Haute Route Alps, Stage 5. Finding the legs again....

Haute Route Alps, Stage 5, finding the legs again.

After the team talk from Freddie last night and some decent toilet visits this morning I was going to go with the plan of see how I feel with some power on the first climb. The one little issue, not that is was really an issue, but this was the Col de Sarenne. More famous for being the sketchy descent the Tour raced down a couple of years ago with its uneven surface and dangerous bends. We were climbing it, the average gradient was said to be 8.3% over 11.8k, though similar to the Croix de Fer yesterday it had some flats and even downhill sections so when it did climb the grade was steep and boy did it climb!

I had positioned myself near the front all the way down the untimed descent from Les Deux Alpes and soon saw the timing mat about 200m from the foot of the climb. Thankfully there was not a huge rush for the mat like there sometimes is and bleep we were off. sharp left and BANG the grade is immediately 11-13%... I was going higher on the power than I would have wanted to but keeping with the plan, a couple of minutes later and I had settled down a little but certainly puffing more than I had at any other stage in the week.

Always in the first few minutes of climbs I lose distance on people and especially the first Col. Today was no difference and even with me attacking it a little more I was getting overtaken by quite a few people. No stress, steady steady catchy monkey as they say.... We hit one of the flatter sections after a couple of k and I took a few deep breaths, I took stock of how I felt and the answer was OK. So as the climb pitched up again I carried on where I had left off. Now people were starting to come back to me, Andrea had overtaken me a few minutes earlier but never got out of sight, he was steadily getting larger on the radar. I still carried on with my consistent numbers and reeled him and Raphael (another HR veteran) in.

With a few k’s to go I started to get funny feelings on my belly of needing to go lets say. I backed off a tiny % and eventually we were in sight of the Timing mat where time was off again. Bleep and I was soon at the Punto Tours mini bus and scoffing my face in typical fashion. :-)

Just going slightly off piste a little, but if any of you are around the area of Alpe d’Huez, and only have a day to ride. Do not worry about climbing my the “Famous” Alpe d’Huez, get yourself round to the Sarenne. If you are up for a beautiful ride then this is the climb. It takes you to Alpe d’Huez the same finish place but I feel the views are that much more spectacular! Then you can descend down the Alpe which is safer than the Sarenne.

Back onto subject....

We had a long untimed roll to the foot of the Glandon which I took at uber easy pace. I guess you could say we climbed the other side of the Croix de Fer, but I would say we climbed the Glandon then turned onto the last 2.5 of what is the Croix de Fer. Either way the “Croix de Fer” from this side is no easier, it has similar stats where it has descents on it and is then generally very steep. 24k of FUN! I went of a few hundred meters behind a group of 15 riders I’d say and got right back on my 300 watt figure. Legs took a bit of waking up as usual, that sticky feeling for a few minutes you just have to go through every second/third/forth etc etc climb of the day after they gave pretty much gone to sleep. I rode at my own pace for the full climb over taking people regularly, some Haute Route riders and some people out for a fun ride.

No real heroics on this climb, just playing mind games with time, elevation, kilometres to go, you all know those games we play to keep ourselves pushing on. The only little annoyance was a herd of bloody sheep being walked down the ascent by a couple of farmers. More annoying by the fact I was on a flat section at the time and had to come to a stop form 35kph. grrrr...!! Dam sheep. For a few seconds I hoped lunch was Lamb..! ;-) Soon I was in sight of the line and bleep time off again. So two down and not feeling too awful.

I met “big” Andrea who is one of our guides and not the rider, he gave me enough food to sink a ship, which again I devoured. We then were told the night before at the briefing we were neutralised until we turned onto the final ascent to La Toussuire. Excellent, this gave me a good 30-40 mins to digest my food. I took the descent steady and enjoyed the amazing views yet again. I remembered from the ascent of this descent there was a section lower down where the road was pretty bumpy with tunnels and under trees so slightly dodgy visability. I would make sure I was not eating or drinking through this section.

To my horror just before this section started I was welcomed by the view of a timing mat,... I tried with my best (but still terrible) French to tell the marshall this was not what we were told was happening today. I was angry and annoyed. So not only was I going to lose time but I was also going to “try” to descend well on what I knew was a bad road surface and obviously had cars on it.

After a bit of head shaking and swearing under my breath I clipped back in and started the timed section, and hell it was dodgy. I am now not as bad at descending and do not mind the timed descents but this was ridiculous, even Andrea (who adores descending) said it was a bad road with bad visibility etc. Who in the organisation decided it was a good idea, or if there was a reason for it, and why not inform us of it too. Really silly, I just hope noone came off in this section of big dangers.

Eventually I got to the climb and put behind me the annoyance of this cock up, pressed lap on my Garmin and chewed similar power as I had on the previous climbs. I was not quite as high as before but overall I was happy with ascent and with my day, this first one since Stage one where I was not embarrassing myself. I think I was told I was 18th or 17th on the stage so alright there as well. Although still miles off the top guys, the standard is either very high this year or I am nowhere near the form that I thought I was in.

Hope all is well back in the UK. Thanks for reading (the latest blog in the world)...!