The Rando des Marmottes

So, as I wrote before, my dream has been to do the famous ‘Marmotte‘ ride. It’s reckoned to be the hardest of the major sportive rides in Europe. I feel that if I can do it, I really can ride – especially as the years pass. Last year’s failure to complete the long Maratona course disappointed me. I blamed the weather for last year, but I also thought that there might be a fitness issue.

The Marmotte is a tough course, with four iconic climbs, the Col du Glandon, the Col du Telegraphe, the Galibier and finishing on the Alpe d’Huez.

The famous Marmotte!

I was in an email correspondence with Peter Smith, who I trained with for the Ventoux Etape, and I mentioned to him, before Xmas, that I was thinking about the Marmotte as the ‘ultimate’. However, while I was surfing the web looking for more information, I spotted a page about the ‘Rando des Marmottes‘ – the full Marmotte course, but ridden over two days rather than one, with the full support of the main ride on the second day. There is also a ‘Mi-Marmotte’ that starts from Valloire and just does the second half.

The Rando looked like the perfect ‘test run’ to see if I could consider the full ride for later. So I booked up and started to plan.

Also at Christmas, I signed up for the Dragon ride in South Wales – an event that I had already done twice – and also for the Etape Hibernia – a closed road ride in August on the West coast of Ireland. It suited us to plan a holiday around that ride, as we have never been to Ireland for pleasure – and I had been there only for business. The Dragon is around 120 miles (200K) and 3,000m of climbing so would be a good training event and I aimed to peak in fitness for the Rando.

However, I knew that I had to get some help to get fitter and faster as I hadn’t much improved last year. Over the winter, I did start attending circuit training with Simon Kidd, a member of the cycling club, who is also a professional fitness instructor. I went a couple of times a week and found a significant improvement in my ‘core’ fitness and that, combined with the Pilates that I have been doing for nearly three years, have made me a better rider ‘out of the saddle’. Simon also ran some evening spinning classes with cycling films for entertainment that were good fun.

Simon had signed up with a company that supplied a VO2 Max analysis (that’s me with the mask on on my site!) and measurement system. Being a geek, I’ve always enjoyed the idea that there is a science to this fitness thing, so around March, I signed up for a test.

The result of the test was very interesting, especially in the light of my failure to complete the Maratona and my struggle up Mont Ventoux. It seemed that my body switches away from fat burning to carb only burning at quite a low intensity. This would mean that the carbs in my liver/muscles would be used up relatively rapidly, even though I am careful to carb load and keep my carb intake high on the ride.

That would mean that with plenty of climbing, my body would run out of carbs at around the 5-6 hour mark – just where I had ‘blown up’ on the Ventoux and the Maratona, so it was not clear to me that temperature was the only reason for my problems. It may simply be that I ‘bonked‘ (a cycling term meaning ‘hitting the wall’ and suddenly losing all your energy) on those rides, with the temperature just making things worse from a heart rate point of view.

Simon gave me a 12 week plan to try to improve my fat burning. There were three sessions per week and I augmented those with some additional rides – for example with club runs at a different intensity.

I followed the plan pretty strictly, although the extremely low intensities of the first few weeks were very difficult to achieve ‘on the road’ as the slightest uphill gradient meant that my heart rate went above the training zones. However, I persevered. I had found when I went to Garry Palmer, that his ‘go slower to go faster’ theory was effective, but it’s very hard to do as it is so ‘counter-intuitive’. Especially on a club run!

After around 8 weeks, I started to see the results and my riding got faster even though I wasn’t doing much high intensity work. I did manage close to two hours of ‘intervals’ going up and down Prior Road (which has convenient roundabouts at each end) on one day. Club rides were going well and I did quite a good ride in the Dragon, about 30 minutes or so faster than last time I did it in 2009. I was also strong at the end, having been very careful to not go too hard to stay mostly in the fat burning zones. I finished the Dragon strongly.

I also did a 100 mile ride with the club to Hungerford and back. I had hoped to do it in 6 hours, but it went a few minutes over. Still, I was basically happy with that, although I did slow badly towards the end as I had gone harder than on the Dragon. There were only around 5 beats per minute difference in my average heart rate, but that seems to have made a difference.

At the beginning of July, I had a second test with Simon. His instructions said to avoid eating and drinking for 12 hours before hand, and the test was for 8.00am on the Monday morning, a bank holiday. I had a few glasses of wine with Sunday dinner at around 6pm, but as a result, my test was completely out of line the next morning. So, on the Wednesday, Simon kindly ran the tests again. These showed that my fat burning level had not really changed, although I was producing significantly more power at the same heart rate. So, good news and bad news.

