Race Report: [2022 Haute Route Alps]

Date: August 21st, 2022 - August 27th, 2022

AVRT racer: Maxime Cauchois

Result: 55/302 (368 at the start), 5/16 in 18-29 Men

Course: 7 day stage race in the French Alps, 792km/492mi with a total elevation gain of 21300m/70000ft, including a 10km/6mi uphill time trial on day 5. Each day, only certain sections (mainly climbs and flats, see red sections on stage profiles) are timed, whereas most descents are neutralized.

Multiple feed stations with water, drinks, snacks, fruits, etc are available along the course, mostly at the end of timed sections, allowing us to stop, refuel and even take pictures, but also occasionally in the middle of a longer climb or section, in which case you need to decide whether to prioritize refueling or staying in your current group—often a tough call.

Strava:

Nutrition: I started each with two 550 ml bottles of a mix of 20g Skratch hydration/30g Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin in each, similar to Skratch superfuel mix (=50g of carbs). I wish I had someone to hand me bottles on feed stops, but I did not, so when the first two bottles were empty, I would usually refill with water + grenadine.

At feed stations, I would drink coke and eat bananas, apricots, a little bit of prosciutto (for salt) and occasionally dried fruits. On the bike, I would alternate between Skratch bars, energy chews, gels and shot blocks, all of which I had ordered on Gelvio prior to the event.

I tried to constantly monitor my energy levels, and to make sure I was never hungry or thirsty, but I’m not sure exactly how much I ate—if asked, I would answer: a whole lot. Interestingly, while most Bay Area climbs don’t require you to eat or drink during the effort itself, I found it much more imperative to do so on a 90 min HC climb, especially when there are several in a row.

Day 1: Nice - Cuneo (184 km / 4100 m+) // Stage: 34th / General : 34th

I arrived in Nice the day prior the start (on Saturday), and spent the day doing all sorts of preparation (basically some registration stuff, some food ingestion, some social interaction with my roommate and some light biking to the top of Col d’Eze, a shallow 9km/5% climb with panoramic views on the city of Nice, featuring every year on Paris-Nice.

The start of the first stage on Sunday was at 6:45am, which meant waking up for breakfast at 5am. I had arrived in France 7 days prior to the event, so jet lag wasn’t an issue, but I still dislike early morning starts, as they often trouble my sleep pattern and cause some sleep anxiety. The stage was 184km/113mi long and featured 4 timed sections, including Col de Saint-Martin (~7km/7% with a long uphill drag before) and the infamous Col de la Lombarde (~20km/7%) at the French-Italian border.

The first 11km were neutralized and uneventful, although the pace behind the race director’s car was already brisk. As I had been warned beforehand, early attacks from the gun immediately and severely upped the pace during the first 10km timed section. Several groups quickly formed and started working together, and I found myself in the second or third one, although I honestly had no idea at the time. The drag up the first Col of the day felt harder than I wished it had been considering the daunting program of the day—and the week—, which my power numbers later confirmed. I was still feeling reasonably fresh at the bottom of the col de Saint-Martin, and as the timing was stopped at the top, I settled into a 25 min tempo pace over the entire climb, a pace which I thought I could sustain even on longer climbs multiple times a day (spoiler alert: I could not). Still, I crested the col with strong legs and feeling confident about the next one, even though I feared its unusual length and elevation. I took a few minutes to refuel and eat, but I probably did not replenish my salt levels enough, as it was a hot sunny day in the south of France and my only source of minerals— my two initial Skratch bottles— was drying out.

At the bottom of the descent, the timing started again and I pacelined with a small-ish group over the entire 20 km false flat leading to the bottom of the Col de la Lombarde. I had estimated the climb would take me around 1h30, hence I immediately settled into a mid-tempo (=230W/3.6W/kg) pace, which was slower than the first one, but made sense given the length of the effort and the fatigue that my legs had accumulated—we had ridden for 4h already. I quickly felt this climb would be my first (and not only…) low of the week: after 30min of climbing, despite eating and drinking regularly, my legs kept feeling weaker and weaker, and my bike computer was showing lower and lower numbers, decreasing by about 10-20W every 10 min. Arriving in Isola 2000, about 4km from the top, I was struggling to maintain even 200W (Z2 in normal times), and on top of that , I did not have any water left in my bottles. In hindsight, I made a rookie mistake by not refilling at the bottom and trying to reach the top with a single full bottle only to save a few hundred grams. The last 3 km of the Col de la Lombarde looked like hell: the scenery of this narrow mountain road almost akin to a bike path is breathtaking, but the slope is very uneven, with several 13%+ ramps. My legs had already been cramping for a few km due to altitude (2350m at the top) and dehydration, but they were now fully dried out of energy, and 180W was feeling like a VO2 effort. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally noticed the summit sign a few hundred meters away, and the thought of foods and drinking awaiting at the top fueled the last pedal strokes to the Italian border.

