LA MARMOTTE– 5th July 2008 - REPORT

Following one of the hardest, but greatest, one day sporting events of my life to date, I felt compelled to put it down “on paper” for posterity.

Why La Marmotte?

Back in Autumn 2007, my brother, Rod Horler, mentioned a Sportive that some of the guys at his club in England had done. We had been looking for an event to do together and, before either of us could change our minds, I booked 2 places on a package with Graham Baxter Sports Tours and paid the deposit. No turning back!

It was after having booked it that we began to read the reports of La Marmotte floating around the web and had a proper look at the course profile. Then we realised that we had actually signed up for the Grand-daddy of European Sportives, La Marmotte being the longest-running and hardest one day sportive in the calendar!

So, in the best tradition of the Victorian explorers, there was no really good answer to “why?”, more a case of “why not?”!

What is La Marmotte?

In literal terms, a Marmot is a large rodent that lives in the European Alps and is the unofficial mascot for them, but that’s not what concerns us….

La Marmotte started in 1984 and is basically run over the same course every year. It involves four climbs, three hors categorie (too hard to categorise!) and one category 1 climb (1 being the toughest grade before hors cat).

OK it is tough but, how hard can it be?

Quite hard! That is 5,000 metres of climbing in 174kms!

The course starts in Bourg d’Oisans and climbs the col de la Croix Fer, col du Télégraphe, col du Galibier before returning to Bourg d’Oisans and finishes up the 21 hairpin bend climb to the ski station of L’Alpe d’Huez.

These climbs are some of the most (in)famous climbs in the Tour de France, but it is Galibier that is the stuff of legends, and the one we most feared.

Henri Desgrange, Tour de France founder, wrote the following poem in 1911:

“Oh, Sappey ! Oh, Laffrey ! Oh, col Bayard ! Oh, Tourmalet ! Je ne faillirai pas à mon devoir en proclamant qu'à côté du Galibier, vous êtes de la pâle et vulgaire bibine: devant ce géant, il n'y a plus qu'à tirer son bonnet et à saluer bien bas.”

For those readers unfamiliar with French, it (basically) translates as:

“Oh, Sappey! Oh, Laffrey! Oh, col Bayard! Oh, Tourmalet! I will not fail in my duty to proclaim that next to Galibier, you are pale imitations: before this giant, you should doff your cap and bow down low.”

So, who are we to think we can ride La Marmotte?

We are brothers, I am Adam Horler and my brother is Rod and, apart from the fact we share the same sense of humour and are great mates, that’s where the similarities pretty much end!

Rod is 41, weighs 72kg and has about 24 years of road biking under his belt, having said that he has not trained for anything specific since his University days. But he has ridden consistently and has enjoyed stepping it up for this event. He lives in Surrey, England.

I am 38, about 91kg (on a good week) and only started cycling in 5½ years ago after giving up rugby. I’m strong and have good endurance, though, and have completed 10 OD triathlons and 2 Half Ironman events. I live in Singapore.

After we signed up, my godfather’s son, Mark Alexander, also came onboard to take up the challenge. He is even newer to cycling than me, being in his 3rd season only.


Preparation – my perspective

It was always going to be difficult to prepare for a high mountain sportive in Singapore, but I focussed on building good base fitness with a weekend in Hong Kong and one in Malaysia to put in some hill training. And, there were always the trusty Faber and Pepys repeats (these are bumps really of less than 100m high)!

From 16 weeks out my strategy had been to average 300km or more per week, and I pretty much achieved that. I even managed to sneak in an OD triathlon in Bintan at the end of May as an additional challenge.

I lost about 8kg since the start of the year and, although a couple of kilos less would have been welcome, I was happy with my form going into the event.

Regular e-mail updates with Rod and Mark helped check progress among us, and although they had the opportunity to do a few UK Sportives before La Marmotte, I seemed to be putting in more than enough hours in the saddle.

The few days before…..

Rod and I flew from London to Geneva on the Thursday and, after a 3 hour coach transfer, arrived at Alpe d’Huez ski station in the pouring rain.

We had always intended to ride the Alpe on the Thursday and we did in fact accomplish this, despite the foul weather. In isolation, Alpe d’Huez is not too bad a climb, I would even say that it is enjoyable. Although we knew it would be an entirely different story come the day, it did help to understand that the final climb was “manageable”.

