Campbell Hutcheson

Chung......looking fine for Sunday ! and maybe a special guest appearance from Ronaldinho Campbell H

yes nice cycle run today and good company ! Al.....je vous remercie pour le dejeuner ! Campbell H

nice bike skills...! fantastic... http://youtu.be/G_6lSLuwU6Q Campbell H

mistake sorry take the word ' my " out !

Good evening Dennis.......will be able to join you tomorrow morning after all ! two more... myself and my Ronnie ! sorry for the very late confirmation ! will be great to see you again ! hope weather is kind ! Thankyou....Campbell H

Hi Chung.....typical racers ! don't know where the f*** their going eh You wanna good time? Campbell H

Hi Chung.....yes quite fancy this mate ! looks fairly straight forward eh ! should be finished for about 1pm nice wee link and makes interesting reading ! speak to you soon ....Campbell H <p> cycling ascents Cycling Ascents – Living and Cycling in the French Alps Search Main menu 875] Skip to primary content 875] Skip to secondary content 875] Home About Me 875] Post navigation ↠Previous Next→ Riding ‘La Vaujany’ Sportive Posted on July 3, 2012 4 I’d signed myself up for the La Vaujany (a local 175km sportive) with my cycling club quite a while back. The idea was that being the week before the Marmotte , the big daddy of all sportives (which I’m also doing), it would be a good warm up. I say warm up, as even though the distance is the same, on paper the Vaujany has 3850 metres of vertical climbing, while the Marmotte has over 5000 metres. So in theory, the Vaujany should be easy. No? No. I had done another sportive in the Alps last year – the Marco Pantani. I did a terrible job of pacing myself (ie not at all) and ended up suffering like a dog for the last two climbs of the day. I was determined not to do the same, and convinced that if I stuck to my plan that everything would go much more smoothly. The startline Right at the start I got it wrong – I never normally drink coffee, but when I arrived at the start and had a little time to kill, there was a complementary coffee stand put on by the organisers. Why not I thought – normally caffeine keeps me up all night, even if I have just one coffee in the morning but I was sure that I’d be burning enough energy today to have me sleeping that night no problems. Some good advice (that I already knew but at the time didn’t occur to me) is not to do anything different or new on race day…. What I didn’t count on was that my carefully planned self imposed heart rate limits would get all screwed up by two things – race adrenaline and a coffee when I don’t normally drink any caffeine. So after the descent down towards Grenoble, and the obligatory chase to find a group going at a good speed I was comfortable with we hit the first climb of the day, the Col de La Morte (1368m). My legs felt fine, but my heart rate was higher than I wanted, however I just blamed the coffee and ploughed on. The weather wasn’t great – and we were soon climbing up into the clouds. You couldn’t see a thing – it was like being in really thick fog. After climbing for an undetermined amount of time (my Garmin had annoyingly stopped all on its own for some reason) I got to the top. Time for two bottle refills and getting the waterproof on for the descent. Going down the other side was much better than I imagined – the cloud base was much higher than it was when going up, and we soon broke through them. Knowing these descents quite well, I was able to make good time down them and pass quite a few riders (although probably not as many who passed me on the way up!) but ended up on my own after I didn’t stop at the next feed station. Everyone I caught seemed to be going at a snails pace so I pushed on on my own. After a descent into the valley with a couple of short uphill sections thrown in, I was motoring along towards the Col D’Ornon (1367m). This part, whilst not flat, was only a few percent incline so I was happy to find a couple of guys who caught me up and seemed happy to push on, us all taking a turn to go on the front. Unfortunately, my front derailleur decided to play up at this point, and I lost my chain while changing down. Whilst I was pedalling furiously trying to get the chain back on, I felt a hand on my back and I suddenly sped up! One of the other guys I was riding with pushed me along whilst I got the chain back on so we could stay together as a group. After many ‘merci’s’ I had it sorted but had only gone another km when it happened again. Again I got a free push but this time I couldn’t get it back on – I told my very kind fellow cyclist that I appreciated his help but I would have to stop to sort it out (well that’s what I imagined I said in French – I doubt the sentence was that well constructed but he seemed to understand and disappeared in a flash). Whilst I was struggling with my chain all the people who I’d passed on the downhill and flat section passed me, which was a little demoralising… Finally I got the chain back on and decided to be very careful with any more gear changes. I slowly caught a group by the time the next ascent started proper – and with the fact that I had only done one climb out of the four so far and the big one was yet to come, stuck with this group till the top of the Col D’Ornon. Again, I really made up some time on the descent (as I know the Col D’Ornon better than the Col de La Morte – being only about 5 km from my house!). As I got to the bottom and rode onto the long flat section back up towards the next climb, I was again on my own. But yet again I had help – this time from a couple of cyclists (not in the race) that I passed, noticed that I was in a race, then flew past me. I jumped on the back and got a really good tow – nearly too fast as it was hard work to keep up! After they turned off, and more ‘merci’s’ delivered it was time to settle down for the long climb up the the Col du Sarenne, the big one of the day at 2000 metres. At this point the rain, which had been intermittent and light enough to ignore, started in earnest. It may have been coincidence, but after about 10 minutes of this I started to feel decidedly knackered. I could only manage a feeble pressure on my pedals, and despite having caught up the guy who kindly gave me two pushes (after the fast descent and tow along the flat) I just had to let him go again as I limped up the back way towards Alpe D’Huez. Thankfully, after arriving at Villard Reculas, where I stopped to get more drink (it’s amazing how hard it is to get powder out of a plastic bag into a bottle when you are cold, wet, and really tired) the rain eased off and I could even risk taking off my rain jacket as the sun came out. It wasn’t to last long though, as before I’d made it into Alpe D’Huez properly, the rain came down again, hard this time, along with a pretty fierce wind whipping over the tops of the mountains. The road to the Col de Sarennes is not great at the best of times, but with stinging rain and gusts pushing me across the road every now and again it really wasn’t much fun. The next few kilometers up to the summit of the Col de Sarennes were very much a ‘why am I doing this?’ moment. Needless to say, I ploughed on (I can be really stubborn – just ask Delphine) and here for once it was very useful attribute. The descent down the other side was no fun at all – steep gradient, gravel, wind, rain, and even some psychos who were descending faster than I was all combined to make a pretty nervous 20 minutes, before the road surface got better and I could relax a little. This is where I realised that my hands were too numb to get my sunglasses out my pocket – not needed for the sun, but the massive amounts of gritty road water being sprayed up from the rear wheels of the cyclists I was following. At that point I was pretty pleased to get to the front to have my turn – and also encouraged in that I felt much better than I did after the painful drag up the last climb. Eventually I thawed out enough to get the shades back on and we were motoring along the same flat section we’d ridden after Col D’Ornon, headed towards the last climb of the day, up to the ski station of Vaujany. Now I’d only done this climb twice before in 1 1/2 years of living in the area, so I was a little shaky on the details. It was much steeper than I anticipated, but as I was feeling better I decided to push it a little and started catching a few people, my friendly cyclist with a helping hand included. Mercifully, the 3km to go sign came up pretty quickly, and I managed to keep the good pace right to the line and collect a few other riders. I crossed the timing mat after 7 hours and 34 minutes, at an average speed of just under 23 km/h for the 175km and 3850 metres of climbing. It was by no means just a ‘warm up’ for the Marmotte, but I definitely think I’ve learnt a thing or two I can apply in next weekends race! (For accommodation for La Vaujany, La Marmotte, the Marco Pantani or other sportives in the area, check out our accommodation in Bourg D’Oisans) 4 This entry was posted in Races by Kevin. Bookmark the permalink. 3 THOUGHTS ON “RIDING ‘LA VAUJANY’ SPORTIVE†http://0.gravatar.co...523536?s=68&r=GDave Clough on July 5, 2012 at 8:03 pm said: Well done Kevin, enjoyed the read, but thought these Sportive’s where not supposed to be races Reply ↓ http://1.gravatar.co...523536?s=39&r=GKevinon July 5, 2012 at 9:09 pm said: Indeed not, they are mass participation timed events….. Reply ↓ http://1.gravatar.co...523536?s=39&r=GKevinon July 5, 2012 at 9:09 pm said: Lets face it that means race doesn’t it? Reply ↓ Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Name* Email* Website Comment Proudly powered by WordPress

