Marmotte report  2007  By Steve Taylor

 

 

 

  Four of Newark Castle's top climbing specialists (Llewy Byrne, Simon Inman, Steve Taylor and Titto) entered the 2007 edition of the world's hardest cyclo sportive, the Marmotte. We were discussing the event at the cafe stop on the Parrots run one saturday last winter when we were overheard by Doris (Simon Day), Fishy (Michael Fish) and Rob Hinchcliffe who thought they were missing out on something and asked if they could join us. We were a bit concerned as to whether they were physically up to it but decided to let them tag along with us. There had been a great amount of debating regarding gearing required for this trip with both Steve Taylor and Simon Inman taking no, chances opting for a compact 50/34 with a 12/27 10 speed cassette. Titto called us wimps and said he was going for a 12/25 cassette as this would be plenty low enough. He eventually decided to take a 12/27 as well just in case. We picked up a hire care at Lyon airport, loaded the bikes and drove down to Alpe D’ Huez. As we hit the start of the climp out of Bourg D Oisans Titto said "Bl**dy H*ll, I never thought it would be this steep, I'm glad I brought my 27 sprocket" I looked at Simon and just shook my head. All the way up the climb he kept saying " it's bl**dy steep". We found our hotel and after unpacking had a meal and an early night. Friday dawned sunny and clear, when we opened the curtains we were all amazed by the scenery, it was a fantastic view across the alps with snow still on the peaks. We went down for breakfast and nearly all the guests were there for the Marmotte with one chap coming over from South Africa especially for the event. There was a room below the hotel which was used to store all the bikes and whilst we were building ours there were a couple of other English guys who we got talking to, both had done the event before and one of them was almost as old as Titto, about 58. He was using a 39/53 chainset. Titto started to tell him he was too highly geared and he ought to have a compact when I noticed his bike had a name on the top tube, "Dave Lloyd" so I pointed this out to Titto before he embarrassed himself. We descended the Alpe and found a very nice cafe in Bourg then took a look in the local bike shops and rode back up the Alpe bearing in mind we had a 110 mile epic the next day. Pantani's record of around 39 minutes was not in danger, it took us around 1 hour and 3 mins. Our hotel was about 500 metres from the event HQ/finish area and after we had signed on and looked at the trade stands we chilled out for the rest of the day and carbo loaded in preparation for the big day. We set the alarm for 4.45am and had breakfast just after 5am. It was still dark and rather cool, but by the time we set off down the Alpe to the start area in Bourg it had warmed up as the sun was now up. There were around 7,500 riders entered and it was an amazing sight, bikes everywhere. We had start numbers around 1600 so we were fairly near the front and only had to wait about 15 mins to get going. The first 10 miles or so are flat so there were groups doing 25 to 30 mph and it was a matter of finding one you were comfortable in. The first climb was the Col Du Glandon.  It was around 7 - 8% early on and after we had been climbing for about 20 mins there was a sign saying "Summit 20km" this was pretty demoralising as I thought we were near the top at that point. The scenery was stunning, 3/4 of the way up there was a huge dam and a beautiful lake. At the top of the Col there was a welcome feed station which had a great variety of food and drink. As I was eating and stuffing my pockets I noticed Mick Fish and after filling our bottles we both started the descent. There were marshalls waving red flags and big danger signs on each corner as apparently there have been a few deaths on this descent recently. On reaching the valley bottom we had about 20 miles of flat. Fishy and I were in a group of around 20 riders who stayed together until we reached the town at the bottom of the Col Du Telegraphe. I cheered Fishy up by telling him Dave Miller had told me we now had about 3 hours of climbing in front of us. His facial expression seemed to indicate he was not amused. The Telegraphe is a similar climb to Alpe D Huez, 8 - 10%        
What Steve didn't tell you was Dave Lloyd cramped up the Galibier and had to get off, too high a gear!!!!. He told me he was coming back next year with a compact to beat the seven hour time. Titto.