Jean Pierre Papin Cyclosportif - June 12, 2010

This was the first edition of this sportif. Jean Pierre Papin is a famous French footballer who set up a sportif to promote his charity Neuf de Couer (Nine of Hearts). This one took place 1hrs drive from the house, on the other side of Geneva in France on the way to Chamonix. The start was on the road to Morzine. I thought this one would be a little easier than the Time Megéve the previous weekend but the distance and climbing was about the same at 120kms and 2900m of climbing. There were two distances but all 810 started at the same time which made for a pretty hairy first 20kms or so. Luckily the climbs started shortly after that and the mass of cyclists filtered out. I managed to work my way to front and crossed the first time check in 9th place. The real climbing started shortly after that and I couldn't hold the pace. The main climb the Col de Remaz was a brute. I think it was this one where Joseba Beloki had his career ending crash in the 2005 Tour and Lance famously rode cross country unscathed. The event ended on a 10km climb. I was pretty wasted at the end but managed 40th out of 387 that rode the long course and was 13th out of 187 in the 40-49 age group so I was pretty happy.

Time Megéve June 6 2010

Did this one again except I did the medium course this year. I was trying for a fast time to test my fitness and I was quite surprised and pleased to finish in 4hrs 19min for 91st place out of 987 that rode the same course.

The medium course was still 120kms and 3000m of climbing. My Polar said 116kms and 2810m of climbing at the finish. 4 tough Tour de France climbs were ridden.

There was a little more than 1200 people on the line for the 8.30am start. They dropped the flag and away we all went on a slightly downhill 10kms towards the first climb, the Col d'Avaris. This brute was roughly 12kms of climbing at 5% average grade. The road totally packed side to side with cyclists all grinding their way up. Then a long fast hair raising 20km descent with switchbacks, crazy cyclist and rough pavement to the base of the Col de la Croix Fry, then up 12.6kms of 6.6% average or 50 minutes of suffering. Then a slight drop and up again to the col de Aravis then a long fast descent towards the base of the Col de Saisies. It was near the base of the descent that I came towards a tight corner, two course marshals with safety vests were peering over the stone wall into the gorge below, then I noticed a red Cannondale leaning against the low wall. Holy shit I thought, no way !! 2 minutes later the road turned upward to the Col de Saisies, then after a couple minutes of climbing the wail of sirens started in the valley below. I didn't find out until the next morning speaking to a friend at work who'd also rode that someone had died on that corner, apparently a guy from Switzerland got stuck in a rut in the pavement at 80km/hr, fell, slid towards the wall and dropped 80m into the gorge below. No prize cerrimony and all the festivities were closed at the end of the ride. Really, really terrible but with the open roads, really bad pavement, high speeds, tight corners and closely grouped cyclists I honestly can't believe it doesn't happen more often. There was a minutes silence the following weekend at the next event that was VERY VERY moving and sad.
Here's a link to some photos of the location of the incident.
http://www.velovelo.com/article.php3?id_article=7356

Tour du Leman

The Tour du Leman is a 180 km tour around Lac Leman or Lake Geneva. It started in Lausanne and went clockwise around the lake into France for 80kms then back into Switzerland, through Geneva at roughly the half way point and then finished the circle back to Lausanne. You could start between 6.30 and 7.30am. I started just after 7.00am. They waited until there were 30-50 or so people on the line then let us go in groups. The weather was forecasting rain all day and was quite surprised to see so many people starting. As soon as my small group set off a handfull of faster guys started to move to the front and the pace never really let off from there. Of course I could have sat up any time but my goal was to see what kind of time I could do. The rain started right after the start and poured down quite heavily as our small group of 5 or 6 whipped through the small town that are closely packed on the lake shore outside Lausanne. I flogged myself around the 180km course in 4.57 and was quite pleased to finish 77th out of 987 starters for an average of 36.2km/hr.

Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) 2010

This was a three day trip to Belgium to see the Tour of Flanders and ride the cyclosportif over the course the day before the pro race. I flew from Geneva to Brussels but my bike didn't make the flight. Had to wait around the airport for 3hrs until the next flight from Geneva. Turned out to be not all bad as I was waiting in the baggage pick up as Fabian Cancellara walked in and sat beside me. I wished him luck for sunday found my bike and grabbed the train to Gent. I toured around Gent the first evening.




