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Rapha Cent Cols Challenge - Alps 2012
Stage 1 - Annecy - Albertville
Stats: 155km, 21kph, 3,900m ascent, max alt. 1652m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212472437
Main cols: Forclaz (1200m), Epine (1000m), Plan Bois (1300m), Croix Fry (1400m), Arvais (1500m), Les Saisies (1600m)
A very tough first stage. Brutal sun all day. High 30s from about lunchtime. Tried to take it easy but it's not really possible in these mountains.
There are 14 riders on this trip, most with kit that would make Skelders jealous. A lot of the riders are better than me, but I used my "Audax skills" at pacing and eating and not wasting time at the feed stops to get home early (with one other). The spread was only 1hr20 though.
Sat towards the back up the first climb (Forclaz), mostly because my breathing was haywire and that's all I could manage! Pressed on up the Epine which was relatively OK before hitting the wall that is Plan Bois - 6km @ 10%+ with some 15% sections throw in. That isn't fun and 34-27 didn't cut it on this climb, I was doing 7kmh! After lunch it was the Croix Fry - OKish at 6-8% but there was no shade at all and it was unbearable. Aravis was a relatively easy one. Met a one-legged man (on a racing bike) climbing up there, it took me a fair while to catch him! Bravo Monsieur.
Superb long descent off the Aravis. I overtook a lot of cars. Always good for a laugh. Les Saisies is a 13km climb but has some 3% sections so not too bad. Another screamer descent off Saisies. More car scalps but I nearly lost it when a car was half on my side around a blind bend! Picked up a headwind coming into Albertville but did bit and bit with Gerard, a strong French rider and we made it back by 5pm. It must be 100 degrees here in AB, though. It's very bad.
Hopefully I can recover enough this evening as it's a big day tomorrow... 5000m climbing... Glandon/Croix de Fer, Mollard, Telegraphe, Galibier... hey that's nearly the Marmot!
(I'll post when I can, as long as I'm not completely shagged. That may apply tomorrow...)
Here's what I'm attempting to do if you don't know already:
http://centcolschallenge.com/routes/alps/
Shaun
Stats: 155km, 21kph, 3,900m ascent, max alt. 1652m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212472437
Main cols: Forclaz (1200m), Epine (1000m), Plan Bois (1300m), Croix Fry (1400m), Arvais (1500m), Les Saisies (1600m)
A very tough first stage. Brutal sun all day. High 30s from about lunchtime. Tried to take it easy but it's not really possible in these mountains.
There are 14 riders on this trip, most with kit that would make Skelders jealous. A lot of the riders are better than me, but I used my "Audax skills" at pacing and eating and not wasting time at the feed stops to get home early (with one other). The spread was only 1hr20 though.
Sat towards the back up the first climb (Forclaz), mostly because my breathing was haywire and that's all I could manage! Pressed on up the Epine which was relatively OK before hitting the wall that is Plan Bois - 6km @ 10%+ with some 15% sections throw in. That isn't fun and 34-27 didn't cut it on this climb, I was doing 7kmh! After lunch it was the Croix Fry - OKish at 6-8% but there was no shade at all and it was unbearable. Aravis was a relatively easy one. Met a one-legged man (on a racing bike) climbing up there, it took me a fair while to catch him! Bravo Monsieur.
Superb long descent off the Aravis. I overtook a lot of cars. Always good for a laugh. Les Saisies is a 13km climb but has some 3% sections so not too bad. Another screamer descent off Saisies. More car scalps but I nearly lost it when a car was half on my side around a blind bend! Picked up a headwind coming into Albertville but did bit and bit with Gerard, a strong French rider and we made it back by 5pm. It must be 100 degrees here in AB, though. It's very bad.
Hopefully I can recover enough this evening as it's a big day tomorrow... 5000m climbing... Glandon/Croix de Fer, Mollard, Telegraphe, Galibier... hey that's nearly the Marmot!
(I'll post when I can, as long as I'm not completely shagged. That may apply tomorrow...)
Here's what I'm attempting to do if you don't know already:
http://centcolschallenge.com/routes/alps/
Shaun
Comments
That puts the marrmotte to shame, well done just keep turning the pedals and focus on 1 turn at a time you know the routine.
all the best
strappy.
Stats: 200km (114km), 18kmh, 5060m (2900m) ascent, max alt. 2620m (2025m)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/213364987
Main cols: Glandon/Croix de Fer (2025m), Mollard (1600m), Telegraphe (1580m), Galibier (2610m)
Today's stage was the toughtest of them all, as we took on the Glandon/Croix de Fer, Mollard, Telegraph and Galibier. Unfortunately, I had a bad day and got sick after the Glandon and had to stop at the lunch feed, as I could hardly stand up, let alone continue riding. I think the heat got me...
I didn't have a particularly good Glandon (18km climb) and the last few kms, which are pretty steep, had me at near walking pace and stopping every km looking for shade. I also couldn't get my HR above 125bpm without blowing up! Something was a bit wrong. Climbing from the Glandon side, the Croix de Fer is a mere 2km blip before a cracking descent to the foot of the Mollard. The Mollard is easy from this side but I was at walking pace again and I knew then I was going to have to stop and pick up the SAG van. Sad to miss the Galibier but didn't want to end up in hospital!
