Tag: Alps

Stage 1 – Albertville to Sainte-Foy

Posted on by bristolmilemonkeys in Alps, Challenges, News, Summit or Nothing - Part 1

The plan for stage 1 was to climb the Cormet de Roselend, followed by the Col du Petit Saint Bernard before decending back into the valley to our overnight stop at Sainte-Foy.

We were hoping for a nice early start as this was going to be one of our longest days at just over 70 miles, but due to our late arrival the night before we needed to sort out the vans, as one of them would be staying in Albertville for the week.

After breakfast at the hotel, all the bikes were set up and all the luggage was loaded into the Transit, we had the obligatory rider photos, they were off, only slightly behind schedule at about 9 am.

Their route was to take them east out of Albertville towards the village of Beaufort and then to the top of the Cormet de Roselend, a 20km climb with an average of 6%, before descending into Bourg Saint Maurice. From there they would climb up to the Italian boarder and to col du Petit Saint Bernard. They would then descend back the way they came and go along the valley floor to our overnight stop.

It was almost all over for Nick, Mitch & Flo before it had even really started after a close encounter with a motorist in Beaufort.

It didn’t take long before we started to see snow. Not only snow but there were a fair few skiiers out and about. As we reached the intermediate Col de Méraillet we could see the amazingly blue (and very empty) Lac de Roselend.

Nick, Mitch on Flo and Harry summit-ed the Cormet first, they arrived about 12. Next was Craig at 12.30, then Brad at 12.50 and Jason about 13.00

  • Lac de Roselend
  • Abi & Eloise
  • Team Legend
  • Brad & Craig
  • Jason & Brad

Next stop was for a spot of lunch in Bourg St-Maurice, a quick picnic of bread, ham and local cheeses, finished with home made cakes (thank you Jayne).

Team legend waiting for the rest of the team for lunch
Team legend waiting for the rest of the team for lunch

The Col du Petit st-Bernard is a 31km climb with an average of 4.4% and an altitude of 2188m. It was now early afternoon and the temperature was rising. Both Brad and Jason were struggling in the heat and called the support crew to pick them up. Making the sensible decision not to overdo it this early in the challenge. However once they found out that they were only 6 miles to the hotel, they made the decision to go straight there.

Once the climb got past the ski station the temperature dropped quite a bit, mainly to do with the chill coming off the huge snowbanks. However team legend had to put in a call to the support crew for more water.

Team legend made the summit by about 17.00, the support crew swapped out Flo for the solo bikes, and made sure that they all had warm clothes. Said to the guys that they would let them descend first and they would hunt down Craig and check he was ok. After waiting a few minutes for them they went ahead and went to look for Craig and made the assumption that they were faffing.

Craig was less than a 1 km from the top so the support van went back up to meet him. They still hadn’t seen Team legend, which was rather worrying, and they weren’t at the top. It became apparent that they had started to descend into Italy and not back to France. Frantic phone calls were made to try and stop them before they went too far.

So after making sure that Craig had left in the correct direction, they support crew went to pick up Nick, Mitch and Harry and bring them back to the summit.

  • Abi & Eloise
  • Harry, Mitch & Nick
  • Craig

This time Eloise & Abi made sure that they went the right way, and when they missed another turning, made sure they followed the van back to the main road.

The support Crew finally made it to the hotel for about 19.00, Nick, Mitch and Harry weren’t far behind. but Craig was missing. He should have been back before the rogue monkeys. It transpired that his Garmin had died and google maps had sent him down a mountain bike track, but he got back the hotel with not much delay.

Just enough time to unload, quick and and then have our evening meal.

Check out our evening video below or click HERE it see on Facebook

read previous – the journey

The journey

Posted on by bristolmilemonkeys in Alps, News, Summit or Nothing - Part 1

In order to get eveyone and bikes and kit over to the Alps we hired a Transit LWB crew cab van from U drive. This gave us 6 seats and a whole van for everything else. We also took a second VW van which had 3 seats, allowing for all 8 of us to travel to the Alps along with 7 bikes. Since the cyclists would be cycling between the hotels we planned to leave the second van in Albertville, and use the Transit for the support crew, luggage and transporting Flo or Nick & Mitch’s solos depending on what they were riding.

The 2 vans loaded up we left Bristol late on Friday night arriving in Dover at about 3ish for the 4 am ferry to Dunkirk.

Our crossing was uneventful but gave time for some breakfast and a chat about the upcoming challenge. We arrived in Dunkirk about 7am local time.

We then spent a very long day on the French auto-routes, with a few stops along the way for coffee, food, fuel and to change drivers.

The drive seemed to take forever, we finally arrived in Albertville about 7pm

Time to check into the hotel, a quick shower and change and off for dinner.

Information

  • DFDS Seaways Dover to Dunkirk
  • Vacances ULVF Citadelle to Conflans via Expedia
  • Flagrant Delice

read more – Stage 1

Alps challenge summary

Posted on by bristolmilemonkeys in Alps, Challenges, News

So we are back and all in one piece. A few aches and pains and some interesting tan lines.

Here is a quick summary.

Due to snow we weren’t able to complete all the climbs we wanted. The Col d’Iseran was under a serious amount of snow, so with help from the wonderful Peter & Judith we drove to the Col du Glandon and did that one instead. Our second closure was the Col du Galibier, they hadn’t finished clearing the pass because of a burst water main. We were however able to do the Col du Telegraphe which leads into the Col du Galibier from the north.

