The Etape Village-Gateway to Hell

The feelings of slight apprehension about my ability to complete the Etape surfaced when we went to register at the Etape Village in Gap. Glancing around the sponsors’ stalls I could see the usual suspects-Powerbar, Trek, Isostar, Mavic as well as the bizarre-Gillette??. A quick glimpse at the legs of my fellow etapers confirmed my fears-7500 participants/7499 leg-shavers (Dr Stangeglove refused to give my Gillette Venus a whirl under any circumstances). Bearing in mind that less than two hundred women enter the Etape the statistics were scary. These guys are serious. Further surveillance of their bikes (I only spotted two steel frames-both on the back of our car) lead to even more anxiety. In search of the edge I went to visit the homologous blood doping tent-Basso, Ullrich, Hamilton must know something about how to complete a stage of Le Tour. As I awoke to see a multitude of faces looking down at me I remembered my penchant for fainting at the site of a needle. Looks like its back to bananas and pedaling hard.
To be continued. Meanwhile there is a fairly accurate report of the Etape here: