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July 2001 Diary

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July 1st - The Vaujany

The Vaujany event is part of the Grand Trophee sportifs, events that also include the Marmotte and La Galibier. I wanted to see how my legs would cope with 145km and 4,100m of climbing a week before the Marmotte.

There are two events being run on the day, the 108 kilometre tour taking riders over the Col de la Morte and then back to Vaujany via the Col d'Ornon. The longer 145km course took in four notable climbs, starting with the 1900 metre Col du Glandon, then the 1,600 metre Col du Mollard, before the final half of the 2067m Col de la Croix de Fer. The final 4.5km climb was to the ski resort of Vaujany, not so far but 460 metres of vertical climb so an average gradient of 10%.

The Depart was at 7:15 in the morning, which was a good thing as the afternoon temperature was set to peak over 30 degrees nearby in Grenoble. The first ten kilometres were on the relatively flat roads around Allemond before we circled back around to start the climb of the Col du Glandon. This was the third time I'd cycled up the climb this year, so I knew what to expect from the next 20 kilometres to the Col and I was straight into the 39-26 and spinning my legs at the bottom of the climb.

 

There are two sections of downhill when climbing to the Col du Glandon, the first after five kilometres just after the village of Le Rivier d'Allemont, and the second just after the Barrage du Grand Maison at 1,700 metres. This means that there is a little time for brief recuperation.

 

I stopped at the Col du Glandon to put on my race cape, which was a decision that I quickly regretted as I found myself at the back of my group and behind two tentative riders who were letting a gap open to the riders in front. The descent down to the valley is huge, 1,500 metres of vertical and around 20 kilometres of descending. There are numerous hairpins I spent the first few kilometres chasing to get back with my group after I'd passed the two slower riders. The Mont Blanc was hidden but I had a brief view of the Col de la Madeleine in the distance.

I sat in the group till the bottom of the Col du Mollard. The climb started just outside St-Jean-de-Maurienne in the village of Villagrondan. I stopped in the first two kilometres, firstly to stock up at the feed station and secondly because of the call of nature. I had lost contact with my group, but tagged on with the next one that came through.

The climb of the Mollard is incredibly hairpinned, winding it's way under the cover of trees, so covered in fact that there were no real views for much of the climb. It was 12 kilometres of around six percent gradient till we left the trees and climbed into farming countryside, riding past fields and through little hamlets. The Col could be seen in the distance with a backdrop of mountains shrouded in clouds, and only another five kilometres of climbing to the top. I had hoped to get impressive views of the 3000 metre peaks of the Aiguilles des Arves, but there was too much cloud and they were hidden.

Water was handed out at the top and I began the six kilometre descent to join the road to the Col de la Croix de Fer. The short descent from the Col du Mollard was actually the most treacherous of the day. It was steep, hairpinned and some seemingly random stretches of road had just been graveled. I took those hairpins very carefully as it would have been easy to cycle too fast and have the front wheel slip from under me. The gradient eased as we passed through the hamlet of les Rieux and then it steepened again to descend to start the third climb of the day.

The route started climbing the Croix de Fer at the Pont de Belleville at 1,200 metres in altitude, and I enjoyed a tailwind pushing me towards the ski resort of St-Sorlin-d'Arves. There was a feedstation a few kilometres before the village, where I filled my bottle and ate some orange quarters.

The Col can be seen as you cycle into St-Sorlin-d'Arves, a village that is nestled at the end of a green valley, with the road to the Col de la Croix de Fer zig-zagging up the mountainside above. The riders by this point had splintered into lone cyclists and a few groups of two. I rode the climb alone and felt terrible on the first slopes out of the village as it was hot and I felt like I was cycling extremely slowly. Thankfully the rider in front of me seemed to be struggling in the same way which made me realise that it wasn't me but the gradient of the road.

The gradient did ease as we climbed above the village, and I began to find a rhythm and some confidence in how I was feeling. I knew it was another six kilometres to the top, then I would be able to recuperate on the long descent of the Croix de Fer and then I would only have another five kilometres of climbing to Vaujany. Riding event like the Vaujany is like riding a lone mountain time-trial, as there are not too many times that you can take advantage of riding in a group. Only at the start, and on the flat roads to St-Jean-de-Maurienne could I find shelter when riding with other riders.

The road gets narrower the higher you climb and thankfully been resurfaced since the last time I'd ridden the Col. I felt good spinning up the final few hairpins to the Col, most of the time sitting in the saddle and a few times, increasing the speed and riding out of the saddle. I could see St-Sorlin-d'Arves getting smaller in the valley below and the road winding up the mountainside with individual cyclists dotted on the road.

I grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the feedstation at the Col before starting a bumpy descent. The road surface is not the best for the first couple of kilometres and I kept in the middle of the road till I passed the turning for the Col du Glandon. There are two sections of climbing when descending the Croix de Fer, with a kilometre of climbing on each section. The first section is about five kilometres from the Col and not steep so no problem, even with tired legs. The second section, just before Le Rivier d'Allemont, ramps up to 12 percent to climb four hairpins. My legs burned here but I was feeling good enough to put some distance between myself and the four riders who I had been descending with.

I was aware of the temperature rising as I dropped down towards the final climb. In the last kilometre of descending of the Croix de Fer, I was stung by an insect. I don't know what it was, but I was descending at around 70 kph when I suddenly felt something hit my arm. I thought it was nothing more than an insect, who would now be stunned on the floor, but my arm started stinging and I looked down and saw the sting lodged in my arm. An impressive feat by one fast insect.

At only four and a half kilometres, the climb to Vaujany was not in the same league as the Alpe d'Huez, but there was 460 vertical metres between me and the finish. Like the Alpe, there are regular hairpins on the steep gradient and it's a wide road. It is possible to continue above the village to the 2000 metre Col du Sabot, and also according to my map, to another point at 1700 metres called the Cheminee d'Equilibre. The course today though finished in Vaujany so those climbs would have to wait till I returned with fresh legs.

I started the climb steadily and as I got to the first hairpin, I could see the four riders that I'd last seen on the Croix de Fer, about three hundred metres behind me. I was sweating and my legs were hurting, but I kept telling myself that the guys behind would be feeling exactly the same so I should keep going. There were signs every kilometre counting down the distance to the finish, and when the waterfall on the other side of the valley came into view, I knew that it was just over a kilometre to go.

Vaujany is a small village and the final three hundred metres took me into the centre and across the finish line. There were specators cheering in the last kilometre and that helped me raise my pace for the last five hundred metres. I finished in five hours and 43 minutes, which was 65th position. It was a great event on a lovely day and the perfect preparation for the Marmotte in a weeks time.

 

July 8th - The Marmotte for the second time

Watching the weather forecast the night before the Marmotte, storms and an unpredictable ten degree drop in temperature were set to move over the Alps for the Saturday. I was hoping that we wouldn't have 30 degrees but this was going to be the other extreme.

This year was the 20th edition of the Marmotte, and the predictions were for over 5,000 riders taking part. A course of 174km, with 5,000 metres of climbing that would take us over four famous climbs. First was the 2067m Col de la Croix de Fer, then the 1570m Col du Telegraphe followed by the Col du Galiber. The Galibier was the high point of the day at 2645m and then 50 kilometres of descending to begin the finishing climb to the 1850m ski resort of Alpe d'Huez.

Leaving Grenoble at 5:15am it was raining heavily although it didn't feel too cold. I arrived in Bourg d'Oisans and thankfully the rain had stopped, but there were no mountain views, just dark cloud that hugged the mountainsides around the town. It looked horribly black towards the Belledonne range so I quickly prepared my bike, changed and cycled out to the Depart just as the raindrops again started to splash down.

Riders with numbers up to two hundred are given a priority start, and as I had number 1520, I was able to start in the next group behind. I found a cycling friend Jean-Pierre, and we waited with the other riders under rain that was getting heavier and heavier. At around 8:20, we were off.

The first few kilometres to the bottom of the Col de la Croix de Fer were manic. There were riders everywhere and the rain was lashing down. After a couple of kilometres we approached a traffic island, and I pulled on the brakes and nothing happened. There was too much water on the road and my rims, and it gave me quite a scare. Hundreds of cyclists were cycling at 40kph and nobody would have been able to stop quickly.

As we passed through the village of Allemond, I noticed that all the street lights were still on. The cloud was so low and the rain was so heavy that the sensors in the lights obviously thought it was dark enough for them to still be on. As I crested the Barrage du Verney, the dam that sits above the village, I could see the front group in the Marmotte crossing the next bridge to my left. I already felt that I had started too fast and there was no way I was chasing anymore to get to the front. I had the Alpe d'Huez to think about.

The rain poured all the way up the Croix de Fer with small streams running across the road in places. I passed riders and riders passed me for the first half of the climb and by the time we reached the Barrage du Grand Maison at 1,700 metres, things had settled down. There were small groups on the road with three or four riders cycling together. The rain was torrential as I cycled above the Lac de Grand Maison, thunder was rumbling in the sky above, and the lake had the backdrop of new waterfalls and streams that were tumbling down the mountainsides. Each one swollen with the heavy rain that had fallen.

