So, for this reason, I love ‘closed road’ cycling events like the Etape or the Maratona. There are only around three in the British Isles that I know of, the Etape Caledonia, the Etape Hibernia and a new one for 2011 in Wales, the Etape Cymru. (still time to enter on October 9th at the time of writing)

The Etape Caledonia, in the highlands of Scotland, is an attractive event and at one point, the ‘Ringwood cycling massive’ was talking about going up that event, but it would take quite a while and cost a lot. They have young families, so that wouldn’t be popular. Further, it’s quite early in the year for my training, in May.

However, the Hibernia is in August and that’s holiday time. It takes place on the West coast of Ireland. That sounded like a great place to have a holiday – we like quiet rural holidays, and I love Irish music, so we decided to have a couple of weeks with the ride in the middle. Getting an entry was easy and we booked a house at Ballyalla, near the start in Ennis.

The house was comfortable and only the lack of internet was anything to grumble about! Locally, there were loads of castles, lakes, parks and churches as well as the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. Just a short walk from the house was Ballyalla lake – beautiful for sunset walks. I liked this shot I got.

We had a quiet week with a few rides to keep the legs warm – we had a great day out from Carrigaholt on the River Shannon looking at dolphins – I was especially pleased with this shot.

Ennis is a pleasant place, although it took us a while to work out the best parking. There’s a large Irish music centre (with a good cafe and free wifi), although, sadly, there were no events while we were there. We did manage to find a couple of pubs to enjoy the ‘craic’ and my better half treated me to a bodhran as an early anniversary present.

Anyway, I registered for the event on the Saturday. On checking the map, we had realised that the route went right past the front of our house, so Yvette was going to be able to watch without having to get up too early. The event started at 6.45 – I was due to start just after 7.00 am, but as it was just a couple of miles from the house, I could ride there on my bike – no parking issues! However, for a ride like this, planned feeding is essential, which means eating breakfast a couple of hours or so before the start, so it was an early night and up very early.

Race Day

(Click the image to see my GPS track & ride details)

The ride was starting right in the middle of Ennis and was very busy with cyclists. Riding there worried me a little as it was quite dark and I hadn’t brought any lights with me! However, I met up with a groupetto and we rode together to the start – there might be a bit more safety in numbers! Almost the only people out at that time were riders, anyway.

Traffic cones had been put in all the drives and entrances to the roads. There was one in English and one in Irish on our drive, just in case!

The organisation at the start was pretty good, with riders being sent off in batches of about 50 every few minutes. Just before the start line were two ‘pens’, with riders filling one while the others went. That kept things moving, although as usual with cyclists, many ignored the number they had been given to go off in any batch.

The start organisation was much better than, for example, the Dragon Ride. I’m not sure if I had have been happy to be living in one of the flats around the start, but they made good use of the PA, again unlike the Dragon.

I set off within 5 minutes of my start time and it was a bit cold. I had extra clothes and was going to dispense with some of them when I went past the house. Change of plan – I kept most of them.

The first part of the ride was very good – I caught a few wheels and made good time as we headed North into the area known as the ‘Burren’, a bleak, but beautiful part of Ireland. The exposed rock is very distinctive and the area is preserved as a national park. (Just realised, although we spent plenty of time riding and walking around, I didn’t get any of my own photos of the area that show the distinct look – but I found one on Wikipedia).

The first stop was at the top of the first of the several small climbs on the route. As we headed down the hill from the food and drink, we got this great view of Galway Bay at Ballyvaghan (picture courtesy of Google Maps). A really nice descent.

From Ballyvaghan, we headed into the wind along the edge of Galway bay. The wind was definitely a head wind and peletons started to form properly. I worked hard to get onto the back of a couple of other cyclists and between us we caught a bigger group and around 20 of us worked our way around the coast to around 42 miles in, when we turned inland, leaving behind the view of the Aran islands that we had been enjoying.

At this point, as the road tipped up, the peletons broke up and I really didn’t get into another good one for the rest of the ride.