I was close to collapsing at the top, but I made my way to all the food and drinks I could find, focusing especially on hydration. I spent a good 20 min at the top, and I wish I had stayed there even longer to recover, but it was getting cold and I still had 60 km to go to Cuneo, including a 20 km timed flat section. The descent of the Col de la Lombarde on the Italian side is one of the most spectacular roads I ever cycled on, but its technicality also requires constant attention, so I tried to stay alert and well positioned on the bike despite the fatigue and cramps. Arriving at the start of the timed section, I was only riding with a friend from Quebec I had made along the way, so we decided to wait a couple minutes for a group to join us. A few moments later, we saw a team of 4 Russian riders flying by, and had to sprint our way into their draft (doing more than 450W for 30s with cramping legs, not recommended). These riders did not make our job easy on this section: following in their draft, I averaged over 42km/h for 30min, and even got a Strava top 10 for the segment. I have to admit I didn’t take a single pull, but they didn’t seem to care too much as one of their riders was actually doing all the work and pulling the entire group, with all the other riders hanging on behind him, and I was still producing more watts to follow them than I had been able to muster in the Col de la Lombarde. Unsurprisingly, my cramps came back even stronger in the last hill 1km from the line, but I managed to shut them down just enough time to finish.

We still had 16 km (untimed) to reach Cuneo, which were quite unwelcome to say the least: we had to ride on busier average roads, and at this point, I was fully exhausted and only craving for a meal and hot shower. Arriving in Cuneo around 2:30pm, after 7h of riding and a hefty 341 TSS day, I discovered I had ranked 34th on the day, doing particularly well on the Col de Saint-Martin and the flat section leading to Cuneo (thank you Russian guys), but losing time on the Col de la Lombarde. Despite this very encouraging result, I was concerned about my recovery for the next stages given the heavy cramps I had suffered from over the second half of the stage.

Day 2: Cuneo - Briançon (141 km / 3600 m+) // Stage: 76th / General : 53rd

The Haute Route peloton left Cuneo early on Monday for a much dreaded 140km stage back to France, featuring two giant HC climbs: the Col d’Agnel and the Col d’Izoard, used multiple times by the Tour de France and Giro di Italia.

The first timed section was basically a 40km false flat starting with a short climb, and immediately followed by the proper Col d’Agnel ascent. My first concern was to find a fast but comfortable group to work with until the bottom of the climb, but I didn’t intend to follow the first wheels as hard as the day before, still concerned by my sudden energy drop the day before, and impressed enough by the climbs to come.

I still found myself in a reasonably fast group, averaging around 30 km/h over the entire (mostly) uphill drag that led us to Casteldelfino, bottom of the first real difficulty of the day and where the first feed stop was located. I briefly stopped there to refuel, letting go of the group I was in, as I didn’t want to relive the previous day’s experience and preferred to climb Col d’Agnel at my own pace anyway.

Col d’Agnel on the Italian side is a tale of two climbs: the first one, that averages about 5% over about 11km, is manageable and felt very bearable, as the altitude hadn’t kicked in yet and the slope was anything but unfriendly. I was purposely saving energy for the second part, which alone makes the Col d’Agnel one of the most difficult ascents in the Alps, and possibly the hardest of the entire Haute Route: 9km at 10% average, with ramps up to 14%, topping at a very respectable 2744 m, making it the second highest Pass in Italy (after the Stelvio).

I wish I could say I rode to the top out of the saddle like Marco Pantani would have done, but the truth is more mundane: I was suffering like everybody else, while altitude and changes in gradient were making it even harder to maintain a hard but sustainable pace. It took me around 53 min to reach the top from the start of the steep section, averaging around 220 W, i.e. a low tempo pace in normal times. Glad to finally reach the highest point of this Haute Route, I took a reasonably long break before the descent, making sure to eat and drink sufficiently before heading to the second climb of the day. The weather at the summit was noticebly chilly, and I wonder if stopping for more than 20 min was a good call in retrospect.

