LA
MARMOTTE– 5th July 2008
Following
one of the hardest, but greatest, one day sporting events of my life to date, I
felt compelled to put it down “on paper” for posterity.
Why La Marmotte?
Back in Autumn 2007, my brother, Rod Horler, mentioned a Sportive
that some of the guys at his club in
It was
after having booked it that we began to read the reports of La Marmotte floating around the web and had a proper look at
the course profile. Then we realised that we had actually signed up for the
Grand-daddy of European Sportives, La Marmotte being the longest-running and hardest one day
sportive in the calendar!
So, in the
best tradition of the Victorian explorers, there was no really good answer to
“why?”, more a case of “why not?”!
What is La Marmotte?
In literal
terms, a Marmot is a large rodent that lives in the European Alps and is the
unofficial mascot for them, but that’s not what concerns us….
La Marmotte started in 1984 and is basically run over the same
course every year. It involves four climbs, three hors categorie
(too hard to categorise!) and one category 1 climb (1 being the toughest grade
before hors cat).
OK it is
tough but, how hard can it be?
OK, quite
hard! That is 5,000 metres of climbing in 174kms!
The course
starts in Bourg d’Oisans and climbs the col de la Croix Fer, col du Télégraphe, col du Galibier before returning
to Bourg d’Oisans and finishes up the 21 hairpin bend
climb to the ski station of L’Alpe d’Huez.
These
climbs are some of the most (in)famous climbs in the
Tour de France, but it is Galibier that is the stuff
of legends, and the one we most feared.
Henri Desgrange, Tour de France founder, wrote the following poem
in 1911:
“Oh, Sappey ! Oh, Laffrey !
Oh, col Bayard ! Oh, Tourmalet !
Je ne faillirai pas à mon devoir en proclamant qu'à côté du Galibier,
vous êtes de la pâle et vulgaire bibine: devant ce géant, il
n'y a plus qu'à tirer son bonnet et à saluer bien bas.”
For those
readers unfamiliar with French, it (basically) translates as:
“Oh, Sappey! Oh, Laffrey! Oh, col
Bayard! Oh, Tourmalet! I will not fail in my duty to
proclaim that next to Galibier, you are pale
imitations: before this giant, you should doff your cap and bow down low.”
So, who are we to think we can ride
La Marmotte?
We are
brothers (that’s Rod Horler on the left and me, Adam Horler on the right) and,
apart from the fact we share the same sense of humour and are great mates,
that’s where the similarities pretty much end!
Rod is 41,
weighs 72kg and has about 24 years of road biking under his belt, having said
that he has not trained for anything specific since his University days. But he
has ridden consistently and has enjoyed stepping it up for this event. He lives
in
I am 38,
about 91kg (on a good week) and only started cycling in 5½ years ago after
giving up rugby. I’m strong and have good endurance, though, and have completed
10 OD triathlons and 2 Half Ironman events. I live in
After we
signed up, my godfather’s son, Mark Alexander, also came onboard to take up the
challenge. He is even newer to cycling than me, being in his 3rd
season only.
Preparation – my
perspective
It was
always going to be difficult to prepare for a high mountain sportive in
From 16 weeks
out my strategy had been to average 300km or more per week, and I pretty much
achieved that. I even managed to sneak in an OD triathlon in Bintan at the end of May as an additional challenge.
I lost
about 8kg since the start of the year and, although a couple of kilos less
would have been welcome, I was happy with my form going into the event.
Regular
e-mail updates with Rod and Mark helped check progress among us, and although
they had the opportunity to do a few UK Sportives
before La Marmotte, I seemed to be putting in more
than enough hours in the saddle.
The few days before…..
Rod and I
flew from
We had
always intended to ride the Alpe on the Thursday and
we did in fact accomplish this, despite the foul weather. In isolation, Alpe d’Huez is not too bad a
climb, I would even say that it is enjoyable. Although we knew it would be an
entirely different story come the day, it did help to understand that the final
climb was “manageable”.
Mark
arrived late on Thursday night, so he did not really get the chance to
acclimatise like us as Friday was too close to the event to do any serious
riding.
Friday was
a beautiful sunny day and the atmosphere in Alpe d’Huez was fantastic with riders coming in to register,
collect timing chips, browse the expo shops as well as enjoying the sun and
cafes to relax in.
