Alpe D’Huez Triathlon 2017 – Richie Mills
Alpe D’Huez Triathlon
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one going up, and that has made all the difference.”
The alarm was set for 6.30am but as with most of these events I was awake long before, staring at the ceiling and running through the upcoming day. All the usual doubts creep into the mind, have I the right nutrition, what am I forgetting, have I trained enough, am I strong enough, what if…?
I am in the best shape of my life and have never been better prepared for a race, this is despite a week in California at a family wedding and my brothers stag in the 2 week run up to the race. I push the doubts aside, I know from previous races that the nerves will gradually get less as the start approaches and I’ll be buzzing by the time I get in the water. It’s still difficult to eat and I force some egg fritter and bread into me.
Spirits are good though and the weather looks great for the day. I had been worried about the weather, mostly of it raining and the roads being treacherous on the descents but we have perfect blue skies as we head to T2 to drop of our run bags. T2 is just down the road from our Airbnb in Alpe D’Huez but the start is 22km and 1000m below us at Lake Verney. The descent down on the bikes with all our gear is awesome. The views down the valley are spectacular and I’m easily hitting 60km/hr on the sections between hairpins. Nerves are all gone at this stage and excitement starts to build, it’s an incredible way to start the day of a 10hr plus race!!
It still takes an hour to get to the start which is mobbed with the usual queues to get into T1. The lake is a beautiful turquoise blue, caused by the melted glacial water that feeds it, and the mountain backdrop is stunning. The glacial water makes the lake cold which scares the crap out of the Europeans but in reality it’s 14 deg and I know us hardened Killiney swimmers will have no trouble.
Bodies are squeezed into wetsuits and last minute checks are done before we are called down to the water. There is a countdown clock to the start at the water’s edge and it’s nearly at zero as we get in. Myself and Siobhan are barely wet and still a 100m from the start line when the hooter goes. I don’t really care, there are loads of people still getting into the water and it’s going to be a long day.
It’s a 2 loop course and it’s fairly hectic as we head to the first buoy at 400m. It’s crazy at the turn, hits, kicks, pushed under a couple of times and the second buoy is fairly close so it’s the same again. I presume by the time we get back to the start that it will have spread out and be fine, but it’s just as bad as we turn to do the 2nd loop and I get my goggles knocked off. There is a temptation to stay wide of the buoys but I’m not letting those Frenchies push me around and I’m happy to fight it out around the last few buoys. 42mins for the swim, happy enough with that as I jog into T1, the watch shows 2369m swam, not too bad for 2.2km swim seeing that I started way behind the start line.
I take my time getting changed, it’s going to be a long cycle and I want to be comfortable. I have bike shorts and top for the cycle and I have my tri top on underneath as it’s cool enough in the morning and could be cold on the descents. I also go with a bandana (a la Leon) to keep the sweat from running into my eyes and keeping me warm until the day heats up. Siobhan arrives into T1 before I leave, all the Irish were placed together in T1 which was great and made for some good craic before the off. Siobhan had the same problem as me with the scrums around the buoys but is happy enough as I head off.
The first 25km of the bike are gradual downhill and my plan was to eat and drink as much as I could and get the heart rate down after the swim. There is no problem getting the heartrate down and the speed was good through the valley, easily hitting +35km/hr. Still I am passed by a lot of people and know I could push harder but it’s going to be a long day and there are tough obstacles to come.
I stop for a quick pee break at the bottom of the first climb. Col du Grand Serre, 14km averaging 7.2% and over 1000m climbing. I hadn’t put a huge amount of thought into this climb as I had been focusing on Alpe d’Huez but in hindsight it is as long as ADH and only 1% less on the average. I wasn’t prepared for how tough it was, I keep my heartrate between 140 and 150 but it’s hard going. I am constantly being passed which is not great for morale but I remind myself to stick to the plan. I see a pulse top ahead and figure it has to be Denis. I am thrilled to see him and slightly more than surprised to see him out ahead of me from the swim. I pull up beside him full of the chats, but he tells me he had to cut the swim short and is having a bad day. I continue on my way, counting off the km which seem to be taking an eternity. There are markers every 1km telling the average gradient of the next km, I thought I remembered a low gradient in the middle from our reccy drive but each marker is stubbornly high. It’s getting warm too and I have to open my bike top to stay cool. Eventually after an hour twenty of climbing I hit the plateau at the top. It’s a huge relief, we had talked before about how Grand du Serre would set the tone for the day and while it had been hard, I had got up it controlling the heartrate and not taking too much out of the body.