After a long but fast 25km descent, the second timed segment of the day, the infamous Col d’Izoard, was starting almost immediately. I didn’t have any clear expectation of the pace I would be able to sustain, or what power target I should try to hold, as I still had in mind how I had bonked on the Lombarde. In retrospect, I probably should have been more ambitious on the day overall, but that is all too easy to say after the event is done and dusted (spoiler: I did finish it). In any case, I settled into a high Z2 pace that I was confident I could hold for the entirety of the climb: it was a good 30-40W lower than what I should probably target given the length of the climb and the stage, but again it was only day 2 of the race, and I wanted to avoid any other unfortunate event at any cost. I climbed the 14 km at 7% in a little more than an hour, upping the pace a notch on the last 2 km after the surreal (and gorgeous) Casse Déserte, thereby immediately feeling the effects of altitude.

After about 5h30 of riding and 3600 m of positive elevation, Stage 2 was finally in the bank, as there only remained an untimed 20 km descent to Briançon. What I was not aware of, and was quite disgruntled to learn, was the fact that my hotel was located in the old Fort Vauban that sits on top of the city: it required me to climb an additional km at 10%+ average after I ate lunch and got a massage, definitely not an ideal recovery activity and even worsening a mild lingering knee pain. Having kept an easier pace than the day before, I unsurprisingly fared worse timewise, finishing 76th for the day, and moving down to 53th in the overall standing.

Day 3: Briançon - Les Deux Alpes (109 km / 3200 m+) // Stage: 96th / General : 65th

The profile of Stage 3 looked much more civil than the first two days, a much welcome respite: less distance (“only” 109km) and elevation, with the Col de Sarenne as the most challenging difficulty of the day. The Tour de France lovers may know Col de Sarenne was featured there a few years ago on its own, but many (including Zwift users) undoubtedly know its descent much better, since it is no other than the famous 21 Alpe d’Huez switchbacks.

Day 3 started with a first technical issue: descending from my hotel—remember that 1km hill from the day before—, my Karoo 2 crashed on the ground before even the start of the stage, and as I arrived at the start line, it was not only showing new scuffs but more importantly, it didn’t care to start: not only did I have to record the ride on my phone, but I couldn’t rely on power reading to pace myself in the different climbs of the day. Tough start.

The first climb of the day, the Col du Lautaret, was very long (19km from the time start) but shallow (~4% average) with no real difficulty—the slope would never be above 6%. I am rather a lightweight climber, not very powerful, and this climb was definitely not the type of terrain I could shine on, so I didn’t really try to catch a fast group to the summit; that said, given my poor positioning in the field at the start of the time segment, my efforts would probably have been vain anyway. I settled into a group that felt like mid/upper zone 2, and comfortably made my way to the top, well aware that I was losing time on people with similar rankings, but planning to make some of it back in the next climbs.

The descent of the Col was reasonably fast after a short refuel, and I could even work on my descent trajectories in some of the switchbacks; I was complimented on my overall descending skills by much more experienced riders, so I can only thank the different descending clinics I attended at Stanford and with Alto Velo, as they contributed to make me a more confident descender—and also remember the three golden rules: look as far ahead as possible, push very hard on the outside foot, and pull the inside knee/hip out a little bit.

The ascent of the col de Sarenne started at the end of the descent, and was the start of the second timed segment of the day—there was some road work preventing it from starting a few km ahead where it was initially intended. Col de Sarenne is a 12km long climb at 7%, with the last 3km averaging around 10%, making it challenging but not in the same league as some of the previous days climbs. Having no power reading on that day, I immediately settled into a pace that “felt like I was not working but not suffering”, as I often read about what tempo pace should be.

