It's been four days already and so far I've not had the chance to even get the Netbook out of the case,so a lot of what follows is based on memory – which to be honest isn't a difficult task. It is impossible to forget the experiences I've had so far on the Alps; I just hope I can get the right part of the story in the right places. It was only today that I looked at a map because I was totally losing my bearings, where I was in relation to where we are staying or where we go each day. Now I have a better idea and I am surprised at how much ground we have covered in three full days of riding and one full day of driving.
Day 1
Caen to Macot la Plagne
After the overnighter on Brittany ferries and a few beers, Paul and I arrived in Caen and were on our way by 07.30. A very grumpy “what are you doing?” from the very French customs guy almost led to a tempting “um, driving a “Rolls Royce” but of course he meant what are we doing in country. So a one word answer sufficed. “Cycling!” Nuff said, and he waved us on. We were though, actually in a 1970's Rolls Royce and facing what ended up as 650miles of driving through France, and 12 hours of very sticky weather and endless motorways, much of which are Toll roads. To cut a long story short, we only had one scare when an oil light came on. Knowing the car, Paul was immediately worried and started going on about Big ends and engines blowing up. I tried to ignore him. But we made it to Macot la Plagne by pretty much 19.30 and just in time for dinner at our
French Alps Chalet 'Maison Le Roux'.
Day 2 – Snapped chain, puncture and altitude sickness
Yes, it could only happen to me, bloody typical. Those of you following my Facebook posts may know a little of what transpired. We set off from Macot at10am. Two and a half minutes, yes 'minutes' later my chain snapped. Unbelievable, of all the times, and I never get mechanicals and went through the whole winter with no punctures at all. But I was prepared, I had a chain tool and a spare chain pin. Fixed in five minutes.
Ten minutes later we started the climb to Les Arcs and Arc 1800 from Landry, passing through Vallandry on the way up. I felt great, really up for it and at the halfway point I had barely felt the climb, this was a good sign. I think this was a lesser known, but absolutely beautiful way up at about 16km with lots of hairpins. It took around an hour before we reached Arc 1800, a fabulous, Forested ski resort and very quiet as it is out of season now. The descent into Bourg St Maurice was fast but not very technical, but all the same, very good fun. I topped out at 68kph. So, apart from the chain, a trouble free ride.
It was in the cafe an Bourg that I think it started; a slight feeling of nausea and unable to finish my baguette. Mark started on about going up the Col D L'iseran. It meant nothing to me at first, but apparently it is the highest road pass in the Alps. 42Km long and climbing to 2800metres. We all climbed fine, it was a long way and by the time we reached Val D'Isere (a really posh and lovely ski resort – expensive looking too) we could pretty much see the top of the Iseran, but from here (at about 2000mtres) it was another 14km of twisty hairpins, snow and totally exposed landscape. The views were amazing and Val D'Isere was getting smaller and smaller down in the valley. As I neared the top, I punctured, riding over some sharp stones on the inside of a hairpin. I could have done without that. I don't know if it was because I stopped but it was at this point I started to feel sick, and every time I breathed in I just want to cough and throw up. Eventually I reached the top, still feeling strong, weirdly, but sick. The weather was closing in, it was freezing, windy and very, very high. Mark came in about five minuted behind me and Paul maybe five minutes later. I tried to throw up next to hut in the snow but no such luck, and it didn't make me feel any better either. Being a long descent, we decided to ride down to Val D'Isere and stop for a coffee and see if we could let the clouds pass. Then it started raining. Descending those 14km to Val was so cold, but luckily the road stayed quite dry, however, I was pretty scared, feeling sick and shivering almost out of control. We reached Val, shivering even more, ordered a coffee and that was it. The Sickness hit me. I was in the loo three times trying to be sick but no luck, and feeling worse and worse. I just wanted to go to sleep, and I wasn't even worn out. Mark had already decided to call and get picked up by our host so I didn't feel too bad that there was no way I could ride the 50 or so k's back to Macot. We must have done around 90k by that point already. The other Paul (www.triathlon-holidays.co.uk), our host was great, he came to pick us up. What a star!!!
By the time we were back down to a sensible 700metres and I had nodded off in the van (I didn't say a work the whole way back, which is very strange for me ;0) I started to feel ok again, and an hour later I was totally ok, and pleased that my initial diagnosis of a sickness bug hitting me right at the wrong moment was unfounded and that it was likely just a bit of altitude sickness. How embarrassing, I thought that only happened at Everest base camp. I haven't worked out the exact stats yet because I left the Garmin on in the van and clocked up 60k extra. Doh!! But suffice to say it was at least 4600metres of climbing that first day.
Day 3 – Col d la Madelaine, Lost chainring bolts and a missing mountain.