He also gave me a test on his new CompuTrainer of my pedalling style. This showed that I was not as flexible in the use of my right ankle and was stronger on my left leg – a surprise to me. He gave me some exercises to address this (although with all the other things I’ve been doing, they haven’t been used much! I will probably give them a good go later in the year).

Anyway, finally it was time to pack up the bike and head off to the event. I had messed up my hotel booking and couldn’t find a room in the town at the centre of the Rando, Valloire. The town is at the top of the Col du Telegraphe and at the bottom of the Galibier and a stay there would have been perfect, but I ended up at the Marintan in St Michel de Maurienne, at the bottom of the Telegraphe.

After looking at all the travel options, including driving, Eurostar and flying, the Easyjet/rental car combination seemed best. I flew to Geneva, thankfully uneventfully, then picked up the car to drive to St Michel on the Wednesday evening. The weather was horrible – very heavy rain and it was no fun driving in the dark on the autoroute.

I had signed up to the weather service at meteo.fr (a very good site) and had been watching the forecasts. They looked good so I was optimistic that the heavy rain wouldn’t last to the event. I don’t mind riding in the rain, but the descent from the Galibier is notoriously dangerous and I really didn’t fancy that in bad conditions.

On Thursday I assembled the bike, which had travelled safely, and drove over to Alpe D’Huez to register. That took around 30 seconds – after a two hour drive over the Croix de Fer and then another 90 minutes back over the Glandon. I had a moment of panic when I realised that I had not received confirmation that my booking for the bus from Valloire to the start and then back from Alpe D’Huez had been received. I called the tourist office, who confirmed it. (I had written several times to the organisers about this and other matters – but only ever got one response. That took two weeks and was wrong anyway. The event organisation was pretty good ‘on the road and on the day’, but the website and communication are dire. For example, when booking, radar buttons are used for options, rather than check boxes – so you can only choose one option! Grrr….)

Anyway, it was back to the hotel to edit the newsletter and for an early night. I was happy to get all the editing done.

There was no restaurant at the hotel, but a short walk into town got me to another resto in a small hotel that was fine. I didn’t sleep well – the hotel was a bit noisy as it is close to the main railway line and a road. With the windows shut and reasonable peace, it was too hot, with the windows open, too noisy. I rarely miss aircon, but here I did!

Day 1

The start was from 8-10 and so the bus from Valloire was due to leave at 7.00. As the cols can be slow to ascend, even in a car, I wanted to leave plenty of time, so planned to leave my hotel at around 6.00. Which meant a 5.20 alarm – too early for breakfast. When I did the Etapes, I took my own breakfast for these early starts – you can’t beat a bowl of porridge with raisins and brown sugar to line the stomach for  a long ride , IMHO! Sadly, I had forgotten to pack breakfast this time, so the evening before I raided a local supermarket for some muesli. I had forgotten, however, to organise a bowl or cutlery, so had to eat it dry from the box – not ideal!

(I couldn’t resist buying some fruit from the Carrefour – it looked good and I had forgotten how good fresh local fruit can be in France – the nectarines were sublime – a world away from the imported fruit at our supermarket in the UK)

So, I ended up getting to Valloire at around 6.30am. I wasn’t sure where to go to find the ‘Navette’ for the start. I saw a couple of guys on bikes so asked them. They were waiting for the Navette – it seemed there were only three of us, although one of the guys – a retired Breton now living near Tours – told us that in 2010 he was the only one! The third guy was also French and from Briancon.

Around 6.55, a white van from the local council arrived and after greetings, the boss told us that he would go and find something to load us into and take us to the start. He drove off and was back around 10 minutes later in a minibus. We loaded the bikes and set off over the Galibier to Bourg d’Oisans. On the way we saw four marmottes – a real treat for us foreigners to this part of the world!

Marmottes!

Arriving at Bourg, I went to the loo and while I was there, the others set off. I followed on. You can see my GPS track here.

After around 10Ks of completely flat, we hit the start of the Col du Glandon. The weather was cold, but bright and pretty well perfect for cycling. The Glandon is a tough climb. At times it got up to 13% or so and seemed to be significant parts at 10% or more. There’s a point where it dips down to pass over a river, and this seems like a good idea on the way down, but it’s tough to come up the other side. As I got towards that point, I spotted a guy that I was, very slowly, gaining on. Over the next five or six kilometres, I gradually reeled him in.