Since I had sandbagged the first climb a little bit, I quickly dropped most people in my group, with the exception of a British rider with whom I exchanged a few words of encouragement over the course of the climb. As we made our way through extraordinary wild and unscathed scenery—if you have the occasion to ride in the area, go there, you won’t regret it—, we caught a few riders along the way before I broke away two km from the summit. Still feeling good even in the toughest percentages, I was able to bridge and drop another handful of riders before I reached the top. However, unlike the previous climbs, the timing wouldn’t stop at the summit but only 6 km later after a 4 km descent and 2 km of rollers to reach the Alpe d’Huez ski resort. You will soon learn a more personal reason why I think this decision from the race organizers was ill-advised, but simply know for now that the pavement in the descent was horrific, with constant bumps and potholes on a -10% grade, and that as I made my way down, I went by a rider who was taken care by the race medics and later sent to the hospital with broken bones. I tried to stay as focused on my own race as possible, and finally reached the end of the short descent when a very unfortunate event occured: I couldn’t shift anymore, neither at the back nor at the front. Suspecting some kind of Di2 failure—if you ask, I charged it on the day before Stage 1—, and stuck in a 52-15 gearing, I cursed myself as I had to climb my way to Alpe d’Huez standing on the pedals at a cadence of around 40 rpm, all the while being unable to pedal the slightest bit on the downhill sections. I actually got caught up by a very recognizable US female rider (Isabel King, for those who know the LA cycling scene), and we finished the segment together in a weird pattern, as she would get away on the downhill sections and I would make up the lost terrain on the uphill ones.

I tried to diagnose my shifting issue myself at the end of the segment, but I was unable to find the culprit, so I decided to make my way down Alpe d’Huez and call for mechanical support at the feed station down in the valley, before starting the last timed segment of the day. The mechanics guy quickly opined I had simply ran out of battery, and proceeded to manually shift the rear derailleur into the highest 34 sprocket, giving me a chance to reach the top of the last climb of the day, in Les Deux Alpes. I didn’t have much choice at the time, but I feel I should have protested and asked for a neutral bike to finish the stage, as the next 12 rolling km leading to the bottom of the climb were the worst of the entire week: I literally couldn’t pedal past 18 km/h, which meant I basically had to freewheel my way towards the finish, and at the same time my 52-34 gearing was not especially comfortable either on anything above 6%. I lost around 10 min over 12 km in the valley before I finally reached the bottom of the climb and could settle into a more “racy” pace.

The climb was not a great time by any means, but it was slightly more bearable than the stretch in the valley, and at least I was able to pedal my way up, albeit at only 60-70rpm (against 85-95rpm for my preferred climbing cadence). My morale at this point was at an all-time low, as I could also feel I was only worsening some lingering knee pains. Still, the climb was shallow enough (9km at 6.5%) to allow me to reach the top without more desperate measures.

Looking at Strava times afterwards, I had actually done better than expected in the climb itself, finishing it in around 35min, but the time lost prior to it was highly consequential. I finished 96th over the day, and fell down to 65th in the overall classification. Not a surprise given how poorly I’d done in the first and third sections of the day. Last but not least, when I came home and plugged my Di2 cable, I could see the derailleur was still not turning on. I then went to see Mavic mechanical support, and we finally found the reason of my issue: in the bumpy descent of Col de Sarenne, the di2 cable connecting the rear derailleur to the battery in the seatpost had been caught in, and almost fully severed by the rear derailleur screw, which was unfortunately not tight enough.

With no bike shop with the correct replacement piece around, the mechanic proceeded to find a hack to re-connect the two pieces of the cable and make it hold for the remainder of the Haute Route. It seemed to be working, and I honestly did not have any other solution, so I could only hope for the best.

Day 4: Les Deux Alpes - Méribel (153 km / 4200 m+) // Stage: 69th / General : 65th

Stage 4 was the Queen stage of this year's Haute Route Alps, and probably the stage I dreaded most. It featured two mythical HC climbs from the Tour de France, the Col du Glandon and the Col de la Madeleine, as well as an uphill finish in the ski resort of Méribel, for a total of more than 4000 m of elevation, the most of any stage this year.

The first 30 km until the start of Col du Glandon were neutralized behind the race director’s car, including the descent from les Deux Alpes into the valley. This was particularly unnerving, as it meant descending the whole climb on your brakes in a field with more than 200 people. At this time of day—we started at 7am—, the weather was also noticeably chilly, hence it was crucial to wear sufficiently many layers before the start of the proper race itself. In the first ramps after the start of the first timed segment, the peloton immediately exploded in smaller groups and I settled into a mid tempo pace (around 230 W) that I hoped I could sustain until the top.

