Alpine Challenge 2013

My Ironman Frankfurt race report was my last post back in July. In that post I mentioned my next Ironman is Austria in June 2014. Given I have had a heavy race schedule over the last few years and that I have my first baby on the way I thought it would be a good idea to give myself a physical and more importantly mental break from constant training. My plan has been and is until January 2014 to have less structure and more variety in my training. Since July I have been really enjoying lots of variety.

With variety in mind I was delighted to be presented with the fantastic opportunity to join the Watt Bike team on a cycle event - The Alpine Challenge 2013. The Alpine Challenge 2013 is a cycle event I have just completed which was a lot of fun and a different type of cycling to that which I normally do. Being an Ironman I focus on time trialling on a tri bike where drafting is not allowed. The Alpine Challenge is road cycling where drafting is allowed and cyclist group together tightly in packs. The event was held in Annecy, France and consisted of 3 full days of cycling which covered 331kms with a total ascent of 6676m. The event is described as a Professional Event for Amateurs as there is rolling road closures in place, a pace car and a full mechanical crew to hand. Stephen Roche, former Tour De France winner is also a guest rider. On each day there are timed climbing sections, with most being previous sections of the Tour De France, so not for the faint hearted!

Day one - Prologue and stage one: 

Prior to the first day of cycling there is registration and a briefing to ensure everyone understands the rules of the competition and key aspects of safety. Upon receiving my race number I was obviously chuffed to see 'shorty' as my name on my number - thats what you get when you get a mate to fill in your application!

The first day of cycling started with an easy 17km to the base of a climb - Col de Forclaz. This was the Prologue, the timed section where we were allocated our seeded groups. The length of the climb was 8.3km with an average gradient of 8% with some sections at 13%! The weather on this day was wet and cold which made it tough going but I loved it, it made the achievement of getting to the top in a good time all the more satisfying.

View Of Lake Annecy from the top of Col de Forclaz

After the prologue climb we were split in to our seeded groups - I qualified for group 2 (the second fastest). Once seeded we split into our respective ride groups with personal pace car and motor bikes for road closures then stage one got on the way with lots of descending in the wet and some more climbing. In the afternoon the weather was drier and we had the second timed climb of the event. This time a short steep 3.5km. How it works is that as you approach the climb you get a yellow flag which marks 1km to go until the base of the climb. Riders start to shuffle for position and the pace picks up, then a red flag marks the start of the climb and basically you go as hard as you can to get the best time you can up the climb. On this particular 3.5km climb there were some really steep sections and I was red lining my heart rate for some time getting up to 190bpm which is pretty much maximum for me.

Profile of stage one with HR: as you can see I was in the Red (HR zone 5) for over 10 mins at the top of the climbs!!

After a wet and tough day one my lungs were a touch sore - it has been a while since I had asked them to work that hard! When I got back to the hotel room I found a new found appreciation for a hot bath!

Day two - 113km 

Upon looking out the window in the morning it was great to see the weather looking good with blue skies. Temperatures of 18-20 degrees were also forecast, perfect for cycling. At breakfast the usual banter among our group started. I was riding with Rich and Alex who also qualified for group 2. Alex beat me by around 20-30 seconds on both the first days climbs so I was keen to see if I could get some time back on him. Alex is a superb athlete, he used to be a rower and has achieved a silver medal at the common wealth. Now working for Watt Bike he has turned his hand to cycling although being busy with work and as a father he does not get a huge amount of time to cycle, mostly he uses the Watt Bike to get the most out of his training time, I cycled with Alex the year before so have seen first hand his progression - very impressive even if tough to swallow given he was kicking my arse! 

