Photos from Haute Route

Check out ALL my 2011 Haute Route posts


Photos from friends from the 2011 Haute Route:  

Waiting for the start of Day 1, mixed team racer Andrea looking back. Racers were encouraged to wear the Haute Route jersey. I prefer the uniqueness of the racer's kits - photo Helena Darvelid

Day 1 peloton leaving Geneva behind the pace vehicle - Photo Helena Darvelid

climbing Day 2 - photo Helena Darvelid

on-route to Bourg-St-Maurice via Cormet de Roselend - photo Helena Darvelid

First climb up Madeleine on Day 3 - Marg grinning because #171 had no idea he was dropping Stephanie #382 in the far right of the pic. Stephanie was glued to Cedric`s wheel the first two stages. I was surprised they were registered as solo racers
- wicked black & white photo from Aussie Will Levy

I purposely rode behind #171. It was funny when #171 Cedric Laurent mistakened me for Stephanie Gros and we both rode off together. Cedric was unaware Stephanie was getting dropped! "Solo" male #171, Cedric, is "solo" woman #382 Stephanie's husband. Why did they not register as a DUO team?! Stephanie won the solo women category following Cedric's wheel on the descents and flats the whole race - fair... or NOT? Thanks to Aussie Will Levy who caught this photo as he was taking happy snaps while racing.

Check out Will's awesome blog and photos.

Will did interviews with various cyclists each day. Here's mine after Day 4.

 

#270 and Marg about to crest the first Col of Day 3 - photo Will Levy

A lonely ride up Galibier in the headwinds, I caught up to another cyclist with about 4 km to go. He couldn't understand how I kept positive while the riding at the time was pretty hot and challenging in the headwinds... Other than my aching feet swollen in teeny carbon bike shoes, I told him I had to go back to the Prairies and I was here to enjoy the Alps! - Photo Marathon-Photos.com 

Marg going up Col du Granon 12-km Time Trial Stage 4 - photo MarathonPhotos.com

I was pleased about my effort on Day 4 for the Time Trial stage finishing at least 3 minutes ahead of Stephanie. Funny that her husband Cedric who is the calibre of a Cat 1 racer had seconds off Stephanie's time. He started 30 sec ahead of her. Abit suspect... would they really ride "together" on the time trial?! Good thing it was a 12% grade as drafting on that wicked climb would not help!

Everyone waiting at the top of Col du Granon at the end of the Time Trial. The view was outstanding riding the majorly 12% grade up!! Photo Helena Darvelid

Taking the opportunity to chill at the restaurant at the top of Col du Granon while the neutralized caravan of cyclists head down
- Photo Phil Domville-Musters, cyclist from Britain

Brothers Mike & Lenny Engelhardt.
I met the boys at TransAlps 2006 and again at TransAustria 2008

Day 6 - After a 19-km neutral start, the peloton is set loose to go up the climb to Cime de la Bonette, from 1220m up to 2802m... 1600m elevation at one go!  I caught into the 2nd formed chase peloton. - Photo Helena Darvelid

The climb to Cime de la Bonette goes on... - Photo Helena Darvelid

... and on... with gnarly headwinds... must keep with the pack... - Photo Helena Darvelid

This was the shot where I was worked over. I was in the chase peloton of about 15 riders. The climbing pace was tough though the headwinds were brutal. Every so often the peloton would drift apart. I cried with lactic acid pain to accelerate back into the group. I did my best to get sheltered from some of those taller riders! Ouch - this photo has memories for me with the intense effort put in - Photo Marathon-Photos.com 

... and on... still gusty winds... - Photo Helena Darvelid

The chase peloton being lead by Italian woman Dorina. I was with this pack just out of the pic. We were all crying and working together! - Photo Helena Darvelid

Not my usual smile for Helena at the crest of Cime de la Bonette!
It was a hellish 1600m elevation climb in the headwind! - Photo Helena Darvelid

An amazing background landscape the National Park - Photo Helena Darvelid

What is around the corner...? - Photo Helena Darvelid

Cresting Cime de la Bonette! - Photo Manu Molle from Haute Route

awesome candid shot of Gabi at the feed station - Photo Helena Darveid

Mario from Germany who I had met at TransAustria 2008, making his way up. Tough to have one of the strongest women teammates Andrea to chase up the climb! I like how this photo shows his effort - Photo Helena Darvelid

Hanging out at the ski resort Auron post Stage 6 - Photo Helena Darvelid

Helena with her World Class group of Sailors

Day 7, alot of shade sections in a canyon - Photo from Phil

Just finished! - Photo Helena Darvelid

Check out ALL my 2011 Haute Route posts

Haute Route Day 7 - Finale into Nice

Best sleep my 6th night! It was now a routine getting ready for the morning starts.