Col du Glandon is a very irregular climb, which “only” averages 5.5% over 25km, but in reality packs multiple climbs into one. The first part of the climb, before a first welcome respite, is about 6 km long with an average of 8% and took me about 25 min to complete. The gradient was sometimes hovering on the double digit area but remained overall steady enough. The second part of the climb is about the same distance and average gradient, but is an entire different story: it starts with 2 km at 10%+ and ramps up to 15%, requiring me not only to use my lowest 34 gear—luckily, I had installed a new cassette before Haute Route—but also to regularly alternate climbing positions and vary the pace a bit. Overall, I kept the same average power over the whole 90 min that the climb took to complete, and reached the top relatively satisfied with my performance. I took a few minutes to refuel and watch the spectacular views at the top before descending into la Chambre, which was the start of the second climb of the day. I had been warned the switchbacks in the descent were treacherous, so I made sure to stay very focused and alert, which is not a given when the whole descent lasts more than 20 min.

Col de la Madeleine was arguably the hardest climb of the day, a whopping 19 km at 8% average, and promised to keep me working for another 90 min. Unlike Col du Glandon though, it is remarkably regular, with the gradient rarely hovering over 10%, which makes it easier to find your rhythm. I settled into a slightly easier pace than on Col du Glandon (around 220 W), as the fatigue was starting to creep in and I wanted to make sure I could finish the climb strong. The effort itself was relatively uneventful: my pace felt reasonably challenging but never unsustainable, and as I was gaining altitude, I could witness the scenery around me slowly changing, from the valley floor to the more mountainous fields above 1600 m. The views of the mountains all around us were for me the definite highlight of the climb, making the effort more acceptable. 5 km from the top, I even increased my pace a bit and was able to finish the last 20 min catching up a few people along the way.

At the top, after the traditional picture, I refueled with the traditional mix of bananas, apricots, dried fruits and prosciutto, but my stomach was giving me unusual pain signals, and I could feel my gut loudly complaining. I was hoping it would subside in the descent and was only a byproduct of altitude and the effort, but it was a definite concern as there still remained around 1000 m of climbing to go. The descent was fast but unusually long (~25 km), keeping us on our toes as there were multiple ravines along the way. We finally arrived at the bottom, where the third and final segment of the day would start. My Canadian friend and I waited for a slightly larger group to join, as there was a 10 km timed stretch on the valley floor before the start of the final climb. I was feeling relatively okay at this time, but I could also feel my legs were tired from all the efforts of the day and the ones before. I realized quickly into the climb that it would be a daily low: my stomach was painful, my energy levels were low—despite eating and drinking as much as I reasonably could, and my RPE and power zones were getting more and more uncorrelated. I was struggling to maintain a steady pace, but luckily I had a friend to keep me company and he was controlling the pace quite well. After what seemed like an eternity, we were finally making our way into the ski resort, and were getting past the first mountain chalets, indicating there were only a few km remaining. At that point, every km was an internal struggle but luckily the gradient never went past 10%, allowing us to maintain a steady pace and cadence, even though at least 20-30W slower than on the previous climbs of the day. I reached the finish line completely exhausted after around 7h riding time, finishing 69th for the day, and still 65th in the overall standing. I had performed reasonably well in the first two climbs of the day, but had lost a significant amount of time in the last one.

Day 5: Méribel - Col de la Loze (TT 10 km / 850 m+) // Stage: 26th / General : 63rd

I was looking forward to day 5 from the start of Haute Route for two reasons: first, it would mean the hardest stages would be behind us, and second it would almost be a “rest” day, as we only needed to ride uphill for 10 km, and were staying in the same hotel two nights in a row. While both statements are technically correct, they are overlooking an ominous reality, that is the sheer difficulty of the climb of the day, the Col de la Loze. In some sense, and unlike the Tour de France riders who tackle it, we were lucky enough not to have to climb from the valley floor, since we had already ridden the first 12 km to Méribel the day before. However, the Col de la Loze is mostly infamous for its last 6 km, ridden on a newly paved bike path that also serves as a ski run during the winter. Amid breathtaking scenery, it averages around 10% during that section, but that number is incredibly misleading. In fact, it is a succession of 15-20% ramps (up to 24% max) followed by (too) short flatter sections.

