Who's doing the Marmotte,

mattndbaker

Wow - what an experience. Cannot begin to describe the emotions and feelings after completing the hardest ride I have ever done. But the day had it all, beautiful scenery, hot weather, hard moments, lonely moments, wonderful ones as well as some funny ones. What more could you ask for on a day out like that.

Talking of the funny one - I was amongst 15-20 riders on the long slog up the Galibier, we were about 6km from the summit but the rate we were going, it was still another 45 mins or so of pedalling. Anyway the group of riders I was in were of many different nationalaties, conversation was limited but we all knew what everyone else was going through as we nodded in sympathy to one another. Then out of the blue one of the riders let out this massive fart - I'm sure it echoed around the valley it was that loud - everyone in the group just started laughing, perfect timing as for just a moment the pressure was relieved and the pain had gone. As in all comedy moments, the best ones have great timing and that was one of them.....

I will not forget the experience, I will certainly do it again, I am even thinking of doing the Mont Blanc one next year - just to kill myself even more.

Well done to everyone who finished or achieved their goals. It was an incredible day, coming back to work being a real downer.

P.S re travel on the trains - Eurostar and TGV were brilliant, bike bags no problem, service excellent and will certainly travel again by train wherever possible.

greeny12

Abdoujaparov wrote:

My girlfriend did the Mi Marmotte (the one that starts in Valloire and does the Galibier and the Alpe) and had to get the shuttle bus back to Valloire after the race to pick up the car. She texted me to say how she'd got on and that she'd actually cried while climbing the Alpe. Replying to her texts I was pretty much welling up as the combination of physical and mental exhaustion overcame me.

I started sobbing uncontrollably as I approached the top of Galibier, but afterwards I just put that down to the alititude - us hardened cyclists aren't supposed to do such things after all....

Geedo

A truly brutal day in the mountains. My first ride in the Alps and I strangely enjoyed every lung-bursting minute. At 89kg, I wasn't the ideal build but will return next year to beat 10.11.

I heard of two crashes, both on the Galibier. The more serious one sounded higher up quite late in the day. My friend saw a white carbon bike snapped in half, broken helmet further down the road and blood everywhere. Also saw a motorcycle on its side giving a clue to the accident. I hope they were Ok.

I suggest those that don't like the rules of an event simply don't ride it. I spoke to three UK riders all in the top 100 who didn't seem at all bothered with the Glandon descent and simply used the time on their watch. All looking forward to next year.

Abdoujaparov

My time doesn't seem that important after my experience on the alpe (just staying on my bike was the main achievement at that stage), but I did clock 8h17 without the neutralised descent.

I was told that they'd add 30mins to everyone's time for that descent, but they don't seem to have done this. Anyway, that would give me 8h47 which I'm pretty chuffed with given what happened.

Abdoujaparov

sampras38 wrote:

Did Joux Plane and Avoriaz back to back last year and they are not nice. Roughly around 2 hours of climbing, plus we did another 3 on flat roads straight after and I was well and truly cooked. I think the JP took me around 58 minutes.

Last month I was in Bourg for the first time and did Alp Duez 3 times, and bits of the Marmotte route, incl Glandon and Croix De Fer. The scenery just blew me away.

The Joux Plane is my favourite climb that I've done anywhere. Challenging, interesting changes in gradient, beautiful scenery and an incredibly quiet road when I did it. Think only one or two cars went passed in the hour it took me to climb it.

Not sure I did the same first couple of km that they used in the Tour de France though - a book I've got says the start is ok then kicks up, but the start for me was pretty brutal - felt like a 12 per cent average for the first mile.

dodgy

I'm riding the Col de Joux Plane on Saturday (staying nearby), I'm not much of a climber but am in reasonable shape - still full of trepidation for it :shock:

Mattburton

the guy that looked like he was being put in the body bag was on the very end of the galibier decent just before the flat run in onto the alpe. I really do hope he is ok.

forward_loop

Hats off to the two guys who cycled onto the ferry home with us - they cycled down to the marmotte - 150 miles/day (including the A2!!) - and caught the train back.

also the guy with one leg - that is immense. I saw him as I headed down the alpe having finished/eaten. He looked inconsolable whilst resting on one of the bottom hairpins. i do hope he made it. Part of me wanted to stop and offer encouragement - I mean you cant ignore his accomplishment, but what can you say ? without sounding like a twit.

Bad motorbike accident up the telegraph - three bikes weaving out when there was a space between the bikes at full throttle, middle bike lost rear wheel grip hit the bike in front - then the one behind miraculously avoided all cyclists !

25 mins has been added onto my ride time - presume thats for the decent neitralised.

bad decision of the day was wearing a black top and then a bit of heatstroke in the 38 degrees in the valley ! never had such a bad headache. Everyone I rode with lost about 3kg that day.

also - how do they sort through circa 40,000 photos so quickly ? they're all up since lunchtime

Will they publish intermediate stats - there were timing mats al over the place.

