Climb, climb, climb!

Where I live and La Marmotte:

Below is a map I scribbled on to give you and idea of "Where in the World is Chewy?" as well as what this "La Marmotte" bike ride is. In blue is the La Marmotte course; if you want to get a closer look, search google for Alpe D'Huez and use this map as a reference. In the pink is where I have ridden so far...and the little star is where I am living right now. As you can tell, I have only explored the first half of the course. Next weekend my awesome Auntie Cocole and Joelle will be playing "SAG" with me as I start with Col de La Croix de Fer and then driving me to Valloire, the beggining of Galibier; this way I have an idea of how much it is going to hurt!

Col D'Ornon

On Friday I decided to do a little "warmup" before tackling Alpe D'Huez again. There is a relatively "easy" climb (only avg 6-7 %) to Col D'Ornon. The backside of this climb is part of the long course Alpe D'Huez triathlon.

The start...

The village of Ornon. The villages tend to be a few km below the summit. So Col D'Ornon is 5 km further. Also, the village of Huez is 4 km lower that Alpe D'Huez.

A spectacular view of some of the homes/gardens near the summit...Unfortunately my picture of the summit didn't turn out so well...taking pictures while riding a bike is a tricky thing!

And this is proof that afterwards I climbed Alpe D'Huez! Actually there was an electric bike race going on at the same time I decided to climb so there was crowd and vehicles with loud speakers playing techno music! it was a party. I was also fortunate to meet a nice man from Holland who rode up with me and spoke English!..it was good to have an English coversation, LOL!

I also have experienced the wonders of "Compac Cranks" I absolutely love them! Last year, I rode with a 42 as my smallest (thanks Wolfgang!) and was grinding every climb...even for IM Nice. Things seem so much more manageable with the smaller crankset! Managed to knock 6 minutes off my Alpe D'Huez climb time to 1 hr 11 minutes...my goal is to go sub 70 min by the end of the summer!


Col de Glandon and Col De La Croix de Fer

Today I wanted to "push the legs" a little. Get them used to climbing for a extended period of time; in 3 weeks, they will have to be ready to climb at least 8 hrs! So I embarked to climb Col de Glandon (part of the La Marmotte course). I have done Glandon and Croix Fer before but not any further. So to go past the summit and descend is "unknown territory"; I was going to go "where no Chewy has gone before!" My intents were to climb Glandon, descend 1/2 way to St Colomban des-Villard and head back...Gregory had told me the descent from Glandon was a "little hairy" and one to experience before La Marmotte and the climb back up was "ok"....more on that in a bit.

Here is the departure from the EDF dam in Allemont. I was heading to the mountains in the back of the picture on your left.

This is after the initial "steep" part..the destination lies around the peack in the middle of the picture in the back.

Near the top is the EDF dam that feeds the one in Allemont. It also marks the end of the "steep" part of the climb. The rest of the way to the summit is moderate and much needed for the sore quads!

The tail end of the dam and the road snaking off in the distance takes you to Col de Glandon and Col de la Croix de la Fer (2.5 km farther up the road). the road splits in the distance and if you turn left, you end up at Col de Glandon within 500 meters; if you veer right, you go a little farther, 2.5 km to Col de la Croix de la Fer.

Her is Col de Glandon summit.

Here is the view up to Col de la Croix de la Fer from Glandon. It's hard to see, but it is at the top, LOL

Now the fun begins, descending Glandon to St-Colomban des-Villards. Not only did I almost crap my pants and have a heart attack at the same time; I blistered my hands from braking so hard! My bike smells like burnt rubber!. This descent is the "Craziest" I have ever done, and boy am I glad I did it. My only concern is how many people are going to kill themselves during La Marmotte during this descent! The road is one car wide and the first 3 km are at 12% with descending radius turns and NO GAURDRAILS!

The picture below is 1.5 km into the descent where I pulled over due to panicking...I finally looked up and saw what beautiful scenery there was! So I took a picture, composed myself and kept going...braking a LOT!

Fortunately the descent levels out after 4 km, but it still is not easy...that should have been my first clue that the climb back up would be a killer!

Here is the profile for the climb back up. The red part is +10% (around 12 % for this climb). OK! OK! Gregory said it would be OK!...my arsss it was OK! but I survived, without walking my bike or stopping, but it was tough. Then to add icing to the cake, I decided to take it to the next level of sadistic self-inflicted hurt...I went the 2.5 km to Col de la Croix de la Fer.

Here is the view approaching the Col de la Croix de la Fer summit. Can you see the 3 mountain peaks in the background?? Guess what those are?

Finally, the summit

And those 3 peaks are the mountains you see on the Evian water bottles! It is so beautiful. All of these pictures do not give the panorama the credit it deserves!

And, I did sit in the well afterwards for a mountian fresh ice cold bath! My quads are a little tired now....yawn, time for bed. More mountain adventures later...