Bourg D'Oisan France. http://youtu.be/H-CCt2NhwCU Campbell H

Too flat for me ! need to be a Tour de France mountain stage or La Marmotte thats a real challenge ! Port de Bales ! through the gates of hell ! done it ! Etape du Tour 2007 Foix to Loudenvielle....... Campbell H

Nice climb and another fantastic area of France ! get into the mountains ! http://youtu.be/krqO1h7mnVE Campbell H

Nice wee Sportive in Argeles-Gozost near the bottom of the Col du Tourmalet in France ! http://youtu.be/7Hq1VlaZS2U 6 Legends and 1200 hopefuls ! 20 Yellow Jerseys between them ! 385 Combined age ! Fantastic...! Campbell H

Hi..... Lucky White Heather ! Campbell H

Hi.... one for the Ayrshire boys enjoy ! Campbell H

Hi Chung.......forgot to thankyou for lunch at the Cree Inn and tea Barr viilage ! Next time on me ! Campbell H

Hi.. Thanks Tony for a fantastic day ! great roads and wonderful scenery and good company ! real club cycling ! and a opportunity to visit my uncle in Barr village, thanks Al and Chris for waiting ! Back in Alloway all together for 6pm ! Chapeau Tony..

Hi..... I am collecting Chung tomorrow morning and going to Ayr ! hope weather is kind to us....! don't fancy another Largs run boring ! Campbell H

Nice Mountain Climb ! Campbell H

Allan....think you mean the diddy Etape ! Campbell H

Hi..... spoke to Bill Thomson this afternoon and he is in good form and well on the road to recovery ! said will be " back on the bike soon " Campbell H

good run today in fine weather and good company very enjoyable ! and a special guest appearance from Ronnie Chard and Julie Rattery on their touring tandem ! ....fantastic ! Campbell H

Hi..... Two Ballons and a Whistle for me too ! Campbell H

Hi Al..... The Dales Special well done mate ! what about some photos from Down Under ! Campbell H

Thank you Dennis and Morag for a wonderful and special day ! nice to see so many familiar faces and good friends again....! fantastic route and out standing scenery ! a day to celebrate real club cycling ! Chapeau Dennis ! Campbell H

Hi....yes a great weekend...! fantastic cycling....wonderful scenery and good company ! must thank Billy Mac for the arrangement he made for my entry... ....! time...04.16.06....09.06 well done everyone... Campbell H

Hi Billy.... the Etape Caledonia entry is it still available ? my phone number...07860-629517... Thanks.....Campbell H