The previous day’s travelling clearly took its toll and resulted in a very lazy first morning in France. I needed a shower to wake me up, but I needn’t have bothered because 5mins later I was outside in the rain! Not cool. Said stroll was solely motivated by the calls from my belly for the bread and croissants I was going to collect from our very friendly neighbor who I took to calling Peter; he spoke so many languages I can’t guess how his name is really spelt or pronounced.
The next job of the day was to buy even more food and pick up Hattie. Both were accomplished without Tom H driving us off the side of a mountain and Hattie even brought us a booklet with 30 routes in the region, which meant we could cross off visiting le office du tourisme and head straight back for lunch.
Hattie proved to be invaluable as a guide/adviser for everything in the area. I was easily convinced to ease us into the week with a “warm-up” mountain ride up the lesser known Col d’Orson at 5-6% average gradient, maxing out at 1500m. But some of the others had different ideas, so after a democratic vote… lol jks this is the swinging dick parade. The biggest ego wins these fights… we set off to ride up the world famous, Alpe d’Huez. 12km+ at 8% average gradient, hardly your Stage 1 UOBCC Tour de France route.
The ride started swimmingly, with Henry puncturing on the rollout… literally. It was downhill from the chalet for 2km and his front tyre blew out within 1km before he’d even had to pedal. It blew again as we entered Bourg d’Oisan (no climbing done yet), and on closer inspection it was discovered both his tyres were f##ked. The back one had inner tube sticking through the sidewall, and the front was shredded along one side.
I now feel very left out in the tyre department as the red Michelin Pro 3s are the newly adopted club tyre. They do look mighty fine. The new Giro Tyres I won in May have yet to make an appearance on my bike. They’re just so… pink!
Hattie, Georgie and an ill Sam, took this mechanical respite as an opportunity to get a 10-minute headstart on the climb. When the rest of us set off we immediately had a rather sketchy moment at the first roundabout where Mat (on the left) tried to turn right, and I (on the right) tried to turn left… No harm done, but very close to a disaster crash before we’d started our first Col. (To clarify, I was turning the right way). Fingers crossed we’ve got all the major mechanicals out of the way for the trip.
The next job of the day was to buy even more food and pick up Hattie. Both were accomplished without Tom H driving us off the side of a mountain and Hattie even brought us a booklet with 30 routes in the region, which meant we could cross off visiting le office du tourisme and head straight back for lunch.
Hattie proved to be invaluable as a guide/adviser for everything in the area. I was easily convinced to ease us into the week with a “warm-up” mountain ride up the lesser known Col d’Orson at 5-6% average gradient, maxing out at 1500m. But some of the others had different ideas, so after a democratic vote… lol jks this is the swinging dick parade. The biggest ego wins these fights… we set off to ride up the world famous, Alpe d’Huez. 12km+ at 8% average gradient, hardly your Stage 1 UOBCC Tour de France route.
The ride started swimmingly, with Henry puncturing on the rollout… literally. It was downhill from the chalet for 2km and his front tyre blew out within 1km before he’d even had to pedal. It blew again as we entered Bourg d’Oisan (no climbing done yet), and on closer inspection it was discovered both his tyres were f##ked. The back one had inner tube sticking through the sidewall, and the front was shredded along one side.
I now feel very left out in the tyre department as the red Michelin Pro 3s are the newly adopted club tyre. They do look mighty fine. The new Giro Tyres I won in May have yet to make an appearance on my bike. They’re just so… pink!
Hattie, Georgie and an ill Sam, took this mechanical respite as an opportunity to get a 10-minute headstart on the climb. When the rest of us set off we immediately had a rather sketchy moment at the first roundabout where Mat (on the left) tried to turn right, and I (on the right) tried to turn left… No harm done, but very close to a disaster crash before we’d started our first Col. (To clarify, I was turning the right way). Fingers crossed we’ve got all the major mechanicals out of the way for the trip.
