AD6 Thread

meanredspider

Well, I'm finally home to Amsterdam (Scotland tomorrow to return the V to its natural habitat)

Here's the ride on Garmin Connect

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/515144556#

(and, for those who like detail, here's to ride to the start (leaving at 3.40AM) http://connect.garmin.com/dashboard?cid=925177 )

I'll do a bit of a write-up tomorrow after some sleep!

meanredspider

Wow - where to begin? I suppose in the build-up. The last month of my preparation didn't really go well. A week (9 days in reality) in China at the beginning of May wasn't ideal but I thought I could put in some hard training afterwards. Instead, on a trip back to see the family, they passed on the bug they'd all had. I didn't really feel well again until the first day in the Alps.

It's a long trip to the Alpe. I caught the train to Eindhoven Saturday afternoon and met up with the rest of the Philips team on Sunday morning. A 10-hour drive sharing the driving of a Golf and Merc Sprinter van (thank you Hertz) gave us the first glimpse of the mountains. All the way down we passed Dutch vehicles carrying AD6 logos - it really is an utter invasion.

The team was made up of a wide variety of people with very different ages and fitness levels as well as experience of AD6. Apart from the day itself, I was the only non-Dutch person on our team. In fact, AD6 in general is very Dutch (it's almost impossible to sign up without access to a Dutch bank account and everything is in Dutch only). I learned a lot about Dutch culture! It was fun though. We were staying at a rented chalet 10k from the start in a remote spot in the valley. Very basic but nice enough. The owners insisted on sharing their homemade cider and calvados - very friendly.

On the Monday morning I did one trial ride up the hill to test out my pacing and the bike. Worth doing because I had all sorts of issues with the Stages talking to the Garmin 1000 - no idea why. I also had real problems with the TRP HyRd front caliper (I run BB7 on the back) initially, I thought, because the bike shop who had done a once-over on the bike had set it up wrong. Anyhow, by the time I got back to the chalet I had no front brakes. Anyhow, at something around my target HR (slightly above) and target power (also slightly above at around 210-220W) the climb was around 1:30:00.

The next couple of days were rest days. I went into town to hunt out some sintered Shimano-fitment pads for the front caliper in the hope that they would wear less quickly and in the knowledge that the forecast rain was no longer expected to arrive. I could only get organic pads so I bought 3 sets. I also found the set-up issue where the bike shop had adjusted the cable so that the caliper lever couldn't fully return so no auto-adjustment. I also sorted out the power meter issue and abandoned the Edge 1000 and reverting to the 800 for the real work of power and HR measurement.

I had a dreadful night's sleep the night before the ride. I went to bed early and fell asleep quickly but was woken by the rest of the team when they headed to bed and then couldn't get back to sleep. By 3am, when we rose, I reckon I'd slept 2 hours. At 3.40am we set off for Bourg and the start, joining more and more riders as we entered the village. We were in the 5th "cage" of riders. There was a real atmosphere of anticipation and some anxiety but good spirits. It seemed to take ages of shuffling forward before we were finally released onto the hill at some time after 5am. I'd left my HRM in the bag of stuff (food, clothes and spares) in our support van that had spent the night at the top of the hill - a schoolboy error.

The first climb was pretty crowded with quite some excited chatter and the sound of chains. I was focussing very rigidly onto my plan: 200-ish watts all the way. Our team slowly split as everyone paced themselves. There was already a fair bit of support and music playing. It was fantastic as the sun started to catch the tops of the mountains opposite that were wreathed with cloud. I considered stopping to take pics but I was sure others would and I was sticking to the plan. It got colder and colder as we reached the top (my Garmin recorded 0C as a minimum - reports were that it had been -4C overnight and ice on the van. There was fresh snow on the peak). I pulled into our feed stop to hear that I was the last of our group to arrive. I grabbed a bit of food and rejoined the course.

The first descent was bloody cold. Theoretically there was a 45kmh speed limit on the hill. It was pretty clear that it wasn't really being enforced. The hill is open with vehicles going up and down being escorted by motorbikes. Being stuck behind these gives the brakes a right hammering as they go through the hairpins much slower than I would. At the bottom, the effects of the descent were apparent with people being given medical treatment for the cold. Apparently one lady crashed and wrecked a guy's bike because she could no longer feel her fingers to brake! I took a leak and set off for climb 2, now wearing my HRM.

I enjoyed climbs 2 and 3 the most. I probably went a little bit too hard (creeping up to around 220W and 150+bpm - the HR is higher than it should be due to the poor May). It was great once the sun came up as the temperature came up with it and I could shed the leg warmers and some layers.

