Paris Nice: Col D’Eze

i spent most of yesterday afternoon trying to avoid spoilers, but failed spectacularly because i accessed the limitless power of the internet. anyway, if you haven’t seen it yet, Wiggins won with an awe-inspiring display of uphill time trialling, if that doesn’t sound too euphemistic. the interesting thing is that it’s a hill climb of sorts. they really should have more uphill time trials on the continent; they had one on alpe d’huez a few years back. it’s a world of short TT extensions, confusion over what to ride, and a weight limit of 6.8kg on the bikes. it’s hard to even imagine what’s going through the riders’ minds in the video below. the crowd is oppressive and overwhelming. armstrong has his cap on backwards like a true hillclimber. his speed is unreal.

On the Col D’Eze Wiggins was turning over the gear remorselessly. it’s a really astounding sight. He’s the first British winner since Tommy Simpson in 1967 and is staking a claim to being one of the greatest riders this island has ever produced.

When i first started getting into cycling i remember watching the tour and trying to see how Max Sciandri was doing, a half-italian, half british rider, or whether Robert Millar still had the legs (his powers were on the wane).  this year we’ve got one of the world’s pre-eminent stage racers, the world champion and a stack of gifted riders across several teams. it’s hard to believe just how much british cycling has changed, but if you want a point of comparison i recommend ‘wide eyed and legless’, by Jeff Connor. It describes the problems faced by the ANC Halfords team in the 1987 tour. it’s a fantastic book.

 

Vive le Tour!

i try and avoid simply reposting things that are available elsewhere. it’s a simple thing in my head – a series of links don’t really constitute a blog. this tends to be the modus operandi of pretty much all fixed wheel blogs and they end up being all wardrobe and no narnia. they don’t generate content, they just borrow it. Eschewing my own advice, here’s an amazing short film of the 1963 tour by Louis Malle which is really hard to find. Happy Christmas!

alpe d’huez 1 and 2: the stats

I was looking at the stats for monday and thursday’s ascents of the alp. it’s quite interesting reading.

7.4 miles	Time	Av Speed	Max Speed	Calories	Av HR	Max HR
Monday	60.35	7.4mph	18.2mph	882cal	182bpm	191bpm
Thursday	49.11	9.2mph	23mph	690cal	180bpm	198bpm

The height gain on the alp was 3330 feet.

And ascent versus descent on croix de fer:

18.6 miles	Time	Av Speed	Max Speed	Calories	Height gain
Ascent	1.53.08	9.9mph	31.mph	1397cal	4856 ft
Descent	51.11	21.5	60mph	367 cal

in comparison, this morning i went out with a few chums on quite a hilly ride. we did around 40 miles with some horrible little climbs. my heartrate stayed below 190bpm and the total climbing was 2800 feet.

here’s a graph from alpe d’huez. the elevation is hilarious.

7.4 miles	Time	Av Speed	Max Speed	Calories	Av HR	Max HR
Monday	60.35	7.4mph	18.2mph	882cal	182bpm	191bpm
Thursday	49.11	9.2mph	23mph	690cal	180bpm	198bpm

alpe d’huez: le retour

every thursday throughout the season they have a time trial up alpe d’huez. i was prompted into riding it by Lynne and Alan Coldray, keen cyclists and the owners of ‘Le Velo Jaune’, where I am staying. we were discussing the attraction of the alp over dinner yesterday; in many ways i prefer the other, more scenic and attractive climbs. the alp is brash, ungentlemanly, and savage. it’s the headliner at a heavy metal music festival, with full fireworks and light show, make-up and pointy guitars, probably some kind of cannon that fires bodily fluids at a shocked audience. its status in the tour is established, and the hairpins (les virages) are the unique selling point.

after monday’s unholy shitstorm of sweat and tunnel vision, cold flushes and fear, i did not relish the chance of riding up again, except this time in a race. nevertheless, the legs felt ok and it’s always good for fitness to put a number on. the start is somewhere between a road race and a time trial, it’s a massed start in bourg d’oisans, under the inflatable banner, riding behind the commisaire’s car which increased in pace for a kilometre, before we hit the first horrible incline and all hell broke loose. essentially, everyone went off really fast, men, women and children. i didn’t, I just let them go, and for a while was between groups, those who exploded out of the gate, and those that chose to sedately begin their sufferfest. i figured that they’d all pop, and sooner or later i’d catch them, with the exception of the pesky french professionals and semi-pros, who wouldn’t pop, and i wouldn’ t catch them.

