Category: Planning

Posts on our planning activities for our challenges

All the climbs

Posted on 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

It’s all down to the preparation

Posted on by elliebees in Alps, Challenges, Planning

So we have heard from the cyclists on how their training is going.  I thought I would give you an insight as what goes into the preparation for the support crew.

The first trip I did, I had no involvement in planning the routes or the accommodation bookings.  I finally managed to get the routes about a week before and copied them onto a road atlas with a highlighter pen.  I knew what towns we were stopping in, but I didn’t have addresses (other members of the crew did).

The second year Hannah produced a lovely book with the detailed directions and google maps, along with a highlighted road atlas and the list of campsites and their addresses.  Absolutely brilliant if you had a navigator but I didn’t.

So last time I stepped up the preparation, more for me than anyone else.  I knew I wasn’t going to have a full time navigator, so I wanted to know as much about our route as I could.

This is where Google Maps & Streetview are your friend.  Since the cycling routes have been created electronically in Strava, they can also be imported into a Google Map.  Its just then a process of dropping the little man every 10 miles or so along the route and seeing on Streeview if there is somewhere to stop for the support vehicles.  This also has the added benefit of being able to confirm that our routes are on paved roads, rather than gravel tracks.

It was then a matter of listing all the potential stopping points, the nearest village name and the distance from the start.  This gave me a cue card so I could navigate using the road signs or a standard Sat Nav using each of the villages as a waypoint.  All printed on an A4 sheet so it would be quick and easy to read.

Based on the feedback from the cyclists on previous trips,  it has been requested to try and not stop half way up or down a climb or decent.  So I also noted where these waypoints were on the elevation profile.

What I ended up with was a “Day Card”

Day 3 of our 2017 ride across the Pyrenees

Each evening we would look at next day and make decisions on where the stops and meeting points with the support vehicles would be.  These decisions were only made the day before to take into account how the riders were feeling and the weather conditions. (it is also rare that we manage to get the whole crew together before our trip starts) Since I had marked stops about every 10 miles we could also make changes during the day. The support crew could also use them as rendezvous points when they had to split up, (we referred to places by number rather than mispronounce the place names).

Each support vehicle got a copy and the cyclists each got a pocket size version with everyone’s mobile numbers on the back.  This could also be used as a backup if their cycling Sat Nav failed.  It also stopped some of the questions on how much further somewhere was.

This year it is proving slightly easier, as I have found that “Ride with GPS” cycle mapping website will let you go into Google Streetview straight from the app rather than switching between Strava and Google Maps.  However I think this year we might need to plan some of our stops in advance this year to accommodate Flo’s  refusal to go downhill.

~ Eloise

Advice from the support crew

Posted on by elliebees in Challenges, News, Planning

What we have learnt from 3 long distance multi stage cycling challenges

  • Most frequently asked question from the cyclists is “how far to… lunch, the next stop, the overnight stop, the next climb…”
  • Estimating the distance from a highlighted line on a road atlas with your finger isn’t very accurate, and there might not be a stopping point where you said you would meet.  It is not much better estimating the distance using the car’s satnav either.
  • Our cyclists like eggs and beans – they wanted them everyday!!! And French baked beans are rubbish according to Craig.
  • You can cook a fish finger sandwich on a camping stove on the side of the road if you are Coral.
  • Laybys in France are much nicer than laybys in the UK – laybys in Italy are another story!!!
  • How you can set up camp/sun shade/cold drinks/healthy meal/cold foot bath(Jason) with a smile in less than 15 mins!!!
  • Don’t ask the cyclists to throw the water bottle through the car window while driving, it hurts.
  • Make sure you know where the bike shops are and when they open!!! You will probably have to visit one.  Unless its Sunday or Monday in France then good luck.
  • Everyone seems to like their bananas a different ripeness.
  • Never underestimate how many flapjacks the cyclists will eat.
  • Mitch is powered by Skittles.
  • Sometimes you have to take away their chairs to keep the stops short so you can make it to camp before sunset.
  • Cowbells – love them or hate them.
  • Make sure you have toilet roll – you never know when you might need it!!!

~ Eloise, Hannah, Craig & Coral

We are all booked for the Alps

Posted on by elliebees in Alps, Challenges, News, Planning

So we are all booked for our Alpine challenge. Transport, ferries and accommodation all sorted.

A massive thanks to Hannah for sorting out our transport options. Flo was being a pain and wanted a lot of space in the van, as she has refused to go down hill in the Alps and wants to be transported in style.

Once we had our transport options sorted, we could book the ferry crossings. Its going to be a early start from Bristol (or really late depending on how you look at it) and our total travel time is going to 16 – 17 hours down to our starting point in the French Alps .

There are plenty of companies that offer Alpine cycling tours but since we are self funded keeping costs down is important to us. By designing the challenge and booking the separate elements ourselves and taking our own support we have probably saved about 40 – 50% on an organised tour.

Check out the other posts about planning our Alpine challenge.

More planning for our tour of the Alps

Posted on by elliebees in Alps, News, Planning

So with our 6 cycling stages roughly planned, it was time to sort out, transport and accommodation.

Our current plan is to drive from Bristol down to Dover to catch a ferry over to France. The best way seems to be to hire a van for the bikes and a people carrier or minibus for, well for the people.

Small issue. Brexit. Currently no one can tell us if we can take a hire vehicle over to France this summer. So we have put the transport issue to one side for now.

Accommodation was a slightly easier task. Online hotel booking tools are so much help with this. Hannah and Eloise sat down on Sunday and booked almost all our overnight stays. There was a bit of juggling involved when a place couldn’t be found in exactly the right town. It was important to check what difference it would make to our planned routes. It might only be 3 miles from the town we want to stay, but its no good if its 3 miles off route.

The biggest issue we found was trying to find accommodation in L’Alpe d’Huez. It is one of the bigger places we wanted to stay. It wasn’t until we received a helpful email from one of the chalets we had contacted about availability that we found out that it is Alpe d’Huzes Dutch Charity week . This a major Dutch charity event that happens every year, competitors either compete as individuals or in teams with the aim of cycling up the 21 Bends at least 6 times in one day.

We are now currently planning a bit of a re-route so that we don’t need to stay in L’Alpe d’Huez overnight.

Route Planning

Posted on by elliebees in Alps, Challenges, News, Planning

One of our first steps in planning is our routes.   We need to work out where we will be stopping each night so we can book our accommodation.  We also need to make sure that the distances and climbing each day is achievable.  There is a difference between challenging ourselves and being broken on the second day.  Its not just the riders we have to consider but also our support crew.  Their day doesn’t stop once the cyclists have finished, so we need to make sure the days aren’t too long for them as well.

So this week we sat down with the Strava website to create our routes.  We have now 6 days of routes planned with some amazing and iconic climbs.   Most of the days will be about 65 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing.  We will be doing some of the classic cols such as Col du Galibier, Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Telegraphe, Alpe d’Huez, Lacet de Montvernier, Col de la Maderleine.

Next step will be planning on how we get to ourselves and all the bikes over to the Alps.