2009 Marmotte Video Diary

russell_in_france

Hi all,

I filmed during this year's Marmotte event to create a video diary of the day, mostly film of the ascents of the Glandon, Telegraphe, Galibier and Alpe d'Huez. I also managed to film an unhappy Italian after he was knocked off his bike by one of the security motorbikes, and another chap falling just before the Col du Glandon.

http://www.vimeo.com/5464145

This year felt really tough and Alpe d'Huez was as hard as I can remember with the heat. Seven minutes faster than last year for me with eight hours and 18 minutes.

Great to see and hear all the Brits this year, and felt like we were catching the Dutch and Belgiums for numbers.

Russsell
www.grenoblecycling.com

pinkbikini

Great video Russell - reminds me of the suffering from last year only too well!

Kléber

Nice to see. Some amazing views but I doubt the riders had much time to appreciate them. Well done to all the finishers, it's one of the hardest sportives and a "must do" for anyone who likes sportives, races or wants a real test in the high mountains.

stjohnswell

Great video & great time! Truly, The Alpe was as hot as a stove, but merely looks quite pleasant on your vid :DDD

popette

Love the video Russell. I'm hoping to do the marmotte next year but I think I'm going to need blinkers after seeing some of those heights and sheer drops! Not sure I'll be able to cope with those.

term1te

Excellent video, I must have been a little behind you as I recognised some of the riders and came in a few minutes after you. It was very hot coming up the Alpe, I've never been happier to have a small child throwing water at me!

popette

Russell, what do you film with? I would love to have a bit of video footage of my etape in 2 WEEKS - as long as it's easy enough and not going to put me off beating the broom wagon.

russell_in_france

Thanks, all.

I film with a Canon Ixus 860, it's a little photo camera that takes good quality film as well as photos and it's nice and small so it fits nicely in my back pocket of a cycle jersey. I hold it in my hand, and I try and film short clips to then put together the video diary. A 4GB card gives me about 30 minutes of high quality film. I just make sure that I only film when it's safe to do so, so there was no chance of filming on the descent of the Glandon.

Russell
www.grenoblecycling.com

barrister-at-law

Absolutely excellent video.

I managed 9hr 30 mins. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. At one point temps reached in excess of 100 degrees!

I did IM Lanzarote in May. Lanza's selling point is that it is the hardest Ironman in the world where "normal limits don't apply."

La Marmotte made Ironman Lanzarote 2009 look like childs play.

La Marmotte - Epic!

Hugh A

Thanks Russell - really brings it all back - albeit at a rather faster pace than I managed it! A long and hot day.

term1te

I saw one guy at the end with a small digital camera fixed to his handlebars with a small clamp. I guess with that set up he could have filmed the descents .

pjlawrie

I also saw the guy with the camera on the bars. He was English and I produced my best 'French expletives' when he started filming on the Galibier. I would like to apologize for ruining his filming with such coarse language but I was a little bit emotional at the time! :oops:

genki

Nice vid 8) .

That was my 2nd attempt. I'm sure I tried harder than last year but I was 4mins slower. My time at the Galibier was within 20secs of 2008 but I lost 6mins climbing the Alpe on completely shot-to-pieces legs. 7hrs 33mins but exactly the same place (311th).

Here's a clip of the descent of the Galibier taken a couple of days before on a recce ride...it's got to be the best bit of the whole Marmotte route :P . The cooling wind, knowing you've knocked off the Telegraph/Galibier climbs, and a full hour of descent, recovery and rest ahead of you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgOrWk5xAsk

coulcher

pjlawrie wrote:

I also saw the guy with the camera on the bars. He was English and I produced my best 'French expletives' when he started filming on the Galibier. I would like to apologize for ruining his filming with such coarse language but I was a little bit emotional at the time! :oops:

I had a blue camera attached to my bars. Expletives were taken as realistic sound effects! If you were wearing a red top I think I have video & pic of you that I can send.

Still out here on holiday with 2 young kids so haven't got round to editing the video yet as I have a bit of babysitting debt to repay. I did manage to video descent of Glandon & Galibier but didn't catch any crashes. Also managed to video last few minutes of very painful sprint up Alpe to get gold at 8hrs 47m 13s just inside 8hrs 49m limit.

Russell - always admired your videos & pics - keep up the good work, it's inspiring stuff while sitting at a desk in London.

