Colly Murray's Les Dix Alpes Diary

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2011-08-15T03:11:00.000-07:00

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Colly the cover boy

2011-02-24T15:36:00.000-08:00

I received an email from Roger Cull of Australia this morning informing me that I had made the contents page of Bicycling Australia! Simon Hayes - who I had the pleasure of cycling up the Col de la Bonette - had penned a piece for the magazine and presumably Eamon Fitzpatrick's impeccable photos were used.

Anyway, here is the page kindly scanned and emailed to me by Rog.

Stage 10 - Entrevaux to Nice

2010-11-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today's date is November 2nd 2010, exactly 4 months since 20 odd cycling finantics and I rode into Nice on our bikes, tired but not beaten by one of the most arduous mountain ranges in Europe - Les Alpes! We had cycled from Como to Nice across 10 Alpine climbs (9 of which were over 2000m), and in the process experienced a mutitude of emotions from opposing ends of the human psychophysiological spectrum. We had pushed our bodies to the limit of it's capabilities and were in the shape of our lives....

It was with a heavy heart that I rose on Friday July 2nd, knowing that our "little" trip across the Alpes from Como to Nice was almost at an end. Ahead of us lay a 120km cruise into Nice over what could only be classed, at this point, as "hills". We set off at 7am leaving the little campsite with the shitty showers behind us, everybody in high spirits, happy that later on that evening we would be able to collapse into an actual bed, with a mattress and pillows. We headed back towards the little medieval town of Entrevaux and on to Puget Thénier, out of which there was a climb called Col de San Raphael, up to about 900m.

It was a beautiful morning once again, and as Rune, Pete as I made our way in train formation along the tree lined passage between the 2 villages, the sun shimmering through the foliage. I made a short vid as we tore through the countryside.

I felt really fresh on the first climb of the day and overcame it with ease. I was really peaking fitness-wise at this point, the tail end of the trip. If this was the Tour de France I would be arriving on the
Champs-Élysée in fine fettle, with a podium position under my belt!

Rune, Pete and I were passed out by another Pete (Ivin, the Limey) who was cycling like the clappers, as if his life depended on it. I wondered how long it would be until he blew up. A km or so up the road we caught sight of him and began to reel him in. As we approached he looked around, and in that split second made an almighty burst for the summit. He was not going to be undone on the final day by a couple of upstarts from Denmark and Ireland. We allowed him his moment of glory and let him go. At the top, much to our amusement, he was bent over his bike, in convulsions of coughing and spluttering, pissing sweat from every orofice. Gasket blown!

We made our way down the other side, the countryside being not too disimilar to something you might see in Ireland. We passed through the village of Sigale and when we reached the picturesque town of Roquestéron we stopped for a coffee. The "Little Unit" provided some banter on the next part of the stage. Maca is a small charater with a big heart and I enjoyed whittling down the kms while chatting to him. We even stopped for yet another photographic opportunity in the village of Consequedes with Rune and the "Big Unit". Shucks, I miss those guys...

Rune, Geoff, Greg & Colly

The Aussies Blake, Damo and Adrian (who had participated in La Belle Italia before joining us on Les Dix Alpes) caught up to our group and the pace suddenly jolted upwards. Before long the four of us were flat out racing. It was serious craic as each one of us took to the front for a few seconds, only to be overtaken by another rider soon after. This went on for around 10km, at which point we called a stop to the madness before we did ourselves some damage. The sun was very intense at this stage and we were extremely exposed to it's rays due to the fact that there were no trees along the side of the road to shade us. Thankfully lunch soon beckoned and we were able to catch some respite before heading off again. Hats off again to our Dutch (+ Astrid the Danish cook) crew who always seemed to manage pulling lunch out of the bag just in the nick of time.

Well deserved beer in Vence

In order for everyone to arrive in Nice together we arranged to meet in the town of Vence, approximately 10kms from our ultimate destination. We overcame the Col de Vence before enjoying one last technical decent, which gave us the opportunity to utilize the skills we had honed over the past couple of weeks. There was a fairly drastic change in temperature and humidity when we reached Vence. A street sign displayed the fact that it was 40 degrees, but it felt hotter. Our time at altitude in the Alpes had come to an end as we were almost down at sea level again for the first time in 2 weeks. Wilbert took to the front and guided us along the road between Vence and Nice and before we knew it we were on the boulevard with the sea front to our right hand side.

Unfortunately for Kiwi Pete he punctured twice on the run-in, and unlike almost every other stage we didn't get to cross the finish line together. We paraded down Promenade des Anglais before entering the grounds of Le Chateau de Nice where a welcoming party had been arranged with food, beer and champers. There were scenes of great joy and emotion, tinged with sadness in the knowledge that this magnificent trip had finally come to an end.

Spot the Paddy (Finish line in Nice)

The Anis hotel played host to our farewell dinner where we tried in vain to drink the place dry. Much to our disgust and serious thirst, the bar closed at 11:30PM. With no hope of more sauce we hit the streets.

Thanks for following my Les Dix Alpes diary, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed cycling it. It was an experience that I will never forget and no doubt will be banging on about for years to come. It has been announced that Stage 18 and 19 of the 2011 Tour de France will feature high mountain passes that we overcame on LDA, namely Izoard, Galibier, Telégraphe & d'Huez. Something to look forward to next Summer. Anyone participating in La Marmotte or the Etape du Tour can experience those climbs for themselves. But if you have a couple of weeks to spare next Summer, and are looking for a serious biking challenge I would wholeheartedly recommend a trip with Bike Dreams. The third edition of “Les Dix Alpes” starts Monday June 20th, 2011 in Como and finishes 12 days later in Nice. If you have a bit more time why not cycle the length of Italy? The fourth edition of "La Bella Italia" starts Saturday May 14th, 2011 near Palermo. After five days in Sicily you cross the Strait of Messina and continue slowly north in the "boot" with daily averages of 105 kilometres. The stages alternate regularly between the coast line and the hilly country side, but you don’t loose sight of the cultural places of interest. The finish lies after 35 days and 3,000 kilometres at the shores of Lake Como.

A big shout out to all the amazing people I met on the trip from New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Chile. I hope to ride with you again some day. Perhaps in Ireland in 2011?

I decided to participate in Les Dix Alpes to honour my great friend Martin O' Gorman who passed away in September 2009 after a struggle with testicular cancer. His memory was a source of great inspiration to me in overcoming many of those big climbs. Thanks to the generosity of so many people at home and abroad, I managed to raise over €5,000 for Cancer Care West, a charity organisation in Ireland.

Finally, a big thanks to all the crew who made our lives so much easier and provided a wonderful service to all participants: Jaap, Richard, Astrid, John, Marcel, Wilbert and Susana - Chapeau!

Feel free to contact me on collymurray at gmail dot com if you have any queries about the trip.

Check out my Garmin route readings here.

Over and Out.

Colly

Stage 9 - Jausiers to Entrevaux (Col de la Bonette)

2010-07-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

July 1st, stage 9, and Nice almost within touching distance. Today was going to be a serious test of endurance and we had given ourselves the best opportunity to survive the day by getting locked at the campsite bar in La Coldamine the night before. Between the start and finish of todays stage of 150kms lay the highest paved road in Europe: Col de la Bonette (2802m) and the Col de la Couillole (1678m) which didn't even get a mention in our itinerary for some reason. Given that we had a long and steep road ahead of us we had a 5.30am wakeup, with a 7am departure. We had some eggs with bacon for breakfast which was perfect hangover (still drunk) fodder. It made a welcome change from the daily granola munchfest we had become accustomed to. I think I was almost the last person to leave the campsite, as was now also customary. Marcel the bag man used to joke that he would have to remember to leave room for my luggage on the truck, as I was always last. I was happy enough to start a little later than everyone else as I wasn't worried about catching up and enjoyed the few miles of tranquility on my tod.

