DVD Review: Half the Road

"Half The Road" trailer from kevin tokstad on Vimeo.

Kathryn Bertine is a remarkable multitalent. In addition to having worked as a professional figure skater, journalist, triathlete and pro road cyclist she has become a strong voice in the call for greater visibility for women in sports. It takes reckless courage for someone scraping by on the less-than-poverty wages of a female bike racer to decide the best way to promote her sport is by making a full-length documentary video but, astonishingly, “Half the Road,” featuring an impressive cast of athletes and experts, is the result and has been playing to packed cinemas at special screenings throughout the United States and other countries. What is remarkable is not so much whether it is good or bad (and it is pretty good!) but that it exists at all.

In the modern age of global connections there are novel ways of raising money and Ms. Bertine turned to crowdfunding, pitching her passion for bike racing in May 2013 to the world after a year of effort and working with cinematographer Kevin Tokstad to get things launched. The campaign aimed to raise $65,000 and by close of the offer in July had squeaked by as 579 funders pitched in $65,808 and Kathryn and modest team were off to the races.

The original goal of the project was described in this way:

Half the Road is a documentary film that explores the world of women’s professional cycling, focusing on both the love of sport and the pressing issues of inequality that modern-day female riders face in a male dominated sport. With footage from some of the world’s best international UCI races to interviews with Olympians, World Champions, rookies, coaches, managers, officials, doctors and family members, Half the Road offers a unique insight to the drive, dedication, and passion it takes for female cyclists to thrive.  Both on and off the bike, the voices and advocates of women’s pro cycling take their audience on a journey of enlightenment, depth, strength, love, humor and best of all, change & growth.

It is apparent that this already ambitious goal was eventually superceded by a another broader idea. Kathryn Bertine wrote:

I began this documentary with the assumption it was about women’s professional cycling. A few months in, I realized the film was about equality and society, as told through the medium of cyclists. Half The Road is my hope that someday the whole world will see sports not as “men’s” or “women’s” but as equal athletes on equal playing fields.

There is a lot of wonderful material in this video. We see some exciting bike racing and have the opportunity to hear an impressive selection of women athletes talk about their careers and, often, the struggle to make ends meet, let alone get recognition. One cannot help but be impressed by racer Nichole Wangsgard, a university professor with a Ph.D, who had to keep her racing secret from her employers, and dealing with with must have been a very difficult situation in being part of a gay couple in Utah. Many of women cycling's star riders have their turn in front of the camera including the Netherland's Marianne Vos (three time former World Road Champion) who is one of the few to be a genuine sports celebrity in her home country and Kristin Armstrong, who came back from having a child to win the rainbow jersey in the time trial. It is an indication of how tough things are for women that Armstrong, winner of two Olympic gold medals and twice World Time Trial Champion, is usually confused with Lance Armstrong's wife of the same name when mentioned at all. Many of the cyclists are probably known to fans of women's pro racing but barely to the greater universe of fans of men's racing and pretty much invisible to the sports world beyond that. These women train hard, race hard and put on a good show on the road. Why is their sport in the state it find itself in?

Kathryn Bertine points an accusatory finger (well, more like waves a clenched fist) in the direction of several culprits. The Union Cycliste International (UCI) is the sport's governing body. It has historically shown no interest in the women's side of the sport except to invoke ridiculous rules such as the one limiting the average age of women pros on a team. This rule, which certainly would be detrimental to someone like Ms. Bertine who is in her 30s, is stupid and the point is made. Not once but several times.

And this is the major drawback to this film, otherwise commendable in so many ways. It obviously comes with a message but rather than simply leaving the women to tell their often compelling stories the producers add too much to underscore the message that there is inequality out there. Poor Brian Cookson, elected to reform the UCI in 2013, looks rather gormless as he is shown looking uncomfortable while lamely suggesting that women might be “weaker.” This is a “Gotcha!” moment. Cookson was the key figure in the revival of near-bankrupt British Cycling, which has had terrific success not only in men's racing but also seen a generation of fine women competitors develop. The UCI, it is revealed at the end of the film, has dropped the average age rule for women's teams and this too weakens the message.

