Although I've lived in Geneva for the entire Summer, I've only made it out to the Alps once before this week (twice if you count the Saleve climbs as the Alps). It wasn't due to laziness, but rather the sheer amount of time it takes to get there. The closest climbs are at least 1.5 hours away, so I tend to stay in the somewhat smaller Jura mountains to the West of Geneva. The Juras are home to numerous categorized climbs as well as stage 7 of the 2010 Tour de France so its not like it was really a bad thing. For sub 4 hour after work rides its pretty easy to just hop into France, get some good climbing in and ride home.
I knew that I would have two weeks of added free time this August so I began to plan my escape. I had rental cars lined up for trips to France and Eastern Switzerland to ride some tall peaks, but then I realized that I was being incredibly short-sighted. There are dozens of climbs right to the East in the Alps that I could ride at no added cost. They range from the unknown Monastre climb (which is actually quite harder than many of the category 3 climbs and even 2 climbs I've done here), to the famous 1st category Col de la Colombiere and Hors Categoire (too hard to be categorized) Col de Joux Plane.
I didn't really have a plan for this 'cyclotour' as they call it here. My goal was just to find a few cool climbs the night before, throw in something legendary and give it a go all day the next day. I wouldn't call it touring in the sense that I'm still riding my 14.5 pound race bike, not wearing flourescent jerseys, and I don't have any ridiculous bags/mirrors/other accessories on my bike like many tourists. I figured that I could fit 6 granola bars, 3 gel packs, my phone, ipod, rain cape (necessary for descending some of the higher elevation climbs) and a tool in my jersey and, if needed, fill one of my bottles with sports drink on a hotter day. This gave me about 10 hours worth of food, but the plan was to ride a bit less so if something happened I wouldn't totally be screwed.
Day 1 Geneva-> Col de la Colombiere-> Annecy-> Geneva. 101 miles 6884 feet of climbing
Need to re-map it, the site froze after I saved the map.
Today's goal was to climb the Col de la Colombiere, descend, hit the Col de St. Croix Fry (one of the climbs of Floyd Landis' ridiculous comeback in the 2006 Tour), descend and be back in Geneva in around 5 to 6 hours. After all it was the first day and I still had my 53/39 front and 11-28 rear so I didn't want to overdo it. Despite having a large gear on my rear cassette, I only had 1 climbing gear to use for anything steep and it wasn't a good one. Fast forward to 7 minutes and watch Linus Gerdemann grinding away on a 34 inner ring during the 2007 Tour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A57zDii7e0Q
It wasn't too hot of a day and the ride started out well. Rode out to Cluses and began the climb about 2.5 hours into the ride. It starts out looking pretty easy, but some of the switchbacks can be pretty tough. The climb then levels out at a graveyard in a small town and immediately kicks up to a ridiculously hard section that never goes below 8.5% and stays near 10% for most of the climb. I know people claim "I did x climb and its the same", but if you simply YouTube this climb you will see both the Schleck brothers and Contador barely able to turn their cranks at 50 Rpm up this climb in the 2009 Tour. The switchbacks make it difficult to get a decent rhythm going and the climb is also pretty long. I'm not the fastest climber in the world, but I'm not the most terrible either and I found it a lot more challenging than it seems. For one you can see the top from a long way away, but it never gets closer. First timers would assume they're almost done and turn up the tempo. Second, the distance can present a problem if you go too hard on the bottom portion which I'm guessing every first timer (including myself) has done. Finally, the last bit is all 10% for 3km, a little under 2 miles.
I don't care how many times you've done the local whatever climb that has a steep section, according to the searches I did online there are only a few climbs in the U.S. that are as steep and as long and they're found in the Rockies, Sierras, Utah, and the famous Mt. Washington. Its one thing to do a few miles of 10% after a flat and another to have to go through it after you've been climbing for close to an hour on grades that are just as hard. With a power to weight ratio of 4.7 w/kg a 39-28 was way too tall and a 34-25 or 34-26 would have been much more manageable so the cadence would be higher.
I stopped at the top for a minute, bought a coke (which proved to be a huge mistake) and carried on. The descent was fun, but there was too much traffic to really go fast. I ended up missing the turn for the second big climb, and this is where the day got interesting. I hesitated on making a right turn that I later found out was the correct path, and went left instead. The left sign pointed to Thones, which I later found out was not the same as Foret de Thones. After riding for around 90 minutes I realized that I was severely lost. Going back was not an option because I would have had to re-climb the mountain from the back side. I had also forgotten to fill up my bottles and only had 1/2 of one left so I didn't want to risk dehydration or cramping this far from home. I knew that the route would meet up with something eventually, so I figured I would wait until I was in a big town and find a map.