The Big Day
The good
weather had held from Friday and the morning dawned with clear skies and high
clouds, auguring well for the day ahead.
We
descended the Alpe to Bourg d’Oisans,
arriving at the start pen at about 6.45am. The start was split by bib numbers,
with about 2,000 riders in each pen. With start numbers 3572 and 3573 we were
in the 2nd pen which filled up quickly, but we were pretty near the
front so hoped to get off reasonably soon after the 7am official start time.
We crossed
the line at 7.31am, with a few of my toilet needs unattended to (which would
feature later!). It was a pretty short, fast dash to the bottom of the 1st
climb of the day, during which I lost all touch with Rod and Mark (I wouldn’t
see them until after the finish);
Climb 1
27km, 1292m
ascent
4.7%
average gradient
The climb
begins simply enough with a couple of hairpins and then you ride alongside a
reservoir before heading up through the trees with the 1st 3.5km at
6-7% before 2.5km of 8-10.3%. I was finding my pace and also passing a fair few
of the starters from the 1st pen and, although a bit of a slog was
enjoying myself.
We then
descended slightly through a village and then there was a tricky 1.5km
switchback descent to a river valley (I heard afterwards that the only serious
crash of the day had occurred here). The road then ticked up for just over 2km
at 11.1% and 10.2% for each km respectively, the hardest part of this
particular climb. After that it was fairly steady for just over 15kms,
including a ride alongside a stunning lake, as pictured above.
I was tired
but happy with my progress as I had not been passed by too many people and
continued to pass people all the way up. However, I had quickly realised that
chasing any sort of amazing time was out of the question and was set my sights
on finishing in good shape!
I had been
a bit confused coming into this ride as I had also heard mention of Col du Glandon and I have since found out that we passed the
turning to the top of this climb just before the summit of Col de la Croix de Fer. It is actually lower than CdlF,
so I do not feel cheated out of cresting the famous Glandon!
There was a
feed station at the summit and I stopped for some food and a call of nature for
just over 5 minutes, I guess. My time of arrival at the summit was 2:05.
The descent
to St-Jean-de-Maurienne was great and, being a good descender (got to use the weight for some good), I passed
many people on the way down. We then hit the valley floor and were riding along
a dual carriageway. I had been warned about the headwind but I could not seem
to find a train to get into that was the correct speed, so ended up doing way
too much solo stuff on the 7.5km stretch, which was pretty tiring.
Just before
the Col du Telegraphe, I had to answer a more serious
call of nature and this had me queueing for about 20 mins to get into one of 2 porta-loos.
I was obviously annoyed about such a loss of time, but in retrospect I probably
needed to stopas I had been feeling
less-than-brilliant on the valley floor…
Suitably
“refreshed” I then headed up the col du Télégraphe, a category 1 climb;
Climb 2
Col du Télégraphe
11.8km, 856m
ascent
7.3%
average gradient
Télégraphe
is relentless, with no real panoramic views to take your mind of the climb and
no flat sections apart from the hairpins themselves. It is, however, steady
with no serious variations in gradient at any point. I had had my crank swapped
to a compact 50/34 a month before the event and was very glad of this as I
spent almost the whole of Télégraphe (and pretty much
most of the day, actually) in 34x25 in order to be able to “spin” up.
I retook most
of the people who I had passed on the way down from Croix de Fer that had then passed me as I waited for the toilet (it
is amazing how you see the same people over and over again during these kind of
rides)!
I was
pretty cooked when I crested the summit and decided to fill up the bottles
instead of heading down the short descent to Valloire.
In hindsight, I should have just rolled down to Valloire
as I must have wasted another 10 minutes waiting for a tap and milling around.
I arrived
in Valloire at 5:03, meaning that it had taken 2:58
since the Croix de Fer to this point. There was a
feed station, so I had another short stop to stuff my face with oranges and
dried apricots, before starting Col du Galibier, the
climb I most dreaded.
Climb 3
Col du Galibier
18.1km, 1245m
ascent
6.9%
average gradient
The start
of this climb shouldn’t be hard, it is only about
3.5-5% for the 1st 5kms, but by this time there riders stopping to
rest at the roadside. Maybe it was the wide open vistas ahead that sapped the strength
as you could plainly see how far you were going to be climbing.