The other culprits besides the UCI are race organizers who do not give opportunities to women to compete and take advantage of the infrastructure established for men's events. This is a fair enough suggestion but, playing the Devil's Advocate here,(disclaimer: I was one of those 579 funders of this video) it is not clear how this would work in an era when even the men's races struggle for financial support. For example, after disillusionment set in following revelations about Jan Ullrich, Germany went from three top-level men's teams to none and lost most of its top-level races, with only the dreadfully boring Cyclassics in Hamburg still on the UCI World Tour. The United States, where bike racing remains a marginal sport at best, was once host to stage races like the Tour DuPont and the Tour of Georgia but the highest visibility event remains the Amgen Tour of California which, while not on the UCI World Tour, still draws top racers from Europe. And the structure of men's racing is far deeper, with the World Tour at the top with “farm teams” at the UCI Pro Continental and UCI Continental levels below. In 2014 there was a total of 32 teams in the single UCI Women's Teams division. Of course one reason there might be comparatively few women is the sparse selection of races: in the UCI Women's World Cup in 2006 there were 12 races; in 2014 only 9.

The difficult situation that women's pro cycling finds itself in is tough enough but the filmmakers brought in the issue of inequality in women's sports as a whole. There is a bit too much coverage devoted to the belief that once upon a time that women were simply too weak/ladylike/modest to compete it the rough-and-tumble world of competition. There is an interview with the remarkable Kathrine Switzer, who entered the 1967 Boston Marathon when women were not allowed to do so and roused the ire of officials. A great story but women have been allowed to run marathons (Switzer won the women's class at the 1974 New York Marathon) for four decades so there is not really an issue there as Kathryn Bertine is arguing, it appears, that women should have bike races that parallel men's events rather than unisex ones. And this brings us to the unspoken question of why women's sports, with the possible exception of tennis and golf, have never managed to achieve the financial status or visibility of any men's sports. As to team sports, of which cycling is one, there are no women's sports approaching the level of men's at all. The FIFA Women's World Cup, to be played in Canada in 2015, will see many teams competing with players who are only semi-pros or amateurs as there is no money either in what is for men the most popular sport in the world.

The third theme that enters the story is Kathryn Bertine's own attempts to obtain a berth at the 2012 London Olympics in women's road racing and while this underscores how difficult it is for small nations to compete (Bertine rides for the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis) this parallels the problems that poorly-funded teams just can't compete with ones rolling in dough. This is a problem not just for small nations or women's teams but appears throughout sports and while it is an issue for consideration it burdens this documentary, muddying the message by just piling on too much in the 106 minutes of running time. The video would benefit from a more focused story but it is understandable that a first-time director, with no video experience at all, would be enthralled by so much excellent footage that punchier editing would fall a bit by the wayside. 

But forget the nitpicking since “Half the Road” is valuable for exposing us to some great athletes and interesting people we would never get to know if we had to wait around for a major network or pay-channel to provide some exposure. With the Amgen Tour adding a three day women's event in its next edition and this year's successful La Course at the Tour de France in Paris we might be seeing a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel that is opportunity in women's sports. There is much food for thought here, if not many proffered solutions.

Returning to the director's words, her goals are truly worthwhile and she must be commended on what must have been a very difficult project to complete within a budget that represents three or four of Team Sky's Pinarellos:

I wondered if any other female pro cyclists might talk to me about their obstacles, their ambition, and their unconditional love for a sport that was often thankless, cruel, and unresponsive to change.  What is the true joy of cycling, and how do we fix the wrongs?  I’ve always considered  “sport” a euphemism for “society”– I believe by changing one, we affect the other.

“Half the Road” is available as a download at iTunes or as a DVD directly from the producers at www.halftheroad.com for the nominal sum of $18.71. Even better, head out to one of the screenings and show your support for women's sports as well. A list of these events as also at the Half the Road website.

Dutch Treat: the 2013 European Elite Track Racing Championships

Apeldoorn in the Netherlands is a not terribly distinguished place although it does boast the nearby country residence of the Dutch royal family but in the cycling-mad Netherlands it does offer something special: the Omnisport sports facility. I was there in October for the European track championships and following the one-track minds of some of the world's top racers.

Driving into Apeldoorn (population 157,057 and twinned with Burlington, Ontario) it looks pretty much like anywhere else in the province of Gelderland until you pass the gigantic bicycle on the main road and then another on entering Omnisport. The inhabitants of the Netherlands are the tallest in the world, but still...

Omnisport Apeldoorn, opened in 2008, is an impressive facility with a hall seating 2000 for volleyball and a 250 m velodrome seating 5000, the latter being the venue for the 2011 UCI World Track Racing Championships as well as the European Championships that year. It also offers an ice-skating rink for winter plus the usual concessions. 

