TCRN07 Day 11: Albertville -Le Bourg-d’Oisans

06/08/19

112.06 Miles

10:08:52 hrs Moving Time

12,782ft Gained

11 mph Average Speed

CP4 Day

After a late arrival into Albertville the previous night and the stressy last few hours I left around 8am.

I had 40 miles or so of flat riding until the start of the CP4 Parcours, which took racers up and over 3 infamous Alpine passes. Firstly the Col de Telegraphe at 1566m, then the Col Du Galibier at 2642m and finally the off road way up Alpe D’Huez at 1860m.

The first 40 miles along the flat valley road dragged more than I would have liked, with a headwind and the weight of 3 major climbs to contend with.

Reaching Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, just before the start of the Parcours and the Col du Telegraphe, I sat down outside a cafe, ordered a couple of baguettes, croissants, coffees and cokes and set about preparing myself for the climbs.

After this good feed, I put the leftovers of the food in my bags, asked in my politest French if I could have my 2 litre water bottles filled and was off.

There were no signs for the start of the Telegraphe, which I thought there would be, but for some reason I heaved up the steep inclines before the Parcours even started, which may have been a shorter route to the start of the Parcours, but was a lot steeper.

Finally I joined the main climb and managed to find a rhythm while dreaming of past Tour battles on these same pieces of tarmac.

Slightly offsetting my climbing rhythm were the constant reminders of how far I had to go until the top. These were in the form of little signs by the side of the road. Some may find these helpful, not me, only if I somehow missed one and I had travelled further than I thought I had.

With this just being the smaller of the first two climbs, it got me ready for the Galibier.

Watching greats of the Tour race up and listening to others who had climbed the Galibier had conjured a great desire inside of me to climb this Col for many years, today I had the chance to.

After a short descent to Valloire, I stocked up on jellies on a supermarket, downded some freezing cold bottles of water and clipped back into my pedals to face the climb.

Climbing up many hills in the Lake District in the UK, I have similar feelings. On the approach, before the climb really starts, I look around at the surrounding mountains and almost feel as if they are closing in towards me. Im not sure if its the forward motion of the bike or the lack of oxygen in my brain at that particular moment but I was getting exactly the same feeling on the lower slopes of the Galibier.

As the road climbed I started to feel like an excited kid in a sweet shop. I started to notice some of the turns from watching the Tour on TV and I couldn’t stop glaring up at the mountains either side of me. I was on the Galibier and I was soaking every second of it up.

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The weight of the bags seemed to fade and my legs felt light, so seeing a number cyclists out on a day cycle ahead of me, I made an aim of picking them off one by one. This gave me an incentive and added an extra race feel to the climb. Oh, also passing someone on a super light racing bike while you are on a loaded bike is sort of funny too. But I didn’t say that.

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Reaching the top was not the elation I had wanted, strangely I enjoyed climbing the Galibier so much I just wanted it to continue. Maybe this is with hindsight, but it was fun. The descent was, after a few hairpins turns, just one long straight road, with nothing technical and allowed me to switch off and enjoy riding over 12mph for a change.

At the bottom of the descent and before the off road climb up to Alpe D’Huez I was really craving bread and cheese. I went into the only shop open in the small town and there was no bread, so a block of cheese it was. In hindsight this wasn’t the best choice and it would remind me of that later on in the day.

I started the climb up, which after a few miles turned to gravel, but not too bad. Then the rain started and to my surprise I hadn’t seen any other TCR riders for a while. I stopped and checked I was on the correct route, I was, so I continued up the climb, passing a few workers in the fields and found myself at the top after not too much of a struggle.

Im not sure if it was the rain or dark clouds or what, but a sudden extreme tiredness came over me. I stopped at the top of Alpe D’Huez and slouched over my handlebars with my eyes closing and nearly falling over as my legs gave way to sleep.

After a few star jumps some water poured over my head, I freewheeled down the first few hairpins of the famous 21. My head started to drop.

I had been tired before on the race but this was a new level. With each hairpin my eyes were closing and my head dropping. This was just getting dangerous. I kept stopping to eat all of the sugar I had. It was only a few miles downhill to the checkpoint, but they were proving to be some of the most difficult of the race so far. I started to feel sick too. I blame the cheese.

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Eventually after an extremely slow freewheel down the 21 hairpins, I reached Bourg and the final Checkpoint.

I wobbled into the courtyard of the CP, ungracefully dismounted and was met by Angela, the CP Volunteer. I had also met Angela earlier in the year in Sheffield as she was the Organiser of the All Points North Race. It was nice to see a familiar face and have a chat about the race so far and the riders who had already been and gone through the checkpoint.

While I was struggling to get to CP4, Fiona Kolbinger had made it to the finish line in Brest in first place. Chapeau to Fiona, awesome ride, and the other riders who had already finished. Just a whole country to traverse and I would be there too!

I treated myself to a sit down and some food at the Checkpoint and debated whether to tackle the rest of the Parcours on the same night or to rest and leave it until early the next morning. Still feeling extremely tired and on the verge of being sick, I made the decision to rest and to be up and out early doors the next day.

After the race, I realised it was these decisions that allowed me to finish the race, so in the moment it felt like I was losing time and I was. In the bigger picture of the overall race, it meant that I would be able to reach the finish, which was ultimately my goal.