Pre-race feelings

I am getting together all my stuff to take with me to Lyon tomorrow for the cyclosportif I am riding on Sunday, La Scott 1000 Bosses. It’s a strange feeling I have, one of excitement and nerves, almost like waiting for an exam in that now I just want to get on the start line and get riding. The difference is I am hoping to enjoy myself out there. I have my routine worked out these days, I have some important information taped to my handlebars such as the climbs, their length plus the location of the ravataillements (feed stations). I have lots of food to eat, I aim to eat a bar every 45-60 minutes or more, I have 1 750ml bottle of energy drink and a spare smaller 500ml bottle just for water. I will stop at the ravataillement if I am running low on water, otherwise I won’t stop. Clothing will be shorts and short sleeve, no arm warmers, though I will wear a T-shirt and a sleeveless shirt underneath my cycle top, which is a bit warm, but should be better for the descents. Ah, the descents, now there is a problem, still no sign of any improvement in my descending ability, I could lose a lot of time there.

Strangely, though I am not so worried this time, I guess because my training has gone so well, and La 77 was such an enjoyable ride. I should be worried though, I haven’t ridden a cyclo with this much climbing (2900m) for 2 years, and last year when I rode Les Copains, I was in such a bad way because of the heat I only rode the 124km event. I’m still on my old bike, and I haven’t even changed to fast tyres. When I mentioned this to Neil, and said I was going to use the 270g tyres, he claimed the difference was “enormous”, there speaks a Weight Weenie!

I reckon I need to ride it in around 4hr 30 to get a gold award, I think that is at the limits of possibilities, if I have a perfect ride I might have a chance but no more than that. I think  4hrs 45 is a more realistic target. Still, I always tell myself that the main thing is to enjoy and a good time would be a bonus, and I really believe that. So if I ride well I’ll be happy.

Overload

With 1 week to go until the Scott 1000 Bosses cyclosportif I wanted to get some serious riding in this weekend as final preparation. So I went out Saturday with the Bandidos (expats), meeting them in Versailles for a ride around the Chevreuse. Everyone is in good form now, so there was no chance of slacking, plus the fact that our French rider Gabriel, who used to be elite level a few years back had turned up. You can tell he is good, because only seriously good riders can get away with turning up with white world champion shoes, white world champion shorts and a white pro tour leader shirt. He hit the hammer after about 5km and soon we were chasing at 40kmh on the flat. It’s a fairly up and down route so it was a good workout, and this time we went out into the fôret de Rambouillet to extend it a little, on the way picking up a French rider from a club in Trappes and 2 from a club in Houdan, giving us a tidy and efficient group of around 9. Making it pretty easy for me to stay in the bunch and cruise along. We came back the new way to avoid Plaisir, cutting through old Villepreux and back to Versailles. By the time I got home I had ridden 114km at a little under 30kmh, pretty good.

And so to Sunday, normally I would take it easy the day after a long ride, but I had from a while back agreed to ride a randonnée with another expat friend of mine on this day. Unfortunately, when we came to look at the choice the nearest was in Villepreux with a shortest distance of 130km! 130 on top of 115 seemed a bit excessive, but with this being the last weekend before the race I was up for it. We arranged to meet in Villepreux at the start at 8.15.

I got there a little before time to find the car park deserted and not a cyclist in sight. When Neil arrived, he told me that on one website the rando had been listed as Saturday! So we had missed it. An old guy on a bike came past, and asked us if we were here “pour la rallye?”, when we said yes, he told us it had gone well! Oh well nothing for it but to just go for a ride. We headed South, through Elancourt for a change and out across the N10 towards Dampierre. As we did so, we so lots of VTTistes coming towards us, and we remembered there was another rando for VTT and route from Chevreuse. It was getting on a bit, past 9am but we thought we would go and check that out. We got there just after half past, and someone at the sports centre thought we were the first to arrive back on their randonnée! No, we want to start. We registered, and had the choice of 45, 75, 100 or 150km rides. Seeing as we had done 30 to get there already, we thought we would do the 75 and see if we could catch a group on the way back.

