Haute Route Alps, Stage 7 (cont)....

So Where had I got to.... First climb, cock ups to come. So me and Sergio ploughed on up the climb, we both knew the descent was not timed so we saw the mat ahead and pushed through it. Time off, now with a descent being “non-timed”, you would have thought people would have chilled down what the organisers had decided was a dangerous road to race on. Oh no, the opposite ensued! The lead group was around 45 seconds up the road and they clearly had rolled through the summit and carried on. I also did this with Sergio taking the lead as he is a better descender. Then suddenly a whole load of other riders started shooting at breakneck speeds. I realised what their game was quite quickly, they were racing down the “dangerous” (untimed descent) descent to try and get to the lead bunch and then get pulled along the valley where sitting in a bunch would be a very easy ride. I was not willing to take this risk and nor was my descending buddy. Another couple of guys caught us up and asked “what the f&*k was going on?” “Had the organisers changed the un-timed descent”? No I said as I clearly saw the “un-timed section” sign. I mentioned my theory and we all agreed it was what was happening. A french guy then caught us, he shouted that the third descent was untimed and not this one. God this was becoming confusing, but I was convinced I had seen the correct sign and the time was off.

So we arrived at the foot of the descent and found the next timing section. We had a group of 5 and a french chap rolled straight through the timing mat in front of us so we went through just after him, timing back on. We did the chain ganging rolling through riding to optimise the speed. No disrespect to the guys we were with but a couple of the chaps were not as strong as three of us, but it was good to not be soloing the section until the climb started properly. Once the climb did start to kick in things selected themselves with me Sergios and a guy called Steve pulling away. We caught Sergios friend, a french guy, tall and a power machine. He towed us to the top of the climb at an excellent pace, he really was ripping it up. I was having to dig deep just to hold on. Steve was broken by this and he dropped off. The french machine then pulled off at the summit and me and Sergio to descended together. So two climbs down three to go for today. We had another valley to consume before the next real climb, just south of Castellene.

We caught a guy who had shot past us on the descent and we were just about to start the third climb. Around 100m into the ascent I was beside Sergio to his right and then bang, his gears had seemingly locked and he fell on the floor. Me and this other chap both stopped to help him off his bike which he was tangled up in. He then urged us to carry on, he was ok, just looked rather annoyed about things and a little dejected. He looked how I felt to be honest. Poor guy has had a load of bad luck from the start in Italy with mechanicals, crashes and as you will hear later wrong turns too. So off we went, another cock up done!

So I was climbing up the Col de St-Barnabe, if I remembered right this had a descent on the climb, not my favourite thing on a climb. It upsets your rhythm. So down I went, queue another cock up.... I had with me one of the out riders on their big motor bikes, this was a bonus as I was on my own and they do a great job of directing us through villages and technical junctions. I looked ahead and the road started to go up again, there was a small road off to the right. I saw an arrow pointing left toward the road that was going up again. To my confusion the Motor bike guy was smiling at me (I should have twigged then) and was shouting “a droite, a droite”. So I blindly went down the road to the right, this was more downhill. Immediately something feels wrong, within a couple of minutes my Garmin tells me I an “off route”, the road we are on is a tiny one. This has to be wrong. But I have descended for a couple of minutes and almost do not want to face my reality that this guy has a high viz jacket on has nothing to do with the race. I then see he has none of the little “haute route” stickers on the back of his bike. “DAM, BLAST and BALLS” I shout to myself (or words to that effect). I braked hard and did a three point turn on the little winding road. Five minutes of totally pointless climbing and I am back in the race proper. Though now I am a few kilometers behind where I should be, I can see a group ahead and as I am a tiny bit angry I fire off in chase! The group of 20 odd caught, I roll straight past them and none of them try to hold my wheel, possibly 2k of the climb left and another group comes into sight, I do not quite catch them before the summit where I had already decided I needed water for the last climb and the part climb, part descent up Col de Vence.

