Riders
Before May of this year, I’ve never sat on a racebike. I’ve done multiple sports my entire life, and felt like cycling this year. Shortly after I had decided to get a racebike and give cycling a try, I came across the Tour for Life. What better excuse for training the entire summer than this beautiful tour from Italy to The Netherlands and raising funds for the Medicins sans Frontiere.
I went to Cycle You at Schellingwoude (just north of Amsterdam) for a bike fitting by a specialist, chose my colors and three weeks later my bike was ready to get picked up. My first trip on my new MEES iris02 was on May 6th 2011. It was my goal to ride 200 km a week from that day on, however with the horrible weather in July/August I can’t say I always managed to get to ride as much as I wanted.
Apart from two trips to the Ardennes, I’ve done most of my training riding around Broek in Waterland, which is a beautiful area and only 4 km from where I live in Amsterdam. The only downside of this area is that in rides of about 100 km, you still only get about 30 altitude meters. No doubt I’m going to have a lot of pain on the days with 3000 or even 4200 altitude meters in the Alps.
However, absolutely looking forward to 8 wonderful days and the feeling after we’ve reached the finish on the Cauberg!
It was during a dinner earlier this year in April when Paul Zonderland told about his “cyclomania” and his ambition to do the “Tour for Life 2011”. Although my main focus was on running a couple of half marathons during the year, Paul did convince me that cycling from Italy across the French Alps must be a piece of cake for someone that runs 21 kilometers in one hour and a half…. So he managed to convince me. I ditched my 25 year old “vintage race bike” that I used to ride when I was around 17 years old and decided to get myself a more up to date 2011 version. A lot has changed when it comes to race bicycles over the last few decades, I can tell you that. Anyway, having the latest material is one thing, but you still need to push it forward yourself so I started my training as soon as my broken wrist allowed me to. We live in Scheveningen together with my wife and two boys of 6 and 2 years old. That requires a bit of juggling with time when both parents are having a full time job, so I figured out that cycling to the office and back would have the least impact on the family and would still result in a 90km training a day. Great way to get prepared. And it works. First day to the office and back felt like I had climbed the Alpe D’Huez already for 4 times. But after a few weeks I really felt that the performance improved. Latest record from Scheveningen to Hoofddorp was 1 hr 22 mins. That’s an average of >31 km/hr. However, I guess the challenge during the TfL is to be able to repeat this for 8 days in a row. Looking forward to the challenge. We’ve got a great Disney team and many supporters from all over the world that are going to follow us via our blog!
Aged 54, 1.88m tall, weighing 89kg easily makes me the oldest as well as one of the heaviest riders in the team, in short, I have a big challenge.
For 5 consecutive years I have been a member of the team organizing the Disney Pixar Charity Tour. Having participated in the organization and riding the tour I have rediscovered my love for cycling.
The Tour for Life may be too much too late for my under-trained ageing body, however I’m very much looking forward to the 8 days of cycling with friends for this charity.
Be reminded of the words by Henny Kuiper: “Cycling is finishing someone else’s plate before starting your own”, so the motto will be “piano, piano”.
I very much appreciate the support I am getting from my wife, three daughters, 4 dogs and the pony. I am therefore not lacking any.
The key thoughts for the upcoming days are: keep on pushing, keep adding oil, chew well, keep hydrated,go forward and don’t look back.
Gil van Laer
I guess I caught the ‘cycling virus’ back in 2004 when I took a couple of Benelux cinema exhibitors on a ride up ‘Alpe D’Huez’. The occasion was the release of Disney Pixar’s THE INCREDIBLES.
The years after, I became part of the Disney-Pixar Charity Ride gang, climbed Mont Ventoux (a must for every cycling fanatic) and even crashed in the descent (NOT a must for every cycling fanatic), took part (together with Disney colleagues and fellow cycling nuts Giles Hadman, Serge van Eyck and Saul Mahoney) in the Etappe du Tour …and most recently sat more than 12 hours on my bike to complete the 205 KM cyclosportif ‘les 3 Ballons’. That’s why that when I heard of the TOUR FOR LIFE challenge, I knew I simply had to do this.
So, here we are now, less than a week before D-day … and I find myself as excited as a five year old who is about to get a new (CARS2) toy ;-)
1250 Km’s (if you spell it out in letters it sounds even longer!) in 8 days, going over some of the Tour de France’s most renowned mountain cols!!
What will the weather be like … did I train enough – probably not as much as I should have … and how will the body cope with the 8 consecutive days of physical ‘torture’… and – last but not least – as one of three Belgians, there’s a heritage to defend here as well – after all it is a Belgian who is still the greatest cyclist of all time!
Oh well, one things is certain, when I look at the list of Disney colleagues and friends, who have decided to come along on this adventure, I know it is going to be fun … and in any case UNFORGETTABLE!
Cannot wait till it’s Sunday August 26th … … oh, and let’s make sure we’ve got Boudewijn de Groot’s ‘De eenzame fietser’ on the Ipod.
For many years I used to do mountain biking till Gil invited me to join him on “La Fleche Wall-E”, a 3 day Disney ride in France to raise funds for Unicef.
We don’t have real mountains in the Benelux, but we claim 2... the Dutch claim Alpe d’Huez and we claim the Mont Ventoux. In May 2008, the day before the start of La Fleche Wall-E Gil and I conquered this mountain. On the top we met 2 fellow riders, Paul Zonderland and Giles Hadman. Going downhill is harder than uphill, but I leave that up to Gil to explain you why. The arrival in Cannes was mythical and I still remember the words “faster, faster, faster” when we turned left on the Boulevard de la Croisette ignoring the words of our guide to slow down.