The start of the ascent to the Col de la Bonette was only a little down the road, in a southerly direction out of the town of Jausiers. The morning air was brisk which gave me the impetus to drive on to keep warm. Nonetheless, I knew that in a couple of hours there would be a river of sweat on my brow as the French Summer temperatures soared.
I had grown to love the morning ascents over the preceeding 2 weeks. Soon I joined up with Simon Hayes of Bicycling Australia and decided that I would chit chat with him and enjoy the countryside instead of burning up the mountain. Cycling up steep mountains can be somewhat of a counter emotional activity. On one hand you want to take your time and experience all that the mountain has to offer, but on the other hand you want the suffering to be over as soon as possible. The only way to achieve the latter is by cycling at the limits of your ability. Sometimes if the gradients are steep and the distance is long, no respite can be found, even by going slow and its a matter of simply digging deep to find the strength to get you over the top. It was clear to see quite early on in the ascent to Bonette that the landscape was stunning and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible, stopping to take photos on this our last big climb of Les Dix Alpes.

The col itself is part of the Mercantour National Park which is one of the nine national parks of France in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department. On the ascent and from the top we could see a wide number of other mountains, some of which we had already traversed including the Grand St. Bernard.
From Jausiers in the north, the climb is 24,1 km long. Over this distance, the climb is 1589 m. (an average percentage of 6.6%), with the steepest sections at 9%. The pass has featured in the Tour de France four times (1962, 1964, 1993 and 2008). I remember in the 2008 stage where the lead rider over the top - John-Lee Augustyn - crashed dramatically on the way down. He did, however, receive 5,000 Euros for the leader over the highest point of the Tour, also known as the "Souvenir Henri Desgrange". Words cant really do this mountain justice, so to illustrate the beauty of the Col de la Bonette here are some pictures.

Halfway up Bonette, facing north towards Jausiers

Facing south towards the Cima

Alpine lake not far from the summit

Getting steeper close to the top

Cime de la Bonette, viewed from the northern ascent from Jausiers. The Col de la Bonette is marked by the gap in the centre of the picture, while the circle road takes a loop up and around the Cime de la Bonette, before joining the col behind the ridge

Famous scene from TdF2008 where the ascenders were on the right of the tv screen and the descenders were on the left...

"Maca" with just a km or so of 15% gradient to go to the top of Col de la Bonette

The summit of the Col de la Bonette at almost 3000m above sea level - air is fairly tight up here

Very fast and dangerous descent!

With around 5kms to go to the summit I decided to make a push for the top. My legs were full of juice after having taken it easy for most of the climb. I cannot emphasise how much I enjoyed this Col. Towards the top the oxygen got very thin and again I got that feeling of being very close to my mate Martin who has gone to the great gig in the sky. His presence was palpable. There were scenes of great jubilation on top where the Les Dix Alpes participants gathered for photos and patted each other on the back. We all enjoyed a lovely descent into Saint Etienne de Tinée, apart from Aussie Thomas who spilled himself en route. He was not seriously injured thank God, and surprisingly turned out to be the only crash victim of the tour! Saint Etienne de Tinée is a lovely little town, the directions out of which seemed to be a little confusing. It took us quite a while to find the correct route towards our next climb. We formed a train and powered down a few miles towards the town of St. Sauveur sur Tinée where we took a right hander and began a very hot ascent in the direction of Roubion and the Col de la Couillole. Now, I was expecting a nice gentle hill after Bonette and the first part of the climb was quite scenic as I cycled alone along a road etched into the side of a cliff, overlooking a canyon. There was a village perched way up on top of the hill and I said to myself, surely we're not going up there?

Roubion

An hour or more later, with 2 empty water bottles and a seriously salt encrusted jersey I arrived at that little village, Roubion. It was such a pretty little place in such a far flung location but I was too frazzled to really give a shit. The Garmin on my bike told me that I still had a few hundred metres of climbing and some 20kms to go before the summit so I trudged on, my face stinging thanks to the sweat and the inhumane afternoon heat. The roads were the worst I had come across since Les Dix Alpes had begun, and did nothing to appease my disgruntled mood. In stark contrast to the morning's climb, the summit of the Col de la Couillole was probably the least interesting peak of the entire 2 weeks. I think my face in photo from up there betrays the fact that I was totally shattered, but I was so glad to be out of that hellish valley. Greg, Annabel, Rune and Pete were there when I arrived and we stayed no more than about 5 mins before we began the descent.

Summit of Col de la Couillole with Greg & Annabel in the background

Roger, Colly & Pete in Entrevaux

After a coffee stop a few kms down the mountain, Roger, Pete, "The Big Unit" & I embarked on what could be classed one of the greatest and most interesting descents we had undertaken. The section of most interest was from Beuil via Rigaud on the D28 where we passed gushing rivers, incredible hairpins and grandiose canyons. Afterwards Pete described it as like being in a computer game. The face was frenetic and we went from 1634m to 346m in no time. Back out on the main road to Puget Théniers we noticed a big change in the temperature and the landscape. Coming back down close to sea level is always going to cause a change in temperate, as you gain almost 10 degrees per 1000m. This time the change had been dramatic however, and we were truely baking in the heat. There was much more of a Mediterranean feel to the houses and towns as well. We stopped to take some photos in the pretty town of Entrevaux with it's castle and then proceeded on to what would be our last campsite of the tour. After a seriously shoddy shower which I had to run around in to get wet, we sat down for some food and wine with weary limbs. Like the last day of the Tour de France we just had a processional ride ahead of us on Friday towards the boulevard in Nice. As we were tucking into our grub some 2 hours after arriving at the campsite, none other than Tim "timmanybeers" ambled slowly in the front gate. He had taken a wrong turn and ended up climbing a third col and a days total of well over 200 kms. He was a broken man! Jaap legged it over to the bar and brought back a stein of beer (one litre) which is promptly polished off. It was a well deserved jar. When we got to the bar later on in the evening, the owners didn't seem particularly eager to sell us beer so Annie got herself in at the taps and kept pouring until the early hours of the morning. We had conquered the 10 Alpes, and much more besides. We were all very excited about finishing in Nice the following day...

Timmanybeers after 215kms and 3 cols! Well deserved...

Stage 8 - Briancon to Jausiers (Col d'Izoard & Col de Vars)

2010-07-16T03:21:00.000-07:00

The last day of June and ahead of us lay a relatively short stage of 90kms, but with 2 high mountain passes to contend with: Col d'Izoard (2361m) and Col de Vars (2108m). Stage 7 had proved quite a taxing day and I was in my tent and asleep by around 10pm after yet another wonderful feed, prepared by our culinary experts, Jaap and Astrid. Hats off to the pair of them for making the food both nutritious and interesting. We had enjoyed a sausage and bean casserole that evening which was sumptuous, with many return visits being made by us all, plate in hand, to the stove.

It lashed rain whilst at the campsite in Briancon and this was the first occassion on our trip that it had properly done so. There was a feeling amongst the gang that we might be in for our first wet day on the bike on Wednesday, but thanfully we awoke that morning to blue skies. The lovely climb from Briancon to the Col d'Izoard is 20 km in length and has an average gradient of 5.8%. On paper you think to yourself, ok, that's a workable gradient. But this average gradient business is misleading. Yes, at the beginning of the climb out of Briancon the going is quite easy, but later on in the climb the road ramps up and there are a few really tough kms. I always remember from watching Le Tour and other races that Izoard is a Hors Categorie climb, which means that it is "beyond categorization", i.e. an incredibly tough climb. One thing I've learned from cycling in the Alpes is to never trust the average gradient, because it doesn't mean jack at the end of the day and sometimes leads to a false sense of security. If for instance you are climbing a mountain and half way up you are treated to a downhill of some description (as is the case with Col d'Izoard), you can be shit sure that you are gonna pay back in spades what you've just been given. These little jewels of respite come back to bite you in the ass and account for the seemingly low average gradient.

En route to the Col d'Izoard

View from Izoard

Nothwitstanding, Izoard was a mountain I really enjoyed. Compared to what can only be described as foregettable (that afternoon's ride up the Col de Vars), Izoard was really pleasant with a great road surface, some alpine lakes and a generally tranquil vibe.

All I can really remember from the Col de Vars was the little ski town of Vars, a steep gradient out of the village and a few action shots taken from a moving car by Eamon Fitz and Simon from Bicycling Australia. I felt like a pro for those few brief moments. I had drained two 800ml bottles of electrolytes in a little over an hour and was worried about dehydration, a very real treat on the bike in the heat of the afternoon. Good fortune prevailed however and a fresh water spring appeared just after the village of Sainte Marie de Vars - lifesaver! Damo, Blake and Adrian were all pushing for podium placings and passed me on the way up. The summit of Vars was quite unlike the others. It kind of just flattened out and all of a sudden you were at a restaurant. Mark it down lads, only 1 biggie to go! (actually there were 2, one we weren't really told about until final hour).

L'eau!!!

Col de Vars

Camping @ La Condamine-Châtelard

Our penultimate camping site proved to be a great one! Up on the hill, as can be seen from the picture above, was some form of Napoleonic fort which looked really cool. We couldn't figure out how to get up there though. Before dinner we decided to venture up to the main house where there was a stone oven for cooking pizza and a bar serving Warsteiner fine German bière à la pression (draft). We vowed to come back after dinner as the stuff was that good and the family who ran the place seemed to be really welcoming (cash starved). So all of about 20 of us bailed back to the bar and proceeded to drink the place dry, giving no thought to the fact that we weredue to encounter one of our biggest challenges following day with the Col de la Bonette. The owners shouted us all some weird, highly alcoholic local minty things which looked like green sugar cubes. When sense finally prevailed, we fell into our tents, full to the gills with sauce. When I woke at 5.30am for the 7am start I think I was still fairly pissed. Thankfully there are no laws about cycling whilst over the limit in France, that I know of!

Garmin Readings for Les Dix Alpes

2010-07-14T02:27:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded the Garmin readings for Les Dix Alpes to garminconnect.com.

Unfortunately there were a couple of stages where the battery died so I didn't get a complete readout of the stage. Most of them are there in full however. The distance is in miles and the height is in feet.

Click here to see the list, click each individual stage to get the information for that route.

This is an embedded example of Stage 1:
Stage 1 - Como to Locarno by collym at Garmin Connect - Details

Stage 7 - l'Alpe d'Huez & Col du Lautaret

2010-07-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

On Monday 28th of June we had a well deserved rest day at our campsite in Bourg d'Oisans, the small town that sits at the base of the road to Alpe d'Huez. The following day's stage would see us tackling d'Huez and the Col du Lautaret which was just up the road. Looking at the itinerary for Stage 7 (which included 2 large climbs) a few of the group decided that they would ride up l'Alpe d'Huez on the rest day, and then just head straight for the Lautaret the following day. I decided that a rest day was supposed to be just that, so I planned to have a bit of a sleep in, a large brekie in Bourg d'Oisans, some time by the pool and a few beers while watching the Dutch game in the World Cup. It was a glorious day and I managed to do everything that I had planned, including paying a visit to a nice cycling shop in Bourg where I picked up a new jersey.

Being fairly dehydrated after many hot days in the saddle, I drank too much of arguably the worst hydration beverage known to man, beer! I got the skinny on d'Huez from some of the lads who had been up there. It sounded fairly punishing but the more stories that trickled back, the more I wanted to give it my best shot and try to get a decent time. Eamon, the Aussie photographer, had managed an amazing time of just under the hour mark at 59mins. To put that in a small bit of context... The following times were recorded from 14.5km from the finish:

Rank	Time	Name	Year	Nationality
1	37' 35"	Marco Pantani	1997	Italy
2*	37' 36"	Lance Armstrong	2004	United States
3	38' 00"	Marco Pantani	1994	Italy
4	38' 01"	Lance Armstrong	2001	United States
5	38' 04"	Marco Pantani	1995	Italy
6	38' 23"	Jan Ullrich	1997	Germany
7	38' 34"	Floyd Landis	2006	United States
8	38' 35"	Andreas Klöden	2006	Germany
9*	38' 37"	Jan Ullrich	2004	Germany
10	39' 02"	Richard Virenque	1997	France
11	39' 06"	Iban Mayo	2003	Spain
12*	39' 17"	Andreas Klöden	2004	Germany
13*	39' 21"	Jose Azevedo	2004	Portugal
14	39' 28"	Miguel Induráin	1995	Spain
15	39' 28"	Alex Zülle	1995	Switzerland
16	39' 30"	Bjarne Riis	1995	Denmark
17	39' 31"	Carlos Sastre	2008	Spain
18	39' 44"	Gianni Bugno	1991	Italy
19	39' 45"	Miguel Induráin	1991	Spain
20	40' 00"	Jan Ullrich	2001	Germany
21	40' 46"	Fränk Schleck	2006	Luxembourg
22	40' 51"	Alexander Vinokourov	2003	Kazakhstan
23	41' 18"	Lance Armstrong	2003	United States
24	41' 50"	Laurent Fignon	1989	France
25	41' 50"	Luis Herrera	1987	Colombia
26	42' 15"	Pedro Delgado	1989	Spain
27	45' 20"	Gert-Jan Theunisse	1989	Netherlands
28	45' 22"	Fausto Coppi	1952	Italy
29	48' 00"	Greg Lemond	1986	United States
30	48' 00"	Bernard Hinault	1986	France

The increased speed in the 1990s had been attributed to Erythropoietin or EPO. Riders with sub-40m times, such as Alex Zülle, Riis, and Virenque, have admitted using such products. Landis subsequently had a positive drugs test. There is also strong evidence that Pantani, who has the fasted recorded time, took EPO. Coppi has been listed with 45m 22s for 1952.

On awakening on the morning of Stage 7 I found that I was a tad anxious due to one too many beers the night before and from having built up this day in my head for quite a bit of time beforehand. Alpe d'Huez is afterall the cycling mecca! Our campsite was practically sitting on the start of the ascent so I figured it would be a good idea to go for a warm up spin before attempting the climb. When I had around 10km on the clock I headed back in the direction of d'Huez and so began the mytical ballbreaker. The climb is 13.8 km at an average 8.1% (1130 m), with 21 hairpins (les 21 virages) marked with signs honoring each of the Tour de France/Alpe d'Huez stage winners. Since the Tour has now used Alpe d'Huez more than 21 times, the lower signs have been doubled up as you'll notice on the first bend with a double panel honoring both Fausto Coppi and Lance Armstrong; Fausto was the first Tour winner of Alpe d'Huez in 1952 and Lance was the 22nd winner in the year 2000. I had been informed beforehand that the finish line lay after 14.5kms so not to stop when I reached the little village but to go approximately 2km further up the road.

The first 2 or 3 kms or so are quite steep at around 10-11% gradient. I have ridden steeper roads at home but generally at a relatively slow pace and not against the clock. I was keenly aware of my heart rate and breathing which after just a few hundred metres were both pounding and laboured. I slowed down a small bit so as to avoid "blowing up" before I had even reached hairpin number 3. At each hairpin there is a leveling out for a second or two before the road kicks up again. The small respite isnt sufficient to recover but enough to get you out of a hole, so to speak. I realised that I was probably carrying a bit too much stuff on my bike so I shed my extra water bottle, my rain jacket, pump and saddle pouch into a ditch on the fly. As it was very early in the morning there weren't many other cyclists in the vacinity, so I would collect the stuff on the way down and felt it would be safe enough. As it turned out it would be more than safe! (see below)

I don't remember much of the climb except to say that it was pretty tortuous, given the speed that I was ascending. Not very fast for a professional athlete, but for a humble Leitrim lad it was the upper extent of my cycling capability. There were a few occassions where I thought I was going to have to stop and spew on the famed surface. As the road evened out towards the top of the climb and the village of Huez, I was sure I was going to break the 60 min mark and knowing I was close gave me the drive to pedal harder. I passed under what appeared to be the finish line but remembered that I still had 2kms to go so on I went into a tunnel and up out of the village in the direction of lots of shallets and ski lifts. Not really what I remembered from the TV. My odometer read 14.7km and I was in no-mans land. My timer read 1h 2mins, damnation! Having said that, I was still happy with my time but felt distinctly underwhelmed at the misplaced finish line. There is simply no comparison between the top of d'Huez and the likes of say, Galibier. One is a ski station, and one is the top of a great mountain with magnificent views. Perhaps if there had been a million odd screaming fans atop d'Huez I would have felt differently.

