accommodate more riding, and to avoid certain impacts.

I did a 320Km Summer Solstice ride around the Norfolk Border, I planned this ride as a tester ride to see where my distance legs were at. Well, I got round the ride in reasonable time, but it was clear to me that I wasn’t in good enough shape to be undertaking a diagonale, worse still I didn’t have the available time to get myself into shape ahead of the current planned timing of September (post Tour de France) for the diagonale attempt.

July 2020 // Abort

I had to abort based on my lack of preparation, and how would I explain to Jim…? I was just honest with him and explained that I can’t jeopardise our success by going into this attempt undertrained, and that my home situation needed me to be present for the foreseeable. Of course, Jim was brilliant about it;

Andy!!!

You have my full support in your decision! It’s the right thing to do and had you done any different l would have been very surprised.

I’ve always maintained that home and family come first and cycling, albeit wonderful in all its guises, is a mere adjunct to life!

Your mate always.

Jim.

Message from Jim – July 2020

Sept 2020 // Rutland

In our exchanges regarding aborting our 2020 attempt Jim was keen to ride the Norfolk Border ride with me as a conciliatory ride instead of the diagonale attempt. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have the legs for another 300, so we settled on Jim coming over to my place and doing a quality ride around Rutland instead. We had a great weekend and took in a lovely ride in and around the Welland valley. Jim was on his Moulton AM22, a very fine ride and a marvel to look at. He suffered a mechanical with the gear shifter late in the ride though, so we had to pedal the last 15K with Jim stuck in top gear.

Throughout the summer I had taken to heading out on the odd short run, just as a quick break from the desk whilst working at home. Now, whilst I much prefer riding the bike, I was finding it difficult to motivate myself to do so with any kind of consistency, and with a work colleague organising us (my work team) to take part in a running/walking challenge throughout October 2020 I largely stayed off the bike.

Nov 2020 // Mojo Located

Towards the end of October 2020, something caught my attention; the 2020 Zwift Academy. I’d done some of the workouts from previous Zwift Academy years and thought the 2020 program could be a good way to get myself back into a regular cycling rhythm. First thing to do was understand where my power levels were at, so a ramp test it was… I just didn’t have the minerals to put myself through a 20 minute FTP test at this time.

Ramp test was disappointing, but not an unexpected result (FTP reduction from 306W to 245W), at least I knew where I was at power wise and I wouldn’t be kidding myself with what I could actually do.

I got through the Zwift Academy 2020 group rides and the workouts – the workouts were tough sessions that established your max powers for 10, 20 30 seconds, 1 minute and 4 minutes.

Throughout November 2020, something clicked in and I started to feel enthusiastic towards cycling again, which was great. Finally. I had a few outside rides as well as more indoor turbo work.

November 2020 also saw the UK government bring another lockdown to the UK due to the continued spread of Covid-19, everyone had to stay at home with a limited number of exemptions. Restrictions weren’t as severe as March 2020, but we were starved of social contact and having to maintain restrictions in numbers for distanced group meet ups.

Rounding off 2020

After the November 2020 lockdown the UK government introduced a set of regional restriction tiers;

• Tier 1: Medium Alert
• Tier 2: High Alert
• Tier 3: Very High Alert
• Tier 4: Stay at Home

My home county found itself being placed in Tier 3. So again, our restriction continued much the same as it was for the November 2020 lockdown.

I’d made a couple of outside rides in pursuit of some more BCQ checkpoints for 2020, but given the restrictions and the bad weather I’d mostly stuck to riding in the garage on Zwift.

We weren’t able to go back to Norfolk to see family over Christmas – restrictions and close positives in school year bubbles prevented this, along with a new variant of the Covid-19 virus which was spreading much more vigorously inside the UK (variant was later named the Kent variant).

France announced they would be restricting travel from the UK as of 20 December 2020 – only allowing French Nationals or British people who are habitually resident in France to enter. That was a blow for the 2021 diagonale but we couldn’t be surprised really.

I entered the Rapha Festive 500 in between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve (ride 500Km between these festive milestones), something I’d been wanting to do for a number of years, and with the challenge allowing virtual Km in 2020, I was able to complete it. This left me with over 1000Km ridden in December – mostly on the turbo.