over the first few miles i slowly reeled in quite a few people. i followed some sage advice, attack the hairpins and go steady on the climbs; this worked well. essentially, there were small groups of riders clinging together like the raft of the medusa, all the way up the mountain. i’d work hard for a bit, get on the back of a group, gather myself, then push on around a hairpin and leave them behind. i dragged three other riders at one point, one dutch guy, a frenchie and an english guy who was all over the bike like an octopus. he was very thin though. i left them for a bit, but two of them somehow managed to get back on. it was wierd riding with company, although they both looked pretty bonked out so i felt like the next time i went (if i could) they would be dropped.

once we were within sight of the top i got a second wind, of sorts, and was able to up the tempo again. most of the time i was in the 39:24 or 23, saving the 25 for particularly steep bits or times when i vainly tried to get my heartbeat slightly below 97% of max. (incidentally, i’d adjusted the max upwards, but still peaked at 102%, so may have to whack it up to about 198bpm, which is pretty high for an old codger like me). once i shifted up a gear, i dropped them for the last time. i then knew i could ride tempo to the top, so started to really push, chasing down a VC Raphael rider who i could see up ahead. it was a real boon to have a sighter at this point. i chased him down, catching him about 200 metres before the finish, he tried to sprint but was cooked and i skinned him. to be fair, he was young, and he rode a very impressive race.

oddly, placings matter in this kind of time trial because everyone started at the same time, so it’s more of a road race without the tactics. the alp takes care of the rest. in terms of time, there is a timing chip but mine didn’t work so i had to go to the tourist office where they keep the clocked figures. i was quite staggered – i’d managed 48.42, good enough for 5th place, with the winner doing a 44 or thereabouts. this is very quick for a club rider. it’s not quick for a tour rider.

there is some fantastic footage of the individual time trial in the tour from 2004. it’s worth considering that most of the riders have served subsequent doping bans, and epo was eaten with cereal in the mornings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOkffZ65TVg

the wikipedia entry also looks at the variations in both time and distance for the alp.

As a footnote, Graham (of team douchebag fame) has completed Paris-Brest-Paris in 76 hours. this means he has ridden 1200km in 76 hours. it is an incredible feat and he has my utmost admiration. elsewhere, Mike and chums lopped oodles off their best time for their epic sportive at the Blenheim event, chapeau to the chaps.

Col De Sarenne

i fancied a slightly quieter day today. the heat remains the same, 90° in the shade by lunchtime. at least i timed it better, having finished my riding by about 1pm on top of the alp.

today’s route took in the first five hairpins of alpe d’huez, before heading right, along what started as a beautiful wooded climb, all picturesque chalets and waterfalls, before suddenly turning into a dicey, precipitous cliffhanger, with a couple of hundred metres of vertical wall on the right. it got a bit hairy because there was room for only one car, and when cars came along i had to stand immediately adjacent to the 1 foot concrete edging, peering into the abyss. oh well, i wanted the sublime, and this certainly fits the description, a combination of inescapable beauty and grotesque fear.

i used my phone camera because i forgot the other one.

the view of bourg d'oisans, early in the climb

 

look closely, the road is in the top left corner. eek.

it was a fantastic climb, just a bit blimmin’ scary. the descent afterwards dropped down into le freney at the bottom of the valley. i then had to head out along the lautaret, before turning left towards mizoen to start the ascent of the sarenne. it’s a long climb on a  fairly scrappy surface that peaks out above alpe d’huez, then you drop down to the top of the alpe with an 8km descent. it was definitely my best day in terms of having the legs, but also each day seems to be more spectacular than the last. the views of the glaciers at Deux Alpes were beautiful, and whilst i bemoan the heat, the sky has been a crystalline blue and there has been barely a  breath of wind.

view of the glaciers

on the way up i passed a huge ensemble of cyclists from a grenoble club, strung out along the climb like washing on a line. this worked wonders for my morale, i felt like i was reeling them in. in truth, they weren’t that quick, but there you go. at the top some italian chap thought i was using a 42 inner, the crazy fool. i had a 39, with my standard 11-25 on the back. it has been tough at times, and the riding seems to be conducted either in the 53:11 or the 39:25, with nothing inbetween.

you can see the climb winding along the bottom of the valley, this is taken from an overhang at the top, at around 2000 metres

the valley across the top is full of sheep and goats – the ones that make chamois, not that they know that, and if they did i’m not sure they’d feel as comfortable in the presence of cyclists whose posteriors they have traditionally cosseted. the best beasts i saw were a pair of strangely alienated alpine chickens. i have no idea how they got there, sat quietly on top of the high alps, minding their own business. they were quite nosy and came over to scope out my cervelo r5. incidentally, the cervelo has had lots of admiring glances, all kinds of furtively looking over their shoulders, wanting to touch it, to finger the top tube and give it a bit of a lift.