Ski station on the top of l'Aple d'Huez - where are all the screaming fans??

Finish line, but not the official finish line for timing purposes. Confusing!

And so I was absolutely bollixed. It was not long after 8 in the morning and my heart rate had already reached 190bpm! The trouble was that I still had around 90kms to travel to the end of the day's stage. I felt quite unwell as I got off the bike at the "arrivee" but recovered quickly with a coffee. I was looking forward to the descent as I hadn't really seen anything on the way up. The hairpins on the way down would mean a technical descent but technical descents are the ones I most enjoy. By this stage there were plenty of cyclists making the trip upwards. I dropped like a stone, trying to pinpoint the location of the gear I had thrown from the bike on the way up. "No, not here, don't think this is the place, maybe around the next bend, no, not here either...". I realised that I was close to the bottom and only one place had stood out as the potential location of my stuff. Shit! I was going to have to turn back. Such was the speed of the descent that I was probably about 2 or 3 kms below where i wanted to be. The lads shot on past me. I couldn't believe that I was going to have to cycle back up. Exactly NOT what I needed. I even considered not going back up at all, but sense prevailed and with heavy legs I reached the place I had thrown my gear and collected each piece at small intervals from each other. Pete, Rune and Greg thanfully had waited for me at the bottom. I didn't relish the idea of cycling alone up the Col du Lautaret. Greg paced us up as far as the lunch stop and as was now customary, the temperature had increased dramatically. There was a section of newly tarred road where the loose chippings stuck to our tires. It made the going hard for a few kms. Although the Lautaret wasn't too steep (6% average), after the efforts on d'Huez it felt like a long steady climb. A blessing by way of a few clouds came our way and we were treated to some light rain at one stage. With a few kms remaining I decided to make a beeline for the summit, so as not to prolonged the pain any longer than was absolutely necessary. We had been at the top of the Col du Lautaret after descending Col du Galibier a few days earlier. Not much to see here, so we headed south to our next camp at Briancon. A big thanks to Pete for towing me home!

Almost the end of a really hard day @ Col du Lautaret, Galibier is in the background somewhere...

Stage 6 - Col du Télégraphe/Galibier (Lanslevillard to Bourg d'Oisans)

2010-07-07T02:26:00.000-07:00

Sunday's Stage 6 included 2 climbs: the Col du Télégraphe and the infamous Tour de France climb, the Col du Galibier. I was really excited about cycling up the Galibier but after studying the profile and bearing in mind that the Télégraphe had to be overcome first, I was sure it was going to be a tough day at the office.

Monastery on a hill near Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne

Before beginning the Télégraphe ascent we had a 44km warmer-upper along a main road with a slightly downhill gradient. We ripped down the road in "train" formation, to use some cycling parlance. For those of you not familiar with such terminology, a train is a formation of cyclists who ride in a bunch or group in order to conserve energy and more importantly to go faster by slipstreaming the rider in front. Each rider takes his turn at the front breaking the wind (and sometimes breaking wind!). This is the fundamental reason why the peloton will almost always catch a breakaway rider in a race. But I digress... We made it to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne at the foot of the Télégraphe in no time, tried in vain to find a coffee shop for a quick espresso, and instead proceeded up the hill. It was around 10am and already quite warm. Some sections of the first climb were steep enough, and there were tonnes of switchbacks.

Signage for the 2 climbs which lay ahead

With such a profile it is possible to gain altitude quickly and after only 20 mins or so I could see Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne way down below. The Col du Télégraph is so named because at the very top of the climb is a series of radio and TV towers. It's a rather large cement structure that can be seen from a long distance away. The climb itself is 11.8 km long, gaining 856 m. in height (an average of 7.3%). The maximum gradient is 9.8% at the summit which didn't take me too long to reach. To my surprise I was, for the 2nd consecutive day, the first to the top. The summit itself is not like your typical col, but serves I guess as a prelude to Galibier. We had lunch here, because it seemed the most opportune time and point to do so, after which we descended a small distance into the ski town of Valloire and started the long steady climb upwards one again.

Start of Galibier ascent outside Valloire (Limey dead ahead!)

I got talking to a German girl and her friend from Bristol who told me that he had been up the Galibier once before at the tender age of 14. Although the girl was riding strong out of Valloire, we dropped her when the gradient really started to kick up with around 10kms to go. The actual climb to the summit starts at Valloire and is 18.1 km long at an average of 6.9% (height gain: 1245 m). The maximum gradient is 10.1% at the summit.

Switchbacks towards summit of Galibier

Again, it was scorcius maximus as we rode up through the valley, but it was pleasant and the scenery was glorious, with flowers, green fields and little streams flowing through. Generally speaking, the further up you go on an Alpine climb the greater vegetational changes you will see and what was once a shady tree filled climb becomes a treeless, fairly barren landscape with large ice sections everywhere. As promised by the limey from Bristol, the going got really tough as we rounded a corner with around 8kms to go and at a height above sea level of around 2000m. Thankfully the temperature had cooled a bit, but that provided only a small comfort as I looked along a road above me that seemed to be never ending. On Galibier and a few other climbs there are signs every kilometre that tell you how much you have to climb before you reach the summit, as well as the a gradient indicator. The jury is still out on whether or not I like them. Sometimes you forget what the previous sign had said and instead of 4kms to go, you have 6kms, such is your inability to think straight with the lack of oxygen and the constant agony of the climb. Meanwhile motorbikes are whizzing by on the wrong side of the road gaining altitude at a rate that seems infinitely higher than the humble cyclist whos peddles are barely turning. As soon as I hit the 10% gradient of the final couple of kms I drop to my last gear and grit my teeth looking up at around 5 or 6 switchbacks to the summit. The last part is an absolute killer and I'm gasping for breath as I power up over the top to be greeted by a couple of the Aussie blokes who've summited before me. Wow, what a ride. Boy was I happy to be at the top. The Galibier proved a really tough cookie but I had a feeling a deep elation having conquered it.

Looking back down at the ascent, good job!

Rune, Greg, Damo, Colly, Blake, Adrian on the summit of Galibier

As it was Sunday we had a lot of traffic to contend with on the decent. The 12% gradient on the southerly descent of the Galibier towards Col du Lautaret was very fast and I was conscious of not overshooting any of the hairpins for fear of ploughing into a vehicle coming in the other direction. We still had 48kms to our camping site in Bourg d'Oisans and because of the said traffic the brake shoes on my bike got a good shaving on the way down. We passed over the route we would be taking out of Bourg d'Oisans 2 days later, albeit in a different direction. An Irish guy with a board.ie cycling jersey joined our little train, consisting of Tim, Pete and I. We exchanged only a couple of words before we went in opposite directions at the roundabout entering Bourg d'Oisans.

12% gradient descent with no barriers - Hairy!!

Spirits were high back in camp due to a long awaited rest day we were due the following day. We were joined by Simon Hayes, editor of Bicycling Austrialia and freelance photographer called Eamon Fitzpatrick, also from Australia, although the name might suggest otherwise. Simon was going to cycle with us to Nice, and Eamon was going to take some action shots of us on our bikes. We had another great dinner thanks to the Bike Dreams crew and looked forward to lounging around the pool the following day at the campsite. Tuesday would see us tackle the most legendary of all cycling routes, the paved road up L'Alpe D'Huez. SihAmon HayesH

Stage 5 - Col de L'Iseran (Bourg St. Maurice to Lanslevillard)

2010-07-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

On friday 25th we were joined by Peter Ivin (twin brother of Chris) at our campsite in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, a commune in the Savoie (as in Savoy) department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. Bourg, as it is commonly known, is the last large town along the Tarentaise valley in the heart of the French Alps and sits at around 700m above sea level. This meant that we would start the following day's spin up to the Col de L'Iseran ascending the Alp, so Peter would find himself battling a mountain from the get go. I was interested to see how he would find it, as we already had a few decent climbs in our legs at that stage.