January 2021 // Tour de Zwift

Even before the New Year was welcomed in, the UK suspected it would be starting with some kind of heavy restriction, but due to the continued spread of the Kent variant and the terrible affect on the number of people in hospital and dying, the UK government introduced a 3rd National lockdown on the 4th of January. Essentially, a stay at home order.

I messaged Jim and suggested we choose our target hotels for the diagonale attempt, as with these known we would be able to finalise the route together. Jim offered to take on the task and he got it sorted.

Audax UK again suspended calendar events and any validation of DIYs or Permanents – so any notion I may have had of starting an RRTY (Randonneur Round The Year) would have to be put on ice. So, I continued on with the turbo trainer.

January 2021 saw Zwift putting on the annual Toue De Zwift (TDZ) event – a large scale tour of its virtual worlds. The group rides are treated like races and I normally end up burying myself to stay with the lead groups for as long as possible. This year was no different and I was on the rivet for each of the 8 Stages throughout the tour.

A work colleague of mine had also laid the virtual challenge down of a Sub50 minute ascent of Alpe Du Zwift… not easy at all. So, I put some research into what would be required and logged it as a target to aim for.

February 2021 // Routes & Road Maps

With TDZ finishing up, I had a dig at the Alpe. I knew I would not be able to hit Sub50 at this time but wanted to find where I was at. Well, 58:15 was my time which I was pleased with, however, there would be weight to lose and Watts to gain to go Sub50.

With the hotel choices Jim had provided for our diagonale attempt I merged their locations onto our route. This put a little more distance (5-10Km) onto the route for us, but studying the route further gave opportunity to spot some other areas that could be optimised. Jim and I discussed the route changes on the phone and we agreed to optimise. I updated the route map and then re-visited the route sheet to update distances with the hotel additions and optimisations.

I think chatting with Jim at this time was great for both of us, we thought ahead keenly to our diagonale attempt, choosing to put aside all of the negative news and difficult restrictions of the moment and think only of the challenge that lay ahead.

February 22nd 2021 the UK Government laid out a road map to bring the country out of National lockdown and severe restrictions. A 4 Step plan was announced consisting of gradual restrictions lifting based on data for infections, deaths and new variants.

March 2021 // More Turbo Kms

Lots of turbo training coming off the back of TDZ and with a bunch of work colleagues setting up a Thursday night Zwift meet up. We also had a work challenge called “MARCHing On”, which was set up to encourage folk to exercise and step away from the desks – highest distance accumulation would top the leaderboards each week.

A major restriction lift came in March, and this was ahead of any of the 4 steps that had been outlined in the road map out of lockdown – this was was kids being allowed back to school from the 8th March 2021… what a relief that was. They were desperately missing school and their friends and life took a welcome step towards normality with the familiar routines of the kids coming and going to school.

Turbo Trainer Failure

13th March 2021 – disaster (for me) struck and my turbo trainer failed 100K into a 160K session. Basically, after some diagnosis my Tacx Neo2 had overheated and failed, the rear cooling fan not initiating was the cause of the overheat, but I don’t know what the cause of the fan failure was. I filled out the warranty form with the retailer, captured videos and screenshots of app diagnostics and submitted them all in an email.

I was bounced around a little in-between the retailer and the manufacturer but by being detailed in my description of the issue, being demanding in terms of needing a replacement trainer ASAP, by following up everyday and sending the failed trainer back, the retailer sent me a replacement which arrived 1 week after my trainer failed. That was a great result! Now, I’d just have to hope that the replacement trainer wouldn’t succumb to the same failure after 5000K of riding…

Step 1 – Restrictions Lifted

Finally, on the 29th of March 2021 we had another lockdown restriction lifted (Step 1). We we’re now allowed to meet up outside to socialize with six people or 2 households, including in private gardens. We wasted no time in seeing some of our families, which was just great.

Formally organised outdoor sports were again allowed, and the stay at home order ended, but many lockdown restrictions remained – to be eased at a later point depending on infection and death rates.

More good news here was that from the 29th of March 2021, Audax UK was able to re-commence the validation of events of up to 300km that would take place solely within England. This applied to calendar and permanent events – including DIYs.

As for the work challenge for distance accumulation, “MARCHing On”, the team of 4 that I was in ended up winning a close fought challenge with a team in China, and I ended up topping the cycling leaderboard for individual distance, with 1891Km for the month. Just a bit of fun with good competition, but good to come out on top at the month end.

