Chapter 2: Col du Glandon

So, the journey begins at 4:30 am, France time...so in other words, all you party goers in America were still out on the night when I was carbo loading with rice before 5 am!

There is something very strange and peculiar about boiling rice when it is dark out in the morning. Anyhow, back to the subject matter at hand. After I managed to force down some food and slather on sunscreen, chamois cream and bug repellant, I was out the door to make the 12 km treck to Bourg d'Oisans where the ride began.

Allemont, Bourg d'Oisans and all the other villages are NOT very big, they are actually pretty tiny. I don't know what the population is, but it is small! perhaps a couple hundred people in each village if that. So, how the heck to do fit 7000 riders into an area that small? Well, you pretty much use up the ENTIRE village. Yes, that is correct, for those of us seeded in the final wave (over 3000 of us) we had to go to go to go past the village into a "corral" that fed us into the village from the outskirts.

To be truthful, I was not very happy at first to know that I was in the last wave. That meant over an hour of waiting and by the time we were on our way the sun would be out in full force and the wind would be picking up (if you think Boulder wind is bad...which it is! wait until you come ride in the valleys of the French Alpes!). But, I tried not to think about it and actually made a nice conversation with a man from Belgium who spoke great English. This was his 3rd time doing La Marmotte and gave some excellent tips on how to "get through" this event. Thank you # 5890!

With that many people in a "holding corral" for an hour, there will indefinitely be a need for people to relieve themselves. So, men where whipping out there "bits" and doing their business into the river. At this point in time I "REALLY" had to go...but there was no shelter; so what does a woman do in this situation?? well you squat by a tree, say "pardon" and let it go!...c'mon, finding a woman in the crowd was like finding a needle in a haystack, I am sure they were either astounded by the bravery or lack of elegance!

Then at 7:50 am, right on cue, there was this wave of "clicking sounds"..everyone was clipping into their pedals. My stomach started to flutter and all I could think was "here we go...it's going to be a long day" So we edged forward to the timing mat (I was about 1 km back from the start) with the village of Bourg D'Oisans out in full force cheering. It was like Le Tour for the start. When I finally saw the big air inflated arc that would mark my departure I had a huge sense of the "unknown"..what was the day going to bring? how would I handle the rough parts? would I be ok on the descents? But before I could think too much about that we were off and I was sucking some wheels!!

I have never drafted in a big cycling event like this let alone many training rides. Let's just say I had a BLAST. I might have gotten a little carried away in the first 10 km...it was just so fun for me!

But...that didn't last for long because at 15 km, you start climbing.....

Gregory waited for me around 1 km into the climb. I blew him kisses and wished him happy anniversary. A few riders who spoke English and understood what I was saying/doing told me that I have a very "patient" husband to put up with a wife who would do something this crazy on their anniversary! I agreed! To give you even more evidence that my husband is the best; he then proceeded to drive up to Alpe D'Huez and wait for me for the REST of the day because the road were closed. I am one lucky Chewy!

After the first 6 km of the ride which are some of the worst (9-11%) we had a brief descent and then the most brutal part of the climb at +12%. Lots of huffing, puffing, cursing and many people reconsidering what they got themselves into. Since I had done this climb many times before, I knew how to pace and kept it steady. Many of the people who started out like bats out of hell were fading...and little did they know what was yet to come...

Every 5 minutes a support vehicle/motorcycle would pass with their sirens trying to keep everyone to one side of the road, which was almost impossible...with the amount of people we were riding 8-10 abreast. It was a zoo!

I was trying to keep on top of my nutrition, but having a few "GI issues" so I did the best I could. With about 15 km left to go on the climb the sun was out in full force and the wind was VERY mild in this valley so we were all roasting like hamburgers on a barbeque. I was paying close attention to my salt and water intake as any sort of deficit will put you out of the game before you know it.

Looking at my watch, I knew I was making good time. With the draft, lack of wind and initial excitement I reached the point where you can see the Glandon peak 15 minutes ahead of what I thought I would be at. Then I relaxed and told myself to "slow-down" it is a long day! On the final stretch to the summit I took out my disposable camera that I purchased for this event and as I was balancing my bike and trying to take a picture, two nice German men made gestures for me to give them the camera so they could take a picture of me. So we got a few good shots, and it was all smiles and fun...hmm...for now..the camera was not so fun after a few more hours....

I reached the top, well, almost the top of Glandon in great shape. Because there were so many riders the security crew was bottlenecking them so that only a handful of riders could descend the "death-trap" at a time, which lead to a back-up a few hundred meters from the summit of Glandon. That was fine with me! I pulled over, layed my bike down, drank and ate, asked a few nice Belgium men to cover for me as I "relieved myself" in the midst of thousands of cyclists, refilled my bottles and absorbed all the organized chaos going on around me. There were sooo MANY cylclists, volunteers and supporters! It blows my mind! to think that you are part of this event and one of many just trying to cross the finish gives me undescribeable feelings...it is something you need to experience to understand. And just as I was flying high in my emotions, waiting my turn to funnel into the descent and cross the timing matt I was brought back to reality by the screaming sirens of an ambulance.

At that time, i could not tell if the ambulance was coming from ahead or behind, but a volunteer police man hearded us to the side of the road and bumped me a little "too hard" when I was half clipped-in...so I did one of the "tip the cow" falls. I was fine and didn't know what was more funny, all of the males watching and looking at the cop like "you just pushed a woman over!!" or the horror in the police mans face when he realized he had pushed a "woman" (in Europe it is unacceptable...plus seeing a woman in this event is like finding a needle in a haystack; of the 7000 participants only a couple hundred were women). I assured him I was fine, which I was...but, I could not get over the ambulance (and there were many more to come); the reality of the risks and dangers of such an event flooded my mind and grounded me for what was to be one of the most nerve racking and emotionally draining descents I have ever experienced.....