Travel

We are riding on mythical roads owned by gods and legends, but today I’m not worshipping. Instead, I’m being sacrificed on their cobbled altar, a dish of the day served battered and numb. This is what it feels like to ride the pave – welcome to Hell…

The sun is shining, the roads are smooth and empty, and we can smell the sea as we pick up speed on the long descent. Even better, the word is that it’s cold and raining back in the UK. Bonus!

The Tour of Oman starts on February 15th. The Gulf state is readying itself for the event titularly organised by Eddy Merckx. A pre-Tour report from Our Man in Oman, Carlton Reid.

"Everybody is very excited," an Oman-based British journalist told me earlier this week. And there's evidence for this excitement all over Muscat, capital city of the Sultanate of Oman. The Tour of Oman will be here in a couple of weeks and already the place is awash with banners and posters celebrating the arrival of the five-day pro race.

If you’re taking your bike to an island in the sun during the next few months, or maybe heading off to ride one of Europe's big sportives, you need to choose your airline carefully. 

So the 2011 Etape du Tour route has been officially announced. For the first time, there will be two Etapes, with most attention focussed on ‘Acte 1’ mirroring Stage 19 of the Tour, crossing the classic Telegraphe and Galibier cols before finishing on the iconic Alpe d’Huez. Tempted to have a go? David Else looks back at some previous Etapes and offers some practical advice.

Riding the Strade Bianche in the rain is like mountain biking. You really have to hold on tight and keep an eye on your line as there are potholes, ruts and gatherings of loose stone everywhere, any slight miscalculation could end up in disaster. We however, and everyone else around us seemed to manage just fine, well, all apart from the bruised palms.

What’s the best way to start a major sportive? Relaxed, confident, positive. How did I feel on Sunday in the start pen of the 2010 Etape du Tour? Nervous, apprehensive, and a little bit scared.

Simon Hartwell tackles the Galibier after breakfast… and it all downhill from there, until it starts going back up the Cime de la Bonnette

Our man Simon Hartwell rides 700km from Geneva to Nice with cycling legend Graeme Obree

Geneva Airport. After months of anticipation, training and anxiety, I was dragging my bike case and kitbag into the arrivals hall amid a sea of people holding up handwritten signs of names, none of which were mine. This was the beginning of my eight-day tour across the famous Alpine cols in the company of ex-World Champion and hour record holder Graeme Obree.

A 30lb Commencal hardtail. Not the weapon of choice for col bagging but that's all the lady at the tourist office in Bedous could offer me, and at €10 a day I wasn't really complaining: any bike is better than no bike.

Our base for our family week in the Pyrenees, the Fontaines D'Escot, is smack bang at the bottom of the Col de Marie Blanque – the steep side – and that was to be the first challenge of the day.