Cycling in the Alps - A First Timers Review

As I have written tediously I went to the French Alps in late June/early July 2015. It was the first time that I had cycled big mountains and I thought it might be worth documenting the lessons and experiences learnt.

This is a bit of a brain dump in no particular order:

1 - Decide where you are going to go and for how long!
The whole world is your oyster, but it helps to have an idea what you want to do. In my case my sons bought me this book for Christmas 2014:

This was really a spur to decide to go the the French Alps. For me - why there and not elsewhere - or even France instead of Italy or Spain for example? Basically because the Tour de France is a more global event and hence the climbs are more, to use the overused word, "iconic". Further, the really famous climbs are in the French Alps and this is just about drivable in a day. Italy and Spain are at least 2 days driving.

I planned a load of possible routes off in advance (using the Strava Routing tool):

We live in the Midlands but fortunately my parents house is less than 1 hour from the Channel Tunnel and this meant that with an early start (5am) it would be around a 12 hour drive, even fully loaded.

I was able to leave work a bit earlier on the Friday and needed some time to load the car with 3 bikes:

The car was absolutely laden with 3 bikes on the roof and cycling gear, as well as normal holiday stuff in the car.

We didn't have that great a start the night before though, getting caught in a queue as a result of an accident on the M6 less than 30 minutes after leaving home:

Even though its drivable in a day its a very long way and you need to seriously think about sharing between at least 2 and probably 3 three drivers. Once we'd driven of the train at Calais I drove for a 2 hour block or so but felt very tired after that as we'd started off at 5am and had an hours drive to the tunnel at Folkstone, as well as a 4 hour journey the night before.

For once I was a passenger in my own car as my sons put a big chunk of hours in and I fell asleep. We drove for about 9 hours southwards through France almost exclusively on the Payage so we made good progress on the cruise control at 130kph. It cost about 50Euro in tolls and a tank of fuel about halfway (the car was full when we left Kent). We just made it to Bourg d'Oisans on that 2nd tank but it was pretty empty. Normally my focus would do 60mpg+ but on this trip it was down at 35mpg - the cost mainly of 3 bikes on the roof at sustained high speed.

The French roads were very good and we had no delays. Finally about 4pm we approached Grenoble and could tell we were in nearly there as we could see proper mountains. Here's some photos I took with the mountains just in the distance. It took us another 90+ minutes from here to get to Bourg d'Oisans as this was almost the end of the Payage.

We had decided to stay in Bourg d'Oisans at the very foot of the Alpe d'Huez -this was ideally located for a number of the big climbs and some were about an hours drive away. I felt that the town of Bourg d'Oisans would be big enough to provide a range of services and the city of Grenoble was about an hour away. My wife found a camp site just outside the town (actually about 100m from the very foot of the Alpe d'Huex) that had chalets rather than mean we actually go camping and this was an excellent decision

2 - Prepare yourself
Having decided where you're going to go make sure that you really know what climbing a Col really means. Your first thought might be that the 8% average that most of the Cols come out at it's not that steep and there are many steeper places in the UK. That is completely true - but what we don't have in the UK is 8% for 20km. This means that even if you pop out for a 20 mile ride every Sunday, its likely that you'll find it very hard work. This does not mean that you have to be beasting yourself 5 days a week in the 6 months before but you have to be pretty fit and be able to sustain a high level of effort for up to two hours at a time.  
You really need to do this "training" effort up hills as well and not rely on 2 hours riding on the flat. For me in the Midlands, I could only do so much and had to rely more on miles although I did try and seek out some climbs and would also try to climb them in a higher gear than usual to try to work the leg muscles more. I went to France with about 3000 miles of riding for the year to date so felt as good as I could be.

Also - whilst you'll be thinking about the climbing don't forget about the effort of braking. The first descent of the Alpe d'Huez was exciting - its a short descent at ~12km but its a series of semi-straights where it's easy to get to 40mph. Then there's the hairpins and you need to lost ~25mph to get round - and then rinse and repeat. By the time I was at the bottom my arms ached from the repeated braking efforts.

The next day we did Croix de Fer and this was a different descent with long straights and sweeping bends and needed more continuous braking but at lower effort. 

So your legs will ache on the way up and your arms on the way down!

3 - Prepare your bike
3a - fit suitable gears. I know that I am getting older and have been using an 11-28 cassette on a compact for the last 2-3 years. I try not to use the 28 unless I need to but find that I am tending to more often than I used to - mainly to drop the load of my legs to a degree

In addition, cycling in the Lake District (here, and here) and on the Yorkshire Moors (here and here) showed that even a 28 was not low enough for me at times, although Rosedale chimney was a special case.