alpine sheep with cowbells on

alpine chickens on the col de sarenne

despite the enormous peloton from grenoble it’s a very quiet climb, in stark contrast to alpe d’huez, which is the glamorous headliner. i’m heading back there tomorrow, surprise surprise, for chipped time trial. should be fun in a sort of  ’oh my god what am i doing this hurts so much somebody please god make it stop’ kind of way.

 

La Croix De Fer, Glandon

the croix de fer was on the agenda as today’s mythical alpine col. it’s a long and awe-inspiring ascent that peaks at 2067ft. i left at around 9am in an attempt to avoid the heat. i should have left earlier, but it wasn’t practical. it was certainly markedly better than yesterday, when according to the garmin, the temperature peaked at 104°. i understand why cavendish has waved the white flag.

i rode up from rochetaille, and had planned to do some more riding afterwards, but my legs were cramping so i felt that discretion was the better part of valour, and headed home. during most of the climb i felt good, and drank an awful lot of water. not as much as heinrich haussler yesterday, but certainly a number of bottles.

the climb winds through a beautiful alpine pass, with hydro-electric dams strung between steep-sided mountains. the temperature rose throughout, but not to the same extent, and it remained more bearable than the Alp. in part due to the added benefit of shade from the trees on the lower reaches.  i saw a marmotte; i’m not sure what i thought a marmotte was, but it looked suspiciously like a beaver to me. it was also dead, lying on its back in the road. i saw lots of lizards, including one big green chap who looked like a very small dinosaur.

glassy alpine lake

the mountains, especially above the tree line, maintain an aura of magnificence, encapsulating the sublime. the striations in the rock and the etched contours speak of lengths of time and processes that i cannot possibly comprehend. this is compounded by the absence of people, or even the mark of people on the landscape, beyond the road that clings precipitously to the edges.

the croix de fer is possibly my new favourite. some interesting and slightly overwhelming facts about today’s climb are as follows:

• it’s 18.6 miles in length, this is similar to burrington combe, that’s if you do burrington combe 9 times in succession and make it a bit steeper.
• i was climbing for an hour and 50 minutes, all told. that’s nearly 2 hours spent riding uphill, gaining 5000 feet in height.

i ditched the HRM today, following yesterday’s disastrous, hideous exercise in HRM hubris. for the record, i averaged 182bpm on the Alp, with 191bpm being the max. this was for precisely one hour. it’s no wonder i needed a lie-down afterwards.

looking down from the croix de fer

what with the ascent of the Croix de Fer taking two hours, there was of course a silver lining – the descent. this took a stupendous 52 minutes. during that time i attained a new record speed of 60mph. whilst attaining this speed i pretty much shat myself, and would hesitate before doing this again (either the former or the latter). the new record happened for two or three reasons, the planets were very much in alignment: the road was straight for a long time, with only a couple of wide, sweeping bends, and none of those classic alpine 1 foot barriers between life and becoming a human/bike entanglement plummeting down the cliff; the gradient was around 11% at this point; and lastly, the cervelo r5 is so incredibly smooth and controlled that it genuinely feels manageable. for a few short seconds.

croix de fer

proof

tomorrow i am taking in some lesser cols, including the sarenne and something else. i am trying not to overdo it…

Alpe D’Huez

Today i rode the Alpe D’Huez. I had intended to avoid the mid-afternoon sun, but didn’t have sufficient time, so opted to head straight out at about 12. the temperature at that point was a balmy 28°. it continued to rise steadily, peaking at around 35° by 3pm. it wasn’t ideal weather for cycling up mountains.

the road is covered in fresh paint from the Tour; lists of names and images of flags adorn the slopes; one section halfway up is entirely orange in honour of the dutch riders. it’s a genuine spectacle, and links the road firmly with the Tour De France, as you climb ever upwards, competing with the remorseless height gain and 21 hairpin bends, each one named after a previous stage winner on the Alp.

i really struggled today. some strange things happened. my max heart rate went up to 104%, and was frequently at 100+. in fact, for the duration of the climb i was considerably above the kind of levels I reach in time trials. i’d guess that firstly, the max setting is too low, and secondly, the heat and constant gradient stitched me up. at times i tried to back off, but just couldn’t get the level down, at all. in the end i gave up looking at it, and reasoned that i should just about be able to cope because it was an hour climb. this in itself is quite an eye-opener, it’s one thing having a bit of a bad time on a hill, it’s entirely another having a sufferfest on a 12 mile, hour long (at least) monster.

when i got to the top i found a shady spot and sat down for about 20 minutes, trying to get some semblance of order and dignity. i was soaked in sweat. i felt little or no sense of achievement – i’ve ridden the alp before – just an unending gratititude that i’d made it to the top and could now breathe, and rest, and refill my water bottle.