The European Elite Track Championships are a surprisingly recent event, first held in 2010. Previously the European competition was only for junior and U-23 but the change was made after a review of Olympic qualification brought about a wholesale structural reorganization. Regulated by the European Cycling Union the program includes all the 2012 Olympic track events as well points races for men and women as the big finale: a men's madison because, well, people like it.

Great Britain leads the cumulative medal standings since 2010 with 24, including 13 gold, while Germany is close behind with 23 (10 gold) and tied with Russia, which also has won 23 but only seven gold. At the races in Apeldoorn this year 24 nations were represented and covering most of the world powers in track racing: Britain, Germany, Russia, France, Ukraine and of course the Netherlands. At the other end of the spectrum, Slovakia sent a single rider while the Hungarians numbered two. Gold medallists from the 2013 Worlds in Minsk were plentiful and in many respects the European Championships are almost another Worlds but without the United States, China, Australia and some individual non-European standout riders.

After a training day the Championships opened on October 18 with the Men's and Women's Team Pursuit and Team Sprint races, along with the Points Race. The British men (Doull, Burke, Clancy Tennant) took gold in the pursuit ahead of Russia and the Netherlands, while the women's race saw Britain (Trott, King, Barker, Archibald) also win, with Poland and Russia next. In the Team Sprints, the German men (Enders, Förstemann, Levy) came first ahead of France and Russia while the World Champion German women were not able to hold off the Russian pair (Brejniva, Stretsova) but did come ahead of the British. Points winners were Elia Viviani of Italy on the men's side and Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands for the women. Already on the first day the home nation had improved its medal standing with a gold and a bronze compared to Minsk, where the Dutch finished with a single disappointing bronze.

Day 2 of competition saw lots of Sprint qualifying events as well as the start of the Omnium, with flying laps, points race and elimination race. There was a lot of very exciting racing although the stands were fairly empty for most of this Saturday afternoon and evening. At the end of the day medals were presented for the Men's and Women's Sprints. The Germans had made a very strong showing but on the men's side some tactical mistakes were made and relegations came near the end, with World Champion Stefan Bötticher finishing out of the medals and Robert Förstemann, with the most impressive thighs in cycling, also being relegated so that he took the silver medal after Russia's Denis Dmitriev, who had finished second in Minsk.

Kristina Vogel prepares to overtake a Russian competitor in the sprint

Stefan Bötticher trackstands with a Spanish rival

Robert Förstemann warming up

On the women's side there was no doubt at all who was the fastest rider as Germany's Kristina Vogel, who won silver in Minsk in this discipline, easily outrode her rivals to win gold but a brave effort was made by Elis Ligtlee as she earned the third medal of the competition for the Dutch with silver (and having a wildly enthusiastic crowd behind her) and Jessica Varnish took the bronze for the UK.

Kristina Vogel leading Elis Ligtlee in the sprint final

Kristina Vogel, the newly-jerseyed European Sprint Queen

 On the final day of the Championships the stands filled up with spectators and there was a special exhibition organized by classic bicycle enthusiast Harrie Hofstede of vintage track racing bicycles. After he spread the word collectors brought in nearly 30 old steel bikes, including a very early (1903) stayer bike, a gorgeous 1934 Ernie Russ, a shaft drive bicycle and a wonderful Raleigh. The crowds that gathered around were very enthusiastic and peppered owners with questions and, in some cases, reminiscences of their own track days.

My Bauer Super Sport was not out of place

The glorious shaft drive

The racing on the track continued with more Omnium events (individual pursuit, scratch and individual time trials) and qualification and finals for the keirin and madison. Final results in the Men's Omnium saw Viktor Manakov take gold for Russia, followed by Tim Veldt for the home nation and Ireland's Martyn Irvine (World Champion in the Scratch Race) came in third. Laura Trott (silver medallist in Minsk) of Britain was the best woman, followed by Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands and Jolien D'Hoore of Belgium on the podium. There was also Dutch success in the keirin as the Women's Sprint results were reversed with Elis Ligtlee getting gold ahead of Kristina Vogel, followed by Virginie Cueff riding for France. Germany's medal count continued as Maximilian Levy won gold in the keirin with a powerful performance ahead of the UK's Jason Kenny (reversing their standings at the World's in Minsk) and France's François Pervis.

