Sean King's epic 101 col ride

Sean King's account of his adventures on the "La Marmotte" and then riding from "village" to "village" averaging 129km (80 miles) per day through the French Alps in his quest to ride 100 mountain passes (Cols). Here is his story...

The flight to England was fine but when we finally got to France (Lyon) unfortunately the airline lost one of our cases. Not just any case, but the one containing ALL the supplements for me and my girlfriend for the entire 3 weeks as well as her cycling shoes! Not a nice way to start the trip. The good news is they found it and delivered it to the hotel the next day at lunch time, the bad news is the hotel never mentioned this to me, so it wasn't until Friday afternoon that I was passing the reception at the hotel that I thought I would just check to see if by chance it had come, only to be told it had been there since the day before.........Thanks so much for telling me that!!  My girlfriend and I were just freaking out for a whole extra day for nothing. Between the whole group I guess we could have gotten by supplement-wise (I just obviously like to use *my* particular stuff) but my girlfriend was not too thrilled about buying a new pair of cycling shoes and her 1st ride in them would be La Marmotte!!

The weather on the Thursday was terrible.... rain, thunder/lightning and * cold* with lots of creepy fog. I was praying it would change, cause the thought of riding in those conditions...... Anyway, the next day (Friday, the day before La Marmotte ) was brilliant sunshine and much warmer. After we finally got the missing luggage we went for a short ride part way down Alpe D'Huez and back up....about 16 km with 458 meters of climbing just to get the legs primed.

Saturday (day of La Marmotte).  After all was said and done, I had decided that I would ride with one of my team mates John. John had stayed with me the year before on the Etape and when I was struggling on the last 2 climbs (remember I got sick just before so I was hurting) he stayed with me when he could have ridden off and actually pushed me for some considerable distances, I'll never forget that. This year he was hardly able to train due to work and doing exams so I knew he was coming in not that well prepared, but what he has going for him is youth (he's only 30) and he's a natural spinner, so he tends to do well on those long climbs regardless. So from the very beginning I told him I would ride with him and help him if he needed any. It actually works out very well especially at the feeding stations, as he just leaves his bike with me and he goes and gets water/food etc. and we get through pretty quick that way.

La Marmotte is a beast I kid you not!! We got over the first 2 climbs pretty well, I was feeling ok. At the top of the 2nd climb another of our team mates Larry was at the top as well and starting to get some serious cramps in his legs (he was mystified as he never usually has a cramping problem). I have to stop at this point and mention that my descending this year was so much better than the previous years, especially last year, I was really pathetic. John actually complimented me on my new skills and that was a nice coming from him cause he is wicked fast on the downhills. Next climb is The Galibier....it's starts fairly soon after the Telegraphe and it's a monster, I thought it would never end....when we came upon the marker for 3km to the summit we started to wonder if they didn't play some cruel trick on us and really what they meant was *3 miles* to the summit....it took forever, but we finally got to the top. I still felt pretty good at this point, John was good too but Larry was having serious issues with the cramping and was actally starting to wonder just how would he ever get up the final climb (AlpeD'Huez). We all knew that there was a long downhill to the base of Alpe D'Huez, so we were hoping that the break on the legs would help the cramping. So down we went, flying, the descent is around 40km long!! Unfortunately this is where things fell apart for me:

So we're coming down and I'm feeling fine and John and Larry (his legs are feeling much better now) have gone ahead a bit maybe 200 meters or so and instead of just taking my time and catch back up to them I clicked into my hardest gear and jumped out of the saddle and did a mad, all out sprint to catch them. As I caught up to them I had the most wicked cramp in my right thigh and could not even pedal the bike as it would just start to bite in as I bent my leg. Eventually I unclipped my right foot (still descending) and stood up on the left leg and straightened my right leg and turned it away from me and that seemed to help, I was able to limp into the feeding area at the base of Alpe D'Huez, but I could feel that the cramp was hovering right there just waiting and I knew that this final climb was going to be murder. So the 3 of us set off to conquer the final beast and it was really tough, both Larry and I suffered badly with the cramping and John, the most untrained of us, did his same trick as last year, going between Larry and myself and pushing us up the climb! We all finally got to the top and finished together in 10:34:42. Our other team mate Greg finished in 9:45:37 and the final member of our team was Monica (my girlfiend) and she finished in 11:53:17

We were all pleased to have survived, I had wanted a better time initially but by the 3 of us staying together certain compromises were made, but I wasn't about to ride off and leave my team mates to fend for themselves and as it turned out we all needed and helped one another and finished and that was the most important thing.