Mark arrived late on Thursday night, so he did not really get the chance to acclimatise like us as Friday was too close to the event to do any serious riding.

Friday was a beautiful sunny day and the atmosphere in Alpe d’Huez was fantastic with riders coming in to register, collect timing chips, browse the expo shops as well as enjoying the sun and cafes to relax in.


The Big Day

The good weather had held from Friday and the morning dawned with clear skies and high clouds, auguring well for the day ahead.

We descended the Alpe to Bourg d’Oisans, arriving at the start pen at about 6.45am. The start was split by bib numbers, with about 2,000 riders in each pen. With start numbers 3572 and 3573 we were in the 2nd pen which filled up quickly, but we were pretty near the front so hoped to get off reasonably soon after the 7am official start time.

We crossed the line at 7.31am, with a few of my toilet needs unattended to (which would feature later!). It was a pretty short, fast dash to the bottom of the 1st climb of the day, during which I lost all touch with Rod and Mark (I wouldn’t see them until after the finish);
 
Climb 1
Col de la Croix de Fer
27km, 1292m ascent
4.7% average gradient

The climb begins simply enough with a couple of hairpins and then you ride alongside a reservoir before heading up through the trees with the 1st 3.5km at 6-7% before 2.5km of 8-10.3%. I was finding my pace and also passing a fair few of the starters from the 1st pen and, although a bit of a slog was enjoying myself.

We then descended slightly through a village and then there was a tricky 1.5km switchback descent to a river valley (I heard afterwards that the only serious crash of the day had occurred here). The road then ticked up for just over 2km at 11.1% and 10.2% for each km respectively, the hardest part of this particular climb. After that it was fairly steady for just over 15kms, including a ride alongside a stunning lake, as pictured above.

I was tired but happy with my progress as I had not been passed by too many people and continued to pass people all the way up. However, I had quickly realised that chasing any sort of amazing time was out of the question and was set my sights on finishing in good shape!

I had been a bit confused coming into this ride as I had also heard mention of Col du Glandon and I have since found out that we passed the turning to the top of this climb just before the summit of Col de la Croix de Fer. It is actually lower than CdlF, so I do not feel cheated out of cresting the famous Glandon!

There was a feed station at the summit and I stopped for some food and a call of nature for just over 5 minutes, I guess. My time of arrival at the summit was 2:05.

The descent to St-Jean-de-Maurienne was great and, being a good descender (got to use the weight for some good), I passed many people on the way down. We then hit the valley floor and were riding along a dual carriageway. I had been warned about the headwind but I could not seem to find a train to get into that was the correct speed, so ended up doing way too much solo stuff on the 7.5km stretch, which was pretty tiring.

Just before the Col du Telegraphe, I had to answer a more serious call of nature and this had me queueing for about 20 mins to get into one of 2 porta-loos. I was obviously annoyed about such a loss of time, but in retrospect I probably needed to stopas I had been feeling less-than-brilliant on the valley floor…

Suitably “refreshed” I then headed up the col du Télégraphe, a category 1 climb;

Climb 2
Col du Télégraphe
11.8km, 856m ascent
7.3% average gradient

Télégraphe is relentless, with no real panoramic views to take your mind of the climb and no flat sections apart from the hairpins themselves. It is, however, steady with no serious variations in gradient at any point. I had had my crank swapped to a compact 50/34 a month before the event and was very glad of this as I spent almost the whole of Télégraphe (and pretty much most of the day, actually) in 34x25 in order to be able to “spin” up.

I retook most of the people who I had passed on the way down from Croix de Fer that had then passed me as I waited for the toilet (it is amazing how you see the same people over and over again during these kind of rides)!

I was pretty cooked when I crested the summit and decided to fill up the bottles instead of heading down the short descent to Valloire. In hindsight, I should have just rolled down to Valloire as I must have wasted another 10 minutes waiting for a tap and milling around.

I arrived in Valloire at 5:03, meaning that it had taken 2:58 since the Croix de Fer to this point. There was a feed station, so I had another short stop to stuff my face with oranges and dried apricots, before starting Col du Galibier, the climb I most dreaded.

Climb 3
Col du Galibier
18.1km, 1245m ascent
6.9% average gradient

The start of this climb shouldn’t be hard, it is only about 3.5-5% for the 1st 5kms, but by this time there riders stopping to rest at the roadside. Maybe it was the wide open vistas ahead that sapped the strength as you could plainly see how far you were going to be climbing.