As I had finally settled into a pretty decent sleeping pattern I was feeling a lot better in the mornings. Nonetheless I was still struggling with chowing down on museli and granola, peanutbutter sandwiches and fruit at 7am. Invariably I would end up sitting across from young Tom Wakeling from Australia for what seemed like an eternity, munching away like a pair young calves eating calf nuts.

And so I was late again, but only marginally so. I noticed that some of the group were struggling, starting out as we were on a 9% gradient out of Bourg. I spotted an eager Pete Ivin putting in a big effort and his brother Chris reigning him in so he didn't explode after a few kms with his eagerness. Luckily I was fresh enough to push on up past the peloton and soon enough I reached Tim "timmanybeers" Dowling, a hardy farmer from outside Sydney. He had acquired his nickname for his voracious appetite for the sauce, an appetite that would put many an Irishman to shame. Tim could easily sink 10 cans of beer of an everning and be up bright an early the next morning ready for another hard day's slog on the bike. Cycling in the Alpes was probably easy for him, considering that just before he had left Australia for the trip he was busy building a road! I was eager to get to the lunch stop on top of L'Iseran because my chainset sounded like it had a little tweety bird installed in it, so I hiked up the pace and soon I was out on my own on the mountain.

Starting from Bourg-Saint-Maurice, the Col de l'Iseran is 48 km long. Over this distance, the climb is 1955 m (an average percentage of 4.1%). The last part of the climb starts at Val-d'Isère, the famous ski resort: 15 km at a consistent average of 6% (climbing 895 m). It was a long climb but I felt fairly comfortable, and reached the summit ahead of the rest of the group with a little grin on my face. I could hear the legendary cycling commentary of Phil Liggett in my head, "Colly Murray, King of the Mountains for Stage 5 of Les Dix Alpes". It was a beautifully sunny day on top and we had a great lunch while basking in the sunshine.

Summit of L'Iseran

Richard & Jaap (Dutch Support Crew) & Colly

The decent was an interesting one. It started off really well due to the sprawling landscape that was laid out before us. Picturesque fields, streams and waterfalls everywhere. It wasn't quite as barren as some of the other descents, persumably due to the aspect of the mountain? After a good few kms, it flattened out and once again I found myself in no man's land having dropped a few of the others on the descent. There was a fairly vicious headwind which made the going hard, and suddenly there was another little col in front of me. I checked the map and profile and saw no mention of it, and I still remember the name of it vividly (lividly), Col du Madeline. It was a bit of a ball breaker but I was soon over it and another nice twisty descent into the town of Lanslevillard. When the rest of the gang started arriving back at the campsite, the first few lines muttered were something like, "Where did that little f*cker of a Col appear out of?".

Spectacular descent from L'Iseran

5 Stages and halfway there. The next day we would head for Bourg d'Oisans where we would have a rest day followed by the legendary climb up to L'Alpe D'Huez. I could hardly wait! But first we would have to reach the summit of the Col du Télégraphe at 1,566 m and the Col du Galibier at 2646m. Lots of climbing ahead.

Les Dix Alpes - Como to Nice - Photos

2010-07-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

Stage 4 - Col du Petit St Bernard (Etroubles to Bourg St. Maurice)

2010-06-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Friday started off badly when I took a left turn in the direction of the Grand Bernard instead of a right turn towards the Aosta valley and the majestic Mont Blanc. Etroubles to Aosta is approx 30km downhill, so as I ascended a hill out of Etroubles it struck me that I might be going the wrong way.

So once again I found myself time-trialing to get back into contention. Nice way to warm up the legs! We stopped for an early lunch at around 10am because failing to do so at that point would mean no food until the
summit. We had a splendid view of Mont Blanc as it towered up in front of us, completely covered in snow, which is the case all year around, hence the name!

Pre Sanit Didier lunch stop

The Col du Petit St Bernard is 2188m in height with an average gradient of 5.3%. The total climb is 22.6kms. Quite long, but very doable and after the mammoth Grand St Bernard it was enjoyable. Having said that, no climb is really enjoyable because there is a certain degree of pain associated with it, so bittersweet might be a better descriptor. When I hear some of the crew saying that the climb was great I always think how short the memory of a human mind really is. The experience of suffering on the mountain climbs and the elation of reaching the top leads to an overwhelming sense of achievement nonetheless...

La Thuile - Italian Ski resort, busy all year round

Writing on the road from Le Tour de France

Summit

Pre-descent View from Petit St Bernard

The group of us first to the top didn't hang around too long as it was feckin cold as. On with all the cold weather gear and a rapid descent which seemed to be all of the 30kms to our destination. Bourg St Maurice was our first French campsite and with it came those archaeic and annoying squat toilets which are the last thing a weary cyclist wants to encounter. The campsite was really nice though. The oul Frenchies have a serious fascination with camping it seems. This particular site was full of Dutch punters. You will find hundreds Dutch cycling fanatics around the Alpes. They are good skins and love to bike. Indeed our support crew are a mad bunch of hooers from Ze Netherlands. I enjoy the craic out of them immensely!

Sat would take us to Lanslevillard via the Col de L'Iseran (2770m) and the famous Val d'Isere ski resort.

Stage 3 - Col du Grand St. Bernard (Visp to Etroubles)

2010-06-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

On Wed the 23rd June we had a rest day in Visp, a little Swiss village close to the Italian border. We treated ourselves to a large brekie and some of the gang headed off to see the Matterhorn. I chose not to do so, and instead organised my stuff and relaxed in the sunshine.

Visp, Switzerland

I'm glad I did, because what awaited on thurs was a monster climb up to the Col du Grand St Bernard - a pass connecting Martigny in Switzerland to Aosta in Italy, lying on the ridge between the two highest summits of the Alps, namely Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. The pass itself is located within Switzerland in the canton of Valais. Not just a clever name, this mountain - although not the highest on our trip intinerary - stands at 2469m. The overall distance for the day was going to be 143km, with a 41.5km total climb to the summit, hitting 10% gradient at some points.

Marcel, one of the Bike Dreams crew, lead us out for the first 20 or so kms, to ensure safe delivery of all participants to the first town on the day's route. Somehow some of the riders still managed to displace themselves from everybody else. Further down the road the group seemed to join up again. The first 50kms were very fast as Roger Cull, a classy Australian cyclist and myself led out a group of riders in a train that ripped through the valley towards Sion and onto Martigny at the 75km mark. Lunch soon followed after a small ascent up the St Bernard.

Wrong turn confusion!

Putting the boot down with Rog!

The afternoon heat was a factor early on again today, whilst we rode through the valley from Martigny and on the early part of the climb. There was almost no wind and the sun was beating down. The great thing about cycling to high altitude is that it gets cooler the higher you go. Unfortunately its gets much more labour intensive and harder to breath!
The temperature typically drops 10 degress for every 1000m climbed. Rune and Damo were setting a nice tempo a head of me and I finally caught them at a set of traffic lights which led into a 6km tunnel. My friend the tunnel! We also noticed a sign that read 350km to Nice, albeit via a Motorway. I roughly calculated that we only had another 1000kms to go on our passage to Nice. When the tunnel ended the gradient really kicked up, and got the better of poor ole Rune. He's a big unit and was just pushing too hard into the red zone.

Rune & Damo just in front, with the Grand Bernard summit in sight

I cursed the steepness of the climb, willing it to end, and with it my pain. I kept looking down to see if I had any more gears, but my fears were contiually realised. I have a little picture of "The Rock" on my handbar and I drew great inspiration and determination looking at him and thinking about the suffering he endured throughout his battle with cancer. There were some spiritual moments when I prayed for him to help me, and all of a sudden a tailwind would push me up the mountain a bit. Cycling so high made me feel closer to Martin, and with his help I conquered the Grand Bernard.

