No two ways about it, I was nervous about this one. I knew I could handle the distance since I have ticked off a number of 160km rides this year. What WAS scaring me was the elevation. It’s easy to say you can grind out a few extra k’s but if those few k's are 9 % plus gradient it’s a different story. The challenge of the Marmotte would be as much mental as a physical. To build my mental confidence before the big day I entered as many hilly UK events as I could. The UK based rides culminated with the Dave Lloyd Mega, a very hilly 160k / 3800m ride in North Wales (there was a 190k ride too but 190k is just silly). The Dave Lloyd was a big day alright but still an 'Alpe D'Huez' short of the distance and elevation of the big target. So my plan of attack for the day was pretty simple, I decided to treat the Alp as a separate part of the day. Assuming I could get to the foot of the Alp (based on rides successfully completed prior to the Marmotte) my plan was to ride conservatively on the Glandon and Telegraph / Galibier and treat the Alp as I found it on the day. I was not going to worry about the Alp until I got there on the day. The plan was working brilliantly right until we drove the Alp the day before the race! It was a lovely sunny, warm day and the views along the valley were stunning, driving through Bourg I was looking forward to the challenge. Then we rounded the left hand bend approaching the Alp and my day changed. It was like looking up a wall, my legs literally went cold and my stomach turned, how was I going to get up that with 160k in my legs??
The Calm Before the Storm
If you look carefully you can see a bike in there ………….
Deanne and I left London on Weds evening, headed to the tunnel and were on French soil by 10pm. I was excited to have Dee along for the trip in the first instance for her lovely company and from a more practical perspective she would be my 'team car' for the Marmotte. I had heard first hand stories about 20 minute delays at the water stops and eating was also going to be critical so a team car en route would be a great help in staying fueled up. For the driving part of the trip I was keen to get south of Paris during the evening to avoid traffic the following morning. We ended up in Evry just south of Paris in an Etap hotel. Etap hotels are always cheap and cheerful, though this one could not manage cheerful so despite our early am arrival headed out asap the next morning. We were on the road by 10am on Thursday morning and headed straight into a big traffic jam. A frustrating hour later the road ahead was clear, we were on our way to Annecy for our next stop.
We decided stop by Annecy since there is not a lot do see and do once on the Alp itself and the next closest town is 14k down the mountain. Spending a day in Annecy would add to what would otherwise be a 'cycling only' trip. The Marmotte was on Saturday and I could register up until 8pm on Friday so we planned to stay in Annecy on Thursday evening and would complete the journey to Bourg at our leisure on Friday. We arrived at our B&B on the Southern shore of the lake at about 5 o'clock and I went straight out for a ride on the bike path that provided much incident in 2007.
The Annecy - Albertville bike path, I think it would take me about 300 years to get tired of riding a path with views like that.
I'm happy to report that during this visit the rain stayed away and more importantly so did mechanical disasters. I did however bore Dee to death telling her 'this is the place where Nigel’s rear mech ate itself', 'this is the spot that Karel towed Nigel to the phone box'etc. The last time I was in Annecy I recall been frozen to the bone after a two hour ride in the rain, cursing myself for not having a waterproof cape (an experience exaggerated by Ham’s uber cape which at the time seemed it would even repel radiation). Annecy looks a lot different when the sun is shining and we had a great time looking round. I was on a mission to eat everything I could see and we spent the evening in the town enjoying the restaurants and ice cream stores. Funnily enough we were treated to a massive thunderstorm late on Thursday evening as we went to bed. Of course I took this as a bad omen that there would be snow in the Alps (shakes head) and started to think how cold the descents would be.
Lake AnnecyAs a side note the Thursday ride was an hour long ride with a 15 minute warm up / warm down and a middle section of 10 one minute flat out efforts with two minutes easy in between each effort. This method is proven to increase the one’s ability to absorb and store muscle glycogen by 90% (apparently) - follow this link for the science part.
http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/05/load-up/ Did it work?
The Big Day
The day started at 5am with some rice pudding and cereal bars, packed the bike in the car and then off down the Alpe to Bourg for the 7am start. Considering there were 7000 riders in the event the start was very calm and orderly. As I got ready next to the car there was a steady flow of small groups of riders coming past but no indication of the scene that would await me when I joined the back of the 400 - 2000 pen. Somehow or another I had managed to get a number of 1394 which meant I was away relatively early. I crossed the starting mat at 07.15.
Moments before the start.
Riders as far as the eye can see. Thankfully only those on the far right of this picture were in front of me. Those to the left (something like 3000 I believe) went off in the second wave of ridersThe start and the Glandon.
I took it pretty easy down the valley road to the Glandon. Considering the energy crackling around the start it was a calm start. I had expected lots of yelling, touching wheels and heavy braking, instead it was small groups and quiet, silky smooth roads. I was pretty cold off the line and keen to get on with things so jumped across a couple of small groups until I came across a group of 8 which was moving at just the right pace (40kph) for me. I found the biggest bloke in it and sat on his wheel all the way to the base of the first climb.