From 5km to
17km the gradient is pretty much 7-9% all the way with one flattish kilometre
at 4.8%.
At about
14km I had a serious episode of “hot foot” and had to stop and take off my
shoes and socks for a few minutes to let things cool down. Apart from that I
was just happy to grind up without having to stop as people everywhere were
falling like flies, taking frequent rests on the roadside before wearily
remounting and plodding on.
Just to rub
salt into the wounds the last kilometre ticks up at 10.1%, which feels a lot
more after 17kms climbing!
I crested Galibier at 6:59 which meant that it had taken 1:56 to the
summit from Valloire, and I was happy to see a feed
station at the top. The food was excellent – brie baguettes and cake with
sports drink! I guess I could have grabbed the food and rolled on, but I was on
the verge of a serious bonk, so sat down to munch my way through the much
needed sustenance and relax for about 15 minutes.
It was
pretty much downhill from Galibier to Bourg d’Oisans and the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, and it was a fantastic 46.5km joyfest
of fast descending and getting into a good group, pulling along the slight
downhill through tunnels and around sweeping bends. The average speeds were
about 45km/h and I felt much better by the time I arrived at the final feed
station at the bottom of the Alpe. A quick stock up
on a handful of dried apricots and off to the most famous climb in Tour de
France history.
Climb 4
Alpe d’Huez
13.2km,
1071m ascent
8.1%
average gradient
I reached
the bottom of the Alpe needing to do it in about 1:30
to beat 10 hours, which had been my goal going into the event. It was going to
be tight as it had taken 1:15 when fresh and taking it easy on Thursday, and my
speeds were going to be less than they were then after nearly 4,000m of
climbing already behind me!
The first 3
hairpins are cruel at over 10% and then it “settles down” to 7-9%. I was able
to settle into a grinding rhythm and was again passing more than passed me. I
had one more case of “hot foot” and a gutter full of crystal clear mountain
water has never felt so good!
On the
Thursday recce we had noticed that there were 2 more
hairpins after the 21 signposted on the climb. If I didn’t know this it might
have finished me off on the day. In fact, I passed 3 riders less than 2km from
the finish, sitting down looking as if that was them finished or, in the case
of one bloke, sleeping next to his bike!
Finally,
the 1km to go sign appeared and all fatigue seemed to evaporate from the legs
as I pushed for home.
I crossed
the line in 9 hours and 57 minutes, achieving my sub-10 hours target and a
Silver Medal time for my age group – a great feeling!
It took a
while to find Rod, but I eventually did, and he was wandering around clutching
a Gold Medal and certificate. He had finished in a scorching time of 8 hours
and 18 minutes!
We didn’t
see Mark until quite a bit later on, back at the hotel. He had unfortunately
been timed out at the bottom of the Alpe, which must
have been devastating, but he pressed on and finished in an unofficial 13 and a
half hours. Bravo!
Looking
back…..
After such
events there is always a period of reflection on what you could have done
better etc, as you analyse the results.
7,300
riders rolled over the start line and the results show 5,300 received an
official time. So, just finishing is an achievement in itself.
The event
was won by an Italian (who had come 2nd in the Maratona
Dolomites) in 6:02:12 beating a Dutch guy by 1 second!
The reports
of previous years had said that in 2006 there were only 60 participants from
the
Rod
finished 1092nd and was the 122nd best placed Brit. His
time was 8:18:33 and he stopped for 3½ minutes.
I finished
3115th and was the 361st Brit. My time was 9:57:37 and I
stopped for 1:02:21 – a little bit longer than Rod!!! My actual ride time was
8:55. The joke among the tour group was that I had got the best value from my
entry fee, given the amount of food I ate and having used as many facilities as
possible!
Would I do
it differently? Well, I maybe would have not waited for a porta’loo
and used a bush instead and I could have probably cut about 20 minutes from the
feed stations by eating on the go, saving about 30-40 minutes overall. But I
would not have got a Gold Medal even then and I should accept that 91kg men are
not built to fly up hills! So, I am happy with my ride.
I would
recommend La Marmotte to anyone, as it is really
well-organised and an incredible thing to do. It truly is one of the “Ironman”
events of one day biking for amateurs.
I won’t be
back next year, though, as there are just too many other great European Sportives to do, but I imagine I will do La Marmotte again, one day….