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Marmotte 2015
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With the new route its hard to compare but I got gold so haapy with that.
7.50 official time (ex the descent ) and a total time of 8.17.
Wowsers :eek: That is indeed an absolutely extraordinary time Leroy42. Myself and my Usher compatriots, all Marmotte virgins, managed to finish. We weren't sure if we could or would keep the trio together for the duration of the event but we actually managed it which I think was an achievement in itself. On the one hand it probably slowed us down overall cos every individuals stop became a collective stop. So one man's nature break or slight mechanical or water stop meant we all stopped, and at the end of the descents the lads ahead stopped to regroup. But on the other hand it was great to have a bit of company going around to "shorten the road" as the man said
. We met Jim Stynes around the Croix de Fer, (going well fair play to you Jim) and he was delighted to have someone to say hello to! It's a daunting day to undertake all on your own for such a long time. Sorry to hear you didn't finish Jim but sure you had the most of the climbing done at that stage.
We regrouped again at the foot of the Alpe d'Huez and from there it was every man for himself and we retreated into our own worlds of pain to get to the top. We all got well inside the silver medal finishing time, which was really nice I must say, and unexpected. I finished in 9 hours 35 and <ahem> the lads came in a little bit after me ....
(It's not a race, but it's a race ). It really was quite an emotional thing to cross the finish line, and I'm not the emotional type. But afterwards we got to chatting about where we could make up time to get a gold medal and I have to say, I really don't see it. We none of us have trained harder or more specifically for any one event than we did this one and we did our best on the day, had no punctures or mechanicals really, no unnecessary stops really. But to make up a full hour!!! to get under 8.39 (39-49 cat) would be a very big ask, and puts starkly into perspective Leroy42's achievement of an hour quicker again, that's really astonishing, you must have been well up there in the overall category placement and up near the top of your category surely. Well done man .
For ourselves, I suppose at the Croix de Fer feedstop, we must have been there 20 minutes, by the time the three of us had fed, watered, urinated and then found ourselves again, and hit the road and of course there's a bit of time-wasting but thoroughly enjoyable banter to be had. We could have saved 15 minutes there but then maybe that bit of physical and psychological rest is what enabled us to finish.
One thing certainly that was encouraging was that the following day we were all fine, we weren't spent or exhausted or sore. So we were well fit and well prepared in that sense and it's great to have done it and it's great that it's over and done with too!!
It's a funny day in a way, in terms of pacing, and in comparison to how you would climb a hill at home. Because of the sheer length of the climbs, and then the event, and then factoring in the heat, I found I had to ride ultra ultra conservatively. At no point could I give it socks for fear of blowing up later on. I know how long Wicklow gap is so I can climb it as hard as I can, I can mete out my efforts and spread it the length of the climb and arrive at the top heaving but happy and satisfied with my effort. But over there you just can't do that, it's tortoise over hare. I remember going up the Croix de Fer and commenting to the lads how unglamourous it was in a way, despite the awesome Alpine backdrop, as in our pace was not one to be proud of. But it's the nature of the beast. So in a way the best part of the day was the 2k to go sign at the top of the Alp and for the first time all day I thought "right, fcuk this" and clicked down a load of gears, outta the saddle, big ring through the town and it was great to finally throw caution to the wind for once.. Though we all climbed the Col de Mollard really well, we were all feeling strong and we kept a good pace from bottom to top and passed a lot of people – amazing actually even at that early point how many super fit looking lads were panned out in the ditch, or draped over their bikes, a long way from home 
. The absence of soreness in the legs the following day shows how aerobic the effort was, at no point all day were we out of breath or cycling anaerobically, we could always chat to each other in normal voices. It's the day long weariness, and all over body weariness that had us fcuked at the end. Oddly, my hands and feet were really sore in the latter half of the spin. My palms are actually still chafed and sore typing this, and my lower back was really starting to get at me going up Alpe d’Huez so I started a 3 minutes in, 2 minutes out (of the saddle) routine to stretch the back and keep my focus.
Right, that's enough from me, I'm only blathering at this stage. Well done to all, it's a mammoth day, it's almost impossible to describe to anyone who hasn't done it, but I now understand completely and chapeau and hats off to everyone who travelled over and pedalled or cleated to or close to the finish. Tis a big black tick in a big red box, to be sure, to be sure. :cool:
And ah.... never again. (maybe):pac::D0 -
A Big congrats to all of you! I've been following this thread since the start and BIG KUDOS to all of you. Sounds like it was an epic day on the bike!
Of course if we were pro riders, we'd have to get up and do it all again for another three weeks!
It really makes you appreciate just what it takes to do a grand tour.
So Well done and roll on Marmotte 2017!0 -
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I was something like 750th in my cat and 1650th overall or something meaningless. Going up the alpe and doing some maths to keep my head busy I'd completely forgotten about the Glandon descent neutralisation and I copped it that I had about a half hour in hand that I didn't realise I had and that was a great motivation for me to realise that I wasn't actually going to be the wrong side of ten hours.
Couple of other things -the machine gun popping of tires and tubes on the hairpin descents. Honest to God I'd say I passed at least 30 people repairing blowouts on the Glandon descent. It was something I was very conscious of myself - not to be constantly feathering the brakes. I was cadence braking on and off and back and front like an abs effect to make sure the rims had time to cool.
Also, after the Croix de Fer, the length and duration of the descending which we did all the way down the Glandon valley and down into Bourg was mindblowing. Constant prolonged high speed descending that just went on and on and on - all I could think was "**** me, we climbed all of this earlier today!!!". It had struck me alright at the beginning of the day, how little preamble there was before the road turned skyward. We were only 15 minutes out from the start I'd say when we first started climbing proper, and from then it was up up up all the way to the top of the Glandon.
Again in terms of descending, the valley of the Glandon was awesome. Like the Wicklow gap on steroids. None of this neck aching, brake testing stop start hairpin nonsense, just fast flowing well sighted open countryside roads, zipping along at 60-70kph, long swooping lefts and rights, for what seemed like 45 minutes or so. Just... awesome.
And finally, to the people who stood by the side of road clapping and encouraging, and pointing their garden hoses at us, and dousing our red necks with bottles of icy cold mountain river water, and shouting allez allez. You are heroes and saints and you made my day.
Oh and the jellies, ohmotherofgod the jellies at the food stops. *slobber* I was ateing them by the fistful. I'm drooling on the keyboard here at the thought of them 0 -
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