I have to admit that I was apprehensive today. The Madelaine is 2000 metres high which is more than Les Arc yesterday but not as much as Iseran. Hopefully I had acclimatised a little and this mountain would not make me feel sick, again! The plan was to ride the Notre Dame d Pre' on the way back rather than taking the boring, generally flat route on the N90 back through the valley, but the Madelaine proved tough, and over some pasta at the top we decided to head straight back.
The Col d la Madelaine . . what a climb, what a monstor. In the tour de France this is classified as an out of category climb, meaning that it's bigger than a Category One, the toughest general category. It's like a special Mountain. The three of us had kind of split up by the time we reached the foot of the Mtn but after the first few hairpins the order was Mark, about 500yards ahead of me and Paul about 500yards behind me. The Madelaine from La Lechere (I think) is 24km long and climbs to 2000meteres. The hairpins went on for maybe 6-7km, and were very much like the bottom of the Les Arc climb we did the day before. Then it started to go through the valley, up and up and up. The kilometres seemed to go by fairly quickly and when I saw the 9k to go marker I thought, “this isn't too bad” but then it kicked up. I think the TdF comes up this way in a week or so, and I don't envy the pros when they hit this beast. Those last 9k must have averged around 8-9% gradient and were relentless. I had timed a few of the km markers near the bottom and worked out in my head that the climb might take maybe an hour and ten minutes. One hour and 34 minutes later I got to the top, the last few k were horrible and you couldn't actually see the top until you went round the second to last hairpin with about 600metres to go. So we stopped for some pasta, no sickness, good weather and the descent, back down the way we came up still to come. So far that is the best descent I've done (even after day 3, next), really fast (in places) and really good fun, resulting in 37minutes of continuous downhill. Had a scare at the bottom though, I had lost four of the five chainring bolts holding my chainrings on!! If that last one had gone too, I will have been in trouble. How they shook loose I will never know; I had checked their tightness a day or so before. Luckily we were only 7k from Moutiers, so I nursed the bike there and found a bike shop,bought some new bolts and we were off again. Having already decided to make for home we were fairly ok with missing out Notre Dame. I'm sure we will get the chance later in the week. This had an added bonus though; two pints of Stella in a bar in Aime, lovely. The floaty feeling after must have helped because I managed a big dig up the bottom of La Plagne to Macot. A nice way to end the days riding. The evening meant finding a restaurant as our hosts had a night off. Being out of season, all restaurants in Aime were closed. We ate in the same bar we had the Stella in earlier, and had some kind of bird for dinner (she was lovely!!! joking), which I think may have been Quayle or maybe a Chick, not sure but it was nice. Paul didn't like the fact that the head was still on the cooked bird. I was tempted to eat it!!After all, the day had seen the burning off of over 5000 calories.
Day 4 – On my own. La Plagne – Les Arc1800 (again)
I decided before we came to France that I wanted to do a day on my own, and today was the day. Mark and Paul wanted to ride a relatively flat ride to Annecy, I didn't fancy that and I wanted to ride the La Plagne mountain right behind Macot where we are staying. I am writing this today, day of blog posting, so it's fresh in my mind. I'm sat now in the Chalet, having done the ride with a cold beer. Bliss. My eyes though are very heavy and typing isn't helping. I still need to download an add in some pics before I upload later when I speak to Hayley and the Kids on Skype. I have Biffy Clyro on the stereo, it's bloody hot and I've done a pretty monstrous 4h 15min day today with no stops, other than a couple of fill ups from the water taps in villages – I think they are called Bassan's. The water in these Bassan's is freezing. I had my head and feet in there and could have stayed for ages but the sun beating down was just too much. I'm not sure of the temp today but it has to be over 33degrees.
I started from Macot at about 10.30 and went straight into the climb to La Plagne 1800. That was a nice climb which went around the Bobsleigh and Luge run used in the Albertville Olympics apparently. Scorching hot on the way up I took it easy and reached the top at Aime La Plagne 2000 metres in 1hour 22 mins, had a quick five minutes, NutriGrain bar and thought about where to go next. I was going to drop back down then go up the other side, the Cote d Aime but decided to head back toward Landry after the descent of La Plagne (another twisty and fast downhill) and do Les Arc 1800 again. Les Arc was harder this time and felt much longer. I still felt ok at the top even though I had climbed two mountains and 3800 metres in total, with maybe 8 minutes stop in total. A twenty minute descent into Bourg St Maurice saw a slight improvement on max speed (69kph) and I followed a car pretty much all the way down, at a safe distance of course.
It rained a little in Bourg which was very refreshing but only lasted about 5 minutes. I found the cycle track to Aime and rode alongside the rapids of the river for maybe 15k before reaching Aime and the 2km uphill, again to Macot la Plagne, where I am now, writing and waiting for Paul and Mark to get back.
Alpe D'huez tomorrow, most Iconic climb in the world of cycling, and a long drive. Should be good though because I think we are driving over the Col d Galibier. Literally cant wait.