I'll throw in a little bit here about the emotional side. At every hairpin there are candles lit for those lost love ones and, at many, there are banners remembering them too. I have to admit to getting pretty emotional myself at times - thinking about those friends I've lost and how tough some of this has been. I'd stuck a bit of tape on my crossbar with the names of those I was doing this for as a bit of added inspiration when it started to get tough. This event is all about cancer - the motto of AD6 translates as "Giving up is not an option"

On the upbeat side, there's lots of support on the hill. There's nothing like some great pumping tune and people calling out your name (from your ID plate) to drive you on. I can't say I enjoyed the Dutch "funny" tunes that were being played at some though! At several points up the hill there was also water and, later in the day, wet sponges, being handed out. Very welcome. There's also a very quiet bit from about turn 16 up to around turn 9 - that I found quite mentally tough later in the day with very few landmarks. Bizarrely, there was a small plastic cog on the road and I think I spotted it every time. Even things like the bus stop at turn 12 became very welcome.

My time plan shaped out a bit like this for the later climbs once I knew how long everything was taking. Start each climb at 7am 9.30am, midday, 2.30, 5.00 - roughly broken down into 1.30+ for the climb to food. The remainder of the 2 hours for food, drink, rest and bike maintenance then do the top loop and descent in the last half hour. Eating anything like enough, especially as it got hot, was really tough. I'd bought a range of different foods but didn't much fancy them after around the 3rd climb. Drinking was equally difficult. I'd planned to alternate Zero tabs with diluted Coke (successful previously) but, on climb 4 I could start to feel cramp readying itself to strike so I just stuck to the Zero tabs which seemed to work. My Garmin recorded a peak temperature of 33C.

Back to the brakes and other kit. For whatever reason, even adjusted per instruction, my HyRd brakes simply weren't self adjusting. After two descents, I basically had used up all the lever travel so I swapped pads each time knowing that at least I'd have 2 more descents each time. I need to investigate this. The Edge 1000 had been relegated just to tracking duties with everything else switched off. My iPhone was nearly dead at the top of climb 4 and so I carried a Power Monkey up climb 5 charging the phone. Unfortunately the 1000 packed in at the same time. The 800, doing the real work, lasted most of the day. It stopped talking to the Stages about an hour after the low battery warning but did at least record the ride. The 1000 may well go back as it falls very short of the claims. Clothes-wise I dumped the AD6 shorts after the first climb and swapped to the trusty Assos. I did the same with the jersey after climb 3 though swapped back for the final climb. I think I wore long fingered gloves for climbs 1&2 and for the 3rd descent - Rapha mitts for the rest of the day and my pink Rapha socks for the day. Gearing was ok: 33-30 worked ok though even shorter for the final few steep bits would have been nice. In fact, I did the final climb start in the 28 cog (I was too knackered to notice!) . Lots of people running triples.

Climbs 4, 5 and 6 got progressively harder. My schedule started to slip a bit and I started climb 6 at 5.30. By this time I was running on empty and could also feel dehydration looming too even though I was drinking all I could manage. On climb 4 I'd stopped to open an energy bar and noticed that the really short break gave me a real boost. I'd did a couple of tactical stops on climb 5 and around 4 or 5 (including queueing for water) on climb 6. Climb 6 was really tough. My energy was totally depleted. I had a bag of jelly beans in my crossbar bag and I popped one as often as I could. With 3 or 4 turns to go, I forced down a gel and I wish I'd done it earlier. Within a few minutes I could feel the effects and it helped drive me to the top actually feeling a bit more human. I rolled into our stop area where we'd agreed to meet up as a team for a team finish only to find our van deserted and locked!!! My image of a can of Red Bull I'd held in my head for half of the last climb popped! Not only that, but the temperature was beginning to plummet. I wasn't happy! I hung around for a minute hoping somebody with a van key would appear but nobody! Nothing for it but to finish.

As I was riding through the tunnel, I heard my name called and one of my team mates appeared. He'd been running up the hill but had decided to try the last one on a bike. He said he was feeling bad and he looked pretty bad too. I said I'd push him but had nothing left either. He told me he'd meet me after the line so I carried on.

The cheering at the line was amazing - I was laughing (with relief) and crying (with raw emotion) at the same time. Amazing.

I waited after the line but my team mate didn't appear. Eventually I was so cold, I headed back to the van and fortunately he was there sitting in the cab. He eventually had medical treatment (his body temperature had dropped to 35C) with a saline drip doing the trick. I was cold, drained and totally baggered. But very happy to have done it. My other team mates rolled in over time. One other guy (a Swiss guy about 20 years younger than me I should add) in our team (who turned up for the day then left) also did 6 whilst most of the other make riders did 5. The runners did 3 plus a bike ride (I'm in awe of them - though they said they were actually overtaking bikes up the steep bit (they don't run down BTW)).