France 🇫🇷 // Entry Requirements

I checked up on the then current entry requirements for UK Nationals going into France, and if we were attempting a diagonale in March 2021…we would be stuffed.

Entry restrictions were in force for France and even if you were a French National or a British person who was habitually resident in France, you could get in, but you would be subject to the following to be allowed in;

• A ‘sworn statement’ (déclaration sur l’honneur) self-certifying that you are not suffering from Covid-19 symptoms.
• A signed ‘travel certificate’ (attestation), confirming your reason for travel.
• A negative Covid-19 PCR test result (carried out less than 72 hours before departure) upon entry to France.
• 7 days of self isolation upon gaining entry to France.
• Another negative Covid-19 PCR test at the end of the isolation period.

Neither Jim nor I were of either category that was allowed to enter France at that time, but if we were then I estimated that the form filling and testing for arrival could be managed, but the self isolation requirement along with the need to quarantine for 10 days when returning to the UK, would provide a definite barrier to being able to ride a diagonale.

We’d just need to keep an eye on the entry requirements for Brits and hope that things opened up further as the year progressed, as well as “hope” we would also need a Plan B…

Right at the end of March 2021 France declared a 3rd National lockdown with heavy restrictions and school closures throughout the country. Similar measures were being announced across mainland Europe – which had struggled with the rollout of it’s Covid-19 vaccination program.

The word on the street inside France was not good either, Jim had heard of some anger inside France towards Britain, regarding Brexit disruptions and also the Kent strain of the virus. From a cycling perspective the hopes of riding some of the great challenges within France in the summer of 2021 were really fading and a Plan B was definitely required.

Plan B

Clearly, a Plan B would have to be in the UK and that meant there was plenty to choose from. Jim and I threw around some options:

• Mille Cymru (Permanent)
• The Wiltshire Way
• Aberystwyth to Lowestoft
• North Coast 500
• Trafalgar Way (Permanent)
• Bryan Chapman Memorial (Permanent)

Any of these could be organised relatively quickly (pending restriction lifts) so we didn’t have to commit to riding any one of them. This allowed us to continue to monitor the situation inside France, and look out for any changes in entry requirements for France, and for returning to the UK.

April 2021 // Time Trialing

Inspired by Michael Broadwith’s LEJOG Record and with his multiple wins at the Mersey Roads 24hr TT, I found myself lining up at a mid-week Time Trial organised by Bourne Wheelers, I got to enjoy the discipline of riding ‘Contre la Montre’ and found that I was OK at it and I continued with the mid-week TTs. These were a different discipline to my normal cycling and in pursuit of trying to get quicker I consumed information and tried to work on my position (getting low), my flexibility, my strength and my cadence. I put together a few words on how I’d blundered into time trialing here.

Step 2 – Restrictions Lifted

Step 2 – restrictions lifted on the 12th April 2021. Non essential retail and Indoor leisure facilities could re-open and hospitality venues could serve people outdoors.

I made my first Audax ride of the year – a 222Km DIY from my place down into the Bedfordshire countryside. A lovely ride indeed, and a good effort for the legs. I also made a quick 157Km dash back to my home county of Norfolk to catch up with parents, I did this as a DIY too.

May 2021 // Training Plan

I was reminded by Jim, that he would like to make the Norfolk Border Ride with me still. So, looking at the calendar (which gratefully was becoming busier) a weekend in mid-June looked good for the border ride. A quick check up with Jim on availability and we were all good with that plan.

I competed in my first open 10 time trial after registering with Cycling Time Trials (CTT). It was a step up in terms of competition and width of field and upon arrival I was really hoping not to finish absolute last. I gave it everything and managed to place 41st/60, which I was ok with. I was aiming for a sub 25 minute ride and I got that at 24:59, averaging just over 24mph for the first time.

I also spent some time to read up on training plans, I was riding a lot of time trials and these were hard efforts to recover from, so my normal riding had to change a little to accommodate the racing, and to train a bit more specifically for the racing and the long distance. I put together a 9 week training plan which had me doing tough intervals a couple of times/week – these proved to be a really tough workout but I could feel their benefit.

Step 3 – Restrictions Lifted

Step 3 – restrictions lifted on May 17th 2021. Most social contact rules were lifted outside and we could also now be in another persons home, staying overnight. As well as this, larger groups of up to 30 could meet outside.