From 5km to 17km the gradient is pretty much 7-9% all the way with one flattish kilometre at 4.8%.

At about 14km I had a serious episode of “hot foot” and had to stop and take off my shoes and socks for a few minutes to let things cool down. Apart from that I was just happy to grind up without having to stop as people everywhere were falling like flies, taking frequent rests on the roadside before wearily remounting and plodding on.

Just to rub salt into the wounds the last kilometre ticks up at 10.1%, which feels a lot more after 17kms climbing!

I crested Galibier at 6:59 which meant that it had taken 1:56 to the summit from Valloire, and I was happy to see a feed station at the top. The food was excellent – brie baguettes and cake with sports drink! I guess I could have grabbed the food and rolled on, but I was on the verge of a serious bonk, so sat down to munch my way through the much needed sustenance and relax for about 15 minutes.

It was pretty much downhill from Galibier to Bourg d’Oisans and the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, and it was a fantastic 46.5km joyfest of fast descending and getting into a good group, pulling along the slight downhill through tunnels and around sweeping bends. The average speeds were about 45km/h and I felt much better by the time I arrived at the final feed station at the bottom of the Alpe. A quick stock up on a handful of dried apricots and off to the most famous climb in Tour de France history.

Climb 4
Alpe d’Huez
13.2km, 1071m ascent
8.1% average gradient

I reached the bottom of the Alpe needing to do it in about 1:30 to beat 10 hours, which had been my goal going into the event. It was going to be tight as it had taken 1:15 when fresh and taking it easy on Thursday, and my speeds were going to be less than they were then after nearly 4,000m of climbing already behind me!

The first 3 hairpins are cruel at over 10% and then it “settles down” to 7-9%. I was able to settle into a grinding rhythm and was again passing more than passed me. I had one more case of “hot foot” and a gutter full of crystal clear mountain water has never felt so good!

On the Thursday recce we had noticed that there were 2 more hairpins after the 21 signposted on the climb. If I didn’t know this it might have finished me off on the day. In fact, I passed 3 riders less than 2km from the finish, sitting down looking as if that was them finished or, in the case of one bloke, sleeping next to his bike!

Finally, the 1km to go sign appeared and all fatigue seemed to evaporate from the legs as I pushed for home.

I crossed the line in 9 hours and 57 minutes, achieving my sub-10 hours target and a Silver Medal time for my age group – a great feeling!

It took a while to find Rod, but I eventually did, and he was wandering around clutching a Gold Medal and certificate. He had finished in a scorching time of 8 hours and 18 minutes!

We didn’t see Mark until quite a bit later on, back at the hotel. He had unfortunately been timed out at the bottom of the Alpe, which must have been devastating, but he pressed on and finished in an unofficial 13 and a half hours. Bravo!

Looking back…..

After such events there is always a period of reflection on what you could have done better etc, as you analyse the results.

7,300 riders rolled over the start line and the results show 5,300 received an official time. So, just finishing is an achievement in itself.
 
The event was won by an Italian (who had come 2nd in the Maratona Dolomites) in 6:02:12 beating a Dutch guy by 1 second!

The reports of previous years had said that in 2006 there were only 60 participants from the UK, but this year there were 656 UK finishers, just showing how Sportives are taking the UK by storm. In fact the UK was the 4th largest country by participants with 1,355 Dutch, 1,133 French and 866 Belgians the top ranked countries.

Rod finished 1092nd and was the 122nd best placed Brit. His time was 8:18:33 and he stopped for 3½ minutes.

I finished 3115th and was the 361st Brit. My time was 9:57:37 and I stopped for 1:02:21 – a little bit longer than Rod!!! My actual ride time was 8:55. The joke among the tour group was that I had got the best value from my entry fee, given the amount of food I ate and having used as many facilities as possible!

Would I do it differently? Well, I maybe would have not waited for a porta’loo and used a bush instead and I could have probably cut about 20 minutes from the feed stations by eating on the go, saving about 30-40 minutes overall. But I would not have got a Gold Medal even then and I should accept that 91kg men are not built to fly up hills! So, I am happy with my ride.

I would recommend La Marmotte to anyone, as it is really well-organised and an incredible thing to do. It truly is one of the “Ironman” events of one day biking for amateurs.

I won’t be back next year, though, as there are just too many other great European Sportives to do, but I imagine I will do La Marmotte again, one day….