Around 55 miles in, we got back to the coast and I caught the wheels of a couple of fast riders as we headed into the surfing centre of Lehinch. The next stop was just after and as I had to attend to a call of nature and also call Yvette, I lost them, which was a shame. I needed to call Yvette as I had been expecting to finish in around 5 hours and 30 minutes, around 12.30, but I was well ahead at that time and thought I might get back by 12.00 ish.

Our youngest daughter, Alex, and her husband, Brian, were visiting for the weekend as Brian has an uncle who lives close to Ennis and they could have a weekend away for a cost of the Ryanair flight to Shannon. They were due to arrive on the Sunday and Yvette told me that they had arrived and could be at the finish in time.

From Lehinch, we headed south again along the coast and then turned sharply to the East (with a tail wind) for the return to Ennis. From the coast, the course headed uphill for a gentle five miles or so, but at least there was a tail wind! By the second half of the ride, things were getting more sociable and I had a good chat to a chap from Dublin as we tapped our way up the hill. Once I got to the top, I was going fairly well and really started to speed up. Just after the top of the hill I hit 44.4mph on the descent – a high speed for me. I raced a couple of guys including a guy from Dulwich Paragon.

The last ten miles into Ennis were great. The main road was well surfaced and it was pretty well all downhill or flat so I managed to average more than 20 mph – I really couldn’t understand those that I was passing who were clearly almost as strong as me who were ‘pottering in’ – maybe they had tried to hard early on! I tried hard to make sure that nobody passed me in the last ten miles, but one rider did go past. The welcome committee were there to meet me!

I’m told that I had a very broad grin when I finished around 12.15, with a time of 5:09 according to my GPS, but 5:15 officially as the GPS stops when the bike does. I was around 530th, which wasn’t bad out of around 1,200. I was 23rd in my age category out of 72 or so – so I was reasonably pleased with that. The fastest time was around 3 hrs 53.

It was great to see Yvette, Alex and Brian at the end. We got medals etc. and a couple of lads took the timing chip off the bike (although they managed to completely bodge putting the wheel back on, destroying one of the aligning springs!).

Conclusion

It was a great ride, although a little wet. The organisation was excellent and the road closures were great. Road surfaces were pretty good and very good in places. I hadn’t realised how used I had got to longer rides – the five hours seemed a bit short. Given the length of the ride, I’m not sure I’d go over again especially for the event, but combining the ride with a holiday worked very well. And in the second week of the holiday, I tried surfing which was great fun!

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!

I started about 8.30 and realised that the legs weren’t exactly fresh – we went walking in the mountains yesterday. However, as I was avoiding the first four climbs, that seemed fair!

The climb to Campolongo was straightforward (fourth time I’ve done it!) and the ride down to the base of the Giau was great. The weather was not too hot, and my, relatively new, Gore jacket was perfect at keeping the wind off.

At the base of the Giau, I had a drink and a sachet of carb gel. Then it was off. The ascent took me around 1 hour 20 – pretty well what I expected, although I had to stop once to fill up my water bottle (at the point I retired on Sunday) and once because the damned Garmin froze. I managed to reset it, but it lost all the position data up to that point.

The climb is a hard one, when you get to the parts that are just 9% or 10% it starts to feel like flat! Most of it is around the 15% mark,

Anyway, at the top, I called Yvette to give her the news and then set off for the Falzarego – a longish climb, but with a relatively gentle gradient for the most part. The killer was at the end – you get to the Falzerego, but there’s still another climb over the pass Valparola – not difficult in itself, but it’s always tough when you’ver prepared yourself mentally. There was also a horrible headwind. However, I chased another cyclist to the top (it turned out that she was a German-speaker, so the conversation was not long!

Anyway, then there was just the final long descent back to lunch at the apartment.

I really think I could have done it even after the long first half performance, but at least this time, I proved to myself that I could climb the Giau! (ps – the only climb in France or Italy I’ve done where a triple would really be a better choice than a compact chainring).

The Maratona is a very serious event for the area and for the country, with several hours of TV broadcast live from the event on RAI, the national broadcasting system.

The work carried on all week, although I did get a ride around the short course for training. It wasn’t too bad and I took just over 3.5 hours, which would put me on course for a reasonable finish time when I did the full course. The rest of the week was busy with work, but the view out of the window was great, of the dolomites! I did get a couple of short training sessions in.