Swiss rider setting off on his time trial during the Omnium

British rider after completing his Omnium pursuit ride and barely able to stay upright from fatigue

Starting the women's keirin

Women's keirin racers setting off with the derny pacemaker

The last event was the extraordinary madison race, a veritable circus of colour and speed with 32 riders, paired in 16 teams, slung each other around the track 200 times in a 50 km event. In the centre of the velodrome on a raised platform was a man with evening wear, including a top hat, who job was to point at the leading cyclist since it was easy to get confused as the racers attempted to lap the field and get sprint points. In the end the Spanish duo of Juane and Barcelo were relegated for unsportsmanlike conduct in the 7^th sprint (the madison is not a race for the faint-hearted) and Italy took gold ahead of them with Viviani and Bertazzo triumphant. Belgium's De Ketele and Van Hoecke won bronze. Interestingly, in this non-Olympic discipline the other track powers (UK, Germany, Netherlands) were pretty much at the bottom of the standings.

At the end of the competition Germany took three gold and three silver medals, while Great Britain (the dominant force in track racing for the last several years) also had an excellent time with three gold, two silver and three bronze. Russia was third with six but the home town crowd must have been delighted the Dutch haul of two gold, three silver and one bronze. Clearly it pays to ride those big bicycles...

Maximilian Levy (centre) of Germany celebrates his keirin victory

In November many of the same racers assembled in Manchester for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup and there were many repeat winners, including Kristina Vogel (gold in keirin, sprint and team sprint), Laura Trott (Omnium), the British men's pursuit team and the German men's sprint team. The art and science of track racing at the elite level is not everywhere to be seen but don't pass up the chance to see it if you can. The racing is exciting and even a bit dizzying at time but it is all out in front of you. The bikes with no brakes and single gears are stripped down and the competition is just as direct.

There and Back Again: the Romandie-Verbier Classic

September 2, 2012

My plan to come to Switzerland came about rather spontaneously.  I had considered the Gruyère Cycling Tour as I knew the region was quite beautiful and friends who had ridden it before recommended it as well.  The organizers run a number of other events, including the pro Tour de Romandie in Spring, and they now have come up with a two-fer: sign up for the Gruyère Cycling Tour and the La Romandie Classic from Aigle to Verbier a week later and there is a considerable reduction in the registration fee plus you get not one but two Swiss cycling jerseys.

I looked to see how distant the rides would be from each other and whether I could rent an apartment rather than be subjected to the high cost of a Swiss hotel.  This looked possible and I realized I could drive back to Germany on the Canadian Labour Day (which we have free in the office) the day after the Romandie ride, meaning I could get ten days in Switzerland by only using up five holiday days.  Coupled with a very reasonable car rental it all sounded like a plan.  It was great that Dan from Zurich could join me for the first ride the day after I arrived but it is not always easy to get other people to commit so sometimes you just need to take the opportunity you have.

I found a nice apartment fairly conveniently located near Bulle in Charmey and Sixt came through with a super little car, an Opel Astra with a hatchback and lots of space and, to my delight, an automatic transmission.  The drive down was easy enough, except for a traffic jam near Bern, and I had planned my grocery supplies well.   As I have related here, my Gruyère Cycling Tour experience was very positive and my ride up the Jaunpass two days after and then the Chateau-d’Oex loop the day after that were terrific but Thursday, Friday and Saturday were write-offs for cycling due to the genuinely terrible weather.  I am not sure I have seen three days of continual downpouring rain before, with no break of any kind.  I took as much advantage of the time off as possible to do some reading and quite a bit of writing and on Saturday to visit the Swiss National Bicycle Museum in Brügg, near Biel (report to follow), and the one-time Roman settlement of Aventicum (now Avenches) near Lake Murten.  And I had the chance to watch some good coverage of mountain stages of the Vuelta de España on the French Eurovision channel.

The Roman Museum in Avenches and the amphitheatre

Roman temple ruins in Avenches

Roman theatre ruins in Avenches

The weather reports on television were not good for Sunday, although on Saturday night the rain finally stopped and the clouds began to break up.  I set my alarm for 6:00 and got everything ready the evening before so could do the one hour drive to the start in Aigle early and get my jersey and start number.  I had a moment of panic when I received a text message from the organizers indicating a 9 am start rather than the announced 9:30 one but decided to drive in early anyway.

After a quick coffee and packing two of the world’s toughest Kaiser rolls with Camembert and jam in a bag to eat on the drive, I left Charmey right on time but soon discovered that that my GPS had been extremely pessimistic about my arrival time and it soon became apparent I would be there by 7:45.  Oh well, lots of time to look around the UCI World Cycling Centre, the start location.

