May 2019 – Bristol Mile Monkeys

All the climbs

Posted on May 22, 2019May 22, 2019 by elliebees in Alps, Challenges, News, Planning

As we continue to count down to our 1st challenge this year. Here is the list of all our planned climbs.

As a comparison the top climb in the UK is Great Dunn Fell which has an average gradient of 7.7% over 9 km and a total ascent of 689 m. Cheddar gorge is 2.7% over 11 km with a total ascent of 295 m.

Stage 1	Average grade	Length	Altitude start	Altitude top	Ascent
Cormet de Roselend	6% max 8%	20.32 km 12.62 miles	740 m 2428 ft	1957 m 6420 ft	1227 m 4025 ft
Col du Petit Saint Bernard	4.4% max 6%	31 km 19.26 miles	815 m 2673 ft	2188 m 7178 ft	1373 m 4504 ft
Stage 2
Col d’Iseran	4.1%	48 km 29.8 miles	815 m 2674 ft	2770 m 9087 ft	1955 m 6414 ft
Col du Mont Cenis	6.9%	9.84 km 6.11 miles	1399 m 4589 ft	2081 m 6621 ft	682 m 2237 ft
Stage 3
Col du Télégraphe	7.3%	11.8 km 7.3 miles	710 m 2329 ft	1566 m 5137 ft	856 m 2808 ft
Col du Galibier	5.5% max 12%	34.9 km 21.6 miles	718 m 2355 ft	2642 m 8668 ft	1924 m 6312 ft
Stage 4
Alpe d’Huez	8.1% max 13%	13.2 km 8.2 miles	744 m 2441 ft	1815 m 5954 ft	1071 m 3514 ft
Col d’Ornon	5.8%	11.11 km 6.9 miles	730 m 2395 ft	1373 m 4504 ft	643 m 2109 ft
Stage 5
Col de la Croix de Fer	4.7%	27.53 km 17.1 miles	772 m 2533 ft	2064 m 6772 ft	1292 m 4239 ft
Col du Molllard	6.8%	5.7 km 3.54 miles	1248 m 4094 ft	1638 m 5374 ft	390 m 1279 ft
Stage 6
Lacets de Montvernier	8.5%	3.24 km 2 miles	504 m 1653 ft	781 m 2562 ft	277 m 908 ft
Col du Chaussy	7.4%	14 km 8.7 miles	502 m 1647 ft	1533 m 5029 ft	1031 m 3382 ft
Col de la Madeleine	8% max 11%	19.05 km 11.83 miles	417 m 1368 ft	1993 m 6539 ft	1522 m 4993 ft

Onward & upward

Posted on May 15, 2019 by bristolmilemonkeys in Alps, Challenges, training

So training so going well. I’m averaging about 4000 ft of climbing a week over 2 or 3 rides. Most have been on mountain bikes, but time in the saddle is time in the saddle, it all counts.

I’ve managed a couple of rides with Nick and Mitch and the Webbs crew, sorry boys.

The road bike is doing well, the problematic seat post is currently behaving itself, I need (by I, I mean Jason) to do a little work on the gears before we go.

Since the weather is now improving and getting warmer it is making it easier for me to get out for longer road rides, as I can suffer with the cold weather and my chest. All seems to be okay at the moment with my breathing (fingers crossed it stays that way)

Aiming to step it up a bit over the weekend, planning a 60 ish ride in the mendips on Sunday. Its not quite the Alps, but will probably get in a ride up Burrington Coombe which is the focus of our 2nd challenge this year.

If you can spare £1 or 2 it would be great if you could sponsor me and raise important funds for the British Lung Foundation that would be amazing.

Keep pedalling – Brad

On It and so tight as a Pair

Posted on May 14, 2019 by lola1331 in training

Three things happened this week that showed Mitch and are on the same page and a very tight two piece for the madness of “Summit Or Nothing Part 1” on Florence.

Firstly our TT outing this week, which was somewhat kind of strange. I felt we sucked for the first few miles and almost sacked off the run! I said nothing from the front seat of Flo and pushed on, my breathing was all over the place but I felt if we got over the first climb properly maybe we could pull the run back together. Well as I found out when we warmed down after our run, Mitch on the back seat explained without any knowledge of my feelings that he like me in his words wanted to “sack off the run” but held on in there to see how the climb went! We pulled ourselves together at exactly the same time in exactly the same way and posted a very decent time.

Then came a run up Cheddar Gorge on a training run latter in the week on our solo bikes. I pushed myself to get a quick run up the Gorge but we where out with a couple of the guys and I just pushed the first half on the front on my own, just when I needed someone to take the front and break the air for me Mitch comes by shouting “jump on”. I duly get a couple of centimetres off his back wheel and we steam off to the top of the Gorge, resulting in the quickest I have ever ascended it and more importantly with total trust in following Mitch very closely in front of me so as to grab the aero tow, we were totally in sync!

Lastly comes the most important of our unity. Abi (Mitchell’s partner) finished her long road of treatment for Cancer and got to ring the bell in the BRI’s Cancer Unit to signify this. I told Mitch that I was fine with all the social media pictures of this and was obviously elated by them! But that the video of her ringing the bell just hit me and got me in a rather emotional state LOL his reply was to agree and say that his reactions mirrored mine to this.

So to summarise = One Love, Unity, On It, So Tight As A Pair!!!