Yvette was great, and very supportive of the ride. I had a good start number and wanted a reasonable position, so with a 6.30 start and ‘late arrivals’ going to the back, I went to the start at about 5.15 am. It was expected to be cold, but as the hotel was only a kilometre or two up the road from the start, she agreed to stand there and take my spare bottle and warm jacket. I was able to dress for standing around for an hour in the cold and was glad I did so!

Sunrise over the Maratona...

The start was very well organised and I guess I was a couple of hundred from the front of the second section (the first section of numbers up to 1000 was separated). Almost everyone around me was Italian, so there was little banter. The only person that I saw that I recognised on the event was Josey, a rider from San Francisco that I met and chatted to in the registration line! And I only saw the back of her (she had her name on her back!)

We got away without any drama, just a few minutes after 6.30. I found Yvette and got rid of my jacket. Then I realised that I had left my rain jacket in it so had to go back to get it. I wasn’t expecting rain, but the jacket is light and windproof. It worked brilliantly on the long descents at keeping me warm.

The first couple of climbs were very busy, with late starters that wanted good times dashing each side. I had, sadly, left my HRM chest strap at home, but had decided that I know what I can sustain, so didn’t bother trying to find another. In every other respect, the mechanics and bike were exemplary. I had changed the brake blocks and cleaned and polished it on the Friday so that it was looking good!

Anyway the first two climbs were great and straightforward. I felt good.

Sella Picture by

When I did the test ride, I found the climb to Sella quite tough and when I got back I saw that it had a relatively high gradient, so I decided to take it very easy and that worked well. Quite a few people passed me on the way up, but I went past a good number on the way back down. (I’m not a good descender, but about mid-range – although I chicken out at around 40mph!)

I went over the Gardena pass at 9.45, bang on time. I had been hoping to maintain 16km per hour – not fast on the flat, but this area is anything but! I knew if I maintained that speed I would get round in time.

There was a long descent into Corvara in Badia, the main centre for the race and I had arranged to meet Yvette there to change clothing items if needed, but, sadly, the path from the hotel to the village was not as direct as it had looked when we walked along it a couple of evenings before, so she wasn’t there. I rode slowly through the village to try to see her and, of course, didn’t realised I’d missed her until I got out at the other end – some way up the hill. I didn’t want to wait, so carried on with the second climb of the road out of Corvara. Again that went well.

I was well on track, at 3 hours 24 minutes, against 3 hours 34 when I had done it on Monday. I suspect that this was the faster descending because of the closed roads.

The next section was a long descent and relatively(!) flat road to Cernadoi, where the road split between the medium and the long course. (I’d already done the short course, which ended in Corvara).  The medium course had one more long, but not too steep climb (5.8% overall) and I was confident I could do that. I was surprised at the time that around 2/3 of those coming to the split when I did were taking the medium course. That should have told me something!

My legs were beginning to tire, but I decided that I hadn’t come all this way to ‘chicken out’ at the Passo de Giau. This is a tough climb, but by the time I got to the bottom, it was mid-day and the climb started in shade. The first section is a ‘leg warmer’ at around 15% and most of the climb is 11% – 12%, so it’s a tough one. But, I had an average speed of over 16kph, so was on target!

Sadly, the shade didn’t last and the temperature started to really rise. Just as last year on the Ventoux, I struggled to cope with slow speed, high gradients and high temperatures. The Garmin Edge 500 that I now have (and which seems to be dramatically more reliable than the 305 I used to have) tracks temperature. It shows that at the bottom of the climb (in the shade) it was just 30°C (86°F). I’m pretty sure that it actually got up to 37°C (98.6°F), but the recording peaks at ‘just’ 36°C (97°F).

Sadly, as with the Ventoux, I really couldn’t cope and only around a quarter of the way up, I had to get some shade to cool and get my heart rate down. The rest of the climb was a combination of walking, pedalling and cooling. About a third of the way up, the ‘rescue car’ asked if I wanted to give up, but I decided to press on. At around half way, the official ‘end of the race’ car went past, which meant the end of the closed road arrangement. I pressed on. However, after I got around 600m (2000′) up the climb, I realised that the unaccustomed walking was causing trouble (cycling shoes and steep hills are not an ideal combination!).

