Marmotte Training Weekend

Recovery day today from our Marmotte training weekend where we were joined by John and Paul who are based in Dubai. It sounds a long way to travel for the weekend, however with just a 2 hour time difference to France, the guys landed Friday lunchtime and we managed to fit in a ride on Friday afternoon, and 2 more full days before they flew back late Sunday evening.

Experiencing the Alps first hand is considered vital before any attempt at the Etape or the Marmotte.

After some erratic weather in the Alps we have been lucky with warm temperatures and just the odd late afternoon shower.

Saturday we pretty much cycled the route of one of the Time Megeve Sportive options departing from Megeve and over the Col des Aravis where we met herds of cows being moved to their Summer pastures. Descending to Thones, we started the tough climb of the Croix Fry, where our pro support vehicle was waiting with Kevin, pro bike mechanic and owner of Vaudagne Velo After refueling and the short descent to the Aravis junction, its a 20 min climb back to the top of the Aravis before the technical descent to Flumet and returning to Megeve, continuing to Sallanches.

Sunday we drove the short transfer around to Taninges and after 7kms warm up we hit the Ramaz for the 14km ride to the Summit with a height gain of 980M. The Ramaz featured in the 2010 Tour de France and is a tough one! After winding up through the meadows, shortly before a brief respite on Ramaz plateau the gradient peaks at 15% through the tunnel. Onwards towards the summit, 2 weeks earlier we'd met a snow plow at this point!

Ramaz Summit

Descending back down towards Taninges at over 70KM's an hour and onto the flat 11kms to Samoens before tackling the Joux Plane.





Many of the pro's consider the Col de Joux Plane harder than Alp D'Huez and it is definitely a more spectacular climb. Immediately ramping up to 11%. Its 12kms to the Summit with the exact same height gain to the Ramaz at 980M hence with 2kms less to the Summit that kinda says it all! The Joux Plane returns to the pro races in 2 weeks time featuring in the Queens stage of the Criterium Dauphine. It was the seen of Landis' drug induced ride and Armstrong famously bonked on the climb. We predict it will return to the Tour de France route in 2013. Watch this space!

Today our support has Jude (wife, co-owner!) at the wheel and she's also responsible for most of the spectacular photos.

By now the temperature was rising and the thunder clouds were gathering over the Mont Blanc Massif as we approached the summit.

With snow still by the roadside as we got the the top and with a noticeable chill in the air we descended back to heat of Samoens for a pit stop before a flat spin of the legs back to Taninges.

Back to Chalet Annabelle for a refuel, box up the bikes and off to Geneva airport, just an hour away for the return flight. If a weekend is possible from Dubai, then the options for our UK visitors are pretty easy!

Good luck to John and Paul in the Marmotte on July 7th. As for me, I'll be saving myself for the Etape du Tour the following day!

Summit in sight, 2kms to go on the Joux Plane

Some of our rides from www.breathebike.com

Summer or Winter? Its been a bizarre few weeks in the Alps. A week ago we had 26 degrees, now its 2.6 degrees and snowing! I guess its that time of year. One day its Winter gear, next its Summer gear. The weeks are flying by towards the Etape du Tour and the Tour de France however before that we're all training very hard for the local Time Megeve event which is only 3 weeks away and excellent conditioning for anyone undertaking the Marmotte or the Etape du Tour. The Time Megeve always coincides with the Criterium Dauphine and this year we'll be watching the Queens stage of the Dauphine on Saturday June 9th immediately before the Time Megeve on the Sunday. The Dauphine goes over the Joux Plane this year. We tried to go over it on Monday however its still closed about 3/4 way up due to snow! The Dauphine also goes over the Grand Colombier on Friday 8th June so we'll be off to that stage too as this climb will also feature in this years Tour de France. Even though the main Cols in the area (Grand and Petit St Bernard, Colombiere, Joux Plaine, Roseland, Madelaine) are still closed due to the epic amounts of snow we had this Winter there's still plenty of challenges in the region and Monday saw us over the Ramaz which is passable with care at the summit ( we met a snow plough just before the Summit) and the Encrenaz.

3 weeks ago on the Col Des Aravis No further on the Joux Plane

In the sun last week we also had a ride over into Switzerland and the 80KMH an hour descent to Martigny and to prove its not all eye balls out climbing in the Alps we had a 100kms on the flat around to Samoens and back Tomorrow sees the first Sportive of the year near Lyon (yet another Bank Holiday in France tomorrow!) and we're forecast a sunny day. Then its a likely trip down to Mt Ventoux in 2 weeks, followed by the Time Megeve and then its all down hill to the Etape!