The first 10k or so felt like any other event I had entered this year, groups of three’s and fours well spaced out. The first indication that this was not really like those other rides was when I looked up the road as I approached the first two switchbacks that scale the side of the dam at the bottom of the Glandon. Literally as far as I could see there were riders creeping up the switchbacks. Actually riders and spectators, we were being cheered up the dam! The sheer scale of the scene made the riders ahead look like ants as they spun their way up the lacet’s beyond.
In pre ride plan I had the Glandon pegged as the easiest climb of the day. The gradient on the profile never gets that steep and the overall average was on the low side so I was quite surprised at how tough the climb is. On the day it did not cause me any issues but I know if I wanted to come back and better my time I would certainly have to attack the Glandon a lot harder. It’s pretty stiff between the 5 & 10k, not really tough but tough enough to make me conscious of my heart rate and decide to take it easy. The constantly changing gradient makes it hard to find a rhythm. Not wanting to go mental early I settled into a tempo just below my threshold HR and as the climb progressed I started to find a rhythm of sorts. Granted it’s a subjective way to measure progress but I felt I was climbing well based on my impression that I was overtaking three riders for every one that was overtaking me.
The team car …..I reached the summit of the Glandon two hours after rolling over the start mat. Dee and I planned that she would follow the race route from Bourg and meet me at the start of the Telegraph, the Galibier and Alpe D’Huez. I started the ride with pockets full of bars and gels and planned to stock up on food and bottles before each climb. If the weather changed during the day I would never be too far away from arm warmers, a cape, gloves, a 50mph tow up the 9% grade ahead ;-) etc. With the benefit of hindsight this was a hugely optimistic plan. Within the first 2 km of the Glandon I had my reservations that Dee would be able to make up any time on my riding pace on the climbs. 7000 cyclists combined with narrow Alpine roads meant that only motorbikes were able to move around with any sort of freedom. Only one car came past me in the two hours to the top of the Glandon and that was an ambulance complete with flashing lights and a very determined driver. Feeling concerned for Dee I stopped at the top of the Glandon grabbed a banana, filled my bottles and pushed on down the descent.
The descent passed by all too quickly and more importantly safely, I had one little moment on a right hander half way down that aside it was a straightforward affair. I did see one chap pulling himself out of the bank towards the top of the descent, no idea how he managed to overshoot on that particular bend but he had done somehow. Due to the sheer number of riders on the road the descent was effectively on closed roads and I was happy to find that my descending skills still seemed to be with me and managed to pass a lot of riders on the way down.
Down into the valley towards St Jean de Mauriene and it was time to find another group and stay in the wheels. At one stage at the bottom of the descent I was in a group that was splitting and reforming as fast riders approached from behind. I sat in on one of these groups for a few k and watched my pulse rise above my threshold, not wanting to burn any matches I let the group slide away and sat in with the others in the same boat. If I was to do the Marmotte again the valley would represent an opportunity to make up time since most people were doing exactly what I was doing, looking for a free ride to the Telegraph.
Dee and I had planned to meet at the water station in St Micheal de Maurienne before the start of the Telegraph, the scene on the Glandon had convinced me that I would beat Dee there by some margin. Once I got to the water stop I filled my bottles and gave her a call. Sure enough Dee was still quite a way behind me (I figured half an hour at that point) and more worrying to me she was quite upset. To start with her drive up the Glandon had been stressful with riders yelling and banging on the car as she squeezed her way past and adding to her worries she was concerned that if we did not meet I would be without food and water. It was decision time, do I focus on my time and push on, making it likely I would not see Dee until the finish, or should I wait for her to catch up with me?
Surprisingly for me I had a moment of clarity and perspective, I decided to wait. It sounds corny but at that point I was more worried about Dee that I was the ride. I know it must have been pretty hairy driving through all those riders and I also knew that Dee wanted to see me and make sure I had what I needed. I reasoned that we were doing the ride together and if we did not see one another it would not be much of a trip so I made note of the time, found some shade and assumed the sitting position on my top tube. 42 minutes later Dee found me in St Micheal de Maurienne and to a big cheer from a large group riding past at the time gave me a kiss hello . We hastily arranged to meet at the top of the Lautaret and with pockets full of food and gels I set off toward the Telegraph.
Telegraph / Galibier – 29k up!
I started the Telegraph purposefully but a little cold from my unscheduled stop. I had not ridden this climb before though had driven it in 2001, that experience was of no use to me as I could not recall a single thing about the climb aside from the board at the summit! Whether it was the rest in the valley, the relief of having met up with Dee or just a good day I had a lot of fun on the Telegraph. I was passing literally hundreds of riders and I was delighted to note that I was catching and passing a lot of the riders that had come past me whilst I was stationary down in the valley. In fact I noted a few times I was passing people for the second time that day having ridden past them on both the Glandon and the now the Telegraph. Before I knew it I was at the summit. 5k downhill, through Valloire and ahead lay 18k of uphill to the Galibier.
