SportsShoes Blog

I did it - but not easily!!!

If I learnt one thing on Saturday it’s that I’m a far better runner than I am a cyclist.

5 weekend warriors who think a 2 hour mountain bike ride is a big day out turned up in Borg D’Oisans in the French Alps and lined up alongside 7000 other Marmottiers most of whom were seasoned vetrans of long distance cycling - and we got our butts well and truly kicked by the course and most of the opposition. That said we all got round and survived to tell the tale which, to be honest, I think is a real result when I consider how much training we didn’t do and just how hard the course actually is.

We were camping right at the foot of the famous Alpe D’Huez climb which was to be the last climb of the day in the race so on the Friday before the event we jumped on our bikes and set off up the hill for a quick recce. Even with fresh legs we quickly realised what we’d let ourselves in for and decided at turn 18 to only ride up to turn 10 (of 21) before heading back in to Borg and a cafe.

For the race itself we were thankfully blessed with fantastic weather meaning that even if we died on the course our parting shot of the world would be one of  Alpine mountains bathed in sunlight….

Off we went along with the other 6000+ starters at 7.30 am and managed to enjoy the first 10-15k or so as we cruised along the flat towards the first climb of the day - Glandon. Here I learned a lesson that will stick with me forever - NEVER underestimate a climb based purely on its gradient. Long climbs are simply not something we have here in the UK so most of our climbing tends to be short and steep. As such, when you’ve conquored a 25% lakeland climb one can easily fall into the trap of thinking that a 10-12% climb should be a piece of cake…..WRONG….. The difference is that the lakeland climb, whilst being stupidly steep, will be all over and done with in 10 mins as it probably stretches between 0.5 and 1 mile in length - in France the 10% climbs can go on for 20 miles - NON-STOP. You really do start to think ‘is this ever going to end???’

At the top of the Glandon we regrouped and fed and watered ourselves before chucking ourselves off the other side of the col. At the top and a little way down the hill there were marshals waiving orange flags and shouting things in French that I didn’t understand. After a few minutes it became clear what the fuss was about as there were a number of fairly serious crashes with bikes and bodies laid around in increasingly sorry looking states. Seeing this does tend to make you ride a little more cautiously but the descents are so long and steep that going slow is almost impossible - you really have to keep your wits about you and hold a rock steady line in the bends to avoid hitting or being hit by other riders.

After Glandon we picked our way through towns, villages and a main road to reach the foot of the the Telegraphe / Galibier. Here we saw a sign saying that col Galibier was 35km away (almost all up hill!!!).

I climbed the Telegraph slowly but steadily passing lots and being passed by only a few and at the top grabbed a qucik fill of the bottles before hurtling down to the foot of Galibier with 2 of my pals. Here was another food station and although we waited  quite a while for the others to catch up, I don’t think I took on enough calories.

The next climb up Galibier is the longest of the day and to make it even more fun it gets steeper as you near the top. It’s also one of those famous Alpine climbs that weaves in a series of switchbacks up the hill and from certain points down below you can almost see to the top. A quick look up to the right can seriously damage your mental well being if you’re not careful as you’ll see riders hundreds of vertical feet above you grinding away still with miles of climbing to go themselves. I found the best trick was simply not to look where I was going but just concentrate on where I was and where I’d been. Just like looking up can shatter your confidence, looking down on riders far below can also give you a mental boost. 

Eventually I reached the snow patched summit and met my two pals Pete and Rich - we donned our windproof jackets and set off on the 35km descent towards Borg and the dreaded Alpe D’Huez.

Despite feeling strong on the climb, instead of enjoying the descent I almost immediately began to feel dreadful with stomach cramps and I realised I was in for a tough time. When I reached the bottom of the descent I took off my jacket and had to go and find a loo. Although this brought a little releif, I felt physically weakened which was odd as this was by far the easiest part of the course and it should have been a blast.

I cruised along to the final feed station at the foot of the Alpe and took on some coca-cola and a gel. The 3 of us then set off to attack the Alpe.

As I started the climb I didn’t feel too bad and even thought about trying to climb it without resorting to my lowest gear which I’d managed not to use so far in the day. That thought was quickly dashed and by turn 18 I was spinning away in my 34-25 gear and wishing I had a lower one!!

I climbed on and up to turn 10 where we’d been the day before but this time with a hundred miles of hard climbing already in my legs it felt much steeper and longer than it had previously.

At turn 10 I hit the wall - not literally but physically and psychologically my wheels had come off. The temperature was 36 degrees and there’s very little shade on the climb. I battled on to turn 8 but here I had to give in and have a rest. The remainder of the climb was pure torture and the km markers that start at 10km from the finish seemed to pass by at an alarmingly slow pace.

I finally dragged my sorry soul across the line over 10 hours after starting out and could do nothing else but lay the bike down and drop to the ground for a well earned rest.

Once we’d all arrived we whizzed back down the Alpe to the campsite, had a quick shower and headed in to Borg for a few beers and believe it or not a Kebab. I know these aren’t good for you but as I’d burnt off 9438 calories during the day I think the couple of thousand that were in the Kebab just fell into a gaping void in my stomach.

Looking back on the weekend I think it was fantastic - we all achieved what we’d set out to achieve and conquored one of the toughest one day cycling events in the world. I personally realised just how fit and fast pro cyclists are and learned that whilst a fit person may be able to finish, to do the event in a decent time means many, many hours of bike specific training.

Would I do it again - course I would and next time I’m going to wheelie all the way up Alpe D’Huez whistling On Ilkey Moor Baht’at as I go……

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Andy Nicoll, Diaries & training blogs, Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.