Milram Rider Diary: Stage 13

In conjunction with Team Milram, Garmin, and MotionBased, we're going to bring you a very exclusive insight into the life of a team rider during the 2007 Tour de France.

As one of their training aids the Milram riders bikes are set up with the Garmin Edge 305, the latest easy to install, high-sensitivity GPS receiver which tracks your position and elevation. With the additional features of a heart rate monitor and complete cycle computer with cadence.

Everyday the rider will upload the data via Motionbased.com, and you'll be able to analyse all the information sent for that particular stage. Alongside a race diary of his thoughts for each stage from start to finish.

Stage 13

Here's Marcel Sieberg's account of stage 11:

"My start was quite early today, so I had to get up at quarter to eight already. Not so good, because later I had the whole day off. I started at 11:30 a.m. after I had done some warm-up. After the first one, two kilometers it started to rain, which was quite dangerous. I took the turns calmly, after my back wheel nearly slipped away in the first one. I thought it's better to be careful, not every minute counts."

"On the way back to the hotel I lost my way and it took me twice as long to get home. But I arrived... Then, we spent the whole afternoon in our room, which is only six square meters. It's so small that we had to rearrange everything to be able to open our suitcases. And at such a long tour you've quite a lot of baggage."

"Tomorrow, we're starting into the Pyrenees. I hope the first day will be ok. I've got to get over the first mountain, stay in the main field and then get a good group for the next two mountains. I just hope to get through the next three stages well. My thigh still hurts from the crash. I had a new masseur today, who said that the muscle is quite hurt from the crash and that I probably sat on the bike a little lopsided. Now I hope it won't hurt that much tomorrow. But if my legs are as they were in the last day it''ll be ok. Sure you feel the exhaustion in the mountains, but I want to get through the next three stages and then hopefully arrive in Paris."