I signed up with a British tour company and met them at the hotel. They drove about 40 of us to the start of the cyclosportif on Saturday morning. The weather was forecasted to be grim. We all piled out of the coach, put our bikes together and headed to the sign-on. Very simple, collect your number, put it on your bars and join the other 13000 people riding. There was three distances, the full pro 250kms, 150kms and 75kms. All three routes took in all 15 of bergs that make the race famous. The rain started to fall 20 minutes into the ride and fell off and on all day. The temperature was a pretty chilly 10-12 degrees all day.





I rode the 150km course. The race is famous for the various climbs that pepper the final 75kms. The Mollenberg, Oude Kwaremont, Kapelmuur and the Bosberg but I found the 5 sections of flat cobblestones the nastiest.

Oetztaler Radmarathon - August 30th

August 30th, Start / Finish: Sölden Austria

http://www.oetztaler-radmarathon.com/

238kms, 5500m of climbing. A loop through the Oetzal alps, past Innsbruck, briefly into Italy and back to Sölden. This one is so popular there is a lottery to get in.

After the Marmotte in July my enthusiasm took a kicking. I was regretting signing up for this one as I had to keep some sort of fitness for another 6 weeks as this was to be the longest ride I'd ever done. I hadn't perused the course in detail until the night before. The final climb to the Timmeljoch Pass (2509m): 28.7kms of climbing with an average grade of 8%, climbing 1759m?! That's something like 14 consecutive times up Cochrane hill after already doing 180kms and 3700m of climbing !! Luckily, somehow, it didn't seem that nasty.

I finished in 9.33, 1029th out of 3900. Everyone had a timing chip attached to their number that was then mounted on the handlebars. My computer at the finish said 8.33hrs. It wasn't until I received an email with my various splits over the 4 climbs did I realize I had spent an hour at the various rest stops. My climbing splits were between 500-550th for each of the 4 climbs so I was surprised that my fitness was still pretty good.

It started at 6.45am. All 3700 people on the line. I was lined up more than 1km from the line. Everyone had a number on their back with their name on it. Mostly Germans, Austrians and Italians. Only 3 Canadians, with one finisher (yes!).


The first 30kms were all downhill then boom, in the town of Oetz, first roundabout and the road shot up at 12% and continued for another 18kms at an average of 8%, the road was packed with cyclists. One great thing about this sportif, all the roads were closed to traffic.

On the finish line I told Marlen to remind me I said "never again" but I just saw a sportif the day after the Tour of Lombardia (Oct17) on the same course....well, one more? I can't let my fitness go to total waste.

The organization was excellent, every finisher got a 2009 öztal jersery, öztal bidon, certificate, pasta party, poster, energy gels and free massage.

Le Marmotte Cyclosportif

This is the big one. They capped the entries one week before at 7000. Loads of Brits, Dutch etc. all wanting to test themselves on the legendary TDF climbs in the Alps. 5000m of climbing, 175kms and 4 monster TDF classic climbs. Almost 70kms of climbing. Anything under 8hrs is reckoned to be a good time. All the roads were open to traffic making the descents very hairy. Had to ride down from L'alpe d'Heuz in the morning to the startline with tons of others. Saw some guy in the ditch with an ambulance siren coming in the distance, fack. There were three start waves, I was in the last. Took 20 min just to cross the line cause there were so many people. Passed people all day long. The road was completely filled with cyclists and I was never more than 50m from someone at all times even whilst descending at 70km/hr. After 6.5hrs saw a sign for 15km to the finish, normally this would take 20 min. 13 of those were a constant 8% up L'alpe d'Heuz. There were people flaked out all over the place in the heat. Afterwards, I said never again. Marlen laughed as I'd said the exact same thing last year.

Start: Bourg d'Oisian at the base of Alpe d'Heuz
Climbs:

Col du Glandon, 24kms of climbing, 1150m gain, ave 5% grade

Col de Télégraphe, 12kms of climbing, 850m gain, ave 7.3% grade


Col de Galibier, 18kms of climbing, 1245m gain, ave 6.9% grade
L'Alpe d'Heuz, 13.2kms of climbing, 1070m gain, ave 8.1% grade

The majority of the these events are within 1-3hrs of our house. You can sign on, on the morning for most of them. They are all mass start or in waves for the really popular ones.

Here's a few of the sportif calendars:

France:
http://www.velo101.com/cyclosport/calendrier.asp

http://www.cyclosport.com/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=38

Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany
http://www.radmarathon.at/index.php?rmlang=en