UCI World Cycling Centre (Centre Mondial du Cyclisme, or CMC)

As I was driving I was scanning the heavy clouds and saw a few breaks, which became more pronounced as I descended down to Lake Geneva and drove past Montreux.  The CMC (Centre Mondiale du Cyclisme) was very easy to find and I even had a parking space right next to it as one of the ridiculously early arrivals.  When I went to pick up my registration materials, the man behind the table looked shocked that I had ordered an XL jersey.  “You are too small for this size!” he exclaimed in French.  I thought he was joking but it was clear from when he spoke to the other people manning the table that he was very concerned.  A girl pointed out a changing room where I could try on a jersey but I explained that I had ridden the Gruyère Cycling Tour the week before and that they were using the same Santini brand jersey (with a different design) and that XL had worked out fine then.  Everyone looked very relieved and I was happy with my jersey, plus the Vaudois bag it came in, along with a Verbier-St. Bernard baseball cap and some other useful things.

The CMC has an impressive indoor track and is a good facility, having been built a dozen years ago.  There is a lot of storage for track bikes and out back there is a practice area for BMX riders.  The administration of the UCI is housed in the building but I did not see anything else, such as a museum or Hall of Fame.  There were washrooms and, I was delighted to see, showers.  The availability of showers after a ride is a fine practice of organized bike rides in Germany and, clearly, Switzerland.

I returned to the car and spoke with two riders who were unpacking their bikes from a Volvo SUV.  As seems to be the case so often in Switzerland, you keep trying until you find the right language.  The older of the two riders spoke French with a heavy accent, but then he switched to English as he actually came from Norwich in the UK.  Of course he spoke German as well but given our comfort level in English we stuck with that.  We did the usual bike talk and took some photos.  They were going on to Verbier and planned to ride back.

This brings me to the somewhat difficult logistics of the la Romandie Classic, which I had not focused on much when I registered.  The ride, following part of a stage route from the 2009 Tour de France which saw Alberto Contador triumph and take the yellow jersey for the remainder of the race, begins at the CMC in Aigle but actually ends in the ski resort of Verbier.  This is Parcours A, the longer ride of 56.32 kms that features two timed sections, one very short one in the village of Vollèges and a much longer one of 8.14 kms from la Châble to the finish in Verbier.  This would mean a total of 1119 m of altitude gain over the ride.  At the top in Verbier was the pasta party offered to riders, the issuing of prizes and the opportunity to take a bus back to Aigle.  Parcours B ends at la Châble after the short time trial and riders doing this can then take the cable car up to Verbier rather than grinding up the 600 m vertical in 8 kms.

Looking at the profile in June and not wanting to compare my climbing to that of Alberto Contador in any way, I chickened out and just signed up for Parcours B.  As much as I loved the Wintergreen Ascent uphill time trial in Virginia, some  time has passed and some weight has been gained since then and I did not want to ruin the holiday spirit by blowing up in the Alps.  As my intent on these rides is much more touristique than sportif and I don’t care much about my time, I decided that I would simply do the shorter ride and then turn around at la Châble and ride back to Aigle on my own, giving me a 100 km round trip for the day.  It sounded as if other riders had people picking them up in Verbier but since nobody was there for me with a support vehicle and as I had not booked the bus and am not a big enthusiast for pasta parties anyway, I thought I would just go back to Aigle, shower and drive back to Charmey in time for another brutal mountain stage of the Vuelta on television.

At the registration, a chart showed the expected weather.  With the 9:30 departure (the correct time), there would be an 80% chance of rain, continuing to noon.  The weather looked better in the afternoon in this forecast.   But when I was at the car getting ready it looked much better than this.  I jammed my rain jacket in my jersey’s middle pocket, put on my arm-warmers and hoped for the best.  Of course, for the rest of the day there was no sign of rain whatever but lots of sunshine instead.

At 9:30 there was a very civilized roll-out by over 400 cyclists with nobody in much of a hurry.  We were accompanied by escort motorcyclists and UCI cars as well, and as at the Gruyère event, every intersection was manned and we were given priority through red lights.  As the first section saw a few gentle rollers, the group broke up fairly quickly and soon we were in little bunches as we passed through Bex and then St-Maurice.  It was here that I discovered that while there was no rain, there was a brutally massive headwind blowing and as I dug down I worried about how hard this was going to be after all, even if the climbing of Parcours B did not look excessive.

