Road to Hautacam: GPM10: Chamonix-Annecy

Distance: 100.31km
Time: 4:07:40
Avg Speed: 24.3km/h
Max Speed: 71.6km/h
Calories: 3909kcal
Avg HR: 146bpm
Max HR: 186bpm
Ascent: 1713m

I'd headed over to Haut Savoie for the gpm10 Etape Training Weekend. This was to provide me with some experience of climbing cols, before I get to The Etape. Saturday took in cols Aravis & Croix Fry. Sunday, the Col de la Colombiere. It proved challenging weekend.

Chamonix-Annecy Profile

We arrived on Friday night at the surprisingly nice Hotel Eden in Chamonix. There was time to unpack the bike from the case and take it for a quick spin before dinner. Rather than pay £200 for a bike case, I'd opted to hire one from Primera at £6 per day. I was quids in until I discovered it was too big to go in our car and that I'd have to pay £140 for a return taxi to the airport.

View from Hotel Eden, Chamonix

We had a damp start the next morning and much of the first 30km or so was downhill. It should have been pretty uneventful, but one guy locked up and went into the verge and I had a blow-out while descending at some speed. Luckily I managed to stay upright. The real bonus was the support van following. Mark jumped out and swapped my wheel and I was on my way immediately. Superb service :)

From here on the road headed up along the Route Megeve. The climb lasted a lung-stretching 11km at 6.5% and we got a couple of superb panoramas on the way. At the top we stopped at the van for sandwiches and refreshment. This was by far the furthest I'd ever climbed before and I was stunned to find out this wasn't even one of the days named climbs. My heart wasn't used to such a sustained effort and myself and other stragglers watched the guys from London Dynamo ride-off up the road at speed - something we'd get used to as we hit the cols.

The next 15km or so were a chance to recover, mostly undulating down to the base of Col des Aravis. At the foot, the cloud broke and the sun started to shine. The col was a steady 7% over 7km - about half as long as the climbs in the Etape. What was surprising about these climbs is the lack of flat sections to bring the heart rate down. For the duration of the climb my HR stayed above 170, far higher than expected. The climb up to lunch at the cafe on the top took over just over thirty minutes. It was hard, hard work, but there was a sense of achievement at making it up my first col. I can't see how I could ride easier without fitting a triple chainset for tiny gears, something many do, but an expense I'll avoid. I could have done more training. I'm probably setting myself up for some real suffering.

Lunch on the Aravis

After lunch we had a short & fast descent where I passed 70km/h before losing my bottle (figuratively). The next climb was Col de la Croix Fry. We were fortunately doing it from the short side, only 4km at 6%. I still found it a bit of a slog. Amongst other things I'd had a second cheese & ham sandwich at lunch and it was a bit much.

From the summit we had a mighty, exhilarating, uninterrupted descent of over 20km. It was superb fun, overtaking cars on the way down, weaving left & right following the boys from the Dynamos. When we stopped to regroup at the bottom I noticed cyclists heading up in the other direction, something that would take them one or two hours.

More modest digs awaited us tonight, although superbly located next to Lake Annecy. Mark arranged for us to have a very decent dinner out in town. Somewhere I'd like to return to for a break. The gpm boys were doing a cracking job. Sam even fixed my puncture.