I used a cheaper Canon Powershot with a 8Gb card which claims it will do 60+ mins at 640 res. I built the camera mount myself for £2 thanks to this website:
http://photojojo.com/content/diy/attach ... your-bike/
It does bump a little on poor surfaces but a lot of fun to have and wasn't too distracting on Marmotte.
Here's a video I did a couple of months ago above Bourg D'Oisan in some unlit tunnels:

http://gallery.me.com/dancoulcher#100155

Dan

numbernine

Great video! I would describe the day as a beautiful torture. For some reason I confused the timings with the Etape which I'm doing in a couple of weeks and thought I needed to get 6.30 for a gold!! So I was bitterly disappointed with my time when I realised it was going to take me over 8 hours and thought I would have to be satisfied with a bronze. I had the biggest grin on my face when I received my diploma!!
I have done a number of different 'tough' sporting events and would definitely say this was the hardest. My computer read 43 degrees on Alpe d'Huez (probably a combination of the actual temperature and reflected heat off the road) - people throwing water were life savers!
Congratulations to everyone who competed

ademort

Really enjoyed the video Russell, hope to do it for the first time next year. Just wondering here in the Netherlands we hear that there were a number of fatalities including a guy who lives not far from me, anybody else hear anything.
Ademort

russell_in_france

Thanks for the kind words on the video.

I've just checked on the Dauphine website and they talk about handful of injuries on the Col du Glandon, and the dangerous peletons that form on the valley roads towards the Col du Telegraphe. Don't see anything about any fatalities this year.

I saw a lot of people who had punctured due to inflating their tyres too much, and I'd been worried about the Glandon, and did see a few people on the roadside holding their shoulder in pain.

Russell
www.grenoblecycling.com

numbernine

I saw two men who had fallen at separate points on the descent off the Glandon. They presumably came off doing 40-60kmh and were looking pretty sorry for themselves but were definitely both conscious and both had police and ambulance crews with them

pjlawrie

In response to Dan, yep that was me with the potty mouth on the climb up the Galibier with about 5k to go.

Looking at the results you finished a couple of places in front of me as I scraped into the gold standard time with 8 hrs 48 min and 19 seconds, just 41 seconds within the Gold standard limit!

Had a total blast of a day and i'm currently wearing some very rose coloured spectacles about the whole event!

If you could pm me the pics once you get back to wet and miserable England that would be much appreciated!

Cheers

Potty mouthed Pete

meenaghman

My target was to get round .. at 95Kg I'm no mountain goat.. I got to the finish 12hrs 32 mins after crossing the start line in Bourg. Looking at your Video Russell I must have been quite near to you in the pen at the start as I was just there at that junction too. Some poor guys tyre blew out just as it all started to move. It took me 2hr 40 to get up the Glandon.. there were a few crashes on the top few bends but nothing too serious. There was nothing in the local papers about any fatalities in the Marmotte the following day.. i'm pretty sure it would have been reported. The most Serious accident I saw all weekend was on the Thursday driving up to Alpe d'huez.. It looked very serious .. someone had come off on between bend 3 and 2 I think it was, and was up against the concrete.. some other cyclists nearby were looking very distressed. After the Marmotte I think there was a big call on doctors due to dehydration.. I didn't suffer from this as by the time I got to the Alpe the temperature was well down.. I did get fried in the Maurienne Valley and the first half of the Telegraph though with my HR going at 195 for about 5-10 mins.. Once I got to the water stop and cooled down things were fine. Got soaked in the Thunderstorm as I started out of Valloire up the Galibier.. clocked 90Kph on descent from Galibier - Lauteret. Now the aches and pains are gone I can think about next year ! .. There were the usual scrums at the food and water stops and there was no beer left by the time I finished.. still there was beer to be had elsewhere..

LA

I was one of the casualties. Halfway through the tunnel before the dam someone behind me clipped my back wheel & I came down heavily :evil: . Front wheel was completely buckled so had to DNF at that point which was a shame as after struggling up the Galibier I stuffed my face at the feed station & then felt quite strong on the descent.

I'll just have to complete it next year

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

mark_d

Thanks for the link, KW. Translation here:

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ledauphine.com%2Fcyclosportive-un-maire-denonce-les-exces-de-la-course-la-marmotte-sous-le-feu-des-critiques-%40%2Findex.jspz%3Fchaine%3D26%26article%3D34504&lp=fr_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

I thought there was a bit less litter than last year but it was still too much. There's no excuse for dropping wrappers; just stuff them in your pockets or up your shorts.

Great time Kingston, BTW. Brilliant to see so many London riders out.

Despite this year being as tough as last year (bonked, again) I'll be back next year. It's a beautiful event with great organisation. I'd also recommend the TT up ADH the next day -- unless you've completely cooked yourself on the Marmotte you should be able to heave yourself up without too much trouble. ADH is a different game without 100 miles and 4000m climbing already in your legs (I took 1h25m on the Marmotte but 57m on the TT without going all that hard!)

stjohnswell

I somewhat sympathise with the people of the Maurienne valley. In the Bourg area, at least they get the financial benefit of thousands staying over and eating at the local cafes - but at the back end of the course, they just get the inconvenience of litter & poor road access.