I was expecting the Galibier to be tough and it did not disappoint. It’s a reasonable climb for the first 10k then from Plan Lachat it’s relentless until the summit 8k later. It’s a bit of a mystery why the second is so tough since the gradients are 8’s & 8.5% with just one 9 at the end, maybe I underestimated the difficulty of consistent 8%’s but it was a real grind. Once again my effort was being rewarded with relatively good progress and I was still reeling in riders that had passed me in the valley. Around 5k from the summit I felt a few rain drops fall and looked up to see thick black clouds ahead and within five minutes thunder was rolling around the mountains and I thought I was moments away from getting heavily rained on. Having passed my cape up to Dee earlier I was just praying the rain would hold off until I could get to the bottom of the Galibier where I was scheduled to meet Dee again. Incidentally it was had been a stinking hot day until this point and at the back of my mind I was thinking it would actually be pretty refreshing to ride the Alpe in the rain, I just wanted to avoid the Galibier descent in the rain if I could!
I toughed it out to the top of the Galibier and got down the 9k descent to find Dee waiting for me at the right hand turn onto the Lautaret. She had been on quite the adventure since I last saw her. She had driven all the way into Italy and back into France through the Frejus tunnel so that she could avoid having to drive on the Marmotte route again. The first inkling she had that she was in Italy was when the guy at the toll both for the tunnel had addressed her in Italian. Ahead of me was 48k mostly downhill to Bourg so I stocked up with gels and headed off down the descent, next stop Alpe D’Huez
Ahhhh gotta love those descents ……….It was going to take at least an hour of reasonably hard riding to make the base of the Alpe and once again I wanted to find some fast moving wheels for the descent. The ride down the Lautaret is predominantly downhill but far from a coast all the way home, in fact there a few uphill drags along the way along with (from memory) 8 tunnels to keep things interesting, it was going to take a reasonable effort to get down quickly. Not wanting to push too hard I was caught by a few riders as the descent eased off and in fits and starts we worked together toward the Alpe. Dee set off after me and picked up a rider who stayed with her on the descent, he was following her three inches from her back bumper and yelling out to speed up and slow down. When the descent ended he gave a little wave and shouted thanks. Either Dee was seriously smooth or the guy was very confident as personally I’ve yet to find the confidence to draft a car worried that the motorist will unexpectedly dab the brakes leaving me scrambling for the brakes or worse sprawled on the tarmac.
Dark clouds on the Lautaret
Alpe D’Huez
I filled my water bottles again at the base of the Alpe and just as I set off I saw Dee round the corner, luckily she heard me yell out and pulled over. After a quick hello and some more gels I set off to nail the Alpe, there would be no more flat until after the finish.
Not sure which hairpin this is but judging from the smile it’s relatively early ……..
I was expecting the first half of the Alpe to be a massive suffer fest and while I cannot say it was easy I was definitely climbing faster than most and found myself catching and passing riders who had overtaken me on the flat section before the Alpe. I was having some issues managing the heat which was now really taking its toll. I had two full bottles in my cages but luke warm water is far from refreshing so it was great to be handed up some cups of ice cold water at a couple of water stations. The cold water was instantly emptied over my head (al la Floyd Landis) which was great, for about five seconds! The relief from the cool water was almost as quickly replaced by a newly heightened sense of suffocation as I desperately searched for where the next cooling cup would come from. Thankfully Dee was now able to track me in the team car and every two or three hairpins she would stop, yell some encouragement ‘YOU CAN DO IT’, YOU’RE DOING IT, YOU’RE DOING IT’ take some pictures and then hop back in the car to repeat the process. I imagine she was driving the guys around me nuts but it was great for me and before I knew it I was half way up the climb.
The view from hairpin 15
End in sight, hairpin 10
I was continuing to pick guys off and was delighted to catch and drop the only rider who had passed me since the climb began, I don’t think I sped up I think he slowed down. Either way it took me most of the climb but it felt good to peg him back. I hit something of a rough patch with about 4k to go, funnily enough on one of the shallower parts of the climb, I gobbled down an energy gel (not that it was likely to do me any good now) and as Dee passed me for the last time I knew I was going to finish.
2k to go (check out the salt stains on the guy on the left) – it was HOT.
That was pretty much it, I managed a little sprint to the line to catch the final few riders in front of me and then it was a matter of finding Dee and getting my time.
Marmotte – tick
So total time was 10.06.51, however I know that I spent 42 minutes of that stationary in St Micheal de Maurienne. Its tempting to think I may have been able to finish inside 9.30 on the day but I will never know. What I do know is that I climbed the Alpe relatively quickly and whilst tired at the end was not totally empty.
You can see my splits for the day here - just type in my number 1394.
http://www.la-marmotte.org/index.php
Working on the assumption that I started on a level pegging with all other riders I was in 1033 position for my age group at the summit of the Glandon and 3079 position overall. By Valloire (after my stop) I had dropped back to 4449 overall and 1401 in my category. By the finish I had managed to get back up to 3266 overall and 1101 in my category, so almost back to where I had been at the top of the Glandon. What pleased me most was the fact that I climbed Alpe D'Huez in 1.20.25 which was 1057 fastest of the day or 424 fastest in my category, does this mean I went too easy?
I guess I am going to have to go back next year and see just how fast I can do it now I know what to expect. Anyone interested in joining me?