Passo de Giau

The fifth time that the rescue ‘taxi’ asked me, I decided that my legs were now going, so even if I got over the Giau, I wouldn’t get over the final climb, so I gave in and took the ride back to Corvara.

So, I completed the short course (twice) and came close to doing the same distance and climbing as the uphill parts of the medium course, so I could say ‘I did it’. But honestly, I feel as though I really didn’t do myself justice.

The plan for later this week is to try the second half of the course again, but at a time when the temperature will be nearer to the level that I’m used to in the ‘Surrey Hills’.  Of course, doing it in parts is not the same, but I’d like to understand better the effects of the heat. If I can’t do it without the heat – then that also tells me that I’ve found my limit. For now, at least. And that would put paid to my real dream plan of trying the ‘Marmotte‘.

The Maratona has only one really vicious climb, the Paso de Giau.

However there are plenty of other climbs that are shorter or not quite so vicious. I’m just hoping for good weather, the descents are said to be treacherous in the wet!

On the ‘Allergy advice’ I noted that ‘This product contains nuts’.

You don’t say!

However, a) that looks tough

and

b) I promised to spend some more time at home doing DIY

so the Marmotte is the target for 2011.

For 2010, I wanted to try a sportive ride in Italy, so after recommendations from Lew, an Australian on the Etape group, and from a cycling friend in Milan, I have set my heart on the Maratona dles Dolomites. This is 4000m+ of climbing (so more than the etape), but is a shorter ride, and Lew reckons it’s easier. It also has a great reputation for organisation.

Getting a place is difficult and so it looks as though I will have to buy a package through a tour company, but there are a few that are partners, so I hope to get one.

That means continuing to lose weight – another five or so pounds from my etape weight, at least, and some serious climbing practice. I’ve already booked for the ‘Legs of Steel‘ ride in September around the Surrey hills and I think those hills are going to get some serious attention from me this winter!

As well as seeing Gary Palmer again (see previous post), I also booked in with Cyclefit who made me some custom footbeds and measured me up for my bike.

My main settings were reasonable, but when they showed me a video of how I rode, I could see that the back and shoulder pains I was getting were a result of all the bend in my back coming in the top half of my back. My lower back was horribly inflexible and they wouldn’t even bother to try to fit me for a TT bike (it’s still a dream!) as they thought I would be too inefficient on the bike unless I was more flexible. They recommended Pilates classes, which I started in September at the local specialist studio.

The classes have been a real success, I feel as though I have significantly improved my core strength which means that getting out of the saddle is much easier and I feel as though that helps me deliver more power. Also, I don’t get back/shoulder pain until 6-8 hours into a ride now – compared to a couple of hours before the Pilates and Bikefit.

The route was announced in the Autumn. The length was not too bad (104 miles) and the finish was the only really major climb and was over the legendary Mont Ventoux – which suited me. It’s part of the thrill of the Etape to go over the legendary routes of the Tour de France. I had done Alpe d’Huez (although only as an isolated climb), the Tourmalet (the highest climb in the Pyrenees) and now the famous ‘Windy Mountain’. My real concern was the heat. As Ventoux is in the middle of Provence, it had the potential to be blisteringly hot (in 2007, the Etape suffered 40°C (104°F) temperatures, although the last time the Etape went up Ventoux in 2000, it was stopped near the top as it was just 1°C (34°F)!

I decided to book up with Cyclomundo again, as the organisation had been pretty good in 2008. There were some problems over the allocation of rooms in November and I had to take a ’1 star’ package instead of the ’3 star’ that I wanted (more later). At least they gave me a discount. I tried to work out the logistics of going on my own resources, but the fact that the ride starts and finishes are a long way apart make that a logistical nightmare. So 1 Star it was.

Since the summer I had put on weight and put on more over Christmas (as you do). I read a review of a book ‘The Paleo Diet for Athletes‘ by Joe Friel. As I was using his book about ‘Cycling Past Fifty‘, I thought it seemed reasonable to follow the diet.