Felt nauseous for the rest of the day and didn't eat much, so tomorrow might be fun, assuming I'm able to ride...
We set off at 7.30am, last people home after 9pm in the dark. Everybody looking completely shell-shocked at dinner!!!
Stats: 191km, 22kmh, 3390m ascent, max alt. 2340m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/213364870
Main cols: Izoard (2340m), Pontis (1280m), Charamel (1300m), Fillys (1280m), Garcinets (1165m)
I felt a bit better this morning and decided to HTFU and get back on my bike. It's still stupidly hot though, so another suffer-fest was guaranteed.
A slightly easier stage with only one big bad climb - although that was the 18km, 2300m Izoard straight out the door! I climbed the Izoard OK, still feeling a bit weak, but my HR will now reach 140bpm, so some improvement. Izoard descent should have been another screamer, but I was frustrated by cars. The Pontis was a vicious small climb, a bit like the Plan Bois on the first day and it's descent was the most technical I've ever done: so many very steep 180 deg hairpins, one after the other, on a bumpy surface, gravel, melted tarmac popping under the tyres. It was a real wrist breaker and nerve shredder.
In the afternoon the landscape changed as we left the high alps and headed towards southern France. It looks a lot drier here, a lot of scrub land and pine trees. Goes well with the very hot temperatures. We took in a few medium sized cols to pass the time.
I continued to recover during the ride, stuffing in the extra food I'd missed yesterday. I felt reasonably strong towards the end. Not 100% still, but getting some of it back. Hopefully, yesterday was just a random event. I think I'm back on track... although my legs hurt a lot for some reason.
Fluids, electrolytes and sleep required. We want you back in 1 piece (fully-functional and as superhuman as you were when you left us). Take care
Enjoy the Southern Alpes and Nice.
Stats: 185km, 20kmh, 4314m ascent, max alt. 2100m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/213748383
Main cols: Hyssope (1300m), Corobin (1200m), Champs (2100m), Valberg (1690m)
Another hard day on the Cent Cols Challenge: temperatures in the mid 30s...check, over 100 miles...check, over 4000m climbing...check, the serious climbing coming at the end of the day...check... and a mountain top finish...oh no.
We had a relatively easy start to the day, if you can call a 23km gentle ascent out the door easy. Nice views of the fortressed city of Sisteron on the early slopes. Even better was the following descent - nice sweeping corners, super smooth tarmac and steep. The Corobin was the name of the ubiquitous nasty middle climb of the day and again another fanastic descent. From then onwards things got hard, very hard. A 50km uphill drag in the heat, followed by the big climb of the day up the Col de Champs. I was pretty tired by the top but again, an unbelieveable 30km descent with some very fast stretches made it all worthwhile. A 3rd feed before the final shocker, a 13km 7% wall up to the Ski town of Valberg. A few of us had definitely had enough by this stage, so the climb was done very slowly but even then it was damn hard.
I am now officially shattered. Trouble is tomorrow is 207km, 4000m and has a profile resembling a saw-tooth...
Can't wait for the next installment........
Stats: 205km, 21kmh, 4024m ascent, max alt. 1620m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214124848
Main cols: St Martin (1470m), Turini (1620m), Able (1190m), Madone di Giorbio (897m), Bast (299m)
We slept at 1700m yesterday and that meant the air was cool during the night for the first time on this trip! The comfortable conditions must have helped my recovery because today didn't feel too hard, although it was a very long day. The scenery was pretty special and several times the saying "spaghetti asphalt draped over an Alp" came to mind.
We started with a refreshing descent needing gillets but they were soon off at the bottom of the St Martin climb. A 5-star descent followed, probably the best of the trip so far - plenty of bends, tunnels, cliff-face ledges, large drop-offs! This fed straight into the 15km climb of Turini. This road is a stunning piece of engineering. Just how did they get a road up there? Ledges stacked on top of one another up a near vertical mountain. I was in awe as I climbed it. There were three hot climbs including the Madone as we approached the Mediterranean and this led to great views of Menton, Monte Carlo and finally Nice as we came down out of the mountains. The plunge down to Nice (after a short climb up Col d'Eze) was fast and steep and after traversing the port area I rode the Promenade des Anglais along the sea front!
Staying in Carros for our rest day. I think it's been earned...
enjoy your rest day!!
Loving the reports: I find myself googling the places you mention and planning future cycling trips [that'll never happen!]
Chin up. Knotted handkerchief on.
Thanks for all your comments. Very helpful.
Knowing you the last stages will be completed in style. You are riding yourself into them. Sun stroke is serious and takes some getting over.
All this talk of mountains and heroic effort is making me seriously restless. Taking the afternoon off to entertain my bike on 1 or 2 hills. (Like I said, heaven only knows where the real Jane Wilson has gone)
I am seriously in awe of your achievement so far... You will smash it now mate :-) watch out for those Frenchies in the cars though!!
