Haute Route Alps, Stage 2, a tough day out.

So stage 2, another day with 2 long descents and another flatter section where having some friends would save shipping a load of time.

In cycling they use the word "selection", On stage 1 I did not make "selection". So, lets say on the first climb of the day, all the top guys will start the ascent at a crazy pace, a pace that for most they cannot maintain for the duration of the climb. They are trying to force selection of the riders and thin out the front group. On stage 1 from Geneva I was not in a great place coming into the first climb and I do not think I had the right head on to go super deep to hang in there. I also would have had to bridge a big gap, all good excuse I hear you shout...! Today I was determinded to make it into the selection, one for my own confidence as last year I would have never dreamed of being anywhere near the front and then if your with these guys at the top you can descend with them and hopefully have friends to work with on the flats in the valleys.

So today we had started with 9k of neutralised downhill, everyone seems pretty cold. then bang... we were off! I was within 20m of the front guy as we started the ascent of Col des saisies. People were edging away but not at an alarming rate, hang in there I kept telling myself.... five minutes passed and no let up... We hit a slight false flat of 3% maybe and at last a bit of restbite.... I closed the gap, then another pitch up and the pace is cranked up again. I am starting to think this was a bad idea but on the other shoulder I am hearing a little voice telling me to hang on hang on.... This continued for pretty much all the climb. Then we summitted... thank god!

We all zipped up out gillets, pulled up out arm warmers and started the descent. There were three guys in the same racing first group and they seemed keen to make the descent a quick one. I quickly found myself towards the back to the group. Peter Pouly (the guy who has won all the Haute Route Alps races in the past smoothly moved to the front of the group and took controll of the next 10k of the descent. Big sigh of relief from me. We continued down and a few kilometers from the bottom the second group on the road caught us.

Soon we were into the second climb of the day, another long one up the Cormet De Roselend, this climb seemed to have a little break around 75% up the climb. The real top guys this time showed their class and disappeared. I rode with Emma again and we had two other guys helping us up the ascent. We were working well as a group. I had a real bad patch half way up this climb, I was hanging off the back about to throw in the towel, then stand up and get back on, as soon as I got back on I was off again. Eventually we found the couple of k of downhill and I did some work, being a bit heavier than most I can be useful at this point. We eventually summitting and started a long descent down. I was not counting but there seemed to be 30 or more hair pins. I was pleased that out little group were descending fast but nice and safely. Any mistakes are no good for anyone, these were open roads remember.

Just before we arrived in the valley and the 40k smash to the timing mat a tall lean guy caught us up, he was a bit of a demon descender and wanted us to work with him. We were happy being safe so he waited for us and worked the flat together pretty well. Once we got through the timing mat we all chilled for a few minutes then poodled the 10k to the feed station, got ourselves (probably) too much food and prepared for the final ascent of the day. The climb to Courcheval. This was going to be another long climb. Well over an hour.

After the neutralised area we had been joined by a lot of rider who were behind usin time on the road but had spent less time in the neutralised zone, so we had about 60 of us starting the climb. This soon thinned out after ten minutes. Then the classy guys again put a bit of a squeeze on the rest of us. We were just following wheel when a gap had appeared around 10 riders in front of us, I shouted to Emma the news and we set of in chase. Around 50m had opened up, I cursed the guys who had let it open and made us work so hard to try and close it down. What seemed like hours of chasing chasing chasing, I got within 10m of this group of about 12 and I could do no more... the higher pace to try and catch it was putting me into the red so I took the power down and settled into some type of rhythm I could tap out for the next forty minutes. I had distanced Madame Pooley by some 150m, but now each time I checked who was behind me she was catching me steadily. With 5k to go she came past like a rocket, I tried to hold her wheel with no joy.... I had to get her go, with around 3k until the finish line I started to reel her in and eventually passed her (unlike a rocket). I think we finished the climb with twenty seconds between us. A very tough day, and as many of the days before I had gone too deep.

I think from the provisional results I ended up 7th today. So a good day. Also I think I have added to my time gap in the Triple Crown race. The more of a buffer the better as you never know when your legs will tell you get lost and you have a bad day, or your knees get worse.

Tomorrow looks like a tough tough day on paper and I think it will be even tougher in practise. 4600m of vertical climbing, we "only" did around 3900m today. There is also some mild misery in the "meteo" (the weather forecast), they are telling us there may be rain about. Tomorrows blog could be a huge chunk of moaning.... something to look forward to!