France also eased some restrictions after 8 weeks of heavy restrictions.

June 2021 // Borders

Jim and I made the Norfolk Border ride happen close to the summer solstice. We had a great ride together covering the 320Km in under 15hrs. The weather was kind and it was great to catch up in person with Jim and ride together. Our thoughts were on the diagonale attempt and we discussed elements of it on the day, knowing that circumstances were looking almost favorable in being able to make the ride.

Step 4 – Delayed

Step 4 – Restrictions were supposed to be lifted on the 21st of June, however, the Delta variant which had coursed through India was pushing up cases in the UK. Step 4 restrictions lifting would have seen all venue capacity restrictions lifted as well as an end to the rules on limited gatherings inside and outside of the home. The step 4 restriction lift was extended by 4 weeks and would be reviewed again at that time.

In the meantime, the adult vaccination program had continued at great pace inside the UK with around 80% of the adult population vaccinated.

France 🇫🇷 // Entry Requirements

Travel restrictions to France were eased for people from outside countries, based on the health state of the country and the individual persons vaccination status. Now, if you were a fully vaccinated traveller from the UK to France, you would have to provide the following to gain entry;

• A ‘sworn statement’ (déclaration sur l’honneur) self-certifying that you are not suffering from Covid-19 symptoms.
• A negative Covid-19 PCR test result (carried out less than 72 hours before departure) upon entry to France.
• Proof of vaccination status.

Positively, you wouldn’t have to isolate on entry and you could travel freely inside France. However, France was still on the UK’s amber list of countries, meaning that we would need a negative PCR test within 3 days prior to leaving France (for the UK) and we would have to adhere to quarantine rules for returning from a country on the UK’s amber list once back in the UK – that’s 10 days of quarantine at home, along with a day 2 and a day 8 PCR Test – not ideal and probably not that workable for us.

Next green list country travel review would be mid July with effectivity the following week.

July 2021 // Infections Increasing

The Delta variant had really taken hold in the UK and infections were again picking up across Europe. The UK was essentially in the midst of a 3rd wave of coronavirus infections.

I’d read stories of France not recognising people who had been fully vaccinated with the Covishield (Indian made) AZ vaccine, as fully vaccinated. The reason being that Covishield had not been registered with the European Medicine Agency yet (it’s exactly the same vaccine as the UK made version which had been registered). France could still be challenging…

Thinking towards our attempt, at this time we may just be OK to do it on paper if France made it onto the UK’s green list of countries, but in reality it may still represent a lot of difficulty? For instance, we’d have to get a full PCR test somewhere in the middle of France to allow us back into the UK without quarantining… it can be hard enough to get food sometimes…let alone a PCR test in sleepy France, especially when you are against the clock on a demanding challenge such as a diagonale.

Abort (again)

France remained on the UK’s amber list of countries, so Jim and I spent some time to discuss our plans. It was becoming the time where we had to make a decision on what we were going to do.

The not knowing is an extremely difficult balance with the requirements needed to prep for a Diag, as we are required to give a date and time….currently we can’t; it’s impossible. In addition the SNCF are once again striking this summer.

I’m unable to gain any confidence regarding France at the moment.

Could you postpone until next year Andy? By postponing it allows us to mentally relax and reduce anxiety levels.

Message from Jim – July 2021

My response to Jim was one of agreement. It was stacking up to be a No-Go for France in 2021. We simply had to make the decision, we made the correct decision not to attempt the diagonale and we made the decision together – both happy to postpone until 2022. The route remains the same and we would aim for a timing around the end of May.

Time for Plan B

It certainly felt as though we had made the correct decision, and this freed us up to talk about a plan b for riding in the UK. I wanted to get my 3rd Super Randoneur award with Audax UK in 2021, and having done a 200K and a 300K already the 400K and the 600k remained.

One of the plan b rides we discussed earlier in the year was the Bryan Chapman Memorial ride (BCM) a Welsh end to end basically. There is a permanent version of this ride meaning we can ride it anytime, so I suggested to Jim that we make this ride together at the start of September 2021. Jim was in agreement and we could look forward to a decent summer capped off with the BCM permanent!

End of Post

This build up has been a catalogue of planning, preparation, routing, cycling and a navigation through the varied and ever changing Covid-19 restrictions of 2020 and 2021. The build up will start again sometime before the next attempt at a diagonale, maybe in 2022/2023…