Be lucky :-)
Stats: 217km (196km), 23kmh, 4470m (3864m) ascent, max alt. 1430m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214792591
Main cols: Vence (1040m), Pimpinier (1135m), Bleine (1430m), St Barnabe (1345m), Baous (1290m)
The day after a rest day can go one of two ways, you can either have a good day or a bad day. I had a pretty good day! I was feeling refreshed from my Nice stopover and ready for the return journey. We quickly left Carros behind and settled into the 12km climb of the Col de Vence. There were fairly easy 5-7% gradients to go with the rugged, rocky scenery. After descending, there was a bit of excitement when we got caught up with a sportive (or race) - Haute Route - coming in the opposite direction! Police outriders leading the way for the front riders - one of whom, I sure, was Emma Pooley!
After our first stop, we climbed again, long but quite gently to the day's highpoint, the Col de Bleine and then traversed an arid plateau before dropping steeply down to the famous Gorge du Verdon. This was stunning, riding through the gorge with it's faulted and layered sides towering above you. As we came out of the gorge the first spots of rain began to fall and the predicted thunder storms were gathering fast.
Then it absolutely pissed it down. Lightening forking against the surrounding mountains and thunder cracking and rumbling loudly around. The road instantly turned into a river and we were going upstream for 5km! With all the electrical activity (it was pretty scary) we abandonned the final climbing loop and headed straight for the hotel in Palud-s-Verdon. Still had 196km and 3864m ascent showing at the end, so not much was lost.
In the end a relatively easy day for me and the weather was quite cloudy early on, so I don't think we got any higher than 30 degrees. It made a big difference!
Stats: 233km, 24kmh, 3921m ascent, max alt. 1700m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215342523
Main cols: Mort d'Imbert (580m), La Lure (1700m), Homme Mort (1201m), N-Dame des Abeilles (965m)
The longest day of the tour (145 miles) and we got completely beasted by the Mistral - 50-70 kmh winds from the NW. A tough day made a lot tougher...
We decided to team up this morning to defeat the wind and the fast(er) boys did a 9-up team time-trail for the first 50km. It was an absolute blast as the terrain was gently sloping down most of the way.
What goes down inevitably goes up steeper around here and we had to climb three short punchy climbs, made testing by blustery crosswinds. This got us to lunch, pretty much at the bottom of the main climb of the day. La Lure is known as Ventoux's sister and is strikingly similiar - the same rounded hill sticking up into the sky and it also has masts and a building on it's summit. La Lure is also quite a climb, around 17km, but not quite so steep as Ventoux, averaging 6%. It's still over an hour to the top, though. I had a pretty good climb until the final couple of kms, where the wind became ridiculous near the exposed summit. The descent was a real tester; again extremely blustery wind, rough rough road and steep on this side. It's the first descent (in the dry) when I've debated stopping before the bottom because I couldn't feel my hands and feet anymore because they were being vibrated so much!
I did the drag through the next valley on my own against more troublesome headwind. It was really wearing by this stage. I resorted to shouting a lot! After the afternoon feed, I teamed up with Gerald again and we plodded on over the Homme Mort (Col de Dead Man!) and Abeilles, both had reasonably shallow gradients. Off the Abeilles, after Sault, we had a another stunning descent down from the shoulder of Ventoux. A glorious 7km, no brakes needed and even with a unbelievable crosswind we held around 60-70kmh for what seemed like forever.
So we're in Provence, staying in Bedoin tonight and that can only mean one thing tomorrow, first thing...
I'd better get some sleep, I think I'm going to need it.
Stats: 206km, 20kmh, 5151m ascent, max alt. 1850m
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215793983
Main cols: Mt Ventoux (1850m), Ey (701m), Soubeyrand (960m), Pennes (1030m), Rousset (1280m)
Another long, long day - 206km / 5150m climbing! We started in Provence, rode through the Drome and ended up in the Vercors. I was one of first back and still on the road for over 12hrs. Quite a few people finished in the dark.
Our hotel was only a kilometre from the start of the Ventoux, so there wasn't really much time for a warm-up before we were climbing! I had a relatively straightforward and controlled climb - 21km in just under 2 hours. I shed a few tears on the way up - a friend of mine was killed while cycling in France last year and her ashes are on Ventoux...
Once over the top of Ventoux, the descent down to Malaucene was fast with one stretch over 80kmh even with a headwind - at that speed you're holding on for dear life!! Cols Ey and Soubeyrand were dispatched OK, although the heat was back again today. It got hotter and hotter. In the mid-afternoon heat, we climbed Pennes (renamed by most people in the evening as *swear words* because of an initial 5km section @ 11%). It was a real struggle. Another feed and then a final slog up the Col de Rousset of about 20km, with an easy grade, but it was at the end of the day, so we rode tempo at about 14kmh.
Not many stages left now.
Excruciatingly tough but I cannot think of a more suitable person than you to take on such a challenge
I feel exhausted just reading your journals! Keep 'em coming.
Carolyn