IMHO a great event - nicely supported locally, very few cars (and those I caught on the descents let me pass) and v.good value for 50 euros.

I think I will be back next year - I feel as if there is some unfinished business...

dave milne

I managed 7:40 ride time (from my garmin), came through as 7:14 on the results minus the glandon descent. Really chuffed took over 50 minutes off last year's time. Nearly cracked on the alpe but held it together enough to grind to the top.

ju5t1n

I did 09h 18mins, which was 50 minutes faster than last year

... and great to meet up with the OP for lunch

inseine

I did 09h 18mins, which was 50 minutes faster than last year

Great ride Justin. I have to admit that I really suffered but got round, though I was ready to throw it in on the Galibier. Suffered terrible cramps on the Alpe which saw me polaxed to the point where I could move my legs but that point I had to get to the finish.
Next year? No way!

Well done to everyone how did it.

grimpeur

Split times were up last year and a really useful feature,

Looking at http://www.la-marmotte.org/index.php it still has data from last year not from Saturday past.

Does anyone know if this will be available?

Discowheels

Wow well done guys, i thought about doing this earlier in the year but tbh im nowhere near fit enough. Maybe next year

blorg

Discowheels wrote:

Wow well done guys, i thought about doing this earlier in the year but tbh im nowhere near fit enough. Maybe next year

It is a very tough day but very manageable with the right preparation. If you are serious about next year, I would commit now and try to:

Improve fitness over this summer; enter hilly sportives locally. You won't get anything even close, the length just isn't there, but you can also do hill repeats. Also train on the flat. This requires motivation to keep up the effort. 25 mile TTs would be very good training for the climbs in the Marmotte I reckon, they have a similar sustained effort for around the hour as do the climbs there. The problem with trying to train on UK hills is you will get too much recovery. Still worthwhile of course.

If you have never seen climbs of this magnitude before consider going over and trying a few in the early autumn. We went start October 2008 before Marmotte 2009; September would be even better; any later and it would just be too cold and the higher ones start to close (the Galibier had just closed when we were there but we got up it anyway.) The climbs are so difficult on their own that I think this is a very useful stepping stone before the big day; there won't then be anything you haven't seen before, just the heat and the trying to string them all together.

People do it having never been up even one 1,000m climb but I think it is easier if you have been. An alternative to Alps in autumn is Andalucia in December-March; the likes of the Sierra Nevada have passes open at 2,000m while the Alps are snowed over. January it will still be cold up there but doable; March it should be warm.

Don't put on any weight over the winter; keep the fitness ticking over. Don't overdo it and injure yourself.

Increase your training in the new year.

A year is more than enough to prepare for anyone, you just have to set the goal and work towards it.

dave milne

Here's my report from the ride (taken from my club forum). May be interesting but contains a few training tips that appeared to work for me. I would also add, I find it helps being comfortable riding for 6 hours +, doing this a lot helps me feel what rate I can cycle at. For anEnglish sportive I'm prepared to be relatively cavalier with how much effort I'm putting in, not for the Marmotte it's too hard



Marmotte 2010 Report

Last year I had cramp in every muscle fibre of both legs at the top of the Galibier and at the finish. I also bonked on the easy part of the Galibier after going too hard up the telegraph. That left me initially vowing never to put myself through that much pain again so I had a couple of ideas to counter that

Do more hill repeat training to try and get my legs used to grinding at a slow cadence
Fit a larger sprocket at the back to increase cadence at low speeds
Change nutrition strategy to use non-caffeine gels in the middle of the ride as energy top ups
Ride the first half of the ride at a sensible effort

I spent the 2 weekends before going out doing hill repeats on Toys and fitted a 11-29 cassette so I had a big range of gears for climbing and descending. It left a couple of gaps when riding on the flat but there’s very little of that so I thought it a good compromise. With that in mind I thought an 8 hour target was achievable, maybe better if things went well.

We went out a week early with families in tow and I did a couple of spectacular training rides earlier in the week. The Col De La Madeleine was tackled from both sides at high pace and is a brute, 2 days later we did the Col De La Croix De Fer (Same as the Glandon ascent at the Marmotte but with an extra 2.5Km at the top) and then returned to cycle up the alpe. These both went really well and left me feeling quietly confident.

To the day itself, there was the usual frantic start and the great feeling of riding in a massive peleton at speeds up to 30mph. Onto the first climb the Glandon, this time round I was determined not to go too hard in the early part of the race so I would have plenty of strength left at the end. I didn’t let my heart rate go above 160 for the first climb which is in my endurance zone. It was frustrating at times watching riders go past me but it was worth it in the long run. The Glandon passed without incident and then onto the descent. Last year I didn’t enjoy this at all but a bit more practice and this time I was much more relaxed and enjoyed it far more.