My goal on this time trial was to start at a steady 4W/kg on the first 5 km, and then try to push harder on the steeps and recover on the flats. Easier said than done. The first part actually went according to plan: I averaged around 250W over the first 20 min of the course, and, although it was hard and I was feeling the effects of altitude, I still had a bit more to give if necessary.

And that turned out to be necessary. Even if I had been warned before, I don’t think one can prepare for this kind of effort: the last 20-ish minutes of the course were literally like a 30s-30s effort. I had to go over 300W in my lowest 34 gear just to keep moving up, and was trying to recover as much as possible when the slope would ease up a bit. At some point before a switchback about 2km from the finish, it became so insanely steep that I thought I would have to walk—I was later told that many ended up doing just that—but I managed to get past it using the “paperboy” technique for a little while. I could see one last 20+% ramp in the last 200m from afar, and I was able to muster all my will to punch through it standing on the pedals, almost closing my eyes to resist the temptation to sit down. I finally crossed the line in 43’21”, 26th on the day, which was a very satisfying result.

Day 6: Méribel - Megève (138 km / 3600 m+) // Stage: 55th / General : 57th

My feeling before the start of Stage 6 was ambiguous. While easier than Stages 1, 2 and 4, with climbs being generally shallower and shorter, it was also the first climb where descents would be timed and where I would not have as much time to refuel as usual. Indeed, we were supposed to climb Col du Tra (9km/7%) and Cormet de Roselend (19km/6%) without any stop in between, which means I had to be extra careful about fueling on the bike.

After a neutral (boring) descent and a few minutes in the valley, we turned right to start the ascent of the first climb of the day. True to my initial pacing idea, I didn’t even try to follow a specific group and immediately settled in a mid-tempo effort. I had noticed that, probably by lack of race experience, I didn’t really enjoy sudden changes of pace on climbs, where riders usually start very hard from the start before easing up, and I would actually pick up more riders and finish stronger by first allowing myself to get dropped. In short, I needed some time to find my rhythm, which a race does not alway allow, and that will be a point for future improvement. Back to our first climb of the day, my only desire was to find a group to work with for the short stretch in the valley before the Cormet de Roselend, which is exactly what I was able to do towards the summit. Indeed, after picking up some banana pieces and coke on the fly at a feed stop, I joined a group of a handful of riders in the descent, which quickly grew to about 20 riders. I was able to shelter in the wheels during the 15 km in the valley, taking a few pulls here and there, but globally saving energy as I intended.

I reproduced a similar pattern when Cormet de Roselend started. Not caring about others’ pace, I settled into an effort around 225W, but this time I wasn’t dropped from my group but instead got away from it, since stronger riders were already ahead of me. The Cormet de Roselend is not a hard climb in terms of gradient, since it almost never goes above 8%, but its length (19 km) still makes it a pacing challenge. I was able to keep a steady pace through the climb, and finished even slightly stronger than I had started, picking up a few riders along the way, which always feels more motivating.

I made sure to refuel properly at the top, and since day 6 was the first day where rain was forecast, I had managed to secure a change of clothes at the summit, and I was able to change into a warmer dryer jersey and baselayer. I didn’t stay at the top for too long as it was a bit chilly and the sky was looming, and instead started the 25 km descent to the bottom of the last climb of the day, the Col des Saisies. I briefly stopped at the Lac de Roselend for a picture on the way down, and otherwise kept it safe on the downhill, as it was wet in some spots.

The last climb of the day was around 12 km at 7%, but had notoriously harder last 3 km, hovering around 10%. In the days before, I had often struggled on the last climb of the day, hence I was motivated this time to keep pushing to the finish line. Additionally, there would be no stop at the top, as the chrono would only stop on the finish line in Megève, 23km from the summit. I had let one of my fellow riders start the segment a few minutes before I did, as I was confident I might catch him close to the summit and we could work together in the valley. I kept a steady but sustainable pace throughout the whole climb, averaging a very similar power as in the first two climbs of the day, which was a first win. Additionally, I was able to bridge the gap to my friend about 1km from the summit, and I took advantage of the few seconds I had at the feed stop to drink a coke and eat some bananas before I started the descent to Megève. It started to drizzle on the way down so we made sure not to take any risk, and then quickly arrived on the last 8 km stretch leading us to Megève. At this point, my friend told him he was feeling very fatigued, whereas I was still reasonably fresh, perhaps inspired by the thought of my girlfriend waiting for me in Megève, so I took a long tempo pull to lead us to the finish line. I finished 55th on the day, and climbed to 57th on the general ranking.

