You're a tiger

I'm grateful if you commented in my Etape round table post. Just a summary, paraphrasing if I may:

• Get the gearing on the bike right - consider a triple chainset (I now have a compact to try out on my winter bike so I will see how I get on)
• Put in some 100 mile + rides and get used to spending 6+ hours in the saddle
• Enter some sportives (yep, done that and more about my calendar next week)
• Determine beforehand what works well in terms of drinks, energy food etc.
• On the day, don't always go for the first tables at the feed stations - there might be quieter ones further along

I've also just seen some good stuff on forums, not necessarily specific to L'Etape, but useful all the same. I need to know that come the big day any failure is going to be down to bad luck not poor prep. Here are 2 things that have clicked with me; the simpler the better:

1) Don't think of it as one long ride but break it down into [in the case of L'Etape] 3 long climbs with 'rests' in between. This kind of thinking appeals to me. In my job I spend all the time trying to break problems down into small manageable chunks that ultimately fit together to solve the whole. I can train along these lines, so I can work at the threshold required for the time required. I'm going to come back to this subject.

2) When climbing, find a mantra, just a few words that you can repeat over and over to will yourself to keep going. At first this all seems a bit Gareth Cheeseman but watching a tv programme recently, 'Robson Green's Wild Swimming Adventure', one man, Lewis Pugh, had a dramatic psychological effect on Robson's willpower. Lewis kept telling him "You are unstoppable, commit!" and got him to repeat it again and again. It seemed to work for him. So from now on my mantra will be, "I am Spartacus unstoppable!".