Alpe d'Huez
My first alpine climb. After a quick look at the profile and Hattie's local knowledge I knew the first 2km (the first 4 hairpins) was going to be the steepest section; so inevitably Mat lead us into the first 500m far too fast and he quickly blew out. This resulted in Henry and myself dropping Mat and Tom H within the first kilometre and continuing on to the top together. I quickly settled into a very smooth rhythm in my smallest ratio of 34-28; two weeks previous to this, I would have been grinding it out with 34-22 which I am definitely not suited to. I'd heard that spinning a low gear was preferable for some people and I discovered I fit right into that category; high cadence really does suit me. I've never climbed so well before in my life! Henry was a bit jealous of my low gear ratio, and Sam said I was a 'softy' (or words to that effect).
Having a team mate really helped to keep an even pace up the climb. The gradient doesn't change much, and it was a gentle relief to share drafting duties with Henry; although there is very little benefit from drafting when travelling at 12kph (7.5mph), I really appreciated having someone to hide behind when small gusts of wind tried to mess up my rhythm and it's always easier to push harder when you're riding with someone else.
The wide flat hairpins provided small respite before the road returned to its punishing 8% gradient. On a day where the sun was just breaking through in the early afternoon, the temperature was ideal for climbing and the views were phenomenal.
3-4km from the summit Alpe d'Huez village comes into view 300-350m vertically above your current position on the road. It's at this point that I simply had to focus on the next 100m of road ahead of me and try not to stare too bleakly at my bike computer's elevation reading. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Henry and I certainly pushed hard as the climb opened up and there was no longer any trees to shelter from the blustery wind.
Rounding bend 21 with 500m still to go until the 'podium', Henry kicked. It was at this moment that I realised I really was on the edge, with no acceleration left, I had to watch him gain 10m, then 20 as he pulled out a 20 second advantage by the top of the climb. I crested in a little under 59mins, which was to be my best performance of the trip (1:01:27 for 2nd attempt on last day).
Having a team mate really helped to keep an even pace up the climb. The gradient doesn't change much, and it was a gentle relief to share drafting duties with Henry; although there is very little benefit from drafting when travelling at 12kph (7.5mph), I really appreciated having someone to hide behind when small gusts of wind tried to mess up my rhythm and it's always easier to push harder when you're riding with someone else.
The wide flat hairpins provided small respite before the road returned to its punishing 8% gradient. On a day where the sun was just breaking through in the early afternoon, the temperature was ideal for climbing and the views were phenomenal.
3-4km from the summit Alpe d'Huez village comes into view 300-350m vertically above your current position on the road. It's at this point that I simply had to focus on the next 100m of road ahead of me and try not to stare too bleakly at my bike computer's elevation reading. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Henry and I certainly pushed hard as the climb opened up and there was no longer any trees to shelter from the blustery wind.
Rounding bend 21 with 500m still to go until the 'podium', Henry kicked. It was at this moment that I realised I really was on the edge, with no acceleration left, I had to watch him gain 10m, then 20 as he pulled out a 20 second advantage by the top of the climb. I crested in a little under 59mins, which was to be my best performance of the trip (1:01:27 for 2nd attempt on last day).
I realised the road continued upwards further, so we added another 3km to our ride up the mountain to where there were an abundance of ski lifts. At 2000m we called it a day and rolled back down to find our team mates.
We had the descent via Villard-Reculas back to Vaujany all to ourselves, which was just as well considering the first 5km after turning off the Alpe road was rather narrow. On returning to the Chalet, after the 2km 10% climb which would become the bane of every ride of the trip, I trundled up the hill a further 3km to La Villette for no particular reason other than I guess to prove to myself that my legs could handle more climbing. A good sign for the following days.
Overall it was a tough, but rewarding day of riding, and I'm definitely looking forward to tackling some more Cols as the week continues.
We had the descent via Villard-Reculas back to Vaujany all to ourselves, which was just as well considering the first 5km after turning off the Alpe road was rather narrow. On returning to the Chalet, after the 2km 10% climb which would become the bane of every ride of the trip, I trundled up the hill a further 3km to La Villette for no particular reason other than I guess to prove to myself that my legs could handle more climbing. A good sign for the following days.
Overall it was a tough, but rewarding day of riding, and I'm definitely looking forward to tackling some more Cols as the week continues.
P.S. very late upload... There was supposed to be one of these for each day, however I just haven't got round to finishing any of them. Mallorca riding next week, followed by a stint in Surrey, all things going to plan. Fingers crossed weather holds out for both.