Its amazing how the adrenalin take your pain away, for nearly twenty minutes I had not felt my knee. Now I had calmed down, it was throbbing again every pedal turn, nice sharp pain. After the descent, which was timed this went through an exceptionally dangerous village, I saw one guy on his own 200m ahead then a group of three ahead of that. A big couple of minutes and I caught the guy on his own, he was pleased to see me and I towed him to the gorup of three. I then sat in for about 30 seconds getting my breath back, then I hear an american voice. I am unsure of what it said, though I am convinced it was something to the effect of “you can’t just sit on all day?!” Adrenalin starts coming to the boil again, I say to the two Brits who are there, “what did he say?”. They just smiled as I moved from the back of the group to do my “turn”, this guy was gong to pay. Bang, big watts proceeded, 60 seconds maybe. I glanced back and as expected a 50m gap. I sit up shake my head to make a point, allowed the gap to come down then worked again. And again gapped the man how had his particular opinion. Sod this and I disappeared can not wait anymore despite wanting help.

Yet another group appeared on the valley ahead weaving its way through the trees. When I spot a target ahead I try to count the gap and I then know I am catching fast or not catching at all. I caught the group just at the bottom of the penultimate climb, Col de Bleine. As I worked my way up it and over took people steadily I spotted most people were working super hard, puffing like crazy. All become clear when I saw the summit and a sign saying “start of un-timed section”. Well that sure was a surprise..! In the briefing the night before zero mention of a non timed descent here, even after the race I asked Roy and there had been no mention. After chatting to several people they also had no idea about this non timed section. A french guy who spoke very good english said the announcer mentioned it on the start, he only heard him say it in french. Terrific (again)! Unfortunately our usual announcer Monica was not doing the Alps race, her replacement did not have the same voice that you wanted to listen to, so loads of us had not heard or not understood the instructions. So from what I gathered a load of people had no idea and missed the sign at the summit and were racing a non timed descent, madness eh!

So when I had finished my feeding and filling up bottles I rolled for thirty minutes to the next timing mat on my own. The theory was I would wait there for a group as the final climb was only a climb for about 5-6k then it flattens so you can hammer the hell out of it with a few strong guys! A group appeared and I had caught Steve at the timing mat waiting for people as I was. He was clueless about that descent being untimed and had raced all the way until he saw the "timing back on" sign! We both rolled into the timed zone and off we went. I steadily moved through the group until on the front. I was just doing my thing, not major watts but decent steady power and I was gently gapping people, so I stood up to make myself as big a wind block as possible and dropped the speed a little. I still was moving away, so again I decided I would lose move time waiting for people. Off i scampered. With something like 7k to go you get to the highest point of Col de Vence and descend. I knew this area a little and thought I would get to a junction and head right (my Garmin agreed too). At this reasonably major T junction I saw a sign pointing left, that was odd, but after the error earlier I just went with it trusting the signage and not my thoughts. sometimes the route takes us places that do not seem right, there is usually a safety reason for it.

So left it was, and I was climbing into a village ahead. Again the feeling of it not being right was oozing over me. I carried on for maybe two minutes and then coming the other way a guy with Haute Route kit whistling at me pointing down the hill. The sign was up the wrong bloody way so pointing left instead of right. Wonderful. At least only 5k to go then this dam stage would be over! Me and this other guy shouted at the remains of my group to turn round as they had now caught us up. Everyone was confused, annoyed, swearing etc etc. It did seem strange to me on such a major junction there was no marshall, especially as we were hitting the junction at 50-70kph off the descent. Poor Sergio had gone up the wrong way too, but he had kept going, and going, and going... he added an extra 14k i believe!

Four or five of us made a group for the final 5k and hit the gas big time. the rest not able to stick with it. We all safely went through the line shaking our heads, this for most should have been a great moment as they were officially finished. It certainly was not that. Hopefully we will all be getting time back for the course diversion.

Once I had calmed down yet again I thought I must have lost thirty or more minutes to the people I usually ride with, surprisingly I had not lost a huge amount. Still its another stage down and time to try and let the knee rest up a little. Seven more stages to hit, I do not want it to end up being “I just want to finish”. For me there is no fulfilment in that, I need to know I had finished and finished well. I guess I will see how the knee is monday morning when we have another batch of fresh legs and enthusiasm to contend with. To finish with a more positive note. The three of us guys who are best placed in the three week race have made a team "for adventure" and will be racing together in an attempt to be well placed in the team race in the Pyrenees. We have no idea if we will be good but we have potential if the Dolomites and the Alps are anything to go by. Onwards and upwards...