Megan Gray’s own Tour de France in Singapore!

Megan Gray, a much esteemed MetaSport member and an avid IRONMAN participant, recently shared a brief account on her latest personal challenge, completing her own Tour de France in Singapore with some fellow Singapore members. No rewards offered other than the feeling of overcoming the grueling Stages each day, and the personal satisfaction of pushing your body to the limit, they managed to pull through! They completed 20 stages over 23 and covered a whopping 1,218kms in 41 hours. Amazing! Read about her experience below.

Megan Gray: “With pools still closed and no races on the horizon the opportunity to join a “Tour de France” cycling challenge was too good to refuse. Inspired by the Tour de France which usually takes place each July, myself along with a few Singapore compatriots swapped out the Pyrenees and the French Alps for the local Singapore terrain. Over 23 days we tackled 20 stages of cycling comprising individual time trials and a mixture of rolling hills and flats.

Although no yellow jersey was on offer, Stage 1 commencing on a Saturday was a tough start to the challenge with a 36km time trial on Tanah Merah Coast Road. Setting the tone for the challenge ahead Stage 2 comprised 150km of “rolling hills”. Thankfully Mondays were declared rest days as Tuesday stages featured big gear climbs (simulated on an indoor trainer) and Thursday stages were “full gas” virtual intervals led by our Australian based challenge instigators. Wednesdays and Fridays were declared “recovery rides”, perfect preparation for the high-volume weekends that followed often including 5 hours of circumnavigating Singapore or 10+ laps of hilly Sentosa. The pattern continued for just over 3 weeks ending with a penultimate 36km time trial the last Saturday and a final 100km lap of Singapore. Not quite the finish along the Champs-Élysées but the Singapore crew celebrated regardless with a well-earned breakfast.

As luck would have it in the first week of the challenge the pools re-opened so it was an additional juggle to re-introduce swimming to our training plan, as well as our regular running interspersed between the tour’s stages. Rest and recovery were key with many protein shakes consumed in between sessions and a mandatory 8 hours plus sleep a night.

Having trained for IRONMAN before I was well prepared for the ongoing physical demand of the challenge and found the different stages to be a welcome distraction. With hindsight, 23 days passed very quickly and the reward of improved cycling fitness coupled with a sense of achievement in an otherwise void arena of sporting events was very fulfilling!”