At the Col de la Croix de Fer, I took a newspaper from the man handing them out and then quickly grabbed some food and water. I checked my watch, which read around one hour fifty minutes to get to the Col which was about ten minutes faster than last year. The newspaper was excellent and a cool descent was marginally warmed up. The rain had thankfully stopped and I descended the first eight kilometres to St-Sorlin-des-Arves on my own and then caught a group which I stayed with till the valley roads after St-Jean-de-Maurienne.

I rode most of the 12 kilometres to St-Michel-de-Maurienne with one other cyclist. We took it in turns to try and catch the group ahead, but we didn't catch them so I started the Col du Telegraphe alone. I'd ridden three hours to this point.

 

The Col du Telegraphe is the easiest climb of the day, and it took me around an hour to climb. The previous year, I'd felt good on the climb and ridden it too fast and then run out of energy on the Col du Galibier. Today, I rolled up in the 39-26 and I was saving my energy for the 17 kilometres of climbing on the Galibier. It wasn't raining but dark clouds were everywhere, and there was no sign of the Telepgraphe building perched on the mountainside above the climb.

The route took us through the ski resort of Valloire, which was full of people, some cheering as we passed. Most were there for a motorbike event but they seem happy to shout at a passing cyclist. A couple of kilometres later, I arrived at the second feed stop. I grabbed a banana, energy bar and a sachet of energy gel, as well as filling my water bottle and quickly set off again.

 

The Plan Lachat was where I had started to run into trouble the year before. This year I was certainly feeling more in control and didn't need to stop. There are eight kilometres to the Col du Galibier from here, and this year, as the road took us around the top of the valley we turned back into a strong head wind.

The wind howled all the way to the top of the Col du Galibier making an already steep and hard climb even harder. I felt cold with only two layers on, and I stopped with three kilometres left to climb to put on my race cape. I used other riders to shelter behind on a number of occasions, and other riders did the same with me. There was a crowd at the refuge shouting encouragement to the cyclists and I knew from there it was only two kilometres to the summit.

 

At the Col du Galibier, there were no stunning views of mountains but still the same dark and menacing clouds hugging the mountains with the temperature reading eight degrees. I ate some orange pieces and other bits from the feed station before starting to descend. I'd clocked five hours 30 minutes here, over 30 minutes faster than the year before.

The eight kilometres of descending from the Col du Galibier to the Col du Lautaret were thankfully on dry roads, but it was so cold with a strong wind that buffeting me all over the road. I quickly lost all feeling in my feet and hands, and just after the memorial to Henry Degrange, I descended into a light hail. The hail was blown into my face and without glasses on, it hurt to cycle under and I squinted for a few kilometres. My thighs quickly turned scarlet and I was aware that my teeth were chattering. It was horrible cycling.

After the Col du Lautaret, I was riding on my own into the headwind towards Bourg d'Oisans. I was cold and praying for no more rain, but there was nobody listening because after La Grave, the sky turned black, the mountains disappeared and the rain again came down heavily. A year ago in the same event, it had taken me an hour to descend to the bottom of the Alpe d'Huez but this year with the strong head wind and the driving rain, I was 10 minutes slower.

It felt quite emotional to cycle through Bourg d'Oisans as there were big groups of people cheering at the side of the road. I was in a group of twelve that had formed just after the Barrage du Chambon and we immediately splintered on the first slopes of the Alpe. It reminded my of seeing the break in the Tour de France doing the same thing. I wasn't the fastest and I wasn't the slowest, but I just sat in the 39-26 and made my way to the first hairpin at my speed. The previous year I'd cracked with five kilometres to the finish, and had to stop numerous times, so this time I was determined to save something for the final few hairpins.

The climb to Alpe d'Huez is steepest at the bottom and after hairpin six I began to feel better on the less steep gradient and also enjoyed the few seconds of rest on each hairpin as the road flattened for a few metres. This was the eighth time I'd cycled the Alpe, so I knew where the steep bits were and once I'd made it past the twelve percent section after hairpin four, I could see the last three hairpins and knew I'd make the finish.

With a kilometre to go, I was riding with three other riders and the speed started increasing as we were all thinking of gaining a place. The rider next to me started sprinting and I found enough in my legs to come past him and be the fastest of the four of us over the lip of the last climb, and it was then two hundred metres of flat riding to the finish.

I finished with a time of seven hours and 51 minutes, 24 minutes faster than the year before under conditions that we quite horrible in places. That was a 22kph average for the 174 kilometres, and gave me 189th position. I'd ridden at my pace, and not tried to latch onto the wheels of faster riders and kept in control for the whole event. The first rider to finish rode a staggering six hours and 12 minutes, one hour and 39 minutes faster than me.

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