I’m not completely convinced about the intellectual consistency of the arguments in the book (the book does not allow carbohydrates except close to exercise on the grounds that modern cereals and carbs like wheat and potato were not around during most of the time of human evolution, but ignores the fact that the fruit and vegetables that we eat now are just as developed as the cereals or even more so). However the diet is based on fresh fruit, vegetables and lean meat and fish. That seems a reasonably good diet anyway, so I thought I’d try it.

The diet has been a success and while still eating quite a lot, I have been very healthy since Christmas and have not had any colds or flu. (fx:touches wood!). I managed to get down to my target weight (around 65 lbs/25 Kg down on my weight three years ago and around 12% body fat) a couple of weeks before the event. I trained during the Winter using the ebook from RoadBikeRider and from the book ‘Successful Sportives‘ by Garry Palmer (the physio I had gone to). The final 12 weeks were in line with the Joe Friel book and the plan was basically a 4 week cycle (three work and one rest), with a ramp of intensity.

I was really pleased with the progress I made on the plan. It helped that because of changes at work I was doing less travelling, so was able to keep fairly well to the schedule. Over the last few weeks I really speeded up and completed the recent Tour of the Test at 16mph. I had a good Dragon ride, although the tough second climb up the Bwlch in the heat should have given me some clues to the effect of the high heat.

I improved my 10 mile TT personal best by over two minutes by June and by another minute in July alone. (I’m still last, but not by as much!). I’ve been trying to do more time trials this year to get more ‘high intensity’ riding in.

Final Preparation & Tyres

I did a final time trial on the Thursday night (the new PB, which was great for the confidence) and went home to pack up the bike. In doing so, I noticed a nick in the rear tyre. Getting a new one was difficult as the local Evans in Woking didn’t have one, so I decided to go with the old tyres. Although there is an Evans store (the main warehouse) close to Gatwick, it would have meant a change in travel plans.

I got to Montelimar for the start late on the Friday evening. The hotel was an Etap – basic functional one star – but with reasonable wifi and working airconditioning. On the Saturday morning, I put my bike together, then did around a 20 mile ride around Montelimar. I felt strong and was going pretty fast. Bizarrely, a teenager on a motor bike hit me as he rode past! Fortunately, I didn’t come off and wasn’t badly hurt, but it was a shock. So, I was  going very well, then I turned to come back and realised why I had felt so good – the tailwind became a headwind, but it was warm and got the legs working.

Riders checking the course details

I went to the Etape village and registered. I couldn’t see the Continental tyre I was looking for. On the way out on the ride, I had noticed a sign for a Decathlon (which was strange as the firm’s website said that the nearest one was 55km away!). Anyway, I went to the Decathlon and they had some Michelin Pro 3 tyres, which looked good, so I bought one.

I got some fruit from a local supermarket and went back to the hotel to change the back tyre with the nick, which all went well. I also decided to get some brake blocks and fitted those.

On the Sunday, I had planned on doing no riding at all after the mistake I made last year. I spent all day in my room getting ahead with stories for the newsletter and catching up on email. Around 5.15 I went down to check my tyre pressures and ride the bike just enough to make sure the brake blocks were OK. I couldn’t believe it when I looked down and saw a bulge of inner tube poking out of the sidewall of the tyre! It looked ready to pop at any moment, so I changed the tyre again for the one with the nick, which, fortunately, I had not thrown away. It was late, but I thought there was time to get another one.

Just as I got to Decathlon I remembered it was Sunday, so it was closed. So, it was back to the Etape village to see what I could find. As luck would have it, there was another Michelin Pro 3 (in fact a range of colours) so I got one and decided to replace the inner tube as the valve was a bit bent.

Back at the hotel, I frantically changed the tyre again (third change so far). The restaurant meal was early on the Sunday as we had a very early start the next morning. Sadly, the meal was very poor. A hamburger and plain overcooked pasta was not what I was looking for for the special ‘carbo loading’ dinner. On the previous year, I had overeaten, but this time I wouldn’t have even if the offer had been made (which it wasn’t).

