Sunday, June 29, 2014

La Vaujany Master 2014

The cracks of thunder and heavy rain at 2:30am did nothing to ease my apprehension the night before my attempt at La Vaujany Sportive's 173km of hilly French Alpe roads. I had come out woefully ill prepared for bad weather, as well as being tired from lack of sleep and house moving the previous week. For some reason, I had also thought it a good idea to accompany my London Dynamo cycling friends on a pre-breakfast assault on the 21 famous bends of Alpe D'Huez before breakfast the previous day (just over 56 minutes - not too shabby). Basically, I was shattered, and my legs were even having trouble climbing the four flights of stairs at our accommodation.

Tim from my my cycling club had organized everything, and we had taken over the whole of Chateau d'Oz in the town of Oz En Oisans. At the early breakfast, it became obvious that a lot of people were wisely going to drop out, or ride the shorter Vaujany Senior route at 109km. I am far too stubborn, and have an unblemished record with no DNS (did not start), or indeed DNF (did not finish) markers to my name. This wasn't going to be the day.

Breakfast  banana, small coffee, porridge, bread and cheese, scrambled egg. I should be OK after having lots of pasta the previous day.

I got scared by talk of freezing conditions and decided to wear everything I'd brought, even borrowing Anna's leggings. Neither of us had overshoes so I was going to have wet feet. I had a jersey, sleeveless gilet, sleeved gilet, warm jacket. Nothing rainproof. We cycled down to the start in light drizzle, reaching the line just after 7am and got good positions near the front. The rain stopped. It felt quite warm. I spent nearly 10 minutes faffing around with my jackets, eventually pocketing the sleeveless gilet and warm jacket, which I carried around with me for the next 174km.

The start was frenetic. 20km of fast descent on good roads. However the rain started again, and the spray in my face was constant. I was completely drenched to the skin within five minutes. I got dropped by the Dynamos who raced ahead, and got overtaken a lot by the other riders. But I did find some groups doing my pace and we helped each other to the bottom of the first climb. I kept well within my aerobic threshold. My plan was to never get out of breath, and to not get carried away on flats and descents where it is tempting to push the pace to catch up from lost average pace on hills. I was so tired and badly prepared that I knew I also couldn't attack on hills either, like I usually want to.

Smiling on the inside
Col De La Mort was about 14k of climbing and took me just under one hour. I overtook a couple of Dynamos and said 'hi' as I went past, but when I caught Stephen he decided he wanted company and wouldn't let me get away. So we climbed nearly the whole way together. I don't usually climb with anyone, but it was a good distraction. At an average of 7% gradient it was possible to talk and ride, and the time passed quickly. We were under trees most of the way, with big drops of water falling from leaves. I got rain and sweat in my eye which stung a lot for a while and I was worried about my contact lenses, but I managed to dry it a little and it was OK.

Descents today weren't much fun. As I was wet, it felt chilly, especially my hands in fingerless gloves. The road surfaces were treacherous so cornering needed extra care. My fingers were sore from braking by the end of the day. I never actually felt as cold as I expected though; never close enough to want to put on the jacket I was carrying.

Stephen and I lost each other on the descent, but he found a fast group on the flat and raced ahead with them. I stopped at 60k for some food, but struggled to find much I wanted. I neglected to put some powerbars in my pocket, and they didn't have any at the next and final food stop, so that was a mistake. Hardly anyone was stopping, and not for long. The Wiggle Dragon Ride in Wales was completely different, almost a party atmosphere at food stops. Perhaps they do things differently in France and that's why the stall was so poorly stocked.

Col d'Ornon (c)Tim Pygott
After a bit of flat, the climb to Col d'Ornon started. Not steep and 9-14k depending on where you think it actually starts climbing. I chatted with another Dynamo rider here, also called Stephen (are they all Steves?). Half way up the climb our paces gradually separated us I found myself at the front of a group of about seven chasing down another group, how did that happen? We caught that group and I thought we'd stay together, but everyone pulled away from me again and I climbed the rest of the way alone. Then another descent which was the coldest of the day for me. The gentle drizzle was giving way by now and I was drying a bit.

At the bottom of the Alpe d'Huez (alternate route) climb the road split for riders to go left for the 109km finish, or right to go up the hill for the full 173km. This wasn't an option for me unfortunately. After only 5 minutes, I saw Stephen #1 and another Dynamo racing down the hill in the opposite direction. Discovered later that they had both decided to go short, but had missed the turn off point. I was very envious.
Descending in the wet

I soon came across another Dynamo, Alex and overtook him. The gradient was steeper on this climb, going up to 14% in places, and we were both suffering.  My poor planning meant I expected to be climbing for about an hour. That time came and went and I was still going. After maybe 90 minutes I reached the second and final food stop in Huez. I had a bit of most things (ham baguette, coke, jelly sweets, banana) but the orange segments and dried apricots didn't appeal).

Cruelly, when I left the stop, I was still climbing, which was annoying. There was a small descent, then I looked up and saw the Col de Sarenne climb clearly ahead stretching up to the clouds. This 8% gradient ascent was probably my darkest time during the day (the final climb at Vaujany was harder, but I knew it was the finish so it didn't hurt me mentally in the same way). I felt a bit light headed on this one, and had to slow to practically walking pace. Some people were actually walking. Looking back it may have been the altitude getting to me. It only took just over 15 minutes, but if you include the food stop time, I'd been climbing for just about two hours by the top and I was as close to cracking and just sitting at the side of the road as I ever have been on a ride.

Anna Ternheim sings a song called "To be Gone", the main refrain being "I just wanna be, wanna be gone".  She is Swedish, so I think she is talking about suicide. I wasn't suicidal, but I'd had this line running through my head all day long and never more clearly than now. Why was I here? This wasn't fun.  The sun started to come out just after this, but I was still wet, especially my socks and legs. I just wanted to be gone.

Approaching the final climb in Vaujany
I had ridden 130km now, and had 40km of descending in front of me before the final 5k ascent to the finish line in Vaujany, which I was dreading. My legs were dead and I cycled slowly, apprehension building. Vaujany has a steady 9% gradient. I wasn't sure I could make it. So I didn't even enjoy the best section of the day - fairly dry conditions, sunshine, descending.

When I finally reached the bottom I met my last Dynamo of the day, Mark, who was looking a lot happier than me. He climbed confidently ahead of me, and I just churned out this last section. Stand up on the pedals for as long as I can, sit down and push for as long as I can, stand up, sit down, repeat. Hot sunshine now but I can't take off my light jacket as I have nowhere to put it. I ride into what shadow there is under trees, behind buildings, slowing even more so that I'm out of the sun for longer. I do find enough strength to go over the finish line with a bit of speed and a smile on my face. Done.

My final time was 7:43:12  - I wasn't too far down the field at 102nd of 268 finishers. I'm pleased I did it, but it was a very hard day and I wouldn't want to repeat the experience. More rest and sleep in the days before a long, hilly ride are definitely needed, and being prepared for the conditions wouldn't hurt either. I had a brilliant weekend overall however, met some great people and did some awesome cycling in the sunshine on the other days of my trip - maybe I should have written about that instead.

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