Who's doing the Marmotte,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!