The Aussies Blake and Tim were already up there and we talked about the difficulty of the climb. I noticed we were all covered in salt, such was the perspiration throughout the climb. There were large chunks of ice and snow on the roads in places which was really cool. We basked in the sun on the summit restuarant terrace and downed a few coffees and cokes as the others struggled as we did up over the final few metres.

Ice field on the summit of Grand St. Bernard

Just before setting off on the descent, road behind!

We probably hung on a little too long up there, but we were in no rush to set off again. 40km of climbing was something I have never experience before, but as we like to say at home - where there is a will, there is a way. Obviously having trained for some months previous helped nonetheless! Another mesmerising descent lead us to the Italian town of Etrouble where we set up camp for the evening. After a big feed I hit the hay early, determinded to have a good night sleep for once, which I did thankfully.

We were in for a slightly "easier" day on fri to the summit of the Col du Petit St Bernard, the little sis of the one we had just climbed, at 2188m and a total of 105kms for the day.

Stage 2 - The Simplon Pass

2010-06-28T05:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a super lite hypothermia inducing sleeping bag and a very noisy campsite I slept really badly after stage 1. Myself and Outlaw Pete had watched Spain beating Chile in the World Cup group stage with a couple of beers but that failed to send me off to cloud cuckoo land. Tuesday was going to be the first real test of indurance with a 114km ride from Locarno to Visp via the Simplon Pass, at 2008m.

Beers with Pete

Running late as per usual I set out with Rune the big Dane to catch the others who were already a good few kms up the road. There was an early morning chill in the air but it was wonderfully sunny and the early climbs were overcome with ease. We stopped a couple of times to take photos as the opportunity to do so seemed too tempting to let pass.

After around 25kms we hooked up with most of the others who were having a quick coffee in a small village near the Italian border. I couldn't resist necking a bottle of chilled Guinness that I discovered in the fridge, much to the amusement of my Antipodean friends. It actually took the edge off the caffine buzz that I was on after one too many cups of coffee at breakfast.

Guinness Time @ Stradon

The next few k's took us over a few hills and into some long valleys. The roads were really nice but there was a slight headwind which made progress slow. The headwind served a dual purpose, as it was getting very hot at that point. Lunch arrived in the nick of time and I would have cycled on passed it had it not been for Rune spotting the BikeDreams flag.

What lay ahead of us after lunch was a 38km climb to the top of the Simplon Pass, a historic pass built a few hundreds years previous to move big fuck off stuff between 2 countries. (citation needed)
And so the long, relentless, hot ascent began. Because it was early days on the trip I felt strong and moved up through the riders fairly comfortably. I've never cycled through so many tunnels in my life. Approaching HGVs sounded like 747s and made cycling quite unnerving at times.

At one stage a car drove past me, which was towing a boat, the arse of which neraly hit me.

The tunnels - which had been built as avalanch shelters for traffic - were a god send, shielding us from the early afternoon sun and providing some much needed cooling. Around 5kms for the top the headwind really picked up and I had to dig in hard to keep the pedals turning consistently and the cadence high.
I was cycling with Damian Crowe, a hardcore chap from Oz who had been on the road from Palermo to Nice the weeks previous. He had already found his mountain legs. Seeing snow for the first time was proof of how high we were getting. The air was getting tight and the quads were crying out when we spotted the little cafe at the top. Sweet!

First big climb overcome and a great sense of joy. I pulled on the arm covers, wind breaker and rain jacket and dropped like a stone to the town of Brig at the foot of the pass. The decent was absolutely massive, hitting close on 80kmph at points. The temperature went from around 8 degress to 30 degrees in roughly 10 mins on the decent.

We found our well equipped Swiss campsite in Visp and unpacked for our rest day the following day.
We would need all the rest we could get as the next mammoth climb on our itinerary would be the Col du Grand St. Bernard.

Stage 1 - The Lake District

2010-06-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

After Many months of hard training June 21st and the first stage of Les Dix Alpes finally arrived. We all met for brekie at 7, followed by a group photo in Como town centre. The weather had picked up just in the nick of time and we all set out along Lake Como in all our yellow LDA jersey glory.

Leaving from The Best Western in Como

Participants & Crew @ Lake Como

Stage 1 was a relatively flat stage to ease us into what was to come on day two's route through the Simplon Pass. Such was our eagerness that a group of us missed the right turn for Lago di Lugano (glacial lake in the SE of Switzerland on the Italian border) and went some 20kms out of the way ultimately adding an extra 40km for our days total. The Aussies "Maca", "The Big Unit" (due to his sheer size on the bike), Pete the Kiwi dentist, Chris the limey, Ruane the big Dane and myself were the brunt of a running joke that lasted 2 days. It was mainly I who was at fault but they were all stupid enough to follow! Our route took us along the shore of Lago di Lugano via the town of Lugano and on to Lago Maggiore, the 3rd of the prealpine lakes of Italy. We were moving a long at a nice pace, stopping occassionally to make sure we were headed in the right direction this time and to take a few snaps of the breathtaking scenery.

It was fairly clear early on that there were a few levels in terms of cycling ability. What was most evident was that there wasn't a bad cyclist in the group. Everyone was in great shape and excited about taking to the Alpes. Some of the crew had already cycled 3000kms from Palermo in Sicily to Como - hardcore!

With 150km on the clock we rolled up to our first of many campsites just outside the Swiss town of Locarno. The icy mountain stream water proved a very refreshing leg healer. Apparently the freezing water is a good way to stem the bleeding micro tears that appear on musle tissue after strenuous activity.

The campsite itself was nice and rustic but full of teenagers intent on wrecking our buzz! Very little sleep was had that night due those muppets and the fact that I was freezing my balls off inside the tent. What I don't know about camping is not worth knowing. I've since purchased a new sleeping bag and therma rest and am sleeping much better.

A little about our support crew. We have a mechanic called Richard, a couple of fine chefs called Japp and Astrid, Marcel the bag man and the boss himself Wilbert. All Dutch except for Astrid who hails from Denmark. They are all great characters and uber organised, unlike myself. Every morning I struggle to pack up all my shit, eat as much food as possible, fill my biddons, pump my tires and apply some sun cream before departure at 8am, SHARP. Not an Irish 8 O clock! I usually have to ride fast to catch the peloton for the first few kms.

Tuesday and Stage 2 was going to be the first big test, The Simplon Pass @ 2,008 m.

Como

2010-06-23T04:18:00.001-07:00

On sat after much lugging of gear between 2 taxis, a bus and a train I finally made it to the hotel in Como. What greeted me in the Best Western Continental was like a scene out of Home and Away with the kackle of Aussie and Kiwi accents. We exchanged pleasantaries and I then set about rebuilding my bike. Thankfully nothing had been damaged in transit. I was keen to get out for a spin to ensure everything was in perfect working order but decided that Sunday might be a more favourable option given that I had been up since 5am. Also it was pissing rain outside as Ireland basked in Summer sunshine! Awake early on Sunday (with a bit of a head on me after some vino with my new Kiwi friends on sat night) I set off in the rain for the famous Museo del Cicliso high on the hills above Lake Como. It proved a painful enough ride with temperatures no greater than around 6 degrees and driving rain. Nice warmup for Les Dix Alpes on Monday!! It was well worth the spin however because after approx 30 hairpin bends myself and my co-lunatic doctor buddy Greg from Christchurch, NZ, reached the wonderful Museo del Ciclismo and chapel "Madonna del Ghisallo" with it's relics and Giro d'Italia winner signed jerseys. Probably not that intersting for non-cyclists but the views from Bellagio and higher up at Madonna del Ghisallo were breathtaking, in spite of the rain.

I felt really fresh on the steep gradients and my rothar was in good working order. The weather forcast for Monday was good so I was looking forward to seeing the Lake district in all it's glory on the relatively flat first stage from Como to Locarno in Switzerland.