Bram was from the Netherlands and we ‘buddied up’ for the rest of the ride. He was bigger and heavier than me and was more powerful on the flat, or close to flat, but on the Glandon and on day 2, I had the edge on the uphills.

At the top of the Glandon there was a food and drink stop and then a nice, but ‘technical’ descent down to the valley. I took the lead for most of it, but Bram went past me towards the bottom. I had mistakenly told him that I had gradually caught him up – that seemed to get his competitive spirit going!

The next phase was along the valley towards St Michel de Maurienne. This was a gentle rise although it looked flat on the chart. Bram was going better than me and I dropped behind a bit – which was a shame as sitting on his wheel would have broken the headwind!

The temperature was rising, and I was now overdressed as we only had to go up the Telegraphe and there were no more descents that day. My hotel was very close to the turn to the Telegraphe, so we made a short detour to leave my gilet, arm warmers and jacket. I should have left the leg warmers, but the brain wasn’t working.

So we set off up the Telegraphe. It is only 15K or so, so I didn’t think it would be too hard, but it was hot – up to around 31° C (87°F) . Bram was really suffering and decided to stop. I don’t normally stop, but it seemed like a good idea. He recovered a bit quicker than me, so we set off, but then stopped again as his daughter and her friend arrived in a car with drinks. After introductions we set off again, but I was struggling and couldn’t even stay with Bram.

I’m not sure if it was the weather, or if I was simply running out of carbs, but I really struggled to the top.

After a five minute rest (well, collapse might have been a more accurate phrase), it was downhill to the official finish at Valloire. I was very sleepy at the end of the ride and had trouble keeping awake – even going down the hill in the car.

(In trying to understand this I found this article on the web from training guru Joe Friel. He describes ‘Tryptophan build-up’ as a particular type of fatigue and the symptoms precisely matched mine, so I plan to do some more research into this.)

My riding time was just over 6 hours, with around 50 minutes of stops. Total climbing was 8,600′ – around 2,600m and at an average of around 10mph. The speed was OK, but at the end I was cooked. Had I been planning to go up the Galibier and Alpe D’Huez, I fear I would have failed at Valloire or a little way up the Galibier.
That was depressing as it showed how much more I have to do to complete the full one day ride.

After getting back to the hotel, I sat on the bed to check my email and call Yvette to tell her how I got on. An hour later, I woke up and called her!

After that it was a shower and then a really nice Italian meal at a resto in Modane and an early night.

Day 2

Day 2 started brightly and as I only had to get to Valloire, I carb-loaded in the hotel restaurant on muesli, bread, croissants etc., then off to the start where I had arranged to meet Bram. He was looking grim and was clearly not looking forward to the day. Last year, he did the mi-Marmotte, the second half only, but the first half seemed to be harder than he expected so he wasn’t looking forward to the day.

Straight out of Valloire, we started to climb the famous slopes of the Galibier.

During the first few Ks, my legs felt a bit stiff. I have been having some trouble with my left knee, but a big dose of ibuprofen on the previous evening, plus applications of Volterol seemed to have stopped that getting worse.

Bram was struggling, so I said I’d meet him at the top and I pressed on. I really enjoyed the ride up the Galibier – the conditions were perfect, I felt good and the views are spectacular. Not far from the top there was still some snow in recesses in the rock – even in July. It’s high!

Just down from the top was a memorial to Marco Pantani, the famous drug addict (oh and he could climb on a bike a bit!)

I got up there in around 1 hour 55, which I was pleased with. There was a quick stop to chat to the Breton from the day before and some spanish guys that I kept seeing until the end as well as topping up the carbs – the food was good.

The view from the top is magnificent!

Just as I was leaving, Bram arrived, but he looked grim and I didn’t want to cool down any more, so I set off for the 40km descent. It was fantastic, with the only downsides being the crossing of a town where there was some traffic and the tunnels which are very dark and for which you really need to take off your glasses.

The altitude didn’t seem to cause me a lot of problems – I did think that I was breathing more heavily than normal for the same heart rate.

After around 80 minutes of descent (!), I got to Bourg d’Oisans. As we were early, the drink stop wasn’t well marked and I missed it. When I crossed the control at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, I asked the girl ‘Ou est l’eau?’, but I guess she misunderstood.
I realised that the real climb was about to start, so I had to turn back. In doing so, I clipped a guy coming past and although he was OK, I lost my balance and went down. Fortunately, I was going slowly, but it tore a hole in my leg warmers!

I went for a drink and some food – the Breton guy had a full tray of food! Then it was back to the Alpe.