5 of the 21 hairpins

during the descent i took a few pictures, it’s not the sort of drop where you can hit it hard and fast, so i took it steady. i then went on from there and tackled the Col D’Ornon, a much more civilised climb of around 6 or 7 percent, a steady gradient up through the woods. although this one had a few moments where the 2ft wall at the edge of the road seemed rather inadequate in relation to the 200ft drop on the other side. having said that, the descent was a total blast, 50mph, no messing.

i have spent the past three hours trying to shift a headache and rehydrate. it’s proving difficult. tomorrow the croix de fer, glandon and villas reculas beckon.

as a minor point of interest today, i wore my club jersey.

Cycling on the Continent

i went to the Île de Ré last week. it’s a really lovely island near La Rochelle in France. I didn’t take my bike  in the end, it was too much of a faff. instead i sat by the pool and relaxed. it’s important to have a break every now and then, although i suspect this particular break has been a bit longer than i may have anticipated. anyway, it wasn’t entirely cycling-free, on one of the days belle and I hired a ‘velo hollandais’ each and tore it up round the island. sort of…

my new time trial bike

"bringing a dog to the tour is like bringing a shark to a swimming pool'

a fine demonstration of the 'aero tuck' from belle

scenic route

 

more dangerous than the Crostis; belle is fearless

 

the feed zone

it was pretty exciting. the bike had 6 gears, which was plenty. it made a weird knocking sound. the island is fantastic for cycling, but not for cycling particularly quickly, there are bikes and families everywhere.

i’m off to the alps tomorrow, having ridden my bike twice in three weeks. it’s going to be fun.

 

 

Galibier

The tour visits the Galibier today. it’s a staggeringly high mountain to ride up. approached from bourg d’oisans, it’s a steady 40km climb, taking in the col de lautaret before the final ascent. from the other side it’s possibly even more difficult. i went there two summers ago, and am returning in about 6 weeks time. the weather at the top can be capricious, even in the heat of summer, as marco pantani found out when he struggled to put on a rain jacket prior to descending. traditionally, riders would grab a newspaper and stick this down the front of the jersey to ward off the icy wind – it was great to see voeckler do this trick last week.

it’s one of the more famous excerpts of tour footage, stephen roche is positively aghast at pantani’s antics. i think, although i may be wrong, that pantani was using a 39:42 front double for nearly all of this tour. incidentally, his time on plateau de beille was a full three minutes faster than the peloton managed this year, which suggests either cyclists have got slower, despite technological gains, or something else may be occuring. ascent times for alpe d’huez are interesting in this respect, and it may be worth comparing pantani’s record with times tomorrow. i rode up it 57 minutes, which is 20 minutes slower for the 21 hairpins. i wasn’t going that deep though, the main thing was not to blow up and to make it to the top. cols like the galibier and the alp have a latent sense of menace and the capacity to destroy those who misjudge their efforts.

the route profile gives me the jitters. it’s terrifying.

Tour De France *spoilers*

i’m a bit annoyed today. now that every man, woman and dog is an ardent cycling fan, the prevalence of spoilers is becoming a real problem. i work during the day, this unfortunately precludes me from watching the stage. as a result, i like to watch the stage in the evening, either on highlights or if i race home fast enough, catch the last hour on itv4+1.

all my efforts have come to nothing on several stages lately because someone has posted a spoiler somewhere on the internet. it doesn’t matter where, the pervasive dominance of social media is the usual suspect. it’s a spoiler insofar as it spoils all tension and excitement. so here’s a plea to those of you so excited to have discovered cycling, and finding out that after about 12 months you’ve finally got your head round the fact that some riders simply can’t win the race, despite winning stages, and how cycling is a nefarious and massively exciting sport, and you’ve served your apprentice and can now pass comment on events with timespun liggetisms – please don’t tell me who won. and please don’t post ‘thor the mighty hammer’, or ‘the manx express’ as a status update. it’s beyond annoying.