Gastrobiking

A more relaxed pace

Josh left us last Friday after a morning ride up to Le Faz in a time of 40 mins 30secs.  I enjoyed the Balcon du Belledonne so much that I went back on Sunday to ride it with Soph.  The pace was more relaxed so I had more time to take some photos.  It was amazing how much more I noticed.  In fact it's the sort of ride you could do everyday for a week and still notice new things.  Marvellous.  I've posted some of the photos.

Fortunately for my legs we didn't have time to do the extra loop to Chamrousse as we had to pick up Nigel in Grenoble. Still it's quite a tough 100km loop with 1950m of climbing.  No wonder I needed an extra little boost...

The Tour du Belledonne

Yesterday I set off with Josh to do a ride north of Grenoble called the Tour de Belledonne. We parked at Giers and made a quick tour of the village to check out the bakeries, and for me to fill my bottles with iced-tea.  The first 25km was flat but the gentle warm up was frequently interupted by the numerous traffic lights, roundabouts and road works. At the bottom of the first climb Josh announced that he was 'going to ride it at Slow Tempo pace', 'So I might be able to hold onto your rear wheel for the first few km then' I replied with foolish optimism.

I managed to hang onto his back wheel for most of the gentle 15km climb, rising 800m to 1023m.  The following 50km consisted of several climbs and descents taking us through some typical Savoyard villages whilst providing great views over Grenoble, the Chartreuse, the Vercors whilst the snow capped peaks of the Belledone towered overhead. By the time we reached Uriage, where the thermal baths would have been a welcome treat, I was looking forward to the descent back to the car as my legs were beginning to feel the effects of last weeks excesses in Spain. But there is always a 'but' when cycling with Josh.  This 'but' was the small matter of the climb up to the ski station of Chamrousse.  A climb I had never done on a bike before and my legs weren't really in the mood to do it today.  Anyway as 1200m doesn't sound much at 3.40 on a sunny afternoon I accepted the offer of an energy gel and set off in the direction my legs really didn't want to go in. Josh disappeared into the distance, his legs spinning away as if powered by a million Duracel batteries, unlike my own legs which proceeded to have an increasingly heated argument with my head.

'Come on it's not that far'
'Yes it is. It's 20km'
'Yes but we've just downed an energygel'
'It feels a bit steep to us'
'But it's a smooth rolling road surface'
'But it's 1200m
'Stop moaning and keep pedalling. It's nice scenery and the sun is shining'
'At this rate it'll take us an hour and a half'
'Perhaps we should turn back then'
'Well we've got this far so we may as well carry on'

And so it went for one hour forty minutes.  My legs were completely shot but it was good to know there was a scenic 35km descent ahead. I met Josh at Uriage.  He had only been waiting half an hour which was less than I had feared. Arriving back at the car Josh suggested we pop to the bakery and get a bite to eat in case we got held up in the Grenoble rush hour. A very sizeable pain au raison and chocolate tourade soon disappeared and we had a clear run through Grenoble but it was nice to know we had prepared for all eventualities.

The Tour de Belledonne was recommended to me as a 'must do' by one of the cycling club members who was on the trip to Spain. It's certainly a classic route and one I think is best done in the Spring while there is still snow on the mountains.  I'll certainly be doing it again.  Distance 137km. Climbing 3270m.

 
 

A bike ride with Josh is always a memorable day.

'Let's go up the Molière!'

As we were riding around Villard on Saturday, contemplating whether to go up the Herbouilly or to continue heading north towards St Nizier, I suddenly had a mad idea to attempt the Molière via the bumpy road that we normally come down.  I realised there may be a few impediments in our way but thought it would be a bit of an adventure to try it anyway.

Only 100m onto the track from the top of the Croix Perrin and we came across our first patch of snow.  There were many more to follow but they only made the adventure more fun and us more determined to ride or trudge our way to the top. 

Alas, we finally did have to turn back (at 1436 m, just above Méaudre and just before the transmitter)  but not before we had walked for 10 minutes through a snow drift, bikes on shoulders, snow up to our knees and only then because we came across two mountain bikers walking towards us who told us that it was 'pas pour aujourd'hui' and to get a grip and turn back.

It was still a lot of fun, even with sopping socks and cold toes and a failure to uncleat which led to a cold but soft face to face encounter with the snow.  Half an hour in the sun outside a café in Lans soon sorted those problems out before we shot back down the Bourne to exchange cycling adventure stories with Phil and the others.

Josh breaks Gastrobiking One Day Ride Record

Last year, Phil proposed an interesting two-day ride to the eastern side of the Vercors with an overnight stop in Chichilianne. We had intended to do the ride when I was over last October but the weather was not favourable. Having decided earlier in the year to take a break from the Marmotte, I was looking for an interesting cycling challenge and decided that I would attempt Phil's route in one day!