Neil was in tester mode, clearly trying to see my form after 114km the previous day, setting off at a pace. However, I am a good wheel sucker these days, and he couldn’t drop me. I took a couple of turns at the front, but I realised this was going to fatigue me on top of yesterdays ride as well as giving Neil a good rest, so to keep him tired I didn’t do too many turns. In any case Neil, being historically a much better rider than me, always seems to take it as his responsibility to do the work, a pride thing I guess! We got to the ravitaillement, to be met by some nice ladies serving the cake and drink and a bunch of old guys with bikes! Oh well, no fast group to come back then. We snacked for 5 minutes and set off for the 40km back to Chevreuse. We did for a few k, come across a couple of time trial, aero bar guys, and hooked a tow with them but for the most part it was just the two of us scooting along.

Back to Chevreuse for a cheese sandwich and a coke, probably not getting full value for our 5€, but not far off, and at least we didn’t have to work out the route. 107km down, and still 30 odd back to Villepreux. I had the bright idea of going back via Versailles as it was a different way and there was only the one hill to climb and its done. That would have been fine, except I forgot where we were and of course there are 3 hills to climb between Chevreuse and Versailles. Amazingly though my legs were strong and I kept going, I even took some more turns on the front up the hills and in the last 10km through to Villepreux. When we were done 139km was on the GPS, in 4hr 45 or so.

Over 250km for the weekend, a great couple of days. I’ll take the week off now, but for a couple of very light spins and then hopefully be all set for the race on Sunday.

Alpe d’Huez

Sometimes you have to take your chances when they arise, and I found myself on a skiing holiday in Alpe d’Huez during the Easter week. I have never been a great fan of skiing, and this year the snow wasn’t too good so I was already thinking of trying some other things. But it was only at the last moment that I thought that maybe the Alpe itself could be cyclable. I did a bit of internet research and found a bike shop in Bourg d’Oisans that rented out proper road bikes for just that purpose. I gave them a call and they told me they were open Tuesday to Saturday and I could take down my biking shoes and they would sort me out.

So come the Tuesday of the holiday I got up early to catch the 8.10 bus down the mountain. I wasn’t sure what time the shop opened so I wasn’t surprised it was still shut when I got there at 9. So I popped into the café/boulangerie next door and ordered myself a breakfast. I installed myself on the terrace and leisurely ate while I waited. And waited and waited. 10am came and went, 10.30 came and went. I thought I would give it till 11 since there was a bus back at 11.10. 11am came and still all was dark inside the shop and back up the mountain I came. A wasted morning.

The following day I phoned the shop to ask what time they opened. Oh 9am, they told me. Mmmmm, not yesterday. Anyway, I arranged to come down again on Friday, and said I would be there sometime after 10 to hire a bike. So Friday came around and I caught the 9.30 bus down. Interestingly, there was a man on the bus dressed in nothing but tracksuit bottoms, sweat top and trainers, telling everyone he was planning on running up that morning! I’d rather cycle than run for sure.

I got to the shop a bit later, and it wasn’t long before I was in sole charge of a carbon framed Trek with Ultegra group. The wheels were nothing special, but it was a decent bike. I did have to lower the saddle a lot to actually get on the thing, I think it was lower than the handlebars when I had done, but I was happy. They had even slung on a pair of Kéo pedals so I could use my shoes without changing anything.

I had a brief chat with a man and his son who had just hired bikes and were planning on riding up. He was a bit worried I could tell, so I reassured him he would do it for sure, and that to remember the first 3km are the hardest, which they are. He seemed to think I was a member of the UK national squad! It must have been the shaved legs. No I told him, just an ordinary cyclist like him, though I had ridden up Alpe d’Huez before.

I didn’t want to just ride up the Alpe so I set off in the direction of the Croix de Fer to reminisce about that day nearly 2 years ago when I rode La Marmotte (174km and 5000m climbing in one cyclosportive). The col was closed but I thought I would only ride up the first 9 or 10k up to La Riviére d’Allemont. It was beautiful riding through the valley, hardly a car to be seen as the col was closed, but it was quite hard. As soon as I had passed La Barrage de Verney the road goes up, constantly at around 8%. I was quite comfortable on the Trek but it had been a long time since I had done an Alpine climb and it was hard work. I was thinking as a warm-up to the Alpe it was somewhat excessive, but still I had most of the day. I rode up to 1250m (a 500m climb) and stopped at La Riviére where I had planned, ate an energy bar before turning round and testing the brakes on the way down. The brakes on this bike were bad. I am a bad descender but this was awful, I had no confidence on the way down and was thinking I might make it up Alpe d’Huez but I will never make it down!