I've lots more to add about the day outside of my ride but I hope that it gives you some feel for it. I'll try posting some pics when I can.

menthel

Awesome write up and inspiring achievement! Really need to get serious about lejog next year.

veronese68

Wow, I'm not surprised to read that it was hard. But that really did drive home the insanity of the whole thing. I think insanity has been mentioned whilst discussing this.
Once again, bloody well done that really is one hell of an achievement. I guess that's the toughest one you've done.
Interesting about the brakes, did the heat cause that? That must be the toughest test for a brake.
More importantly how is Charlie's pelvis, any news?

greg66_tri_v2.0

Bloody hell. That has the whole gamut of brutality, pain, suffering, achievement, elation and celebration.

Fantastic work. Definitely one for the CC annals/hall of fame.

meanredspider

Waiting for the specialists to determine what to do with Charlie, V68 - thanks

meanredspider

The brake is an odd one. With new pads it was fine - no sponginess and great braking - but once the pads wore down, they no longer had the stroke in them to brake effectively. I'd set them up using the stop pin as per the instructions so I don't know what was happening. Once the bike is home, I'll take a closer look. The BB7 on the back was fine though. It was quite funny doing a two-tone siren braking with the different squeal from front and rear.

I loved the descents - I've always been quick but the corners added a lot of hard braking, tipping the bike in and apexing. I'd love to do it on a clear day. There were a few popped tyres about but not as many as I was expecting. I don't think there were any serious accidents which is amazing because some people really didn't have a clue and even some if the faster guys didn't seem to have any awareness of what was around them.

I'm at Schiphol now - computers have been having problems - flight delayed. Pita

Colinthecop

That's a great write up.... I think you're mad but well done regardless.

meanredspider

Colinthecop wrote:

That's a great write up.... I think you're mad but well done regardless.

Some people do a marathon before they're 50 - with 6 months to go, this was my "marathon"

itboffin

I hope your fellow crazy fools weren't as bad as the Dutch numpties on the Marmotte and Amstel Gold, seriously stupid total lack of awareness of riding in large groups on open roads.

very scary and came close the spoiling both events for me

meanredspider

itboffin wrote:

I hope your fellow crazy fools weren't as bad as the Dutch numpties on the Marmotte and Amstel Gold, seriously stupid total lack of awareness of riding in large groups on open roads.

very scary and came close the spoiling both events for me

They weren't too bad - just a little unaware at times. I was taking no risks with them though.

BTW - I love the elevation profile the ride created

mpdouglas

An outstanding effort. Really well done. It's got me thinking about the Maratona which is only 4 weeks away now.

The elevation chart is super cool - I'd love to also see it with the axis set to time rather than distance just to see how the efforts over the day took their toll!

pblakeney

mpdouglas wrote:

An outstanding effort. Really well done. It's got me thinking about the Maratona which is only 4 weeks away now.

The elevation chart is super cool - I'd love to also see it with the axis set to time rather than distance just to see how the efforts over the day took their toll!

Click on "time" under the elevation chart.
It makes for an even more impressive saw profile chart.
And no diminishing effort, regardless of how Mr. MRS felt. Outstanding effort!

meanredspider

Ahead of the ride - I'm skinnier and more battered now

the_fuggler

Brilliant write-up - inspiring stuff!

veronese68

Looking a bit less Daddy Pig there MRS. Have you fully recovered yet?

Koncordski

Chapeau!

meanredspider

Veronese68 wrote:

Looking a bit less Daddy Pig there MRS. Have you fully recovered yet?

Still a bit to lose, V68, but 10kg lighter than Daddy Pig. I'm nearly recovered. It's the lack of the sleep that's been hard: 2 hours the night before the ride, 5 hours the night after, then I didn't get back to AMS until 1am or so which cut short my sleep that night too - but I'm not bad now. I could have contemplated the bike today. I'm going to get back to riding my bike for enjoyment without feeling any pressure - maybe work a bit on speed now rather than endurance. And the car racing season starts in July with Cadwell.

cambs

Wonderful, congratulations!

Kieran_Burns

I don't know what the fuss is about, I'm doing 1808ft of climbing over my 102 mile sportive in a couple of weeks...

meanredspider

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I don't know what the fuss is about, I'm doing 1808ft of climbing over my 102 mile sportive in a couple of weeks...

We are not worthy to share this forum with you, KB

meanredspider

Just had a response from TRP about my brake issue. Apparently I have the first generation HyRd and they want to replace it under warranty through the UK distributor.

essex-commuter

Massive congratulations and what an amazing effort!

Having ridden AD twice I can imagine what you were going through. It's an amazing climb.