After a lot of deliberation I decided that I would bite the bullet and get a lower bail out gear so got a Shimano Ultegra 6700 10spd 12-30 cassette:

I was a bit concerned about using it with short cage rear derailleur but as I wrote here it actually worked very well. Here it is in the lowest gear:

And here it is in the gear not to be used (big/big)

It was an Ultegra cassette as 105 is not made with a cassette bigger than 28 for 10 speed - but Ultegra is more shiny than 105! In fact with 6800 11spd Ultegra out for a year or so the 6700 range is much better value for money.

I had no qualms about putting such a low gear on - my objective was to ride all the mountains without stopping or needing to get off. I felt that for the first week I needed that 30 tooth but for the second week it was there more for when I was tired rather than I needed it just to progress. I would have found the cycling a lot less pleasant if I had left the 11-28 on.

3b - make sure the tyres and inner tunes are in good condition
Most of the thought were about getting up but of course you come down as well, and the speed can be high and sustained, as can the need to brake hard to get round the hairpins. For this reason I fitted a pair of new tyres - my favourite Continental GP400s. Again I wanted to be on holiday to ride my bike and not be sitting at the side of the road mending punctures. As I also found out, sustained and repeated braking from high speed over a 20km descent combined with hot weather, the wheels and tyres got very hot - not quite too hot to touch but close.

3c - make sure the brakes are in good condition
For all the reasons in 3b!

4 - Always warm up before starting climbing
It's tempting to think that with the warm weather you are ready to go. The first day out we rode from the camp site to the foot of the Col d'Ornon, about 2 miles maximum. About 500yards up the Col I was completely in the red and whilst I managed to make it to the top this lack of preparation at the bottom cost me all the way. After that I always rode at least 5 miles before the start of any climb - even if this was a ride in the opposite direction and back again. You might need more or less time but be ready - once you start climbing there is unlikely to be any respite for over an hour until you reach the top.

5 - Take plenty of water
If the weather is even partially warm you will get very hot and thirsty, so make sure that you take at least 2 750ml bottles of water or other drink with you. In addition if you're climbing in the hot sun its tempting to pour some water over you to cool down. When I climbed the Col de Sarenne I almost ran out of water as I was drinking it and using it to cool down and the last 1km or so was very unpleasant

There are quite a few "Eau Potable" places along the roads if you keep your eyes open (generally in or near the villages).

Here's one:

 

6 - Wear and take suitable clothing
It can be sweltering at the bottom but several thousand feet higher it can be quite cool. Make sure you look at the weather forecast and plan accordingly. Don't forget that you'll be very warm on the ascent with the heat and the effort of the climb, but on the descent when you are hardly doing anything and just rolling down you can get quite cold from the wind speed and lack of physical effort. On the climb of the Galibier I took my Pocket Rocket in my jersey just in case as its so small and light (but didn't need it).

I also found that a full zip jersey is much more useful than a part zip one - when its hot you need the air round you to cool - it might flap about a but but take all the help you can get

7 - pace yourself and possibly use a heart rate monitor
Its all about pace. Go too fast and you'll blow without doubt. As well as considering my gearing - see above - I also replaced the Garmin strap of my heart rate monitor with a Polar strap (see here). This was to provide a means for me to try and keep myself out of the red and pace myself at say 85% of what I think my maximum heart rate is (or to tell me when its too high and slow down). I found this very useful. On all ascents I rode with just 4 values showing - current heart rate, average heart rate, gradient as % and what the Garmin said was % of maximum (I was less bothered about this one but it was already on the screen definition). Mainly I tried to keep my heart rate around 150bpm which is what I found sustainable in terms of not just making progress but also maintaining progress. If it went higher I could slow a little and if it dropped I could try harder.

8 - Take some money with you
Most Cols have something on the summit. You'll appreciate a drink or ice cream at the very least. When I was almost blown climbing the Sarenne it was a great relief to have something to eat and drink.

And this is what I had in Valloire after descending the Galibier before climbing back up the Telegraphe:

9 - Take a camera
Even if its just on your phone there are views that you'll remember for a long time (these are my 2 favourites):

At the top of the Croix de Fer

At the top of the Galibier

10 - Don't be disappointed about missing some Strava segments
It was clear that in some places GPS signals are weak and Strava will think you are off the road. This was easier to tell as I have a Garmin 800 and my son a 500 and often on some routes the GPS trace was all over the place. 

What is important is to enjoy the riding and scenery and almost (not totally) forget about Strava for once.

11 - Finally - Make sure you have a good time