So back through Bourg d’Oisans and off up the climb. I had no speedo on the bike so I wasn’t going to have any time or speed information on the way up, but I did start the lap counter on the GPS so I would be able to see how I went later. 21 corners to go!

The start is hard, 11% for the most part, but I felt alright, and the corners come quite close together, so I would say the first few ks including the first little village on the way up went pretty well. The bike was good and I was going well. The wind was getting up though, which was annoying at times. On I went, looking back down the mountain, seeing the incredible view of where you have just cycled from. Corners 16-10 were ok as well, the wheels kept turning and I kept breathing. It was around turn 10 that I first started to feel my legs go, there are a couple of long stretches between corners and I was thinking this was pretty hard after all. Between I think 8 and 7 I felt like I had gone! It was relentless all of a sudden and the wind was terrible. Nothing to do, but just keep going and count down the corners. The man and his son whizezed passed me on their way down, I was pleased to see they had ridden it. Down to turn 5 and I knew it wasn’t so far, I could now see the ski station in the distance. Corner 3 and you are nearly there. There is a long stretch between 3 and 2 which I really don’t like and I felt I was going backwards on it. Still, there it was the Alpe d’Huez sign and soon turn 1 was in sight. Round the corner and into the village.

There is still a fair bit of work to do from there however, as you soon pass the roadsign that says Tour de France route 2km to go. Still 2km, just when you feel you have done it! Still the gradient is easier and there are buildings and people around to distract you. I passed a group of people at the side of the road having their photo taken. I heard one of them say, watch the bike. I waved as I passed, and heard the photo taker say “I think I’ll take another”. I hope they like their cyclist photo in their collection. Almost there and past the scene of my greatest achievement, where La Marmotte finishes. But from here, there is still 0.5km very much uphill, and very much exposed into the teeth of the wind. Those last few hundred metres were so hard, and I was glad to get to the top and climb off.

I had long given up the idea that I would set a good time, and a quick look at my watch and I was horrified to see it could be as “slow” as 1hr 20. It was freezing and put my wind jacket straight away, but still had my photo taken at the top.

And so to the descent, which was cold, windy, dangerous, rarely in control and basically a nightmare. I even stopped to take a photo and to get a grip of the situation and to give my fingers a break from gripping the brakes. I was really glad to get down in one piece, possibly more than I had done than when I got to the top. The wind was so strong at the bottom I could barely keep control of the bike, it really had got worse during the day. I only had 30 minutes until the bus back, so I went back to the shop, thanked them and paid up, I lied (or so I thought) a little when the man asked me my time, I said around 1hr 15, which he said was pretty good, and went off to find somewhere to buy a can of coke!

Footnote: When I downloaded the GPS data to the computer, I found I had ridden up in 1hr 10minutes. Which is pretty good when I think about it. I would like to think I could do it a bit quicker one day, but on a hired bike with no speedo, nobody around me and a very windy day, pretty good.

La 77 Part 2

Click on the the map for the Google Earth path of the ride.

The sun really came out for the second part of the ride, and I found myself in quite a good group of about 15-20. Where I could, I avoided doing work on the front, at least during this third quarter of the ride. I felt a bit bad when I easily went up the hills, but not that bad. We were picking off riders all the time, and at one point we managed to take the majority of quite a reasonable peloton. I really thought I might even be on for a gold award (within 10% of the first 3 riders home in your age category) if not to beat 4 hours. The hills meant we only rode about 34km in the third hour, but still it was quick.

I felt I could let it go a little in the last quarter and I started taking my turns on the front as we pushed on, and up and down a few short sharp climbs. Suddenly I reckoned on only about 15km to go, I wasn’t going to beat 4 hours but surely a good placing. We still had a motorcycle outrider in front of us, keeping traffic out of the way and I felt really high, thinking they were closing the roads for me, ordinary me in an ordinary bike race, yet still important enough to shoe the traffic out of my way. It was a great feeling. I felt stronger than ever before at the end of a cyclosportif, usually in the past at some point or other I think why am I doing this? Is it worth the pain? But the pain wasn’t there today, I felt I could even ride another 50km if I had wanted to! Round a corner and one of the traffic monitors shouted to us just 8km to go, and so our group pushed on a bit harder. Soon we were on what turned out to be almost the last straight by the river, 3 guys from our group jumped off the front, and wow, I could follow them. We turned the corner and went up a very short sharp climb from the river. I took them all on that little climb, rounded the corner at the top and into the finishing straight. I changed up a gear for the final sprint and disaster! My chain jumped off the big ring. I was freewheeling with the finish line in sight! I had to stop flick it back on, while 2 of the 3 guys I had just passed roared past. I only lost 20 seconds, but it was a bit annoying. Across the line at 4hrs 6minutes 25seconds.