A new passion was born, and in 2009 we prepared ourselves for the Disney Pixar UP ride in Italy. I best summarize this trip as follows “Beautiful, Challenging, Pasta”. But this was not the only challenge. Giles Hadman, Saul Mahoney, Gil and I took part in the Etape du Tour ride in July. Disaster, I stranded 6 kms from the top of the Mont Ventoux. I will spare you all the details but I sat a couple of hours in the bushes… Easy to find on Google Earth, it’s the greener spot where the fauna flourishes.
I was angry and in 2010 I decided to take part in the Marmotte, 175 kms and 5000 vertical meters. But first the Toy Story 3 Tour in June, another 3 day Disney ride in Italy to raise funds for charity. And again: Beautiful, Challenging, and Pasta.
July 3rd 2010, after more than 11 hours on my bike I finally passed the finish on the top of Alpe d’Huez. And I had an answer to the many times that I asked myself: “why am I doing this…”. And now the biggest challenge of all… The Tour For Life… There is only one way to prepare for this, ride, ride, ride and climb, climb, climb as many kilometers as you can. I start to feel like a lunatic, my bike is my friend…
On Sunday 28th we will be all on our bikes for the first trip to Alpe d’Huez. Together with my friends, sharing the same passion.
Chris Goris
Cycling has always been a part of my life. Initially it was just a way to get to school. Later, I used it to get fit for other sports.
Together with some good friends, we associated cycling with other delights of life: select a mountainious area in France, next choose some well quoted, affordable little restaurants in the Gault Millau for that area and cycle day trips from one to another. A superb way to discover unknown areas, culture and food.
Over the years, that led to participation in a few cyclo's like La Marmotte, Maratona Dles Dolomites and Les Trois Ballons.
I am very happy to be offered the unique opportunity to cycle this challenging trip as a member of the Disney team. But maybe, it was meant to be... Let me explain that...
Believe it or not, just like cycling, Disney became an essential part of my life in the last 4 years. Firstly, my 4 year old son thinks he is Spiderman. It might well be a child's fantasy but when he wears his complete Spiderman outfit, even I start believing it. And that would make me the father of Spiderman! OK, I know the story, the father is not on the Disney payroll but Spiderman is. That's close enough...
Secondly, I had the privilege to prepare for this TFL on the tracks of the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege together with two typical Disney Characters. They are cycling adepts who introduced me to the complex science of post- and prehydration, nutrition (comes mostly with the posthydration) and GPS.
That's why... I am convinced that TFL will become an unforgettable experience and whish all the participants a safe trip.
We all know the credo : Is qui est, est. Is qui non est consectatur.
Name: Ben Rockett
Age: 24
Nationality: British
Height: 185cm
Weight: 84kg
Bike: Giant TCR
My Cycling secret: I didn't pass my cycling proficiency test.
"Lots of miles, lots of climbing and lots of fun" was how Paul Zonderland advertised the tour to me. The 'miles' and the 'fun' sounded perfect, but as for the 'climbing', I was a little unsure. I hadn't been on the bike for several months and the last hills I'd ridden up were gentle by comparison to the Alps. It was time to dust off the bike and get back out on the road.
My training has since been building and building and I am overly excited for the iconic routes that we will soon be facing. I am perhaps most nervous about the navigation; only last week on my final 'long' ride before the tour I found myself cycling on the M3 motorway after following, what I thought, were the right directions. Lots of help may be required!
As a rider more at home with longer distances, I am very much looking forward to eight days on the road. I will be riding with this in mind: "What goes up, must go down!" and "where's the sudocrem?"
My first bike costed around 200 Dutch guilders, it was a white Gazelle and about 70 centimetres high. Proudly bought with my own pocket money.
I probably should have been around 8 years old when I got familiar with ‘hanging in the wheel’, since my father (and oldest brother of Paul) always liked to ‘stomp on the pedals’. Especially with a lot of headwind (FYI, maybe that explains why Paul is swearing by the effectiveness of finishing someone else’s plate prior one’s own ;) ).
As a teenager I somehow did not find the bike that interesting anymore, besides some holiday rides in the mountains where I was finally able to show him my ass. That changed in the summer of 2005. Together with friends of mine I rediscovered the love for cycling. Since then, you could find us every summer in the mountains for at least one week, riding more than one organised tour, visiting Le Grande Boucle, falling in sleep on the couch with Maarten Ducrot and Herbert Dijkstra on the tele and walking around bike shops as if you are a little child in a candy shop... but for some reason too little this summer… so far...
Initially I refused Paul’s offer somewhere around April, but could not stand the urge to go to mountains anymore. I simply had to go! So, three weeks before the start of the Tour for Life I decided to go for it.
Though with a slight doubt in my mind whether I am trained enough, I am really looking forward to experience La France from the bike with these guys. Oh, and to start off the conversation: shaved legs are for girlies!
Support
Marco drives the mini-bus that follows the riders along the tour. He will provide assistance in cases of breakdowns, whether mechanical, physical, or mental.
Rolf drives the camper to each location where the tour stops to stay the night. Tents will be setup and drinks will be ready when the riders arrive after a long day.
I will be sitting in the passenger seat of the support camper most of the time. When required I can do motivational speeches. In case of riders not being able to control their emotions anymore at the end of a tough day, I can lend a very comforting shoulder and give them a really fluffy hug...