The accepted advice for the 15 miles of rolling valley road is to hide in the back of a big group and save your energy. However I found myself in a group of about 10 riders doing “through and off” at about 23-24 mph. I was quite happy to do some work for a good cause. Eventually we hit the foot of the telegraph, last year I bombed up here, this time round again I sat back and didn’t let my heart rate go above 160. It’s a steady 8-9% pretty much the whole way up and I felt reasonably good still. I was stopped by a temporary traffic light at the top which was being enforced by police so no chance of sneaking through there. That took about 5 minutes but c’est la vie. A quick descent into Valloire and straight away you’re hit by a 9% gradient and you’re on the Galibier.

I stopped at the feed stop to refill water and grab a piece of salami and onto the main event. The first half of the Galibier looks flat and isn’t. It’s a steady 8% and again I was keeping my heart rate in check. This was the point I bonked last year but everything was going well this time round. I passed the time chatting to a London Dynamo rider. After you reach Plan Lachet the madness begins, the gradient rears up to 9-10% and you climb up a sheer cliff wall, I finally decided it was time to “let loose” a little and allowed my heart rate to creep up to 170. This part of the climb seems to go on for miles, you can see the top for ages. I was definitely starting to feel a little less sure of myself now but no major drama. I reached the top with 5:20 on the clock and feeling ok. Last year I hit it at 5:30 and was slowing down drastically.

A quick stop at the support to grab a couple of bottles and gels, ditched my arm warmers and onto the descent. The first part of the descent on the Galibier itself is great fun if you’re in the mood. There was some water run-off where you had to be a bit careful but a good time was had. On to the Lauteret and the first few miles are still pretty quick. After the descent started to flatten out there was a really strong head wind and I was with just one other rider and was beginning to think it was going to be hard work to make good progress. At this point a group of about 5-6 riders flew past so we both put in a huge effort to get on the back. This was a good strategy and I managed to sit on the back of this group all the way to the bottom. Flying through the tunnels in part of a group at high speed was very exhilarating. The group splintered just after the bottom and I was in the back half so we had to do some hard work to catch up to the front again.

Finally the alpe, I was feeling ok and stopped at the bottom for a piss. At this point I still harboured thoughts of flying up at the pace I had earlier in the week but as soon as I hit the first ramp at 12% in the searing heat I realised it was a case of survival. I had lasted pretty well up to this point but not a lot left in the tank now. I ditched my helmet at the support and crept up the climb. The heat was immense it seems to bounce off the roads back at you. A bottle containing just water that I had in my support bag helped a lot though. I ended up briefly chatting to a guy who lives in Sevenoaks that I had chatted to the previous year. He knew Dave Churchill and had heard of Andy Colvin’s reputation. I was beginning to really struggle now and stopped before bend 7. A rider from the group I was descending the Galibier with came past and shouted encouragement to me which really helped. I got back on the bike and pushed on. I started to recover a bit and the gradient eased a little. I knew I was going to make it now without having to stop again. The hairpins counted down surprisingly quickly. Onto the last flat section, but it in the big ring and gave it everything I had to sprint to the line. My wife and daughter were waiting with a cold can of coke J

Finished in 7h 41 according to my Garmin an improvement of 53 minutes and I didn’t get cramp. Goals achieved.

Will I do it again? I think 7:30 or even 7:20 is achievable but the amount of work in training and on the day to get that is a little daunting. With a 8 month old daughter I’m not sure about the wisdom of trying to commit that much time to training so I will have to seriously think about it.

The rest of the day was enjoyed watching the riders stream past our chalet. I think anyone who comes and attempts this is a hero, John, Mike & Hugh have shown you don’t have to be in the fast group to do this. Every cyclist should look to get this on their palmeres at some point.

stagger

As a first timer I thought the Marmotte was a fantastic day out. Great organisation and a good excuse for a weeks holiday in a lovely spot

Hard though, 10.5 hr overall inc glandon down, had to stop a bit longer/more often than i was hoping to due to the heat and back pain but very pleased to have survived it.

Interestingly i found the glandon the worst- had a terrible time on it. After that it got better and was just hard graft, particularly the top bit of the galibier (with the views making up for it).

I rode 30x27 and 30x24 mainly and found that whilst this was generally fine, surprisingly an extra gear would have been useful on the steeper sections, particularly on the glandon as my fkd knees werent warmed up and I wanted to spin a higher cadence.

A friend cycling with me did about the same time as me using mountain/touring bike gearing- she span all the hills in the granny at high cadence and was comfortable all day.

IainHounsell

I did the Marmotte for the first time this year, 8:46 by my watch including several feed stops.

Had a great time :-) Climbing was fantastic as I was going really well and passed hundreds of people (had a high number so started late), descending also fun and fast. No issues at all with any traffic.

Did get severe cramp descending the Galibier and on D'huez which cost me about 20 minutes, I think that was more to do with not being there early enough to get used to the heat. My bike was great (I've been building a Cervelo R3SL with Campag record) and my weight loss (got down to 60kgs) really helped.

But all in all, a great time with some mates was had!