Alpe d’Huez has become an iconic climb. One of the features that has made it such a favourite, I think, is that there isn’t a flat bit until the very end. Once you start going up, only the hairpins give some respite.

The first part of the climb is quite hard at 10% or greater, but it’s not easy at any point. It was hot, but I kept my heart rate reasonably under control at around the upper 130s – low 140s until around 5K from the top. By this time, the fast riders from the main ride were flying past – their speed was amazing! (The winner did the whole course in around 5 hours 30 – less than I took for just the first half!). It was almost as hot as the Telegraphe on the previous day, but the heat didn’t seem to get to me as badly.

I kept going well up the Alpe and at 5Ks from the end I decided to ‘bury it’ and went up to around my LT at the low 150s of heart rate. I felt good and went over the top feeling strong, grabbing the wheel of a couple of fast guys to speed into the finish – although I felt something of a fraud as they had done the whole thing, I think!

Then it was time to return the timing chip and grab some food. I had forgotten my food voucher, but the guy on the counter took pity on me and gave me lunch anyway. I was joined at the table by a young Brit who was complaining that on the fast ride there was little friendship. He said that the fastest riders had support teams out to feed drinks etc and were not giving anything to anybody but their own teams. I made some friends, so perhaps he should try going slower!

M Breton arrived – surprised to see me already eating. I called Yvette and gave her the news of the finish.

Bram eventually arrived, looking grim – he hadn’t enjoyed the second day at all and trailed a long way behind me.

At the top of the climb of the Telegraphe on day 1, Bram asked me to remind him why we thought doing this kind of event was a pleasure. My only thought at the time was the trite ‘because it’s lovely when it stops!’. By the end of day two, when I really felt good and the sun was shining and there were shouts of ‘Courage!’, ‘Bravo!’ and ‘Allez!’ from the crowds of supporters on the way up Alpe D’Huez, it was easy to remember why such a ride is such a pleasure.

Then it was time to go back down the mountain to get the bus back to Valloire. That was pretty scary as there were so many cyclists coming up that cars coming up were pulling right out into the down lane to get past!

I had been told to be there for 3.30 – but the bus didn’t leave until 4.45.

The drive back over the Galibier took two hours – (only 2 hrs 45 by bike!) and was very hairy – the bus, with a bike trailer, could only just go around the hairpins and at times, the front seemed to be hanging out over long drops!

We saw more marmottes – including one that ran over the pasture by the coach to shouts of ‘Allez, allez!’ (the shout of encouragement traditionally given to cyclists in France).

Then it was back to the hotel and a welcome dinner and ‘une petite verrre’.

There are some photos here and here  (Bram is the big guy in the Discovery Channel top!)

Sunday

Sunday was time to pack up the bike – although with a bit better planning, I could have managed another ascent of the Telegraphe!

The only bit of grumpiness I had on the whole weekend was in the last few hours. I had to take the rental car back to Geneva airport, the ‘French side’. Unfortunately, I forgot to re-programme the GPS as I neared the border to take me off the motorway. At the border, I was pulled to one side. ‘You’re on a Swiss motorway, without a permit. You have to buy one. €50, please. Credit card is fine. Kerching!’. The fact that it was a rental car and I was only about 10Ks from the airport cut no ice. I had to pay. What a welcome from the Swiss! In retrospect, I might have been able to say I would go back to France – I noticed a return crossing over the central reservation just after the checkpoint, but at €50 per throw to the swiss exchequer, I guess the staff have little incentive to tell you this option.

(The charge was doubly frustrating as I had to return the rental car to the French side of the airport which meant crossing the border back into France, after driving under the main runway!)
Be warned – if you plan to return a rental car to the French side of Geneva airport – tell the GPS not to use the autoroute for the last 20 Ks!

The Future

Well, I have to do it again. There are two options, but I think clarity is coming as I get further away from the event. One option would be to set a two year plan and do the Rando again next year, but try to do it faster, followed by the full thing in 2013.  However, I would only have to get to the end of the Telgraphe feeling good and then I would feel I could go on to the full event next year (2013). There would still be a big unknown area in climbs three and four.

So the only real way to know if I can do it is to try. For that reason, I think that in 2012, I’ll have a go at the full thing. I know I have to sort out the ‘fat burning’ and the Tryptophan, which will mean extra training, with some hillier training events. It might still take me two attempts to do the full thing, but doing the Rando again next year wouldn’t really teach me a lot. Better to save the Rando for the years after I do the whole thing!