Day 7: Megève - Megève (99 km / 2400 m+) // Stage: 32nd / General : 55th

Last day of the Haute Route Alps, it is also the easiest stage on paper, less than 100km and “only” 2400m of climbing. I was feeling confident my legs would lead me to the finish line, but I hadn’t planned to wake up with such an intense pain on the outside of my left knee. The ride to the start line turned out very uncomfortable, each pedal stroke hurt, and I had genuine trouble pushing on the pedals. At this point, my only hope was that the pain subsided when the knee got warmer, otherwise the whole stage would be awful, especially since there was no break after km 14 today: it would be a race to the finish.

We started the first lump (about 2km) with cold legs, yet the pace immediately surged and multiple groups formed. Initially conservative, I progressively aimed to up my pace to assert how the knee reacted to a higher intensity effort, and I was slightly relieved to observe that it seemed to get better. I was even able to bridge the gap with a few groups towards the top of the climb, which I found reassuring.

The descent and flat segment leading to the bottom of Col de l’Epine went by fast, as I collaborated with a group of about 20 riders. The group soon exploded at the bottom of the climb, and while I was initially dropped, I settled into a sweet spot effort that allowed me to catch up to the fastest riders in the group and reach the top in their wake after a 20min effort. I then decided to momentarily stop at the feed station to grab a banana and refill a bottle, which cost me about 15s and forced me to produce a hard effort to come back in the descent—at this point, I deeply regretted not having someone hand me bottles. My goal in the next 10 km was then to recover and conserve some energy before the start of the main difficulty of the day, the Col de la Croix-Fry, a 12km climb at 7%.

The same pattern occured at the bottom: I let myself get dropped, preferring to climb at my own pace, and settled into a high tempo effort. As I worked my way up, I picked up a few dropped riders, even managed to increase my pace in the last 5km. At the top of the Col, I quickly drank a glass of Coke before heading down to the last climb of the Haute Route Alps, the Col des Aravis. While not a hard challenge (4km at 6%) by any means on that side, the climb is famous for its view of the Mont Blanc at the top, and I had been planning to stop for a picture at the top. However, little did I know that I would notice the group who had initially dropped me at the bottom of the Col de la Croix-Fry only a few meters in front of me. Seeing an opportunity not to be alone for the last km in the valley, I produced a hard effort in the last 2km to bridge the gap and caught the group right at the summit. I had now entirely forgotten about my photo idea, and instead followed the group on the descent.

For once, there were a lot of cars coming up at the same time, which forced us to remain careful and conservative. Some riders from the group briefly got away thanks to cars stuck between a few riders, but we soon caught up to them in the small climb following the descent of the Col des Aravis. Now only 8km from the finish, I started to realize that I would finish the Haute Route, but I tried to stay focused and enjoy the moment, also not wanting to make any last minute mistake. At this point, the pace in our group was quite sedate, and I didn’t have any trouble keeping up. Finally, after 3h30 of riding, including 3h of non-stop racing, I crossed the finish line and officially became a Haute Route finisher—I even got a medal. Last but not least, I finished 32nd on the day, my best result on a normal stage, and I climbed up two spots in the general ranking to end up 55th overall.

Reflecting on the event, there are a lot of positives to retain: I was able to ride at a strong pace 7 days in a row, and the evolution of my daily ranking suggests I even finished stronger than most. There is also some place for improvement: I think I could be more comfortable on longer climbs, and that I should work more on changes of pace, as that would allow me to better showcase my physical capacities in a race environment. Additionally, I am under the impression that I could also improve on nutrition: I actually gained some weight during the event, and was never sure I had the right balance between eating too much and too little. On some occasions, my stomach sent me some distressed signals, while I often lacked energy on the last climb of the day. Being able to better maintain my energy levels over the entire course of the ride is definitely the key to perform even better in this kind of stage races.

Thanks for reading!

Race Report: [2022 Dunnigan Hills W 4/5 & Master’s]

Race Report: [2022 La Verne Grand Prix - Women's P123]

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