We were really lucky with the weather, the week before we left, it had been snowing and this week they have massive storms. We had sun everyday, some of the temperatures did reach 35C, but it was slightly cooler at altitude. We did start day 5 in the cloud and damp, making the ride to the Col de la Croix de Fer very cold. Mitch and Harry suffered the most that day.

Flo held up well, she did have us worried after Alpe d’Huez and the Col d’Ornon. The support crew however were able quickly find a bike shop in Bourg d’Oisans able to replace the spoke and true up her rear wheel. It was like she knew that the climb to the Croix de Fer would also include some descents.

Check back for some more details about each stage, and don’t forget this is our first event this year, stay tuned for the Everesting challenge.

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

Onward & upward

Posted on 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.

JustGiving - Sponsor me now!

Keep pedalling – Brad

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

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.

Update from Flo

Posted on by lola1331 in Alps, Challenges, training

Well well would you believe it those two twits have asked if I would carry them up mountains in the Alps now!!

They must be joking I am 33 years Old in Human years so that’s like well …… really old in Tandem years!! I have refused out right to go down hill and have laid down the law that they put my triplet chain rings back on so as they don’t break my cranks!!

Apparently it’s all going to done to support the “Teenage Cancer Trust” so that’s why I agreed to do it.

The pair of them also have plans to make me faster for time trialling again this year, I don’t have a problem with this as I enjoy showing up those modern Aero you pup Tandems!!

Apparently my 8 speed Italian Campagnolo gears no longer exist so Nick is going to build a new rear cassette from the newer (20 year old) 9 speed system. This should go some way to adding to my down hill and flat speed as those two twits Mitch and Nick kept spinning out!! This should work as long as Nick finally works out that changing my gears needs to be done gently or I’ll throw my chain off in protest for no apparent reason as I know this leaves him flabbergasted LOL

The last time we all raced together Mitch and Nick got really nervous at the start of their first open TT , so just for a laugh I dropped my gear chain which I have never done before!! It was so funny they really got in a tiz, then got really angry, which worked as they pushed my pedals so hard it got the three of us on the podium. I have done faster times back in the day with my original crew on-board of course but don’t let those two know that!!

Its three weeks until my wheels return to the local TT course on a Wednesday night so those two better be training hard or I might just get a puncture as far away as I can from the start LOL!!

Take care humans give me a wave if you see me out training trying to get those two idiots to go faster!! 

Love Florence xx

The Band is back together!!

Posted on by lola1331 in Alps, Challenges, News

Well getting the band back together was a total success. I have even managed to add a couple of new band members!!

I am so chuffed to have recruited John Grounds, who is without doubt the tallest cyclist I have ever had the pleasure of riding with and Anthony Rollinson (Munch) who is well just bonkers, in an amazing infectious way!

You will hear more about these lovely humans going forward, once our second cycling challenge is announced.

So the first challenge is now out there and it’s big one!! Brad Cole, Jason Cole, Harry Cole and Craig Llewellin are going to be taking on the biggest most famous uncategorised Climbs of The Tour De France in the Alps, via a circular route on their solo road bikes! Each will pick to either support The British Lung Foundation or The Teenage Cancer Trust.

As for Mitch and I, well what can I say we will join the guys but with a rather large twist! You see we have decided to do all the mountain accents on our 33 year old grumpy tandem Florence! There are many issues with trying to climb on Flo! Simply put, you can’t stand up (or the three of us will hit the floor!) there is little or no room for the stoker (Mitch) and simply peddling a tandem up any lengthy climb is basically hell on earth!!

Having checked the record books as best we can no one has every done what we are going to attempt! Several tandem crews have done several of the Alpine mountains, but swap out for a new stoker or captain after 1 or 2 accents. We will do all the climbs together and several each day thankfully with the other Mile Monkeys for company.

“Why?” I hear you ask “are you nuts!?” Well yes we are nuts! but nuts for a very important and personal reason.

Mitch’s partner is called Abi. She is a happy, funny, beautiful young lady who had become one of my own when the pair of them so obviously fell in love with each other.

Sadly Abi fell rather ill 6 months ago and was diagnosed as having cancer!

I couldn’t tell Abi or my son everything would be alright, as to be frank that might not have been the case! I feel and felt useless, but on talking with Abi as her health turned an important corner, I asked if us Monkeys could represent a body that was important to her and her treatment? Her reply was instantaneous “The Teenage Cancer Trust!” who support young people suffering with cancer from the age of 13 to 25 (Abi is 23)

So Mitch came up with the idea that we would try and get Florence up and around the Alps! and that our pain in doing so would be nothing to that of young cancer sufferers and their families!

However don’t for one moment think that this adventure will be one of seriousness sadness and rubbish like that!! We aim to make you laugh, smile and all the other positive reactions your body can make LOL.

There will be a second challenge that will take place close to home in the UK so as our supporters, friends and family’s can join in.

Training is in full swing now for both Mitch and I but the weather hasn’t let up enough yet to get some valuable miles on Flo. However both of us are far further forward with our cycling fitness than we would normally be at this time of year so all is good. 

Catch you all again soon Monkey Nick Out.