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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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...

The Leitrim Observer

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

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...

Slow puncture

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!!)