I departed St. Nazaire at 7:30 in mainly sunny skies and crisp morning temperatures wondering if I had dressed warmly enough given that I was only wearing shorts and a thin long sleeve jersey. The temperatures were forecast to peak around 20C and so the cold wouldn't last too long. I rode up Combe Laval steadily at a power output just below my 25 mile TT threshold; probably a little too hard in hindsight. I still felt very fresh at the hotel by the Col de la Machine where I topped up my water bottles. In no time I reached the tunnel at the top of the Col de Rousset. Emerging from the tunnel, the mistral wind suddenly made its presence felt. Although the average gradient on the descent of the Col de Rousset towards Die is around 5%, there were several sections where pedalling was actually necessary if you wanted to keep the speed above 40 km/h. Unfortunately, these gusty winds were from the north. Upon turning left onto the road to Châtillon-en-Diois just beyond Die, the sight of the road sign "Grenoble 91" was somewhat disheartening and put the challenge of the ride into perspective!

Heading towards Châtillon, I was now riding in new territory. The road climbed gradually to the hamlet of Menée whereupon the proper climb up to the 1457 m Col de Menée began. The climb has a very similar profile to that of the Col de Rousset; around 15 km at 5% average. Easy right? Today parts of the climb felt like 8%+ with the wind. My average power had dropped significantly and I began contemplating whether I would have anything left for the much harder climb up to St. Nizier later in the day. Nevertheless, the spectacular views over the Drôme valley more than made up for my elevated heartrate. Emerging from the long dark tunnel at the top of the col, I could immediately sense the contrasting landscapes of the Drôme and the Drac valleys. Mont Aiguille, an iconic feature of the Vercors, and the snow-covered Alps in the distance could all be seen.

The first part of the descent towards Chichilianne was rather twisty and technical but the road surface was top notch and only loses about 600 m of elevation to the main road. The 8 km on the N75 from Clelles to St. Michel was actually quite pleasant; there was a good cycle lane and the traffic was very quiet. At. St. Michel-les-Portes, the road climbed to the 1352 m Col de l'Allimas at an inconsistent grade with two short descents. The first half of the climb offered more panoramic views of the north side of Mont Aiguille. The final 2 km of the climb averaged 8%. Although I was heading north, it seemed that the headwind was easing as the section of the climb did not seem too taxing. Upon descending into Gresse-en-Vercors, I was relieved to see a fountain as my bottles were getting dangerously low. Continuing on, I passed over the 1222 m Col des Deux, evidently a "free col" when approaching it from the south-east side. Be warned though that the first part of the descent off the northern side of the Col des Deux is very steep. Following this steep bit, the road was fairly flat as it continued towards St. Andéol  providing stunning views of the high plateau of the Vercors. At Château-Bernard, a short 200 m climb took me to the top of the 1154 m Col de l'Arzelier. From there, it was all downhill to the valley floor.

My GPS navigated me faultlessly through Vif and the outskirts of Grenoble. There were a couple of short and sharp hills around Claix before I reached the beginning of the proper climb up to St. Nizier. I had been fearing this climb since my rough patch around the Col de Menée. I knew I would only have to make it to the top because it would then be virtually all done hill back to St. Nazaire. Surprisingly, I managed to turn a 34-21 gear for most of the climb, only using my lowest gear of 34-23 for brief recoveries. I topped up my water supply in St. Nizier and enjoyed the well-deserved descent to Pont-en-Royans via Villard and the Gorges de la Bourne. I made it back just shortly before 6:00. Despite having burned over 6600 kcal, I didn't feel very hungry. I definitely did not feel too dehydrated; my net weight loss for this ride was only 1.1 kg and I still felt energetic. Today (one day later), my legs actually feel okay and I'm eating lots. I'll do a short flattish recovery ride later this afternoon.

I can highly recommend this ride (perhaps taking a more sensible two days) as you get to experience so many beautiful and contrasting landscapes. Compared to the Marmotte, I think the route is a little bit easier even though it is 80 km longer. It is especially reassuring to know that that last 50 km of the ride are mostly downhill, rather than an uphill finish to Alpe d'Huez for the Marmotte. I didn't take my camera with me this trip, but Soph managed to sneak in a photo of me once I got back. I have also attached my profiles for the climbs up to Combe Laval and St. Nizier. You can clearly see how fatigue affected my power output! Other interesting ride statistics...

Total distance: 252.5 km (156.9 miles)

Ride time: 9:46:22

Average speed: 25.8 km/h (16.0 mph)

Estimated climbing: 4000+ m

And for the power meter geeks...

Average power: 188 W (which includes freewheeling)

Average normalized power: 211 W

Training stress score: 515.3

Intensity factor: 0.726

´No Steep Hills´

I´m in Spain this week with the St.Roman cycling club staying in a place called Cambrils.

Today was to be an easy day according to Bernard who runs Cambrils Velo Tours.  90km without any difficult climbs but with a 20km start along the main coast road. Following that the route would be along deserted roads.We formed a group of 20 and set off along the main road.  As the gadjy had warned us there were quite a few lorries on the road but he hadn´t mentioned the numerous stones and bolts lying on the cycle lane. Within 10km we had three punctures. Every so often we would pass small groups of scantily clad girls waiting by the side of the road who were perhaps waiting to offer a comforting hand to passing cyclists who had run out of spare inner tubes.  Once off the main road there was indeed very little traffic but the surface wasn´t the kind you could ride along with a full bladder.

