Day 5 - Galibiere, Col L'Iseran

One of the hardest days I have ever done.  Up and over two of the biggest HC climbs in Europe, the Galibiere and the Col de L'Iseran.  Both top out at something like 2800m.  A brutally long and hot day.  Words don't do justice to how beautiful it is here.  Keep trying to remind myself to soak it in, even when I am deep into the red.

Day 3 - Embrun Aquathon, then the Col D'Izoard and the Col du Lautaret

Today started with a short aquathon in  the lake next to Embrun.  Then breakfast and off on the bikes at 10:15.  We climbed the Izoard today, which is 14k @ a consistent 9%.  The Alps are every bit as beautiful as expected, though again I was too knackered to full appreciate it.  I did force myself to take time at the top to soak it all in and take pictures, which of course never do the place justice.

Phil Paterson took a flier from Kilometre 0, reckoning that the best way to get the jump on Jon and Adam was to attack from the start and have a gap at the bottom of the climb.  No one went with him so he road the 40 odd k to the bottom all on his own, and mostly held the group off the entire way.  Not sure how the KOM finished as I was miles off the back.

The descent from the Izoard (2400m) into Briancon was fantastic, and I would love to come back to Briancon in the future and take everything in -- riding, climbing, mountaineering, and the town itself -- at a more leisurely pace.

From Briancon we went up the Col du Lautaret, which is a long gradual climb up above 2000m again.  It's 60-70% of the climb up to the Galibiere, which we won't do until Friday.  Can't say that I would have detoured there even if I knew we weren't doing it later, as all I wanted to do after another long day is get to the hotel and be done.  10k descent to La Grave was excellent, lots of straights to bomb down and far less technical than the descent off the Izoard.  And tunnels!  Bombing downhill thru a 700m tunnel with bad lighting was a bit scary.

Tomorrow is the Alpe d'Huez time trials, 14k again but steeper.  I'm hoping more gears will help me get thru that.

Shout out to the support crew who have been super-awesome.  Ian, Julie, Tim, and Olli are super organized and on top of everything, making the suffering almost enjoyable.

Observations:  this camp has started off significantly harder than Canada.  It's Epic-er Camp.  For me. The elites seem to be loving the climbing, and are finding time to tack on swim | bike | runs.  Whereas on Day 3 of Canada I felt like camp completion was completely doable, and I was ready to tack on to maximize my training, on Day 3 of France I am very much worried about just getting camp completion done.  Friday is the queen stage so to speak -- I think -- I think it's the 4500m of climbing day and I hope that's the max we have planned -- and I'm just hoping to get thru that and be able to get up the next morning.

Time for sleep, which hopefully will be easier to come by today than it has so far.

Epic Camp Rules - Violations

1. Don't get sunburned
2. Prefer real food to gels and bars
3. Put the f'ing Garmin map for the day on your Garmin
4. If you violate rule #3, make sure you don't lose your f'ing printed map because you did not zip up your pockets before the descent
5. In case you are a complete git -- or still shell-shocked from Ventoux -- and you violate rules #3 and #4, do put the name, address, and phone number of the hotel onto your smart phone, to ensure you arrive at said hotel with no dramas

Day 2 - to Embrun

Lovely ride thru stunning scenery.  Unfortunately, I was so wiped out from yesterday that goal was just to hang onto the group until 140k, where there was an option to cut out more climbing and head straight to the hotel.  Which I just managed to do.

Day 1 - Ventoux

Day started great with a swim in the Mediterranean at 6:30 in the morning.  After breakfast we rolled out for Mt Ventoux.  For the ~90k leading to Ventoux itself we road into a stiff headwind all day long.    Ventoux more than lived up to expectations.  Suffered like a dog.  Relentless 10% for 20k, with absolutely no respite.  Needed another gear, even two.  We were supposed to get into Vaison La Roman at about 4; I did not get in until 6:30.  Run off the bike was crap; cramped up after 3k, shut it down after 5k.

A real helluva of a first day.

Day 1 - Ventoux

Day started great with a swim in the Mediterranean at 6:30 in the morning.  After breakfast we rolled out for Mt Ventoux.  For the ~90k leading to Ventoux itself we road into a stiff headwind all day long.    Ventoux more than lived up to expectations.  Suffered like a dog.  Relentless 10% for 20k, with absolutely no respite.  Needed another gear, even two.  We were supposed to get into Vaison La Roman at about 4; I did not get in until 6:30.  Run off the bike was crap; cramped up after 3k, shut it down after 5k.

A real helluva of a first day.

Epic Camp France Day 0

Up at 6am, seem to be on French time now, no dramas.

Out for an amuse bouche ride of 2h with a nice introductory climb.  5 minutes in and we were under the Aqueduc de Roquefavour.  Stunning at 6:30 in the morning.

Epic Camp D12 - Calgary

6:45am run up to the Lake Agnes Tea House, starting from Lake Louise about 4k and 400m (1300 feet) of climbing.  This gradient was much more manageable as an actual run versus power hike, although the walk / run strategy was definitely employed.   Tried to keep up with Gareth on the way up, but he Killian Journet'd it back down.  Stunning views of sunrise on the mountains overlooking Lake Louise.  Finish by running all the way back down from Lake Louse to the Village, 12k all in.

With all the eccentric loading of the quads from the last two trail runs, the long ride in to Calgary was always going to be a slog.  Barry put things into Beast Mode after the 1st rest stop and I yo-yoed off the back the rest of the day until the lunch stop at 150k.  I don't know what kind of watts he was laying down but I when I checked mine I was well north of 300 in the group, and he did it seemingly for a 100k.  And when he dropped off the front, the Philinator kept things rolling.  A very hard day in the saddle.

Glad to have completed the camp with everyone safe and sound.  More thoughts on camp later.