I got off the bike at the food stop and refilled the bottles and had some brioche and fruit. It was 10km to the next climb, all downhill. I dropped onto the aero bars which I was thrilled I had taken and easily hit +40km/hr on the decent. I was passing tons of people and spirits were really high. The second climb, Col du Malissol, was a late addition to the race and we were told it was 5km long with an 11% section in the middle. I was waiting for the really steep section in the middle but it never seemed to arrive and it didn’t take too long to get over it and on to the 15km run to the 3rd climb. It was on a bit of flat before the 3rd climb that I felt the first twinge on the hamstring, nothing too bad, just a brief tightening that didn’t overly worry me other than to think about how Siobhan’s hamstring was holding up after the first climb. It was a warning though of what was to come!
The 3rd climb is the Col d’Ornon, 14.5km averaging 3.9%. It started very easy at only 2% but ramps up slowly until it hits 7% over the last few kms. I was over 3hrs on the bike at this stage and starting to feel a bit tired so I decided to take it handy enough with a view to hitting Alpe d’Huez in reasonable shape. There was a food stop at the bottom and I got off the bike and had some ham and cheese as well as some cake and drinks. In all fairness to the Frenchies, they know how to lay on a spread with tons of sweet and savoury stuff at the stops. I had a lovely bit of brie at one! I also stocked up on gels before I got back on the bike.
The low gradient of Col d’Ornon meant I could hold a decent speed and with 10km to go I was doing 20km/hr, half an hour to the top, no problem. Unfortunately the gradient kept getting steeper and with 5km to go my average speed was 10km/hr, still half an hour to the top I thought with a smile, this was never going to end!
The descent from Ornon is spectacular, with huge drops off the road to the valley below and only a foot high wall to stop you. I still managed to hit over 70km/hr despite taking it handy. It didn’t take long to hit the valley floor and turn onto the road to ADH. I was buzzing on the few km to the base of the climb. This was why I was here, this is what I had been dreaming about and watching videos of for the last 6 months. 13.2km long, 8.2% gradient and 21 hairpins, cycling heaven or hell as it turned out!
I stopped briefly in the last town to stock up on drinks and gels and could hardly contain myself as I crossed the bridge and took the 90deg turn onto the climb. The first 2km or 4 hairpins are the hardest with the gradient over 10%. This is what I had trained for though, 60rpm and heartrate of 150bpm. The plan worked for 500m until my hamstring totally seized up. I am not sure how I manged to get my foot out of the peddle and avoid falling off, but somehow I got a foot down and stopped. I could still see the start just behind me! I did some stretches on the leg and took a salt pill and water. The leg loosened up and I looked up the 10% hill wondering how I was going to get started again. I decided aiming downhill was the best idea and doing a quick u-turn. It actually worked well and I was moving again. I couldn’t pull up on the peddle though, as each time I did my hamstring went into spasm. All push with the quads was the plan to get to the top.
I felt surprisingly positive though as I rounded the first 2 hairpins, this was still my dream and I was doing it. I was only doing 6km/hr but I was passing plenty of people pushing their bikes up the hill. There was a food stop on the 5th hairpin and I got off, refilled the drinks and had a quick stretch. The first 4 hairpins are the worst but it was still well over 8% as I continued on. The hairpins are numbered from 21 to 1 and there was a great buzz rounding each one and counting them down. They were going surprisingly fast and the leg was holding up.