I got to bed by around 9.30, having packed everything ready for the hotel transfer, but it was 10.30 or later before I got off to sleep.

Race Day

There were a number of groups at the hotel for the Etape and the breakfast area was small, so our group drew the short straw. Our allocated breakfast time was 4.15 to 4.45.

I was awake before the alarm went off at 4.00. I had made up some cold porridge with honey and raisins (my favourite pre-ride breakfast) and supplemented that with lots of coffee and the pain au chocolat (unusually a sliced loaf with bits of chocolate in – a first for me). Then it was time to set off for the start.

I couldn’t believe it, the new front tyre was flat again! I took it off and found a fault in the seam of the tyre – it was hard to believe it had ever been tested. My lack of faith in Michelin was endorsed. I decided it was patchable and put it back on (fourth tyre change). At this point my speed tyre lever – bought in Chicago last year – gave up and the end snapped off. Grrrrr…….

Anyway, we set off in a little peleton for the start. Apart from my pump falling off the bike (more haste, less speed) we got to the start OK by about 6.30. The official start was at 7.00, but as my number was in the 7000s, so I thought it would be about 7.25 before we started rolling. About 7.10 I moved my bike and the sound of the front wheel was wrong.

Sacre Bleu! Another bloody flat!

So I decided to ditch the new inner tube and use one of my two spares (fifth tyre change of the weekend). You can imagine how much fun that was, ‘against the clock’ and with 30 people stood around giving me marks for style and speed! Somebody carefully folded up the old one, but I dumped it – it had caused me enough stress. The stress meant that I probably was too violent with the pump, which fell apart, although it did go back together again. I noticed it’s leaking from the gas adaptor, so it’s time for a new one, I think.

I got the tyre back on and pumped up about three minutes before we set off. Phew…..

The Race of Two Halves

Soccer coaches and commentators often talk about soccer being ‘a game of two halves’. This Etape was a ride of two halves. So off we went. I was feeling good and made good time. After two or three miles, I found myself going at exactly the same speed as a group of French riders from a club, L’Ardechoise. I started to use them to pace me as they were being careful not to go too fast, but not too slowly either. I eventually hung onto their tails for around 60 miles. Merci, les gars!

The first climb was easy and steady although the first descent was perilous just because of the weight of bike traffic.

One of the joys of the Etape is that it is a ‘closed road’ event, so you don’t have to worry about cars, not even parked ones. What a joy! On the other hand, the start means 9000 riders in a continuous stream, all at different speeds. The first descent showed a lot of people trying to get past a lot of traffic by squeezing down the edges. There were two horrible looking accidents with medical staff as I went down and another guy sitting in the gutter holding his collar bone. (I later heard that an American colleague of one of our party was in intensive care with eight cracked ribs – ouch!) Still, I made good progress and about an hour and a half or so in, I passed Peter Smith from the Farnborough & Camberley Cycling Club, who was going OK, but at his own pace.

I thought that he was probably going too slow to make it to the end before the cut-off and so, sadly it proved. Les Ardechoises went past us, so I jumped on their tails and we were off again.

The first feed stop was a bit of a scrum, but I discovered that the best tactic was to go to the far end and come in as there was no queuing there. I made a discovery of gateau aux olives et jambon – a savoury cake with ham and olives that went down very well. I also grabbed a banana and some more energy drink – then off.

About three miles out of town, I passed Peter again. How did he do that? He had made just a brief stop for water and saved a few minutes. The main part of the ride passed wonderfully well. I was feeling strong, was well prepared, had no more tyre emergencies and was getting ahead of my schedule. I made one of the later climbs fifteen minutes ahead of my plan!

The climbs were longish and apart from mistaking the one before ND des Abeilles as being the last one before Ventoux and then realising that there was still a signifcant climb to do, it went brilliantly.

The climbs were brilliant

The descents were fantastic. I don’t think I went as fast as on the Dragon as the roads were not as straight, but it was great descending. I got over the last climb feeling good.

The final descent into Bedoin was awesome. Being able to use the whole road to smooth out the tight corners like the pros do, was fantastic (even though I was probably 30% slower than the pros!). Checking my GPS track, there was a section of 5 miles at an average of over 30mph.

