steephill

Last summer, I was lucky enough to spend seven weeks in Southern France. For one of those weeks, I joined four guys on the Marmotte ride and several other rides in Vercors and Provence regions. Here is my first report:

https://www.steephill.tv/2006/alpe-d-huez/

enjoy.

botto 

ah... i see you were caught behind the glandon descent crash. a buddy was there, and also stuck.

things like that, and the limited support, is one reason why i've never had a great urge to do marmotte.

thanks for the report.

merlinextraligh

Nice report. Very cool ride. I've ridden the climbs on the Marmotte ride, but not all at once. And I did Etape in 2005. The whole scene around Etape is really cool. Amazing all the spectators, and its run essentially like a stage of the TDF, close as I'll ever get. Like Fantasy camp for cyclists.

Love to do Marmotte, and also a Grandfondo around the Giro. So little time, so many rides.

botto 

do the maratona dles dolomiti. amazing & super friendly organization.

merlinextraligh

gees Botto, don't you think that's kinda lightweight? only 85 miles Actually, with 14,000 vertical, I'm sure it would be plenty tough. The link for others interested is: https://www.maratona.it/home.php

botto 

you're right, it's for ******* only 4190 meters of climbing, and speedbumps like Passo Giau.

It's sooo easy that Raimundas Rumas managed to finish it in only 4:23.

steephill

The support was pretty good, but a feed zone at the base of Col du Telegraphe would have been nice. It's a crazy event everything considered... worth doing at least once

blandin

Great report. Color me jealous.

blue_nose

Great report. Would love to ride the Alps sometime.

botto 

i'm tempted, trust me.

as far as the comments on the support, i'm going by what friend's have told me: that the maratona's support is 100X better than the marmotte's (which in the past has been known to run out of water at feed stations, for example).

mingsta

I was in Vercors last month!!! Went with gastrobiking.com who were absolutely brilliant!!!

Here's some pics of some of the Marmotte route (galibier and alpe d'huez) and a bit of vercors, I'm the chinese fella:

Riding Pics
Scenery Pics

Agree what you were saying at the star of the report, there's lots of good riding in that area, particularly round Vercors. I think its easy to overlook some of these areas in the search for "big name cols".

steephill

Nic pics. I cycled the Vercors as well and have a report in the works for it as well but I don't remember cycling this road: https://gallery114241.fotopic.net/p33637936.html. Where exactly was that photo taken?

mingsta

I'm afraid I couldn't name that bit, it was all new to me. It was one of the ascents up to the vercors plateau. What did you think of the French cuisine? Very tasty but distinctly lacking in carbs, seemingly being made up entirely of red meat and cheese!!! Had to address the balance by consuming copious quantities of gateau!!!

Ostuni

if you need a bike butler on your next trip, consider this my job application.....

steephill

I found the French cuisine very rich. Bread occupies every meal so there is one good way to get some carbs; however, it's often tough just to find somewhere to eat! The hours and locations of grocery stores and restaurents make it difficult.

dorkypants

Possibly Combe Laval (based on the orientation of the overhang, and also because the road through the Petits and Grands Goulets was closed this year)? I don't recognize this particular overhang though.