An average speed of an incredible 35.33km/h for 145.1km. But would it be enough for a gold award?

Well sadly not. Somehow or other I still only finished 457th out of  1069 finishers. And 92nd out of 201 in my class (age 40-45). I was a bit disappointed with that, but I guess there are only so many placings you can gain when you start so far back at the start and don’t go absolutely crazy at the start. I would have had to have finished in 3hrs 57minutes to get gold! Very few people passed me during the day, and I didn’t ever go over the limit effort wise. An average heart rate of 161 for the day, but a maximum of only 184, which is 12 beats below my maximum. Good work and good tactics. The perfect tune-up for the next race, which is one that matters, the Scott 1000 Bosses at the end of the month.

Finally, a word for my expat friend Jochem who was riding with me. I never saw him all day. He finally rolled in at 4hrs 53minutes and looked completely wasted. He told me he had me in sight for the first 30km and then punctured and watched as nearly everyone raced past as he fixed it. He then had to ride the race on his own or in small, slow groups! Poor guy. When you puncture that early in a race this fast, it’s all over, you might as well pack your bags and go home.

La 77 part 1

At last the first event of the season. A cyclosportif in French department 77, Seine et Marne, hence the name La 77. It is about as “easy” as they come, a very flat 145km in and around the French town of Melun. The race has been criticised in the past for having quite poor roads and not really suited to the onslaught of 1300 cyclists belting down them at up to 50kmh, so for this year they had completely revamped the course, of which an amazing 60% was different to last year. I had never ridden it before so it made little difference to me, I just hoped the weather would be kind.

I wasn’t disappointed! It was damn chilly early in the morning, but with temperatures set to rise into the teens during the day I made the decision to go with shorts and long sleeve jersey, whereas Jochem, my German expat friend from the Bandidos went for a more conservative longs and multi layers! We got to the start nice and early, having left Paris at 6.30am, arriving in Melun around 7.45. If we hadn’t messed around for a long time we might have got ourselves a decent spot on the ligne depart, but what with one thing and another, Jochem fiddling with his speedo and me waiting in the long queue for the loos we didn’t line up until 8.35 and ended up at least 2/3rds back by the time everyone was in place for a 9am start.

So we hung around and froze for 25 minutes before it was announced, “C’est partie!!!!”, and then we hung around another couple of minutes waiting for the queue to clear, and then we were off, round the corner and hitting 40km/h. The start wasn’t quite as crazy as others I have been in, mainly due to the straight roads, but the roundabouts are always dangerous and at about the 2nd or 3rd there was mayhem. Fortunately no-one came off, but there was a car stranded just at the exit to the roundabout, somehow the lady had managed to sneak onto the course at the last moment, she sat there in terror as 1265 cyclists  raced past her, some jumping the pavement to get through! Back onto the straight roads and its pedals to the metal as I tried to give as much as could for the first 20 minutes or so to see how many places I could make-up. The front 200 or so are long gone, but you always have a chance of catching up in those first few minutes. I felt good, my heart rate was up to 180 at times, but I was keeping a lid on it and picking off as many places as I could. I saw a couple of crashes, one quite bad when a cyclist went over and another went piling straight into him. That unmistakable noise of bike parts smashing into each other. It’s so dangerous you just have to keep your line and hope no-one clips you.

The first hour continued much the same, rattling along in a huge group led my motorcycle outrides, over 40km/h quite frequently, trying to stay in a good slipstream. I looked at my speedo after an hour and we had ridden 38 kilometres. The scenery was whizzing by, but it was for the most part pleasant woodland, not that I could appreciate it. Our group split at a roundabout and stupidly I was too far back, and so there and then I lost about 100 places, I could have kicked myself but I was supposed to be using this event for training and not getting carried away so tant pis as they say round here.

I felt really good, my heart rate was down to the 150s and 160s for the most part now and I was cruising. I even managed to eat an energy bar after an hour and an hour and a half, I was going to make the mistake I made in the last event when I really hit the bottom through not eating.