Well, that big town ended up being on the southern end of Annecy, which is a very hilly 50 or so km from Geneva. Remember that I am 5 hours into the ride and I've only consumed 1.5 bottles of water and a normal sized coke. The coke began to give me bubble guts, but I had nowhere to stop. After a bit of time trying to get my bearings on my terrible Google Maps printout, I spotted a freeway sign that pointed towards Geneva and a bike path that ran next to it. The rest of the details are pointless, but I found water and had a joyous 2 hours of riding 4-6% rollers the entire way back and the final ride time was a little over 7 hours 15 minutes.
Day 2 Geneva-> Col de Joux Plane-> Morzine-> Col de Savoliere-> Col de la Ramaz=> Geneva. 100.1 miles, 7884 feet of climbing
MapMyRide of Day 2: http://www.mapmyfitness.com/route/ch/null/french%20alps/173128251579946748
Day 2 was actually Day 3 because it rained on Friday, but I needed a bit of time to rehydrate and take in some carbs since I was so depleted from the day before. I spent the whole day cramping on and off and it was a nightmare. Also, my compact cranks finally came and I ended up spending more time than I wanted to installing them; there was no way I was going to do another climb of that difficulty without them. While Lance might have a 6.7 w/kg power to weight ratio, I'm stuck with far below that and for less time. Anything over 4.4 is really good for an amateur in the U.S., but something that low basically means that its going to be harder for me to turn the cranks at the same RPM in the same gear. 40rpm up a climb is not productive.
I set out in the morning on the hottest day in months. It took a bit less time to get to Samoens, the base of the climb, but there was quite a bit more climbing involved to get there. I rolled in feeling decent and began the climb. This one doesn't mess around- it is hard from the very first meter and never lets up: http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?qryMountainID=6018 Its also exposed so you get the sun beating down on you and things get very uncomfortable. I would probably say that this is the hardest climb I have ever done in my life and could very well be the hardest I'll ever do. I don't see what the point is of doing it on any sort of basis- its too hard and would tax a normal person too much to really get much of a training benefit. Its fun knowing that I could do it in a decent time (just a hair over 45 minutes and the course record is 33 minutes set by Pantani) and that I didn't almost bonk on it and lose the Tour like Lance did in 2000.
I finished the climb and descended down the other side into Morzine. It was freezing cold and the moisture from sweating up the Joux Plane didn't help either. After Morzine was the Savoliere and Ramaz. To be honest I almost rode right past both of them. After 4 hours of riding and climbing one of the hardest climbs on earth I didn't really want to tackle two more 1st category climbs, but I reluctantly made the turn and did them both. They were hard, but easier than I expected. Ramaz was in this year's tour, after the riders had already done Colombiere and before they would do Morzine-Avoriaz; how anyone could want to do that during a race is beyond me. I'm sure the people that have never been here would think it would be awesome, but doing it in the middle of the world's hardest race during 90 degree is not fun to anyone.
Finished the climbs, rode back to Geneva in severe pain with swollen feat and nothing left. Total ride time was a hair over 6 hours. Time to eat and do it again the next day.
Day 3 Geneva-> Col de Saxel-> Monastre-> Col de Cou-> Col de Arces-> Geneva. 77.2 miles, 6414 feet of climbing
MapMyRide for Day 3: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ch/geneva/772128251684236633
Today. The idea was to do a bunch of smaller climbs in Valle Verte; an area that is home to the Col de Cou and a few lesser known climbs that are challenging and awesome, but don't make it into the Tour on a regular basis. Its still great, however, because you can ride there in less than an hour and do as many climbs as you want, with 8 total to choose from.
I took a stupid route (in retrospect) and rode towards Thonon and up the Col de Saxel first. This is the climb featured in my videos and its not very hard, but very fun. I managed to do most of the climb seated in the 34-17 (5th gear from the left) and there were a few portions that I could do in the 50-23 out of the saddle. Its not hard, but nice and shaded and honestly much more enjoyable. The climb is short, but you have the option to turn right at the top and climb to Monastre, which is a small monestary. I don't have an elevation chart for this portion yet, but its quite challenging with many sections in the 7%-10% range trending towards 10%. I have no idea how long it took nor did I care, since I magically felt great despite the past 2 excursions in this tour. After Monastre I descended into Boege and headed towards the Col de Cou. To be honest the Col de Cou is pretty boring. Both the front and the back aren't too hard, too long, or too interesting. At the peak of the climb there is a small road that climbs up to Les Arces and a few other small climbs. It turns out I had missed the turn to the Col de Moises, but I can leave that for another day. Les Arces is steep and tough because the roads are absolutely awful, but its not too long.
After that I felt like I had had a good day and I felt great so there was no reason to push it. The weather on Monday is supposed to be nice and I have the day off, so we will see how I feel in the morning and where I will go from there. Its supposed to be nice the rest of the week and I plan on continuing this tour next weekend, hopefully hitting the Col de la Madeliene, which was the 2nd hardest climb in the 2010 Tour, and quite a few of the smaller ones that I have missed so far or would like to do again in a slightly different order.
So, at the end of Day 3 we're at 21,182 feet of climbing and ~278 miles of riding.
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