23 August 2011 #25 Hello Haute Route Day Three

Next Stop La Salle-les-Alpes

La Haute Route 2011 - Cable car to the bottom from Les Arcs

Tuesday 23rd August 2011

St Maurice > La Salle les Alpes 

Weather - HOT - 13-35C

Stats Time

Distance 166.8 km

Elevation 4,032 km

Avg Speed 21.5 km/h

Max HR 155 bpm

Avg HR 129 bpm

Winning Time 4:21:50 - two finished together 

The official review of the Haute Route Stage Three from the organizers is below.

Food - YOP - ready to drink yogurt - settled the stomach and was a great start to the day. 

Weather - one word, again and again, HOT! It was 35C today! It also rained on the way down from Galibier ... quite strange.

Mode of Transport - team work when riding 20k into the wind along a valley. Great to have 9 riders all ride in pace-line. Well then again, we were together for 18k then the poor guy in front touched wheels and had a fall. He was okay, ripped some skin off and we watched the rest of the riders head off into the distance. 

Conversation - I feel ashamed that I caused so much grief today. On the climb to Col de la Madeleine, not an easy one, you could see exactly where we were headed, up. Mavic is one of the major sponsors and it has a HUGE yellow van on tour. I found it amusing that you could see it go up, up, up and UP, a little like a beacon, pointing it out was not appreciated as much as I thought. 

Animal - not an animal today, it was the man made of hay at the top of Col du Télégraphe.

What else of note: Today was EPIC, yesterday I finished with many of my new friends, today we were climbing up Col du Galibier and I had to let them go. My legs just wouldn’t go any more, did I also mention that it was hot!? It was an early start, up at 4:45am, pretty tough to move at that point and plenty dark - check the photo, almost funny.

 

Parting thought of the day/blog: Riding is fun, yes today was hard but I didn’t sign up for a flat, always with the wind ride/race. Tomorrows Individual Time Trial has already been labelled ‘a wall’ - 12k - pretty much straight up with no respite! Wish me luck.

A summation of the day from the organisers:

What Claude Droussent, French cycling specialist, says about Stage 3

STAGE 3 - BOURG-ST-MAURICE - SERRE CHEVALIER

What Claude Droussent, French cycling specialist, says about Stage 3

“The big day! Because it is the third one, your legs will start to hurt; because there are 169 kilometres, the longest stage of the week; and more importantly because you will climb the Madeleine, the Télégraphe and the Galibier, a big and beautiful mountain stage. Fabulous!

The first part of the Madeleine via Aigueblanche is not very difficult. The last twelve kilometres however will offer no respite with an ascent between 7 and 9% gradient after Celliers, surrounded by a rocky background up to 1993 meters. Enjoy the descent to recuperate, the Maurienne Valley is never simple to broach, you could encounter headwinds all the way to the bottom of the Télégraphe!

There and then, it’s time for the ‘pièce de résistance’. The Télégraphe, with its bends in the middle of the pine forest, ten kilometres with a regular ascent at 7%. Here we go! The small descent to Valloire and then the Galibier. The King of the Alps, the col that inspired the famous drawings of Pellos « L’Homme aux marteaux » awaits you with its irregular slip road but harsh for morale because it is almost a straight line all the way to Plan Lachat.

There, the ‘real’ col starts: 8 kilometres at 9-10% up to 2645 meters. The main difficulty of the Galibier, which is really the main bit of the Haute Route, is here, on these last 8 kilometres in a dreamlike landscape, but above 2000 meters in altitude, with lack of oxygen. You must really think about it in the Madeleine and the Télégraphe, to save your energy, otherwise the Galibier could really become a nightmare. At the summit, at kilometre 141, the deal is done! End of the timed stage. And during the descent to Serre Chevalier, enjoy but ride safe!”

Main feature of Stage 3

· Start from Bourg-St-Maurice, Tuesday 23rd August at 7:15 

· End of timed stage at the Col du Galibier, between 12:00 and 16:15 

· Arrival in Serre Chevalier (La Salle les Alpes), between 12:35 and 17:05 

· 169 km overall, 109 km timed · 4000 metres ascent / 3400 metres descent 

· 3 refreshment stations during the race (Madeleine, Verneys, Galibier) 

· 1 refreshment station in the race village (Serre Chevalier)

3 major cols on the menu of Stage 3

Col de la Madeleine, 1993 metres, summit 61 km from the start - 23 times in TdF

Col du Télégraphe, 1565 metres, summit 117 km from the start - 29 times in TdF

Col du Galibier, 2645 metres, summit 141km from the start - 31 times in TdF

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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 apart 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.

14 August 2011 #22 Macon

Life is a beach

Food - more chocolate, this time in the form of cake, it was to get me home, see parting thought of the day, oh the anticipation! 

Weather - the run of perfect riding weather came to a bit of a halt today, the weather man called for rain and it did. Tomorrow they are calling for a bit more rain. A perfect excuse to take a day off and rest the legs up a bit before two more days on the bike then rest up before Haute Route 2011! The rain is coming down now - great to be inside.

Mode of Transport - there are many of these little buzz boxes around here, when they are coming up behind you on think it is a tractor, then it goes past and all I can do is have a little laugh to myself. Usually driving is a large(ish) man and his smoking wife, well I did see this twice today, so that means the majority of these owners are such, nothing like making a blanket statement, a little like the one about the Dutch which is below. 

Conversation - the other day while riding in the country side near Macon, not to self, water is scarce out in the country, no natural springs like in the Alps and Pyrenees, a BROAD English accent was being carried through the air. Even though she was obviously English I asked her for some water please “un peu d'eau s'il vous plaît” - she picked my poor accent, laughed and was pleased to give me all the water I wanted. She even offered to have me in any time I was passing by to fill my bottle, ah people in the country can be so friendly.

Animal - the hills are alive with the faces of cows and goats, needless to say the cows (vaches) take the cake!

What else of note: The 'beach' was entertaining, well not really a beach, more of a car-van park on the lake, it is officially called ‘le Grand Lac’ in Montrevel-en-Bresse. Not that I have anything again Dutchmen/women, my best made is Orange, but there were LOTS of dutchies making themselves at home. I’m not usually one for stereotypes but feeding right into one particular one about Dutchies, they are tight. People at the Lac were mentioning that supermarkets send down trucks with ‘their own kind’ of foods for the campers. The locals are obviously not fans as they come and don’t spend any money ... I’m not here to judge, just passing along what I was told.

At the beach, needless to say the water was refreshingly cold and the only waves were from the speed boats that were throwing people off the inflatable discs like ragdolls, needless to say very entertaining! 

Parting thought of the day/blog: The legs are still holding up, today was day 8 in the saddle. On the ride this morning, they were calling for thunderstorms and rain, I got the rain but not the thunder! I was at the furthest point of the ride when the rain came down, it wasn't too hard but still riding in the rain isn't much chop. I ended up riding a longer way home, staying out of the hills, trying to find the ‘less wet’ areas down along the river Saone, success. Then again, just as I was getting close to home, it rained again. It was my own fault, I shouldn't have stopped for that piece of chocolate cake. 

Col de Gertet - at 610m it is a little far off Col du Galibier at 2645m - Hmm still time to train!