As I was thinking about this, a Swiss rider came up alongside and suggested that we “relai,” a term I was not sure I understood for a moment then realized it was a paceline offer.  There were two other riders along as well and we began what was probably the world’s most disorganized paceline as the Swiss would move from the back to the front rather than work a rotation but it did make the ride bearable and I saw my heartrate drop to sustainable levels again.  One of the riders could not keep up and was off the back almost immediately but eventually we did manage to do the paceline properly and were making excellent progress.  

At Km 30 in Martigny the flat part ended, as did the headwind, and we now began to roll uphill.  To my surprise, I kept up with the others with no difficulty and we were passing people all over the place even though the pace seemed reasonable to me.  Eventually we directed to a side road and began another little climb that took us to the food stop at Km 38 in Bovernier where I lost the others.  Of course, with everyone wearing the same red-and-white jersey this was easy to do.

There was a surprising number of riders stocking up on bananas and water, so I clearly was not so close to the last riders as I had thought.  But the crowd reduced itself very quickly and I headed back out myself.  At first I found two cyclists to follow but realized I felt quite good and powered past them easily.  The grade was such that I actually could switch into the big ring on my compact crankset and set a very steady pace upwards.

We passed the village of Sembrancher, continuing on the main road, and then there was a left turn to Vollèges, where I saw a giant inflated Migros arch.  “This could be interesting,” I thought and suddenly realized that I was entering the time trial area.  As I passed over the timing mat, I could not help but accelerate into a climb.  “This could be really painful,” was my next thought.

I knew that the timed section was only 1.36 kms but there would be some good climbing in that space.  I did not gear down to make it easy as I did not want to lose much speed but almost immediately I went anaerobic and people all the way back in Martigny could probably hear my gasping and wheezing.  There were cheering people in the village, which really helped my motivation, but I did not dare look at my heart rate.

The road became flatter and I thought that the timed section could not possibly be much longer so I slammed it into a much higher gear and accelerated, passing several other riders who were really suffering.   My fans went wild and suddenly I was over the timing mat, which was not marked with an arch.  I slowed down and my breathing returned to normal pretty soon and I was recovered enough to enjoy the next part of the ride, with some very photogenic scenery, and even a nice downhill segment that I could ride at over 60 km/h.

Up ahead was la Châble already: 48 kms and over 600 m vertical completed in two hours, including the food stop!  I was directed around a corner and there was the next timing mat but I explained I was only going this far so the official directed me to someone in the direction of the cable car who took my transponder but let me keep my race number.  I rode down to the cable car but nothing much was going on there except for a few confused riders circling about so I rode back up to the roundabout at the entrance to town and headed back down the main road to Martigny.

With no pressure, I stopped a number of times to take photos but really enjoyed the descent.  Although there are some fine vistas, I preferred the scenery of the Gruyère ride, with its little roads but as a rotten descender the Romandie Classic main highway was absolutely meant for me.  Flawless pavement, big wide curves, not much traffic: I was going downhill at a steady 45 km/h for long stretches.

In Martigny I had the chance to look around and discovered two interesting things I had not seen while riding in the paceline on the way up: the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre constructed during the reign of the Emperor Claudius and the St-Bernard Dog Museum, whose canine inhabitants I could hear barking.  The museum also appears to be dedicated to local arts and culture since the dogs in themselves probably would not make up an entire museum.  There were lots of people enjoying the terrace restaurant at the museum but I decided to keep going.

Of course, the brutal headwind that had hurt so much going into Martigny on my way up from Aigle was now a brutal headwind that would hurt for the next 25 kms in the other direction.  No paceline this time, although I saw the odd rider in the Vaudoise jersey, but nothing to do for it but head down and press on.  I took a brief break near a sign directing me to a 17^th Century salt mine but instead of going there sat on a bench, ate some cereal bars and watching the paragliders performing over the airport across the road for a while.

One final push and I rolled into the CMC by 2 pm, with just under 100 kms and just over 800 m vertical on the clock.  I went into the deserted building and had my shower and then enjoyed a leisurely drive back to Charmey.

Checking my telephone later, I discovered another text message from the organizers with my time trial result.  To my amazement, I placed first in my age category for the Parcours B participants with a time of 6:59.3.  I probably did not have much competition since I think most people went on to Verbier but sometimes you should be happy with what you get.

No rain today and now this.  I celebrated my impressive victory with a plate of Swiss rösti fried potatoes, two eggs and a beer.  It is good to be on holiday!