Bike of choice : Kap
Distance : 80Km
metres climbed : +2250m
Fuelled by yesterday's positive vibes I struck out again, heading in the same direction and with the intention of pressing deeper into Switzerland via the col de la Forclaz - to Martigny and back if the weather didn't progress beyond drizzle back into snow.
I made a bit of a schoolboy error before starting out, checked the distance OK and knew the heights of the 2 cols I was going to go over but for some un-explainable reason I didn't check the altitude of Martigny. I "assumed" it was around the same alt as Chamonix and so I'd be riding 4 climbs of 4-500m along the way with the option to turn back at the top of Forclaz if the weather was ugly or the energy levels low.
When I reached the Col though all was nicely lined up so I just went straight over and dropped into the trees on the other side. I must have been enjoying the road snaking through the trees as it took a long time before it occurred to me that I'd gone along way down ! But I was still in the clouds, my altimeter was reading 800m and I thought I'd push on just a bit further as I must be nearly down .... suddenly I was out of the clouds AND the tree's and shooting across a steeply terraced vineyard with a series of hairpins reaching down the the valley floor below ! It was still a long way down - and more to the point it was going to be along climb backout.!!!!!
Option 1 : drink coffee, eat chocolate and start riding back asap
Option 2 : find train / bus station and take the easy way back
(I hope you didn't for a second think option 2 was a serious contender ?)
I high-tailed it back up that hill with a big black cloud chasing me all the way ! Long and steady and hurty almost all the way up for 1hr15mins. There was no time to waste at the top as the weather was getting ugly and having setout on this ride late afternoon the sun that I hadn't seen was no longer heating the top side of the clouds. Once again I was feeling my way down the descents praying to the puncture gods to leave me alone today ... they did, and I passed the border without any dramas and soon found myself back in the warmth tucking into a huge plateful of couscous feeling good about the ride I just stole from the weather.
80Kms, +2250m in 4.5hrs ..... I just have to multiply that by 4 to get what's going to lie in front of me in 9wks time !
Here's hoping that the weathers going to be better and I'm going to have a bit more speed / energy in me by then. Right now I've no idea how I'm going to achieve that.
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2 comments:
Go Graeme! Sounds like proper training - who would have thought towns in valleys could be at different heights? :-)
The reality is even more embarassing ... someone tried to tell me before I set off that it was a big climb back out. But the right part of my brain wasn't listening.
Always listen to the locals. They KNOW better !
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