After yesterday´s climbs with gradients in excess of 15%, I was looking forward to the steady climb to 500m. Approaching a corner I noticed a rather rusty sign informing us of an 11% slope. I rather innocently assumed that this must be either a mistake or just a short steep bit round the corner. I got out the saddle and pottered round the corner only to be greeted with the vision of 19 cyclists grinding their way up several hundred metres of a rather steep looking incline to the next corner. To my relief the gradient eased up but after the next corner the sign indicated a gradient of 14%.

s***** f***** b******

Oh.  I nearly forgot.  The wind. For most of the ride it wasn´t too bad today.  I only got nearly blown off the road a couple of times. The worst time was when the wind caught my front wheel on one of the steep bits which resulted in an obligatory u-turn back to the previous hairpin in order to avoid either falling over or disappearing into a rather deep drainage channel.

Once at the top of the climb we headed back to Cambrils stopping for water in one of the villages. It was actually the only village we went through. Perhaps there might have been a nice café to call into for a nice coffee but it was getting perilously close to lunch time and we had 20 odd km to go. Without much delay we set off and the pace gradually increased. A short climb split the peloton and, as things go, one of the back riders had a puncture. I seemed to have spent most of the day trying to take it easy, saving myself for the `Big Day´ tomorrow, so myself and Mark helped Marie-Lou change her inner tube, as the peloton disappeared into the distance thinking only of lunch.

Getting back to the hotel we had clocked 99km, 1145m of ascent and a maximum heart rate of 180.  So quite an easy day overall.

From escargots to toads

In full preparation for his trip to Spain tomorrow, 10 hours before being collected by André in his Berlingo, Phil is currently in the middle of:

• filling his face with top quality traditional cycling nosh
• running around the house seeking out arm warmers
• tidying up paint pots
• changing his rear block
• changing tyres
• setting up his spare laptop for wireless connection

There's nothing like being well prepared.

Escargots libérés!

The weather is still a bit topsy turvy at the moment but the garden is definitely coming to life.  It was so hot after yesterday's Tibetan experience that I rushed home and out of my cycling gear to partake in my other favourite weekend activity - sitting in the garden with Gateau and a book - only to be roused by Tom's arrival in Roubaix. 

As I took my garden chair from behind the patio door, where I had carefully placed it the evening before, I found it covered in snails.  It only took the briefest of rummages into the bush and under the nearby rocks for me to go running to Phil screaming of snail infestations.  Our elderly neighbour, Mme Marquet, normally deals with the problem with a swift stamp of the foot, but we prefer a more humane treatment.  We   Phil put them all in a bucket, I provided lettuce so they wouldn't get hungry and ensured breathing holes and then Phil went for an late night stroll to the edge of the village to liberate them.

This afternoon Phil found another little colony and we're pretty sure there are more to come.  With Phil away in Spain next week, I can see I'm going to have to find someone to delegate this job to.

Whilst he was out, he took a few snaps of the village by night.

Route Impracticable!

Today was a lot of fun.  We went up to the Tibetan Centre at Montchardon, a 6 km short sharp jolt from Cognin les Gorges, most of it done à bloc, out of the saddle, struggling to keep the pedals turning.  If you like your suffering to be intense but short-lived then this is the one for you.  It was a beautiful day for photos at the top. 

From there, most sensible people head back down to Izeron unless equipped with quad bikes or thick knobbly tyres but we always think it a bit of a shame to go up to 800m and not do the next 200m to get into the Vercors, so we took an old track up to Le Faz that has never seen tarmac and which I first did with Arthur in 2006.  The surface is a cross between hard packed stones, mud (after Friday's rain) and some recently laid gravel that made it even less rideable than the last time.  Definitely a ride to remember your cleat covers as we ended up walking over a kilometre on our own pavé extrême!  It's really worth it though as once at La Faz and back on the tarmac you have access to the whole of the Vercors.

Snow

There is still a fair amount of snow up in the Vercors, mainly because of the unseasonal dump we had over the Easter weekend, which scuppered all plans of taking part in Paques en Provence and turned it into a weekend where cake eating featured highly.

Still, two weeks later and with the sun back, we are now reaping the rewards.  We had a fabulous day downhill skiing at Alpe d'Huez on Thursday where the snow on the higher pistes still felt fresh and powdery.  Today we rode up to Col de La Chau, going up Combe Laval and coming down the Bourne and stopping en route at Chaud Clapier where we discovered that there are still 60 km of x-c trails open.  Despite the mild temperatures and clear skies today, we were the only cyclists up in the Vercors (that we saw, anyway), apart from an 85 year old, going from St Martin to Les Barraques, who was trying out his brand new mountain bike and who stopped us for assistance to get into the big chain ring.

Tomorrow morning we'll be back up in the car for what will likely be our final x-c ski of the year.