Saint Etienne de Tinee - photo Helena Darvelid

I rode with Gabi 9-km down the hill to Saint Etienne de Tinee for the neutral start. It was a cool shaded 6C for the first 31-km neutral section. Everyone was shivering as we rode in the shaded valley, unbelievably cold. The sunlight was welcomed as it peaked out above the mountain briefly, until we descended deeper into the shaded valley. Sharp right turn and the timed race began up Col Saint Martin. The pace went hard. I clung onto a similar group as the previous day with the Italian woman Dorina leading us out. The grade was a calm 7%. Towards the top I dropped back of the group about 100m, just a little weary at the tough pace.

It was a fast furious descent with twisty corners and then major straight-aways. I finally latched onto a good group of 5 guys. I got cheers of “Go Canada” from a French master racer when I pulled through on the descent. We passed thru a section of canyon similar to the one near Radium Hot Springs though this one went on for many kms.

riding towards Vance - the boys in white shorts!

With 15 km to go, a few new guys came blazing by to the front of our peloton. Yikes, it was #171 leading, no doubt pulling Team SOLO woman up to us. I was impressed with how strong #171 rode. He showed the strength of a Cat 1 racer. Either that or he was so well rested from riding at our woman’s pace the whole week. We stormed around a few round-abouts. Before I knew it, in the middle of nowhere we had crossed the indiscreet finish line, hearing the blips of our time-chips over the timing mat. After the 31-km neutral section this morning, the actual timed section was 72-km. We still had another 37-km of neutral to get to Nice (total 140-km day).

arriving to Vance

After a few hugs and cheers amongst the riders, we rode easy to the next village Vance 14-km away.

Marg telling Dorina from Italy how awesome it was to see her ride! - photo Helena Darvelid

happy! - photo Helena Darvelid

bikes awaiting, with another amazing strong woman Andrea from Germany - photo Helena Darvelid

Marg with amazing photographer and World Class Sailor Helena!!

happy with real food at the Vance Market

There, we received our finisher medals and shirts, and hung out for a couple hours to wait for all the riders to arrive. We finally left as a marshalled group to ride the final 23-km to Nice. The pace was ultra painful at 16 kph downhill! My hands and wrists were aching from braking. Chatting with riders took my mind off the slow descent.

Riding our slow pace to Nice

Gabi by the beach!

Arriving to Nice, the many tanned bodies on the beach stood and cheered as we coasted in. It was a hot day.

My 2nd time with my bike at the Mediterranean - 2011

My first time with my bike at the Mediterranean - 1987!

1987

The finish was chaotic on the beach promenade. It was a rushed atmosphere finding baggage, packing the bike, and taking a moment to jump into the beautiful aquamarine salty Mediterranean (it was wonderful!), before heading to the uneventful awards announcement at the trailer on the promenade.

taking in the water & beach at Nice - photo Helena Darvelid

3rd place woman reacted like she won the lottery! I went up for my 2nd place solo, more out of obligation of being a racer. Enough said about how 1st place was won following a domestique male rider the whole race! Would that not be called a "mixed team" effort?! As an alternative to saying “cheese” for the cameras, I was saying “domes-teeeek” as we were smiling for women’s solo podium.

Gabi was disappointed she came in 4th by 8 seconds over the 7 stages. She was getting stronger the last few stages. One of my prizes was a large package of a French brand of energy food products. I’m happy with Vega products from Canada. I asked Gabi if she’d accept the prize for coming in “3rd place and 8 seconds”! It was awesome to see her smile and we both laughed!

walking towards the Ascenseur du Chateau (the tower in the distance)

Going up up up the many stairs, 90 metres elevation

I eventually walked up towards the edge of town. The final aperitif party was to be at the top of Ascenseur du Chateau. There was an elevator though I was adamant to take the stairs on the side of the cliff. When I saw the sign that said the top was 90m up, I cried a little as I was tired and heat stricken. I trudged up sweating profusely.

view from the top

The party was a welcome sight with a beautifully catered local meal of “real French food”!! Everything was dainty and super appetizing. It was a feast! I had some nice last chats with awesome riders I met during the week.