There was great support too on the climb. There was a family I had passed on the Col d’Ornon who had moved to ADH. They kept jumping in their car and moving up the climb so I passed them several times. By now the heat had really climbed up and there were racers stopping in shaded parts and others walking up the hill. My support family had bottles of water, filled from the local stream and when I passed they would run over and pour them over my head. The relief was amazing and I hoped that somehow I would see them after the race and thank them for their support. I had my cycling top fully open and the bandana was disposed of as the heat reflected off the mountain walls made the climb torturous.
Still the legs kept turning and I plodded along at 6km/hr counting down the hairpins. Reports I had read said that there was a breeze near the top that made the climb even harder but I began praying for some sort of wind to cool me down. I also presumed the altitude would make things cooler but the heat was relentless as we climbed. We had done the last 5 hairpins the previous day and it was a relief to hit some familiar territory near the top. Unfortunately the gradient goes over 9% but still I knew I was nearly home.
It was only as I rounded the last hairpin that I thought of the run. Oh god, how was I going to get through a half marathon, at altitude, on a trail run, in this heat after 7hrs on the bike? Getting my runners on in T2 was a nightmare. I couldn’t bend down as either my hamstring or quad seized up depending on how I bent. I somehow got them on and struggled out on to the run. I got through the first 1km before my quad totally seized. I hobbled over to the shade of a building and contemplated for the first time the prospect of not being able to finish the race. The quad was rock solid and very painful. I tried to stretch it but my hamstring seized then. I was really considering ending it there when a kid asked me what was wrong. I told him my leg was cramping. He ran off and came back with his mum. She was a PE teacher and she massaged the leg until the cramp went away. She got me some biscuits and water too. I couldn’t thank her enough as I walked off up the trail.
I walked for a few minutes and the leg felt better. I tried a little jog and felt okay. I hit a little uphill and the leg seized again. I shook it off and decided uphills would be walked and downhill and flat run. I continued on like this through the first of 3 laps. Amazingly nearly everyone around me was doing the same thing. The heat had gotten worse and I struggled terribly with the thoughts of more than 2hrs of this torture.
The feed stations were a relief. I drank a cup of water, coke and powerade at each one and ate some water melon too. They had baskets of tomatoes and I remembered an old boss of mine telling me how marathon runners crave tomatoes as they contain huge amounts of electrolytes. They would have to help the cramping so I grabbed a handful at each stop. They were awful to eat though and eventually I just bit into them and sucked the juice and spat the rest out. Thankfully on the second lap the sky clouded over and the heat dropped. Life became more manageable and thoughts of not finishing went away. It still was a long slow grind and it seemed forever to get through the second lap.
I met a friend from home near T2 and she told me Siobhan was on the run, I don’t know how she was managing it having done no training for 4 weeks after tearing her hamstring. The last lap was a relief, I had made friends with some of my fellow run/walkers and we discussed the day. We all felt that amazing and all as the race is, it’s just cruel having to go from the climb of ADH straight into the run and we cursed the organisers. 10hr 30min became the target, luckily the last 2km were downhill into the town and I was able to jog the last stretch.
The finishers shoot was awesome, I let my new friends go ahead so that I could have it all to myself. 10hr 27min, a full 4hrs longer than anything I had done previously, I had thought that 9hrs was possible but there were no thoughts of disappointment or underachieving on the day.
It is amazing thinking back on it now. It is the most incredible event I have ever done, incorporating stunning scenery, a hugely difficult course and the history of ADH. I loved it all, including the training. I got to train with loads of different people on our long cycles and no two routes were the same all year. I loved spending Thursday evening on strava seeing how much elevation I could incorporate into our Saturday cycle. Our mantra became: If you hit a cross roads and don’t know which way to go, take the road going up!! Despite pushing it as much as I could on finding difficult routes and hills, nothing in Ireland can prepare you for the length and steepness of the climbs, nor the difficulty of going straight from one of the worlds hardest climbs straight into a 21km trail run. Throw in the heat and it makes for a tough day! Still I wouldn’t change it for anything and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a different challenge.
Lastly thanks to my training partners for the year. The words “Fuck you Richie Mills” were uttered so many times on the steeper sections of many of my more demanding routes, but deep down I know you loved it all!! Amazing experience, made all the better by getting to share with you two nutters!!