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

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)

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

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