26 August 2011 Summer Entry #28 Hello Haute Route Day Six

Next Stop Auron

La Haute Route 2011 - 'Ghost Town'

Pra Loup > Auron 

Weather - Cold + Hot - 11-23C

Stats

Time 3:23:22

Distance 74.89km

Elevation 2,057m

Avg Speed 22.1km/h

Max HR 166 bpm

Avg HR 131 bpm

Winning Time 2:09:23 - footage of them ascending Col de la Bonette (Y’day day 5 ... sorry forgot -  3:40:25) 

Results can be found here ... don’t worry I still don’t know how I’m doing!

The official review of the Haute Route Stage from today is below.  Also, to see video footage from each days stage at the Haute Route check here, there is some great footage. 

Food - Breakfast this morning, outstanding, cereal, fruit, chocolate donuts and juice. Enough to fill some of the holes in my legs. I did wake up at 4:30 this morning and was hungry, nothing like eating a Grany at that time of the morning - please note that a Grany is a type of cake. 

Weather - spectacular, perfect weather for a 75k ride. Then again there was quite a bit of wind when getting close to the top of Cime de la Bonette, thank goodness for riding in a pack, even when climbing a hill. 

Mode of Transport - Ferrari F430 which was seen on the descent from Cime de la Bonette - unfortunately it wasn’t actually moving just sitting there on the side of the road. I didn’t have a chance to take a photo as the descent from Cime de la Bonette is just amazingly fast! Speaking of which, I can honestly say that I’m not the best descender but I do ok but when you have other riders/racers FLY by you, even on blind corners, you feel a taken aback. Then again after hearing that there were a few accidents on the descent, I’m happy to say that I rode within my capabilities.  The other one is the Cannondale v Cannondale this morning, CAAD 2 v CAAD 10 - classic!

Conversation - afternoon snack, crepe, in Auron with my roomie Gregor, T-Rex (German) and Raging Bull (English) about life in general. Topics included architecture, benefits of music while exercising - should it be illegal, benefits of jam on performance, hair and history. BTW T-Rex and Raging Bull are their war riding names.

Animal - hmm a tough one today, I still haven’t seen a marmot. I know that others have seen them, including at the top of Cime de la Bonette this morning but alas I’ve still not been able to see one. The hunt continues. 

What else of note - The army barracks/turrets that are on Cime de la Bonette are great. On the ascent and descent you turrets and some dilapidated barracks. Then on the flying descent you go through another mini village, very ghost town-ish. I should have stopped to take some pictures but it was one of those things, going 60+ and trying to stop isn’t really part of ‘racing’. 

Parting thought of the day/blog: Tomorrow is the last day of the 2011 Haute Route, it is hard to believe but time is running out. I look back at the photos and it seems like weeks ago that we started in Geneva. I guess that is the case when you pack as much ‘fun’ into a week. Plenty of k’s, col’s and conversations with some truly fantastic people - bring on the 2012 Haute Route.

A summation of the day from the organisers:

What Claude Droussent, French cycling specialist, says about Stage 6

STAGE 6 - PRA LOUP TO AURON

“Enjoy... if you still can! The Cime de la Bonette, its 25 kilometres of ascent from Jausiers, its 2802 meters high making it the highest road in Europe and the ‘roof’ of the Haute Route is all yours! Especially the breathtaking scenery in an incredible silence in the heart of the Mercantour National Park. The Galibier is stunning, the Bonette even more so. A world of its own...

But you have to work for it. You’ll often face 8-9% slopes but you will also have to be able to ‘rest’ on the long sections at 5%. The Bonette showcases irregular slopes. You should expect two hours of ascent, a little bit more if you want to enjoy the surroundings. It is even better than a good performance here. And this way, you can also save some energy because even if there are only 78 kilometres on that day to reach Auron, the final ascent has a 8-9% gradient...”

Main feature of Stage 6

• Start in Pra Loup, Friday 26th August at 08:30 
• Arrival in Auron between 11:25 and 13:40 
• 78 km overall, 59 km timed • 2300 metres of ascent / 2300 metres of descent
• 1 full refreshment station at the Cime de la Bonette 

• 1 refreshment station after the finish line

2 ascents on the menu of Stage 6

• Cime de la Bonette, 2802 metres high, summit 43 km from the start - 4 times in TdF

• Final ascent to Auron, arrival at 1600 meters high

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A little about Will Levy, la Haute Route and twowheeltours.com.au

TWT, mtnbike.com.au and bike shuttle.com.au are three companies based out of Sydney that offer road and mountain bike trips from Sydney to Canberra, New Zealand and Europe. We also transport/shuttle bikes to various races around Australia including the Noosa Triathlon and the Tour Down Under.
Will is taking part of the Haute Route Race in 2011, an innovative, prestigious and international cyclosportive with a unique concept: link Geneva to Nice by road bike in 7 timed consecutive stages on a legendary race course taking on 15 mythical cols and ascents of the Alps whilst covering 730 km.
twowheeltours.com.au will be at the Haute Route again in 2012 - we will be providing logistical support for riders, and their non riding partners, from Australia and New Zealand. This will include early arrival and pickup from Geneva Airport or CFF train station. Riders and their non riding partners will have first class accommodation on the lead up the race. During the race, non riders will have a bilingual guide taking them to daily activities. The trip will conclude with an extra two days, again in first class accommodation in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais.