CCC

Seven club members plus one enthusiastic supporter recently travelled down to the Pyrenees to take part in the cyclosportive event the Hubert Arbes. Sam and Helen Goulding and Dave and Sally Mayman who were already down in the Pyrenees getting in some much needed practice, were joined by Mike Harris, Peter Glendewar, Trevor Bertram and Colin Perry on the Thursday evening before the event on the Sunday.

The initial attraction for doing this event was the inclusion of the Tourmalet in the route, but the use of several of the nearby mountains in the stage being used for the Etape du Tour proved too much for the organisers to resist and the Tourmalet was dropped in favour of using the same climbs as the Etape, but starting and finishing in Lourdes instead of Mourenx and Pau.

Having been deprived of the Tourmalet it was decided by some to do this col on the Friday morning, so whilst Sam, Helen, Mike, Colin and Trevor clawed their way up this mountain Dave, Sally and Peter opted for the less arduous ride up the gorge to Gavarnie (Dave had done it the previous day in case anyone was wondering why he wimped out!). One mountain is enough for most people but after their morning exploits Mike and Colin then rode up to Luz Ardiden in the afternoon to cap their day off.

Saturday dawned bright and clear, so Mike rode another mountain in his preparation for the big event (the Hautacam) – everyone else was into energy conservation mode. Sam and Helen took the opportunity to recce the course over the Col du Marie Blancq and came back with horror stories of the last 4 kilometres to the peak being horrendously steep – averaging over 10% with one kilometre being 13%! It was enough to send them along with Colin to the local friendly bike shop in search of extra teeth for the rear block. Dave, the only rider with a standard double chainset even contemplated the purchase of a compact, but bottom bracket compatibility issues made him stick with his 53/38.

Meanwhile a walk into town for lunch found a weather forecast for the day of the event predicting bright sunshine and temperatures of 34-35 0C which only added to the concerns. This was then followed up by Mike and his crew travelling up the descent from the col du Soulor that we would be taking on the day, only to find that the road had just been tarred and chipped, leaving great banks of gravel outside of the car tyre tracks – just what you need on the last descent when you are tired from all the efforts of the day. The only good news that day was when we went to sign on there had been a change to the route. Due to more preparations for the tour the first climb of the day, the Col d’Ichere had been removed from the route and the length of the course shortened by 22 k. This just left us with the small matter of the Col de Marie Blancq followed swiftly by the Col d;Aubisque.

As the forecast predicted the day dawned with a clear sky and as the peloton of 1200 riders rolled out of the depart fictif to the depart real there was plenty of jumping forward by the racers keen to get as near the front for the off. There was a five minute wait on the outskirts of Lourdes for the riders to regroup and as the 07:41 TGV to Pau gathered speed we were sent on our way.

Mike and Dave managed to tag on to the lead group for the run up to the first climb whereas everyone else opted for a more steady start to the day, preferring to save their energy for the serious business ahead. The run up to the first climb was fairly flat to begin with, but then started to hit the foot hills of the mountains and we knew we were on a more serious hill when there was a kilometre to go to the top sign which didn’t even warrant a mention in the route details. At least here the road was passing through a forest which provided welcome shade from the gathering heat and helped to shield the view of the impending mountains.

The Col de Marie Blancq has a gentle start, the first kilometre of the climb barely registers 2% - a nice gentle potter up a valley which gets gradually narrower and steeper as you travel up it. Then for some reason the road starts going up the side of the valley at more than 10% and if you weren’t in your lowest gear before this point you were from then on.

There was no let up in the severity of the gradient from that point up to the summit some 4.5 k up the road, always above 10% and a lovely ramp of 15% to check out your sanity. Needless to say that when the tour do it they’ll probably make it look like a leisurely spin up Jubilee after one too many slices of carrot cake at El Tico.

The top appeared abruptly round a right hand bend to bring the welcome sight of the feed station – a chaotic melee of cyclists trying to get as much food and drink down their throats and into their pockets and bottles before the pleasurable bit of the day, the descent. The first part was fairly narrow and twisting through more trees which didn’t give much of a view and there were a couple of mobile chicanes in the form of cows wondering up the road. The road then went across a plateau before hitting a beautifully surfaced open section which allowed the speed to pick up and make you feel like a proper cyclist.

Once in the valley floor it was a case of looking for some company to work together/hide behind to get to the foot of the big climb of the day, the Aubisque. This was a steadier climb than the Marie Blancq, but even so most of the kilometre boards seem to say 7.5-8% and there were two consecutive kilometres averaging 10%. More of a problem on this climb was the heat, most of the road was in the full sun and it was lunchtime by now so the temperatures were soaring. It seemed every shadow cast by a tree on the road had one or two cyclists stopped in it, taking a moment out to compose themselves before heading on. Luckily once the road was above the tree line it turned away from the sun so it didn’t feel as bad, and the scenery towards the top helped to take your mind off the pain in your legs.

Again there was another feed station at the summit – the ginger cake was particularly good – before heading down the descent for the little blip up to the Col du Soulor. A number of you might have read in Cycling Plus that this climb can be tackled in the big ring – HA. That might be the case if it was the first climb of the day as it was for them, but when you’ve just hauled yourself up two mountains in pretty quick succession there was no shame in going straight for the bottom gear to twiddle up to the more gentle slopes near the summit.

Earlier on mention was made of an enthusiastic supporter on the trip – Sally. Having decided that the short 40 mile event that the organisers put on wasn’t worth getting up with everyone else at the crack of dawn, she thought that a bit of support would be appreciated by the riders at the top of the Soulor and managed to ride/push/curse her way to the summit of this category 1 climb - not bad considering the first time she had got on a bike this year was 2 weeks previous. Too late to cheer on Mike and Dave, Sally gave encouragement to the rest of the Jersey group as well as handing out water to any rider who looked like they needed it.

The descent from the Soulor was a nervous affair as forewarned, especially as one of the largest patches of gravel was in the middle of a tunnel! Once down safe and sound the hunt was on again for people to work with to get over the foothills and back to the finish. This part of the course was very hot and seemed much further than it did in the morning, but soon enough you entered the suburbs of Lourdes on the run in to the finish.
Once you stopped the heat was overwhelming, but the organisers were handing out water and cans of coke (never tasted so good!) and once a bit of composure had been regained by getting in the rugby scrum of the showers, all the participants could enjoy what has to be the largest meal ever provided at the end of an event.

Mike posted an excellent time of 5:56 to be first Jersey rider home, followed by Dave in 6:23, Helen at 7:22 and Colin in 7:36 – all gold medal standard rides. The three amigos of Sam, Peter and Trevor decided at an early stage of the event that it was a case of survival in the heat and that the sum was greater than the parts, so they stuck together and even had a go at through and off with the broom wagon (but well inside the time limit), before completing the event in about 9:30.

Despite the event being held on open roads the security and marshalling of the course was excellent. Even for the late finishers, the policemen marshalling a set of traffic lights a kilometre from the finish were still there when they came through and instantly stopped the traffic so they had a clear run through the junction. The organisation at the headquarters and feed stations was efficient and friendly, with the results up on the board in next to no time and certificates printed out on demand. There were even gifts of a bottle of wine and a flask(?!) to help ease the pain and give you something to remember the day by.

Thanks to Jimmy Fullerton for the loan of his bike to Sally Mayman.

Cæsarean Cycling Club

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La Hubert Arbes, Lourdes, 3 July 2005