Right from the start on day two's ride we set of at a fast pace, many in the group were working very hard to keep involved. I took some refuge from the wind behind others but really enjoyed the fast pace from the get go, it suits me as a triathlete. We worked hard right to the bottom of the days timed climb - Col de Aravis, a 6km stretch with quite a few switch backs. From the 1km marker I got into a good position by the red flag. I had my eye on Alex from the start of the climb and pushed hard to create a gap early on hoping that I could break him early. I got a good 50m on him and held it until around 5km where I noticed he was starting to close the gap, with 500m to go he pulled alongside me as the climb levelled out for a flat finish. When his wheel pulled alongside mine I was thinking, okay a sprint finish, this is going to hurt, then Alex glanced over and said "this is going to hurt" We both started to put the power down clicking through the gears and accelerating to the line, by the time we got to the line he out sprinted me and won by around 2 bike lengths. I totally loved the racing, so much fun to get a close finish. 

Me nearing the top of a timed climb section. Photo taken by Matt Alexander, Official Alpine Challenge Photographer

The rest of day two was cycled at a strong pace. There was lots of fast descending, something I have released I am average at. Rich Baker from Watt Bike is an exceptional descender, he would frequently blow by me on the downhills looking controlled and relaxed where as I probably looked somewhat tense and out of control! The scenery on day two was simply spectacular, it was such a privilege to be in the mountains with great weather - simply loved it!

Profile of stage two with HR: a touch more HR zone 5 near the top of the big climb!

Beautiful scenery shot: Photo taken by Matt Alexander, Official Alpine Challenge Photographer 

Day three - 103km

When I woke on day 3 my legs were sore and heavy, however as a triathlete who does a large volume of training I was confident that I would fatigue less than others or would cope better.

At the start of day three the group kept the pace quite easy which indicated to me some where suffering.  I felt good about this as I found the pace easy. I had eaten too much at breakfast though and it was sitting on my stomach so I was keen to get this digested before the climb, the easy pace definitely helped with this, if the morning pace was high I might have been in trouble!

Day three's timed climb was Col del la Croix Fry a long 11.2km section with lots of changes in gradients. Prior to this there was a 5km non timed climb which served as a good warm up! I made sure I did not go into the red on this.

The 11.2km Col de la Croix Fry was tough, being longer I set off at a more conservative pace. The climb still had chalk on the road from the Tour De France, "Go Froome". It was really inspiring to be working hard up the same slopes a few months early the best in the world were tackling. Again the race was on between me and Alex, around 2-3km into the climb I went round a switch back and I caught a glimpse of Alex who was 20 seconds back, he clocked the glimpse and gave me a cheeky wave which indicated he was coming after me! From that point on I worked a touch harder! I made it to the top of the climb with a 20 second lead over Alex. My first stage win! However it was not enough to move ahead of him in the overall standings where Alex placed a few spots ahead of me.

After the climb there was a lovely long descent back to Annecy as a group. Once back it was party time, lots of us jumped into the lake and I believe the event organiser got thrown in! After a shower and change there was the awards dinner where the overall winners were presented with prices from the ride captains and Stephen Roche. There was lots of banter and a few drinks were had, a great finish to a spectacular event.

Profile of stage three with HR

Beautiful scenery shot: Photo taken by Matt Alexander, Official Alpine Challenge Photographer 

Chilling by Lake Annecy post ride.

For those interested the Alpine Challenge 2013 will be shown on Euro Sport on Sunday 22nd at 18.00. I believe the 2014 event also opens for entry soon too, something I am seriously considering doing as a tune up event for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October. The event is well worth checking out if you are into cycling http://www.thealpinechallenge.com 

Since returning to the UK it is apparent that winter is arriving with a bang as usual! So whats next for me? Well I am working on finalising my race schedule for 2014 and drafting my training plan. My A races for 2014 are Ironman Austria - June 29th & Ironman Hawaii - October 11th. I plan to do an Ironman 70.3 in April or May, possibly Florida or Mallorca as a tune up for Austria, then in August I will either race another Ironman 70.3 in prep for Hawaii or I will do an Olympic and attend the Alpine Challenge again, although this time I would need to fit in some swimming and running as well! For the rest of the winter I will continue with some unstructured training although I plan to drop in on some of my training partners sessions, Ollie Williams who is preparing for Ironman Cozumel. I do have a marathon in October but I am not going to this in peak shape with a PB in mind, a long way from it, rather I want to test a few things. I will do a post on this shortly......

As always live healthy, keep fit and perform to your best.