Littering was rife - as it was at the Dragon Ride. It's beyond me why people can't carry a gel wrapper as far as the next feed to drop it in the bin.

Maybe they should offer free entry & accomodation to a litter sweep team, much the way the do at Glastonbury music festival?

Along the Maurienne, faster groups often overtook slower groups using up both lanes of the road and traffic control on the Telegraph was a 'mare.

I think they should have rolling road closures throughout to at least manage the traffic concerns.

Unless the organisers address this, NIMBYism will flourish.

dave milne

Great event, went out to fast and I paid in full for it. Had crippling cramp through every fibre of both legs at the top of the galibier and alpe d'huez. managed 8:34 so ok but think with a more even paced ride I would have got a lot closer to 8 hours.

On the thursday before we saw someone who was dead after turn 21 on the alpe, he was still clipped into his pedals and there was no blood so we assumed he must have had a heart attack ratyher than a crash. His face was as grey as a gravestone, very upsetting

topcattim

LA wrote:

I was one of the casualties. Halfway through the tunnel before the dam someone behind me clipped my back wheel & I came down heavily :evil: . Front wheel was completely buckled so had to DNF at that point which was a shame as after struggling up the Galibier I stuffed my face at the feed station & then felt quite strong on the descent.

I'll just have to complete it next year

Ouch that sounds nasty. I'll admit to riding the tunnels with quite some caution and concern, and was glad to get out the other end ok. I'd stopped briefly at the col du Lautaret to switch on a mini flashing light I always have fixed to my helmet.

A buddy of mine got knocked off just after the dam when a car hooted behind him, and a neighouring rider jumped and then wobbled his front wheel into my buddy's back wheel. Next thing he knew, he was upside down in the gutter. The Dutch guy who knocked him off just said, "Sorry, that was probably my fault", got back on his bike and rode off....

coulcher

pjlawrie wrote:

In response to Dan, yep that was me with the potty mouth on the climb up the Galibier with about 5k to go.

Looking at the results you finished a couple of places in front of me as I scraped into the gold standard time with 8 hrs 48 min and 19 seconds, just 41 seconds within the Gold standard limit!

Had a total blast of a day and i'm currently wearing some very rose coloured spectacles about the whole event!

If you could pm me the pics once you get back to wet and miserable England that would be much appreciated!

Cheers

Potty mouthed Pete

Great stuff Pete, glad you made gold, must have been a great final sprint. You are on my video edit which I should get up next week. Just arguing over image rights of other riders with their agents......

I've got a few pics of the day up now: http://gallery.me.com/dancoulcher#10017 ... &view=grid

Dan

Fulco

LA wrote:

I was one of the casualties. Halfway through the tunnel before the dam someone behind me clipped my back wheel & I came down heavily :evil: . Front wheel was completely buckled so had to DNF at that point which was a shame as after struggling up the Galibier I stuffed my face at the feed station & then felt quite strong on the descent.

I'll just have to complete it next year

Should have waited for Fulco mate!

Thomas the Tank Engine

Great video....are you sure it wasn't shot in fast forward mode.....nobody around me was going anywhere neare that speed ....mind you with a finish time of 10.15 thats probably not surprising :oops: :roll: Great day on a bike though,didn't find it too hot (probably due to the soaking in Valloire)and by taking 4 Nuun tablets throughout the day never cramped up...which i normally do at about mile 80 on uk sportives.

Where does one go after the marmotte...apart from the pub!? :shock:

russell_in_france

Normal speed on the video, no speeding up. I promise. :-)

If you missed the Marmotte, in 10 days time I have the Brevet de Randonneur des Alpes or BRA for short. It's a 225km event that starts and finishes near Grenoble, and takes one over the Galibier, Telegraphe, Mollard and Croix de Fer. No Alpe d'Huez at the end, but still over 4,600 metres of climbing.

There's no classification, with a goal of finishing, but the guys are the front are racing it. I really enjoyed it in 2007 and it took me 9 hours and 57 minutes to get around the circuit.

http://www.cyclotourisme-grenoble-ctg.f ... Itemid=170

Cheers, Russell
www.grenoblecycling.com

richa

Russell,
Great video again this year.

I have updated my blog and this year have also added some video.
Hope to add descent of Glandon later (needs editing a little)

Rich

Blog: http://marmotte2009.blogspot.com/
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/richardpallen