In the main plaza at night

Gang from Zurich trying to make me feel taller!

Night soon came. Gabi and I walked with two riders from Zurich (Gabi is from the Black Forest in Germany though lives in Zurich). We strolled through the piazza area until we needed to jump on the bus back to Geneva at 10:30 pm. The squeezing of bikes into one storage trailer took time. We got to squeeze our gear into the buses empty space underneath. After a long sporadic unrestful bus ride with many stops, we arrived to Geneva by 8 a.m.

Mary picking me up in a very snazzy sporty Audi

Mary and her orange beetle when she lived in Edmonton - 1988

My friend Mary from my track running days, now living in Geneva, arrived to pick me up. I finally had a nice “holiday” day with Mary. Gosh I must rave... Mary went to the 1987 World Track & Field Champs in Rome and was on the 1988 Olympic team (Seoul) for the 800m. It was awesome to have been one of her training partners!!

We went to the local farmer’s market, drove to France 20 km away to her partner’s renovated barn house for lunch. Dominique apologized for “France” for the race not feeding us well! He certainly whipped up a marvelous meal. It was fun to pick plums, apples, grapes and berries in the yard - a great relaxing day for me!

tart grapes growing beside the dinner table

teeny tree though we picked tons of yummy plums from it

Nigel (now just as tall as me) making a stop for the best Pain au Chocolat

Keep posted for more amazing photos and a synopsis of the event! Lots of riders at home are interested in 2012 Haute Route!

Local Cross-country Running Fun Times!

Yeah, I'll finish the Haute Route race blog... soon...

Tonight, was the 1st cross-country running race of the fall season - a record 300 runners showed up! I've been running these races since I was 16 years old when it was free with a numbered popsicle stick given at the finish. Now it is time-chipped and $5 a race.

The Frank McNamara Series brings out the new young runners and the old ones from the woodwork. It's a great reunion of running friends and faces. Pretty cool to see my Swiss friend Bettina's niece Theres run wickedly fast while pushing her baby in the baby jogger!

I haven't run since a mountain bike duathlon I went into spontaneously one Saturday late July. I took it out easy, and loved it when we hit the hills.

Every week, it's a new venue. Check it out...

Stage 6 – Racing on Europe’s Highest Paved Road 2802m

I rode 3 km down to village Barcellonette to wait with 1/3 of the field for the neutral field coming down from PraLoup. We merged in and had 5 km more of a neutral start before racing up the Cime de la Bonette, a 24-km road through the Mercantour National Park. The scenery was outstanding as I did my best to hang in with the lead group. Once we blew apart, we slowly formed the chase peloton.

I was impressed to see the woman, Dorina, from the Italian mixed team surge by and pull our peloton up into the headwind climb. There must have been 15 guys and myself behind her! I was told she has been an Olympian fencer (gold medalist Barcelona!), so it must be something with perseverance and drive.

The climb was a nice grade 7-8% but the wind was so strong. I did my best to shelter myself and sit and ride like a mountain biker (tucked down on the nose of the saddle). Ouch, it hurt a lot to stay within the peloton. Every-so-often the peloton would string out and I had to accelerate a few times to get back in. I cried in lactic acid pain each time though I knew I had to as I would be shot out behind and would be struggling alone in the wind if I was dropped. I have not worked this hard in a long time – IT WAS GREAT!! We crawled together up this 1600m ascent. With 2-km to go, the grade eased to a nice 3% to only whip us again into a headwind with a 12% grade with the last 500m to the top.

Most riders stopped for a feed as I continued down an epic twisty road. To add to the scariness of the fast descent was the narrow roads with cliff dropoffs, and unknowns of when a vehicle was approaching from around a blind corner.

After yesterday’s crash, I chilled a smidgeon on the descent not 100% confident in the bike. Around one corner there was already one lead guy in the ditch. On and on…. finally to more open of a road though it was the roughest road I’ve ever experienced in Europe. One guy blazed by though I would have been stupid to consider to follow his wheel. Two more caught me on the easier descent and it was nice to ride with them for a couple km.

Last climb only 400m elevation to the next ski village Auron to end up at 1600m elevation again. I worked it and finished happily first solo woman (4^th after wickedly strong mixed team women).

