However this year I decided to bite the bullet and have a go. My wife and I drove over and parked the car in Saint Jean de Maurienne. This was about 7-8 miles from the foot of the climb so I'd get a chance to warm up and she'd have somewhere to have lunch whilst I was away cycling.
Once in Saint Jean de Maurienne it took a little while to get ready and I set off just after 11am. It was already quite hot and windy in the valley floor. It had taken 25 minutes to ride to the foot of the climb as I turned and headed up. From the roundabout at the bottom it rises up immediately for the first km or so is pretty gentle but once through the small village it kicks up to 7-8% and never stops.
Every 1km there is a marker telling you how many km left to the summit and the average gradient of the next km. This is both good and bad - you can measure your progress but also worry about what's to come. I passed a few cyclists in the first couple of km and had managed to hang on in the 34-28 gear for a few km but after that needed to drop back to the 34-32. It stayed like that all the way to the 10km point where the road (almost) flattens for a km or so.
Given the consistent gradient and the heat I was drinking a lot of water and using some over my neck to cool down. At the 12km to go point (so 8km done) I'd used almost half of the water I had. Remembering back to climbing the Col de Sarenne in 2015 when I almost ran out of water, I started to look out for some water replenishing points (eau potable) to make sure I had enough to last the top. I also had eaten half my food by the 12km point as well (1 gel and 1 cereal bar) by this point so I knew it was going to be tough all the way.
There is village at the 10km to go point and for just over km the gradient eases to almost flat. There's also a couple of cafes/restaurants so I knew I'd be able to get water however I saw the usual drinking fountain trough so I filled the now empty first bottle and carried on. Past the village and swinging round to the left the climb resumed at its normal 9-10% rate. By this point you are mostly out of the trees as well so the temperature rose little as well. Up to the village the km markers were generally 7-8% but after they were 9-10% so much steeper for 2nd part of the climb.
By this point I was pretty well stuck in the 34-32 gear. I was very glad of this to be honest. It was slower but I felt I could almost climb anything all day with it. I slowly ground up and it was in this part of the climb that I was now passed by 3-4 riders - all using higher gearing and leaving me pretty well standing still. I was not too bothered - my objective was to climb without stopping rather than set a faster time on the lower slopes before blowing up in a big way. Km 9-4 were really hard as it seemed to be still a long way but by the time I reached km 3 I knew it was just a case of keeping going and that it was doable. The final 3km were probably the hardest - I think km 2 to 1 was an average of 11% and I saw a stretch of 14% for while - but finally I knew I just had a few metres to go and the top was in sight:
I had done it!
The major Strava segment was Col du Glandon rated at HC - 12.1 miles with an average 7% gradient and height gain of 4658ft. My time was 1hr 55min - none too shabby and just about in the 50% placing range. However to put in context - the KOM is held by Laurens ten Dam in 57 minutes - twice as fast!
I was very pleased with the time up. After a quick can of pop I started down. Given how twisty the roads were it took me 30 minutes just to descend.
By the time I got back to Saint Jean de Maurienne I was pretty well done in. A burger for lunch in the town square went some way to make up for that.
Here's the full ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/623639355
In summary - a very hard climb but very satisfying. Every bit as fearsome as it looked when driving up and down as well.
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