Ok I know I've rambled on and I hope you're still reading so I'll try to compress the next bit:

So as I mentioned before there were no rest days, so the next day (Sunday) we were off on the bikes again for our shortest ride of the trip - 84km with 1524 metrs of climbing. The weather on this day was not great and when we got to the summit of the Col du Lauteret we had to descend in the rain and it was so cold that the front of our bikes were shuddering left to right as we couldn't control the shaking. What was supposed to be an awesome descent was slow and a bit unnerving to say the least.

Luckily that was the last of the bad weather, as the rest of the trip the weather was spectacular, most days you could not see a single cloud in the sky. We rode from hotel to hotel over the remainder of the trip, the days a blur as we were very tired. We tried to start riding by 9:00am and sometimes did not get to the next hotel until 8 or 9 that night, and it was the same routine: get to the hotel, store bikes, unpack the support van, take luggage to rooms, have the fastest shower known to man, fly downstairs to eat dinner before the kitchen closed, back upstairs to take out tomorrows riding gear and jump into bed to get as much sleep as possible. Next morning was: get up, fly downstairs for breakfast, back up to the room to dress, finish packing, sort out supplements/energy drinks etc, take luggage downstairs, pack the van, double check the bikes (especially the condition of the tires and make sure everything was still tightened properly, lube the chains (every couple of days) and then start riding.

I pretty much stayed with Monica for the remainder of the riding, we couldn't get cell phone coverge and I didn't feel comfortable leaving her riding by herself, but it was great, we saw some amazing scenery that pictures just can't do justice to and there was just one small accident that occured when we were descending a 9km mountain and it was covered with very sharp gravel, about 1 inch thick on the straights and 3-4 inches in the hairpin corners (apparently they were about to fix the road and they lay that stuff down just before they asphalt the road). Anyway, we're approaching a left hand hairpin and Monica took it too close and her front wheel washed out with all the gravel and she went down. Luckily we were obviously going very slowly at that point but the gravel was like razor blades and she got some good cuts on her left side as well as cracked her helmet (3rd hemet she's broken). So we patch her up and she decided to go the rest of the way down in the van and the rest of us continued riding. The ironic thing is that less than 200 meters from where she fell, there was a vehicle driving up the road that was sweeping up the gravel in preperation for the asphalt laying!

She was able to continue riding after she got to the base of the mountain, but it spooked her a bit on all the descents afterwards and she was going downhill slower than before....I guess that's to be expected.

Here's a few points equipment-wise:
I was very pleased with the Michelin Pro3 Race tires, excellent traction and no punctures for the entire trip! Our S+S coupled steel bikes performed flawlessly (Ultegra 10-speed). The Specialized Toupe saddle is awesome (for me anyway) don't let the looks fool you, if it fits, it is good for long distance riding. I find the KoolStop Salmon brake pads far superior to the pads that came stock on my Ultegra brakes...there is no comparison, they are my favorite pad I thought Assos was good, but Friction Zone by Brave Soldier is the best chamois cream I've used (after those kinds of distances/times in the saddle both my girlfriend and I can wholeheartedly recommend Friction Zone)

So here's a final tally (rounded off) of the trip :
15 days of consecutive riding (no rest days) We climbed 101 cols (mountain passes)
Total distance: Approx. 1900 km Total elevation climbed: Approx. 41,000 meters

Once again I want to thank you for your help in the Remote Coaching Program, I was feeling ok but if I hadn't done that stupid out the saddle sprint, I think my legs would have been good for the final climb. I was using 34/27 and just spinning along conserving.