The Tour de France is well known as the toughest three week professional bike race in the world.   The Tour is actually one of the three special three-week races known as the Grand Tours, with the 'younger siblings' located in Italy, called the Giro d'Italia, and in Spain, known as la Vuelta a España.  This year, Queensland based self described weekend warrier, Tony Peech, was able to live his dream of following and riding parts of one of the classic pro bike races on the World Tour calendar, La Vuelta.  Here is his story.

La Vuelta

By Tony Peech

Being a weekend warrior on the bike (as work stops me from riding during the week) I was a little apprehensive when booking my trip to ride 8 days of this year’s La Vuelta in Spain. With 4 mountain climbs in the first 10 days I knew my fitness was something to work on so I signed up for the Brisbane half marathon as a way to step up my training. All was going well for the first week but then disaster struck; I was diagnosed with swine flu! My blood sugar levels were all over the place and sleeping for 14 hours a day was not the ideal preparation, so on the advice of my endocrinologist I just had to sit back and keep off any exercise until I fully recovered, as well as trying to get my BSL under control.
 
A week before I was due to fly I was given the all clear so I joined some friends and went on a 250km ride over 2 days. I coped pretty well apart from cramping on the hills but Spain was looking daunting with mountains rather than hills to climb….
 
First day on the bike in Spain was a gentle introduction with 4 hours steady riding. The longest hill was only 10ks so with my BSL at 10.4 before starting I knew I would not be able to blame low blood sugars when the climb began. I was constantly drinking Powerade, and with a couple of food stops along the way it was a good feeling to have a reading of 5.2 when we finished in Granada that afternoon.
 
The next day was a different story with a cat 1 climb ahead which was 30kms long with some steep sections just to test the legs. In 35-degree heat and with no shade, after 2 hours riding I felt the energy levels drop and I thought it must mean low sugar, so I pulled over to test my blood. No, it was 6.5 – perfect - so it was my lack of fitness catching up with me. I struggled to the top and after snacking all the way my sugar levels were a little high but after 30 minutes they started to drop back to normal so my judgement was not too bad. After the hard climb it was good to sit back and watch the leading pro riders fly past up the hill going for the stage win, but what gave me the most satisfaction was watching the rest of the peloton going a lot more slowly - I was obviously not the only one that day who found the climb hard work.
 
Breakfast the next day was a hard choice as everyone in our group was saying “fuel up”. We had another strenuous day ahead and seeing what the Movistar team were eating it looked like piling up your plate was the go. I tried to resist as I did not want to start with high blood sugars, but my will power was not as strong as I hoped it would be. The food looked fantastic and I obviously over-indulged because at our first food stop after 50kms my BSL was 13.2. After 1 hour and 30 mins on the bike I knew I only had myself to blame! Luckily I carried my injection on me, which I kept chilled in a Frio cooling wallet, and after a couple of shots I was back on the bike - avoiding the food snacks of course!
 
More mountains were conquered during the week but the highlight was being cheered on by the locals and even having a few people running alongside us offering drinks and food as we battled some 23% steep sections. My last descent on Spanish soil was one to remember as we were among the Liquigas team riding down towards their team bus in the village at the bottom of the mountain. They showed us how to handle a bike reaching speeds of 80km/h holding on with one hand and drinking at the same time after a hard day of racing.
 
After 8 days riding I was quite pleased with my BS levels overall but the rule is definitely eat smaller portions more often to stop the rapid increase in levels and keep testing regularly especially on the MOUNTAINS!!
 
My next adventure is riding with HypoActive from Brisbane to the Gold Coast then on the bucket list is Paris - Roubaix but hopefully without catching swine flu the week before.
 
Cheers
 
Tony

Tony in Granada sporting the HypoActive colours!

The professional bike race up to the Granada ski station

Tony on route to the Sierra Nevada

Tony's tour group outside the official team setup for Team Radioshack

Tony in the Spanish countryside

Sensational scenery riding the route of La Vuelta.