Riding a Mountain Stage of the Tour de France Without Bothering to Really Train

Writer Martin Dugard rode Stage 15, which will take place in the Pyrenees next week, as part of the Tour-sponsored � L'Etape du Tour. More than eleven-and-a-half hours later, Dugard dragged his diaper-rashed butt and rubbery legs across the finish with a new level of awe for the Tour riders. He claims to have trained for the 122-mile journey, which featured five major ascents, with "a single 50-miler" as his long ride. This seems ill-advised, to be nice, and borderline disrespectful of the event, but the dude sure can write. "If someone had walked up and asked if I would liked an injection of EPO, I'd have told him to make it a double."