Gastrobiking

'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. 

 

 

7.5 hours of bike bingeing

For the past week, temperatures have been reaching 20° in the afternoon and sinking as low as -5° in the early morning.  I experienced both these extremes of temperature on Saturday as I met up with Dom and Patrick for a bash on the mountain bikes at 08.45am and returned at 6 pm after a brisk 110 km on the club ride in the afternoon.  Thermals and longs in the morning and shorts and arm warmers in the afternoon, with a midday sit in the sun with a naked torso to break up the bicycle binge!

My legs were feeling it a bit on Sunday - my 12 kg Colnago with ultra-high rolling resistance tyres isn't really conducive to storming up the climbs trying to keep up with the lunatics at the front on their lightweight summer bikes, so Sunday was a day for riding slowly, enjoying the weather and the animal friends we made along the way and, of course, cake recuperation in Tullins.

Getting Carri ed away

Phil's been on plumbing duties for the past three days, trying to unblock a blocked drain in the middle of the courtyard, and it wasn't pretty.  Without going into vivid descriptions, he won't be eating chicken dansak for a while.

I left him to it, taking advantage of a slack teaching week to hop over to London for a long weekend.  When I got back he was more than ready for a day out into the mountains. 

Yesterday afternoon we decided to try out Col de Carri for some X-Country skiing.  The last time we went I felt I was making no progress at all and that the pleasures of skating on snow were out of my reach.  Today, however, I felt that things were starting to come together .......  until Phil started to video me, that is. 

I will never win any prizes for style or technique, going uphill will always be a struggle, coming down will always be a tad faster than I am comfortable with,  but I am starting to think that I am capable of enjoying my time gliding in the snow.  It's great to see parts of the Vercors that we don't see on the road bike and the tracks are so deserted.  I can see why Phil is hankering after a new mountain bike.

We got back home with an hour of daylight to spare which we put to good use by going out for a spin on the bikes, me on my road bike and Phil on his mountain bike, dreaming of its replacement.

Four fat tyres and a fat cat

Last night I treated myself to a Dom’s Pizza.  While I was chatting, Dom mentioned that he had been mountain biking, something I thought he had stopped doing since he had bought his road bike. He asked if I still had a mountain bike and so we arranged that Dom would pop round at 9am this morning…

Talking of culinary indulgencies, we’ve had a few people asking recently how Flapjack’s diet is going.  Maybe the fact that his weight has gone unmentioned on the blog says it all.  The truth is that we have been making an effort to slim him down, we don’t leave food out for him all day and we are much better at tolerating his howling for more; however, the results have been limited and we’ve sort of convinced ourselves he’s just big-boned.  When Dom turned up this morning for the early morning jaunt, his reaction said it all:   

‘Oof! Elle est pleine?’ (up the spout)

‘Bah non! c’est un mâle.’

‘Eh? Putain! Il est énorme.’

Poor Flappy!

Anyway, once Dom had got over the shock, we ventured out on our ride.  The weather over the past week has been mild and sunny, all the time leaving us with dilemmas over whether to cycle, ski or faff around in the garden.  Now that mountain biking has entered the equation, we’ll never get out the door for thinking about it.

So, not having done any mountain biking since I moved off the Vercors Plateau four years ago, it was all very exciting setting off in the sub-zero temperature.  We took the road towards St.Jean turning off to the left after the first couple of bends. 10 minutes later, after some interesting paths, we emerged back on the road, about 300metres from where we had turned off.  Ah! A quick reminder of what mountain biking is all about – a completely pointless detour, unless you’re out to have fun.  After about a kilometre we turned off onto another track and for the next 6km made a series of left and right turns along tracks and paths, over stones and mud. Our route brought us into Pont-en-Royans along the route of the old railway line. Well that was until Dom took an unexpected left turn and we slid down a rubbly path with our rear wheels locked.

The sun was just getting onto the village as we crossed the footbridge and turned along the riverside path to cross the main road out of Pont and climb up a steep stony path.  At the top there was a jolly view of the village and the river, followed by a quaint grassy path.  We passed some pretty farm houses, rode along nice farm tracks, saw some herons, a few buzzards and a cat, and slid delicately down wet, muddy, stony descents.  I’d sort of forgotten about working out where we were when all of a sudden St.André appeared before us.  I had no idea we had climbed so much.

Immediately after St.André we took a track off to the left and that was the last bit of road we saw until we emerged onto the road just before St.Nazaire.  I thought that there were loads of tracks in the Vercors but it would have taken me months to work out this route.  It certainly burnt off last night’s pizza and I can see more off-road ventures looming, fuelled by Dom’s Pizzas of course.