Colly & Greg setting out for Passo del Ghisallo

Route Profile with Gradients

Wicklow 200 - 2010 edition

2010-06-16T04:50:00.000-07:00

On Sunday last I participated in The Wicklow 200, an event which has been organised each year since its inception in 1981 by the Irish Veteran Cyclists Association. It was my fifth outing and as in previous years I really enjoyed tipping around the "Garden of Ireland".

Due to my procrastinational tendancies, I was uncertain whether or not I was going to be around Dublin last weekend, and for that reason I decided not to register for the Wicklow 200. Another reason was that the starting point in Greystones was a tad out of the way for me and I didn't like the prospect of having to drive or cycle there from the city centre at 6 in the morning. In days of yore participants would get a free Wickow 200 jersey on registering for the event, unfortunately this is no longer the case which is a pity. There are 2 food stops along the route for sandwiches and tea/coffee. Queuing for a sambo and a cup for tea for a half hour and getting cold in the process is not the best option when you are trying to get around a 200km course. It also doesn't represent value for money as the entry fee currently stands at €40. I know that the entry fee is put to use in a whole host of other ways, but I still think its quite steep when you compare it to other events. With all of this in mind I planned to stop in a convenience store and pick up some supplies including water along the way, thus preventing cold muscles and long queues.

I left my apartment in sunny Christchurch around 7.30am or a little after and made my way towards Rathfarnham, taking a right at the Yellow House and proceeding up along Cruagh Road, over Powerscourt Mountain and meeting the group at Glencree. I was sufficiently warm at that stage after a nice climb and headed for the Sally Gap where some misty rain had begun to fall. I've rode these roads hundreds of times at this stage and felt really at home and comfortable on my new saddle which had given me some anxiety earlier in the week, the Wicklow 200 would be made or break.

I started to really enjoy cycling with groups of riders as most of my training this year had been done in a solitary fashion or with Asher from Cycleways. My average speed was quite high but I wasn't feeling any strain whatsoever as I chatted with a veteran from Cork and subsequently a racer from Rathmines. I spotted a few lads really struggling early on and I wondered how long and how much pain they would have to endure until the reached Greystones. Some riders were sporting wigs, and I believe a guy cycled the 100km route on a DublinBike!

There were also some other diehards on the 100km course including a tandem which featured a female rider on the back who was blind or had impaired vision. Mucho respect...

When I arrived in Donard for Stop # 1 @ 90kms, I felt way too fresh to stop so I just continued making inroads towards the next climb of the day at Slieve Mann. Just outside Donard I spotted Joe Barr, Derry cyclist and former Commonwealth Games medallist who won the inaurgural 1350 mile cycle Race Around Ireland 2009. He did so in an ashtonishing 4 days 12 hours and 12 minutes, so there was no way I was going to try to keep pace with him. If you were out on Sunday you might have spotted Joe with his black support vehicle following behind with a flashing beacon on top.

At this point I met with Dave O' Shea from Limerick who was tipping around at a nice speed. We started chatting and before we knew it we had covered 40 or so kms emcompassing the Slieve Mann & Shay Elliott climbs. There was one further small climb outside Avoca (or Ballykissangel for you soap opera fiends) followed by plenty of undulations and peaceful countryside. We were treated to one last shower just before Ashford after which we upped the average speed and made a beeline for Greystones with legs which felt very fresh. We crossed the finishline at 15:11, with over 200kms registered on my Polar. The course from start to finsh was roughly 195kms but I had clocked up a few more kms (and hills) coming from Dublin city centre.

All in all I was very pleased with my days work, and really enjoyed the spin around whilst chatting to Limerick Dave, who was a very nice bloke. A couple of years back he completed the gruelling Trans Alp Challenge and he gave me lots of advice in terms of what to expect from Les Dix Alpes. Thanks dude!

I'm all set now for the big event. A week of tapering and then its off to Como on the 19th to start the long journey through the Alps on June 21st.

Unfortunately I didn't get to take any pictures while cycling the Wicklow 200 this year, as I was more focused on getting around in a quicker time. However, a kind gentleman working for the Dublin Civil Defence (who may I say did a tremendous job on the day) took this picture of us at the finish line with my iPhone.

Colly & Dave O' Shea at the finish line

Final week of Training

2010-06-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

I decided to make some adjustments to my bike this week as well as upgrade some of the ailing elements that have taken a beating over the past few months of training. After suffering a few punctures of late I decided that it would be a good idea to replace the existing tires and tubes, which is also a good idea considering I will be cycling well over 1,000 kms in the next 3 weeks. My mate Ash from Runways/Cycleways recently put a set of Ultremo tires on his bike before his trip to the Pyrennes and recommended I do the same. I dropped the bike in on Tuesday lunchtime and it was ready a couple of hours later thanks to the hard work of Raul. He also replaced the chain which had stretched quite a bit from being dragged up so many hills. The bike looked practically brand new when it was returned to me!

Anyone who spends a lot of time on a bike understands the important of a saddle which is a good if not perfect fit. It was clear from a Bicyle Fitting that I did a while ago with Ash that my saddle wasn't exactly ideal for my body geometry. So this week I replaced the standard Boardman one with a Specialized Toupé.

Its a pretty skimpy sight but its very comfortable. And so I went for a spin to get a feel for my "new" bike. The new tires felt amazing on the road. As did the general feel of the bike. However, after 70kms the maligned piriformis syndrome began to creep in, which causes compression of the sciatic nerve. If manifests itself as a pain in the arse, literally, as well as pins and needles in the leg or foot. I'm hoping its because the saddle was too low, so a couple more spins and tweak will hopefully iron out the problem and I will discover the sweet spot for the saddle height.

This Sunday will be my last long spin before Les Dix Alpes. I will then have one week of rest and eating well before I fly to Como on the 19th. The Wicklow200 which is a 200km cycle around the mountains of Wicklow takes place every June and is attended by over 2,000 cyclists of all ages. Here's hoping for some nice weather...

2010 Wicklow 200
Find more Bike Rides in Greystones, Ireland

The Leitrim Observer

2010-06-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

The weekly newspaper from my native county Leitrim were kind enough to do a article on "Les Dix Alpes" to help with my fundraising efforts.

To see the article in full click HERE or on the image directly above.

Mount Leinster

2010-06-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

In August 2009 I was lucky enough to work on the 3rd edition of the Tour of Ireland and rub shoulders with the likes of [multiple Tour de France winner] Lance Armstrong and the fastest man on the Pro Tour, Mark Cavendish. The former rode around Pheonix park a few days later with 1,000+ eager cyclists. I managed to ride up front for a while and chat to the Texan for a bit, which was nice. He's not everybody's cup of tea, but he deserves a lot of credit for the work he has done in raising funds and Cancer awareness through his Livestrong Foundation.

Stage One of the ToI took the riders over Mount Leinster which is the highest of the Blackstairs Mountains at 796 metres (2,605 ft) and straddles the counties of Carlow, Wexford and Kilkenny. It was my first time on top of this particular mountain and I swore I would come back to cycle it for myself. The views are splendiferous. I am open to correction on this one, but I reckon it is possible to see 6 or 7 counties from the "Nine Stones", the road that passes just beneath the summit.

Myself and the missus were shacked up in Lyrath Estate for the weekend so it was the perfect opportunity to head off for a couple of hours on the bike and get a bit of training done on unfamiliar turf. I plotted out my route and headed off on what was to be a lovely spin. I found the road surfaces really good and the omnipresent multidirectional wind that I'm used around Dublin and Wicklow was nowhere to be found, thank f&$k!

This route is more difficult travelling to the Nine Stones from Borris than coming from the Bunclody side, which is the direction the ToI took last year. Passing the Rathanna / Tomduff junction you get a little sample of what's to come. After reaching the Nine Stone’s car park you turn right across the cattle grid into a shaded forest passage where it starts to kick up straight away.