Hotel was right by the finish line, yay. It was impressive to see my bike worked over in the hands of the Mavic guys!

Had more time to meet the riders and support. Helena is support for quite a few riders, Brits, NZ, Aussie, all sailors. Apparently, this is a training event for them. Helena sounds like quite the sailor herself and is attempting the world record for 500m sprint with her partner (wind driven only). They have been close!

Waiting for the market to reopen in the afternoon, we met an American from Iowa that is hiking the Alps for months self-supported. He was as impressed with our riding as I was with his adventure. He has no camera and doesn’t blog or write stories, yet has experienced so much interesting stuff! He hopes to cheer us on tomorrow.

I was happy to buy all the goods for an epic salade at the market. Quality food is lacking with the event and hard to come across in the sparse summer ski resorts. Check out this epic meal – green lettuce, zucchini, tomato, carrot, Italian parsley, red pepper! I had coconut oil and borrowed balsamic vinegar from Helena for a sweet dressing.

Off to the pasta dinner or best said “white noodles, white bun and white dessert” dinner! More to socialize than partake.

One more day… 

Haute Route Stage 5 Eventful

Finished in one piece – a good thing! It was a super scenic day and eventful...

After the first 7 km of neutral start, I had a uterine cramp within 5 km of the fast paced hill climb which had me huddled in the bush for 5 min until it subsided (that monthly thing). Starting back into the field, I was riding in the middle pack with riders I hadn’t seen before, though it was fun to come by familiar faces like Iain (Brit living in Geneva).

race photo

The climb up the Col d’Izoard was beautiful, definitely a camera day. The first huge descent was fun after the switchbacks with bombing fast straight sections. I was with a pack of guys. Up ahead I saw a wet area on the right of the round-about we were to blaze thru. Not until I was on it, the slickness of the sand & water could be felt, a nice wet concrete mix which took my front tire out ever so slightly. I had a nice slide-out on the bike and was amazingly unscathed. The guys were awesome to stop to make sure all was ok. I found out later that others had slipped on this same spot earlier with the marshall not thinking to forewarn any future riders. One guy after me did not fair as well and was taken out of the race.

It took abit for me to get back in the groove of riding again. The next climb up Col de Vars spread everyone out especially with more headwind at the top. I eventually got back into the groove. I had good “solo” training with a 30 km descent on my own. Most riders stop to feed at the top whereas I have all my food and blaze thru. After a long 2-3% descending grade with a headwind, I was tuckered going up the last climb. I finally made it to the top to the little ski resort PraLoup. Housing was spread all over the valley. I had to ride back down 12 km only to take a shuttle back up 3km to another ski resort. There were only 10 of us housed here so I tucked in for the night. Had dinner at the only restaurant open in the summer and upon request for a vegetarian meal they made up a plate of salade, veggies and linguini.

view from Hotel Montana

Looks to be a peaceful night. Bonus is getting to join the neutral race only 3-km from my hotel as the racers need to come down the 12 km hill.

Col du Granon Time Trial

I warmed up and down the tiny steep village streets to get my heart ready for a max effort. Reminded me of racing at home. Typical TT start with every rider going 30 seconds apart. The first 500m was pancake flat then climbed steeply through the first village at 10-12%. I started out big chain ring and had a good start almost coming very close to my 30 sec guy in front before the steep grade.

Once past the 12% section, I climbed well at 9% up the switchbacks slowly gaining on two guys in front. Hearing breathing behind me had me go a little quicker until a very strong French masters rider came by fast. He urged me on.

race photo - more photos to come from new friends....

I kept a pace where my heartrate was consistent though working hard. I kept on the lookout for any diminishing grade though there was alot of 12% and a few 15% pitches. The road was very much in the open on the side of the mountain. The views were outstanding and we were as high as the mountain peaks on the other side of the valley. Whenever my gps showed 7% I thought it was taunting me as the grade felt steep.

Finally seeing the 1 km to go sign, I did my best to go harder. The grade never let up and the twists and turns gave no sign of the finish. I was hurting with 500m to go and was happy to finish sub 1 hour!

I'm not much into raving about results. Even though I didn't crack the top 3 mixed women's times (close by about a minute), I was happy to get the top Solo women's time.

Tomorrow, is another hard day like day 3, tough to even consider! Three climbs and only 2800m...