Haute Route Dolomites, stage 1. some form...?

Haute Route Dolomites, Stage 1. There is some form....

It might sound crazy, but I seem to have taken the full course of the Alps to find some form. Today I had several sections where I felt like I did last year. I seemed to have the ability to turn the pedals with much more power for the perceived effort compared to the last week or so. A big relief for sure. Although this was of course a huge positive, there was rather a stressy start to the race.

So upon waking I was welcomed with some good toilet action, even pre coffee. Always a good sign of a good day to follow, its a sure fire guarantee! Then the hotel allowed me to make my porridge myself, yumm. Breakfast done we had the standard ridiculous start to all Haute Route weeks. They “invite” anyone who wants to race into the first 75 pen at the front. They then say there is a few minute gap behind us to the second group, this is rubbish. At one point I must have had 150-200 people in front of me and I was in the first pen of 75, the math does not work clearly. Then we have the other ridiculous gig with the start, 19k from Geneva was convoy, thats good clearly. Then they say that the people in the “first” 75 all get the same time, right ok, but all this does is encourage everybody to be the first wheel over the line as otherwise they are instantly losing time from the off. Is it me or is this madness?? (Feedback on this would be good)??

So in the usual fashion I was finding myself get squeezed back further and further. I saw 2 crashes in the neutral zone (the only 2 I saw all day). Outside these crashes some idiot dropped a water bottle, then decided to stop and run back through the stream of people to get it... I am not allowed to use the correct words on here to describe him!! Then some guy beat the bottle fella for knob of the day, he saw the timing mat and as you expect everyone kicks hard to get speed up. This intelligent chappie though 5m from the mat he wanted a wee so stopped dead centre of the mat and was trying to get to the side to relieve himself. Seriously, epic moron!!

Anyways, that excitement done and dusted, I was still upright. The first few k’s were flat and I just rolled it through knowing I was losing seconds if not minutes to the front groups. We hit the Col du Cou and I stayed to grind out some reasonable numbers. Heart rate was still down but sod it. Obviously I was quite a bit out of position and overtaking people quite quickly. We summited and had 4k of descent, I was hoping for once it was a little technical so I could try to gain a few places but it was an uber straight road mostly and the group I caught had a number of liabilities on the descending front. Staying well off the back we then hit the pitch up of the next climb, Col de Terramont. We only did a little bit of this climb then we were off down a more technical descent where the local council had decided today they would fix the road and spread a ton of gravel about, great.

Next up a decent climb, Col du Grand Taillet. The group had pretty much stayed together and Ralph who is in our Punto group was there so I was thinking it might be a reasonable group to be with in the next valley. I was wrong on that front. We broke a little over the top but reformed in said valley. We had a couple of minutes of through and off which for non riders is a way that a group of say 6 or more can work together and chew up the miles faster than just riding on your own. In principle you set up 2 lines and each line works as a long rolling circle. This valley sneakily turned into the forth climb of the day Pas de Morgins, we passed through an area I had skied a lot in the past, Chatel.

With about 4-5k to go of the climb I found myself on the front after yet another attempt of “through and off” had broken down and thought “bollocks, if I am going to sit on the front I will make it hard”. So I set up a decent pace and started to string out the group, before I knew it I had a gap, it started to hurt a little, but then once you have sort of attacked you would look like a pillock if you then sat up. So I carried this on till the top of Morgins where the time was stopped. We were now in Switzerland, and bless the Swiss they don’t want us racing down hill, bonus for me! Not so for Andrea the descending messiah!

From the summit we had around 60k of neutralised riding, and this was into a strong head wind most of the way, luckily I saw Andrea at the top with Simon another of the Punto guys, with Ralph we set to the 60k of rolling and energy saving. Crans Montana was out target for today, the timing would start 22k form the village. We stayed there back last year in the Dolomites ride and it was a stunning place. The 60 neutral ride had some truly incredible views. I think we took near on 2 hrs until we hit the next feed zone and 100m after that there was the timing mat.

In the usual fashion a huge load of riders sat there waiting for the first guy to go for it. It was Luic this time, the eventual winner today and a super strong rider who has been attacking and getting great results in the Pyrenees and the Alps. As he went everyone else tried the water of the final climb too. Loads of bleeps and off we went.

I knew the climb had several flatter parts and some downs too but didn’t know where. Andrea had wanted to ride it together so we could work together. We stayed as a group for a while, then I was getting annoyed with people cutting front of me so hit the front legs feeling good, I got a little gap and Andrea followed. We rode together for a few k, but then he was gone. So I was on my own. I finished the climb solo and found I had done a decent job up there so my feeling of good legs was right.

Clearly the standard has dropped quite a bit but we still have Luic and David from the last 2 weeks and they are clearly brilliant riders. I very much hope today was not a flash in the pan and I can recover well for the morning, the stage suits me with a very long section timed then time off descending and another summit finish of all climbing. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks for reading.