3k from the summit the views of the Antenna can be quite deceptive. The closer I got to it the further away its seemed to be and with sections of the last 2k averaging around 16%, I was praying for more gears if not wishing for the legs of a mountain goat. The front wheel on my bike was lifting off the ground at times, such was the gradient. A photographer called Sonnie took a few shots of my grimacing face as I climbed, he was on his way down by foot. I caught up with him for a brief chat on the decent as I had been unable to mutter anything coherent to him on the way up. When he emails me the pics I'll post them here...

If you're from the area or even from elsewhere in Ireland and haven't been to Mount Leinster, I would recommend setting up base in a nearby town like Kilkenny and conquering it for yourself. And afterwards treat yourself to a feed a pints in Langton's by way of celebration...

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/lyrath-estate,-kilkenny/768127594381477488"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Mount Leinster Route&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/ireland/lyrath-estate,-kilkenny"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Lyrath Estate, Kilkenny, Ireland&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Slow puncture

2010-06-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

On Monday 31st May I headed off for a long spin (c.120km) before heading off to the Olympia to see Crowded House put on a stellar performance in front of a packed audience. The lead singer Neil Finn had a good gag about cycling around Dublin and encountering a manhole cover he described as like cycling into a bike rack!

With plenty of kms and climbing in the legs early on in the week I knew that Tuesday night could possibly be a little tiresome. About 4km into the training spin I started to feel the pebbles on the road reverberate up through the saddle and into my body. Around the same time I noticed that the power I was exerting on the peddles wasn't having the desired effect. This can only mean one thing, a puncture! Akin to the one I experienced a week earlier in fact. With the help of "Triple A" (Asher the Australian Animal - as I fondly refer to him because of his athletic prowess on the bike) I patched the hole in jig time.

I was able to get a decent amount of pressure into the tires with the handpump but when I jumped back on, and for the remainder of the spin, the bike's efficiency on the road had dropped off quite a bit. Over the next 3 hours we managed around 4,315 ft of climbing. Sounds like a tidy bit of vertical cycling for a Tuesday evening, but when compared with Les Dix Alpes it is less than half the height of most of the climbs! I will have to do twice what I did last night, per day, for 10 days, in the heat, and at altitude. It's a scary prospect.

Ash is just back from the Pyrnesses so he was in really good form on the bike, that just compounded my misery. He's a great motivator and I really enjoy the challenge of cycling and trying to keep up with him. On July 25th he's taking part in Ironnan Triathlon Switzerland. I would like to wish him the very best of luck for that. I have no doubt that he'll annihilate the course...

Here is the Garmin readout of the spin. (Notice the very low Average Speed!!)

Coin Tosser

2010-05-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

It always difficult to get long spins in during the week after work. After a "tough" day at the office, sometimes the last thing you want to do is head out for 4 or 5 hours on a bike. When the evenings are sunny it can be the perfect way to unwind and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. For the past few weeks the evenings have been getting progressively longer and it's not quite as cold as it has been. Having said that, on thurs 13th of May it was 2 degrees on Powerscourt mountain, factoring in the wind chill!

I've been clocking up over 300kms per week on the odometer since April. A weekend in April on my mate Dave's stag in Bristol offered me a few days off the bike. It was a welcome relief to wake up on the sat morning with a hangover instead of having to face into a long spin. That probably sounds likes a sort of oxymoron?

Rest weeks are very important in preparing oneself for endurance events as they give the body an opportunity to repair itself, both physically and mentally. Long hours on the bike, especially solo efforts, can take a lot out of you. Thankfully I have a goal which is now in sight. This helps of course, but there is always the fear of burnout, extreme fatigue and exhaustion. On an average week I've been doing 3 spins - 2 long with lots of hills and one (sometimes two) shorter spins at pace, on flatter terraine. I find long spins on the flat mind numbingly boring so I prefer to cycle vertically when I'm going to be cycling for more than 3 hours.

My favourite route (approx 120km mapped out below) takes in the Sally Gap from Dublin City centre, to Laragh via Glenmacnass (or Roundwood via Luggala), over the Wicklow gap to Ballyknockan, Valleymount, around the lakes into Blessington and then a straight run into Tallaght before eventually reaching Chirstchurch where I live in the city centre.

I did such a spin on thurs 20th May. A lovely bright evening, with lots of bugs in the air. I must have swallowed at least 85 greenfly, which kept my protein levels up. No need for a recovery shake when I got home! Didnt meet too many cyclists out and about, apart from an American couple who seemed to be quite taken with the Wicklow Mountains National Park. I passed over the Wicklow gap with the sun on my face, around the big lakes and on through Blessington. About half between Blessington and Tallaght as the cars rushed by I felt a tingle in my side, followed by the sound of a coin bounching off the tarmac. Yes, you've guessed it. Someone arsehole has thrown a coin at me from the passenger side of his/her vehicle! As soon as the realisation of what had happened set in I was livid. How could someone carry out such a degenerate act? I powered home, propelled by the rage.

Unfortunately as cyclists we are always exposed to nature and it's hazards. But never does one expect to be hit by an object tossed from a car! It ruined a perfectly lovely spin. Could have been worse of course, the coin didn't hurt or anything. But it just goes to show that there are a few mindless pricks out there intent on causing harm for no other reason than having a laugh at someone elses expense.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/dublin/323442224"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;2.WE - Wicklowmountains - BikeTour - Sep07&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/ireland/dublin"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Dublin, Ireland&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Training - Tuesday 25th May

2010-05-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if it was the tailwind, a couple of leg recuperation rest days or the dried prunes I ate before I hit the mountains but I flew up to the Sally Gap last night. Anyone who rides up there via Cruagh or Kilakee road knows that there are some steepish climbs for roughly 13kms (with some flat bits thrown in as well).

I went around by Powerscourt mountain, and Luggala peering over at Lough Tay en route to Ballinastoe. I had covered around 40km in the first hour and a half when i noticed my back tire had a slow puncture. Damnation! The sun had given me a false sense of security in terms of the temperature, so when I stopped to change the tire I realised that it was only around 10 degrees. I cursed and shivered as i realised that the BBB tubes that I was carrying didn't fit my Richie wheels! Luckily enough, along came John Lynham from Laragh and sorted me out with a tube. Life saver. I dont think a bicycle tube from one of the many mountain bikers around there would have done the trick...

After fluting around for a protracted number of minutes in the cold, my schedule was thrown off so i headed for Enniskerry and back to Dublin. Just wanted to thank John for stopping and giving me a dig out.

Here is the route I took:

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/dublin/543977130"&amp;gt;sally gap&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/ireland/dublin"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Dublin, Ireland&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Les Dix Alpes

2010-05-26T02:19:00.001-07:00

(This extract is taken from www.collymurray.com and provides an overview of Les Dix Alpes and my reasons for undertaking the trip)

Colly embarks on “Les Dix Alpes” (The 10 Alpes) on Monday June 21st 2010 in Como, Italy. The finish lies after 12 days, 1.100 kilometres and a multitude of beads of sweat at the waving palms on the boulevard in Nice, France.

The famous cols of the Tour de France: Col de l'Iseran, Col du Galibier, Col d'Izoard and Col de la Bonette will be traversed. In addition, some lesser known, but no less challenging climbs like the Simplon Pass, Col du Petit St. Bernard, Col du Grand St. Bernard, Col de Vars and Col de Lautaret will also feature en route to Nice. Nine passes above 2,000 meters plus the legendary climb to the ski resort of l'Alpe d'Huez. A lot of famous professional cyclists have fought out heroic duels here in the recent past; Federico Bahamontes, Marco Pantani or Lance Armstrong. It is now Colly's turn to follow in their tiretracks and in the process raise vitally needed funds for Cancer Care West.

This event is being undertaken in loving memory of Martin O' Gorman, a dear friend of Colly's who succumbed to cancer in September 2009.

Colly will be incurring the cost of the cycle out of his own pocket and all money raised will go directly to charity. No money donated will be used as part of the cost of the cycle.

A special word of thanks goes to those who sponsored cycling equipment and nutritional products for the training and cycle; Richies Bikestore in Swords, Asher from CycleWays Parnell St...