Tour du Mont Blanc.

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Comments

  • mamba80
    mamba80 Posts: 5,032
    You are all mental! So good luck!
    i spoke to a guy from Devon who is doing this for the 2nd time, i believe? so he really is a nutter - he rides a Thomson Cappella (a Belgium make) which must have the most gorgeous paint work on a std bike i ve ever seen, if you see him, tell him the R7200 is built and ready to go :)
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    So... best day of your life or you bit more than you could chew?
    I know my friend John looped it in just over 15 hours
    left the forum March 2023
  • marc9926
    marc9926 Posts: 20
    Awesome day for me, not quite 15 hrs, probably nearer 16hrs riding without the stops. Well worth all the effort, all I wanted was to get to the finish line, it couldn't have gone much better :D
  • KKB
    KKB Posts: 28
    For me, it was a little of 'bite off more than you can chew', although having said that, I fully understood what was in store as far as the enormity of the event, and I may do things slightly differently NEXT time. :)
    I made 5 of the 7 cols and JUST back into France(top of Petit St Bernard) but was totally spent even though my nutrition/hydration plan worked pretty well I thought, just nothing left in the legs.
    Might have to go on the Wiggo diet for the next time.
    Marc, it was great to meet you and Kev on the Grand Bernard climb(small world isn't it) and congrats again on your finish. The scenery was fantastic and although disappointed I didn't finish, I really did enjoy the day. It's not that often that you talk about coming back to an event on the same day that it's just 'smacked you in the face'!!

    Les Saisies really is a special little place and we look forward to returning. Back to Oz from Frankfurt tonight to pay for this trip for the next year!!
  • marc9926
    marc9926 Posts: 20
    Likewise Phill, it was great to meet you and your wife, I'm sure next time you'll get the result you want. Dont forget as well at least you were there giving it your best shot. I bet a lot of peoiple who'd talked the talk never even got to the start line to try and walk the walk! All the best for next time. I'd love to go and give naother go one day but at the moment its not the day that scares me its doing all that training again to get there :!: But you never know :lol:
  • madeinleeds
    madeinleeds Posts: 41
    Possibly interested in this for next year. Know I can do the distance and the time in the saddle as done longer, but the climbing aspect is significantly more than done in a day. In terms of training for it, how much climbing per week were you doing ? Cheers
  • marc9926
    marc9926 Posts: 20
    It was very hard to train for the climbs as I live in a pan flat part of the country. It's difficult full stop as the climbs here are nothing like those on the day. All I tried to do was get in the hours in the saddle and do hill reps as best as I could with what I had around my home. There certainly was no science involved just a lot of riding. If you live in a hilly part of the country that would help but there's a difference between a mile of 25% and 25km of 7%. It's well worth the effort, a brilliant event.
  • madeinleeds
    madeinleeds Posts: 41
    Cheers. Just got off the back of training for a 24 hour event so have some idea of the training required for these things, though that one was considerably flatter! Off to Chamonix in a couple of weeks, with bike, so will check out a bit of the route and see what I make of it.
  • madeinleeds
    madeinleeds Posts: 41
    Rode a very little bit of the route when I was in Chamonix last week, over the Col des Montets but then went up the climb to Lac Emosson instead of descending down La Forclaz. How good are your descending skills ? Mine are poor, I love climbing, but not as big a fan going down. I stopped a couple of times coming down from Emosson (2000m) due to hot rims and didn't want any blow out. We went down Forclaz in the car the day after and that looked like a beast of a descent.

    Have to say respect for doing this, still tempted, but after doing my ride in Chamonix, and also knocking off Mt Ventoux earlier in the holiday, can see how hard this ride must be with back to back big climbs.
  • KKB
    KKB Posts: 28
    You're right, the descent off Forclaz in to Martigny is a 'cracker'. Some nice long straight bits where you can take a few cars on the way down and only a couple of hairpins, although the next climb (Champex Pass), brings you back to reality!
    I'm sure if you work on your descending skills and learn to relax(upper body especially), you'll find it a lot of fun and not something to 'fear'. It's funny to hear someone say they love climbing, but not descending. I think the main reason I climb IS to descend.
    One of the first rides I did over there this year was the 3 sides of Ventoux in a day, and absolutely loved it! It was tough of course, not being 'built' for climbing made it a 10+ hour ride and I thought it was a good training ride for Mont Blanc.
    It's been nearly a month now since TdMB but seems like a year! These 'hills' here in Aust just don't cut it... Can't wait to get back there. :(
  • marc9926
    marc9926 Posts: 20
    I'm like you, better at going up than coming down. As a day out it is pretty hard, but by no means impossible and is well worth it. I've done a load of sportives here and also a few over there including the marmotte twice and the mont blanc was head and shoulders above them all. I couldn't recommend it highly enough, as long as you're in good shape. The I e thing I would say is, this year the weather was superb but if you get a bad I can see it being a very long, very grim day out.

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