The few hills that arrive are only in the second half of the race, and I was quite happy for them to come along. A chance for me to see the big guys struggle a bit. Of course as soon as they did come the peloton completely splintered and got strung out, and somehow I ended up in quite a slow group. I let it go for 10 or 15 minutes, watching 1,2,3 and then a 4th guy fire himself off the front to try and make something of it. When the 4th guy went I went too. And in so doing managed to get another guy to come with us, and before long we had a nice little group of about 8 going at a decent pace again. The second hour passed and we had covered another 36km. Half way already, could I beat 4hours?

to be continued……

Bandido Ride

Each week I have a choice of who to ride with as my group ride. I can either ride with my club or I can ride with my informal club, the Bandidos, who are a group of expatriates living here in France. It generally depends on how the weekend pans out as to who I choose, as the Bandidos ride their long ride on a Saturday and my club rides on a Sunday. This week I fancied the Saturday ride as one of the Bandidos, Jerry is leaving Paris and going back to the U.S. at the end of April, so there won’t be many more opportunites to ride with him.

The weather wasn’t great, but I had my rain jacket with me so I was happy enough. It was the first time I rode up the long hill out of Bougival with the Garmin, and as expected it turned out to be the longest and highest hill of a day of lots of hills! I thought I would be very tired after Thursday’s hill interval session, but I felt pretty good that early in the morning and by the time I arrived in Versailles I reckoned on riding quite well. It was a fivesome today, myself, Jerry, Jochem – the big German who is getting stronger each week, Brian riding one of his THREE carbon fibre Colnagos and Lionel, the indestructible Lionel! We set off under darkening skies along the usual route through the Chevreuse, and it was fun (sort of) to see the total ascent on the GPS continually rising, it wasn’t too long before it had reached 500m! My early morning legs had gone by the third hill, and basically during the course of the day I “lost” every hill to Lionel, I was even struggling to hold off Jochem, I was far from flying, but then I should have expected that after the very hard training weekend. It’s a great route, and the rain never really got going, although the icy wind was a bit of a bother. St.Remy, Dampierre, Aufargis, Les Mesnuls – all the old favourites.

We were going back via Brian’s for coffee (how civilised), so we took a slight detour, and to add a bit of spice I took them on a detour of the detour up the very short 18% climb near Pontchartrain, at last a hill I could win, even if it was only 200m long. Jerry wasn’t best pleased, judging by the expletives he uttered at the top. Jerry was having a bad day on the bike and we kept having to wait a little and shepherd him along, so when we got near to Brian’s, and the other three shot off into the distance, I waited for Jerry and let him slipstream. It’s a long downhill on the main road near to Brian’s, but unfortunately I don’t know the exact turn, so I sped off down the hill and the next thing I know, there is no Jerry and I am near the bottom. I had missed the turn! Well I had a choice, ride back up the hill or ride home. After 3 hours and the rain drizzling and only 15 minutes from my home I chose the later! Although I got lost in St.Germain-en-Laye on the way and ending up riding the wrong way down several one ways to get home.

It was one of those days that needed a hot bath and a cocoa when I got in! Only 91km in just under 3.5 hours, but 1000m of climbing and I was all buty gone. Half of me says I should worry with the 148km La 77 race next weekend, while the other half says its all good training and only to be expected after this weeks hard work on the bike.

River ride

Duration: 45 minutes
Distance: 16km
Every couple of weeks or so I like to go for a ride on my 15 year old hybrid bike. I take it down along the path by the river (Seine) and it’s a good recovery style ride. Just for the fun of it. Especially today, as the sun was shining really bright and warm. I was also trying out my new toy; my new Garmin Edge 305 GPS. More in the next post.

Finding the hills around Paris

Time: 3hrs.
Distance: 70km.

What a great morning’s ride today. 3 hours and only 70km! Partly due to negotiating the irate Paris traffic and all the traffic lights, but also due to the hills we rode today. I met up with Marcus from Down Under at Longchamp and we set out to ride up as many hills as we could find. Up and down all morning, Ville d’Avray, Versailles, St.Cloud, two ascents around Meudon, including the 14% ski jump climb. All in all according to Marcus’ GPS we did almost 1200m of climbing in 40km, which is a higher percentage than the Marmotte! It’s amazing how much forest you can find around Paris as well, we managed some scenic moments in the fôret de Meudon and the Parc de St. Cloud. I felt pretty good on the climbs, the legs didn’t go, but it was hard at times, and I went up the ski jump at 12kmh and I am sure I have managed it at 14 or 15kmh at my best.