The last food stop was at Bedoin, about 90 miles in, and I was feeling hungry, so got tempted into more gateaux as well as some other ‘bits and pieces’. That was a mistake as it turned out. However, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now it was just the climb up to the top. I knew it would be two hours of effort or so (I secretly harboured hopes of perhaps 1.45 – i.e. half the speed of the pros). The legs felt good and I can honestly say that from a pure riding and fitness point of view, the six hours up to Bedoin had been the best of my cycling life.

The Second Half

So off I went up the road – starting out 5 minutes before I had been due to arrive in the plan. There’s a couple of fairly flat kilometres out of town and I was with a couple of welshmen who had big dragon shirts. Much singing and shouting in Welsh!

I was going really well. Then we got to the start of the real climb.

Although the Mont Ventoux climb is rated at 7% or so overall, there are a couple of almost flat Ks out of Bedoin, so the reality is that most of the climb is at 10%. Or more. The first part is through a forest. Although there are patches of shade, at the time of day we went up, there isn’t anything approaching a continuous area of shade. However, the trees do block any wind, so the air is very still and very hot  – about 32°C (90°F). Within a couple of Ks (must check on the GPS track), I was really struggling.

My heart rate had shot up above my LT and I was feeling horrible – nothing specific – but I knew I was not good. I struggled against the temptation to stop – it’s too easy, but I knew I was in trouble. Bodies were littered either side of the rode – slumped in the shade of trees or on the odd patches that were not rock.

I told myself that although tempted on the second climb of the Bwlch during the Dragon, I had also wanted to stop, but had resisted it and had been pleased in the end. However, I was feeling worse and worse, so in the end I had to stop. I realised that things were ‘swimming’ a bit and I wasn’t a huge way from passing out, so I found some cool and had a drink. My heart rate dropped, but I felt horrible in a very undefined way.

It wasn’t the legs, I could have coped with pain there, but general ‘illness’. I realised that I was particularly aware of my pulse in my stomach and that was when I understood that I had made a horrible mistake by eating so much in Bedoin. Part of me was tempted to stick my fingers down my throat, but the sight of a guy just up the road unloading his food put me off.

People were walking their bikes – about 50% although this got up to 70% -80% later – so once I recovered a bit more, I tried that. My heart rate just pushing the bike was just short of my ‘long distance fast’ rate. As soon as I got back on the bike, it shot into the red zone. So for the next 8-10Ks, I alternated riding, walking and recovering. It was very slow.

As I got towards the Chalet Reynard water station, I realised that I was going so slowly that rather than finishing in style, as I had imagined at the bottom, I was going to get very close to the cut off time. The water station was the last listed cut off point.

After that point, even if I didn’t get an official time, I could say that I finished if I got over the top, so I was on a mission! It was all I could do to drag myself up to the stop. I noticed a lot of frantic activity, but as I had water and I wanted to avoid being stopped, I went straight through. (I later heard an unconfirmed report that they had run out of water at that point).

I made it through the checkpoint at 4.31. The cutoff time was 4.30. I didn’t stop until I was a few hundred yards from the exit of the cutoff area. Now there was just 6km to go to the top and it didn’t look quite as steep. But it was. The good thing was that we had now come out of the trees into the ‘lunar’ landscape of Mont Ventoux that is so famous. At least there was some breeze. I never thought I’d be so grateful for a headwind.

I struggled slowly on with a combination of walking, stopping and riding.

All through the forest and to the top, were camper vans and caravans (mainly, it seemed, French and Dutch, but this was not a statistical sample!). People were fantastic – giving out water and moral support. I got to one corner and asked for some water to pour over my head (this was helping a lot).

“You can’t use the best water”, they said. “You need to go to the back of the vans!”. They held my bike while I staggered to the back, where they had a tap of what seemed to be spring water. And the bottom half of a plastic bottle to use as a scoop. I poured three scoops over myself and it felt arctic, but wonderful. The heat and sun was such that 10 minutes later I was dry again.

On the way up, too, the medical staff on motorbikes and in ambulances stopped if you looked in trouble to see if everything was OK.

Some of the caravans had some shade. I stopped by one. “Do you want a seat?”, they asked. No, I said, “No, only the shade”. They, nevertheless, made me sit in the chair and one of them watched my heart rate meter going down. We decided that it was a ‘Magic’ chair. As we were chatting, my heart rate dropped. “It’s only 4K to the end”, the chap said. “I’ll give you a push!”. “All the way?”. I asked….

Anyway, with not even a pause at the memorial to Tommy Simpson, I crawled my way to the top. I went over the line at 5.42 – theoretically 12 minutes after the 5.30 final cut off, but I got a beep from my transponder, was given a medal and my time and certificate are on the official website. I’d made it.

I met a photographer from ‘The Times’ who took my picture and my email address and promised to send me the snap, but I haven’t seen it yet.

Coming Down

Coming down the mountain was fun. We had to go another route from the Etape route, and there was something like a 15km traffic jam of cars going down into the valley. So we had to go down the ‘wrong’ side of the road as the roads were not closed at that point. I only met a couple of ambulances and police cars coming the other way, fortunately!

At the end, there was chaos with traffic, so we had to sit and wait in the bar for the bus. But the bus took a very long time I was pretty restrained on the beer front, but others in our group were not They were celebrating some very fast times. Rob Lyne did 5.54 and Karl Johnston did 6.09.  Fantastic times! Rob said that he thought that the ride up the Ventoux was the hardest ride he’d ever done (and that from the man who got fifth place on the Dragon Ride). That made me fell a bit better about my suffering!

Eventually, we got to the hotel in Sault, and that was great, but dinner didn’t start until 10.45. However, it was great food and good company.

So, I did the Etape. It’s only taken three years…. and a huge amount of support and patience from Yvette and all those I have bored to tears over that period. Thanks all, but especially to Yvette. There’s no question she’s my ‘better half’.

The Plan.

I’m not planning to do the Etape again, but I do plan some long rides.

The Dragon may become an annual institution and next year I fancy one of the Italian Gran Fondos. I’m talking to cycling buddies in Italy about the choices.

The Etape is a fantastic event because of the closed roads, and the chance to scale the ‘mythical’ Tour de France mountains, but the fact that it moves every year and the end is not near the beginning mean that the logistics are always going to be a challenge. The Italian rides typically use the same course each year, and they are generally loop courses so logistics are much better and the organisation has time to be optimised. However, there is one ride in France that I’m aware of, the Marmotte. 5,000 m of climbing over all the classic Alpine cols. I probably couldn’t do it next year, but 2011???

Watch this space…..

Found this report which has some good pictures!

After the 2008 ride, we went off on holiday and I got some great riding in, in Northern Brittany. Sadly, I fell off on a 10 mile ‘sprint’ and got some very nasty road rash on my knee, elbow and shoulder – I was doing around 20 miles an hour when I hit some gravel on a corner

That didn’t stop me, however, so the next day I went out on the mountain bike. I had a problem with a stuck cleat and ended up landing on the bad knee again. Ouch! So, I decided to go back on the road bike. On the way down the stairs to the garage at the gite, I slipped on my cycling shoes and landed on my other elbow and back….

Anyway, after I recovered from these incidents, I went to see Gary Palmer in August. Sadly, when I was tested, it looked as though I had gone backwards from the previous test in the spring. I certainly felt faster and stronger (although it was a bad day, that day, with lots of work-related stresses, so I hadn’t slept at all well), but the numbers told a different story. I had also not lost much weight. He suggested I came back in the Autumn to get a plan for 2009. (In the end, because of the cost, I decided to base my plan on his new ‘Successful Sportives’ book, instead).

I enjoyed the riding up to the end of 2008, with a particular pleasure from taking part in the ‘Legs of Steel’ ride in the Dorking hills. Paul Gray came out with me and I managed to get round in just under 2hours 20 (my target time) for the short course. Paul kindly insisted on the short one The result put me third in my age class, which I was very pleased with.

Anyway, after a break from the bike in October, I got back in November and have been following a training plan as well as I can, given the travel constraints. I think.

I booked with Cyclomundo and that was that. I was committed.