After a years break we were all back again to ride the big one, the Daddy, La Marmotte (last year we had taken a holiday in Italy riding a snowy Gran Fondo). This year saw many new riders having a go, Steve Smith & best friend Pete McGowen, James Atkinson & girlfriend Michelle, Jack & Kevin Macklam to name a few. Denise Shackleton (Yorkshire Velo) was so inspired by the event that she immediately declared that she would be back next year but wearing YRC colours, watch this space. Cyclo cross ace Steve Barnes (Seacroft Wheelers) drove all the way to Alpe D'Huez from Leeds, taking all the bikes in his team bus (Denise said this was becuase he was afraid of flying). We also had several Iron Men triathletes taking part, friends of the cyclo cross ace. However, this year badly letting the side down were Russ Hepton and Graham Heath. They went & rode the course, but on motorbikes. The years have have had an effect I'm afraid, nowadays they look better in leather rather than lycra.

The Day Before - As usual the weather was nice, well into the 30's which would make climbing Alpe D'Huez more fun tomorrow. Pete McGowen had driven up the Alpe to sign on & was a gibbering wreck, he had just realised that the Gran Fondo he had been riding for the last few years was like a club run in comparison,

As usual, we tested the bikes by descending a few kilometers down the mountain then riding back up then having some lunch. The 'Iron men' rode all the way down the Alpe, then raced each other back up! They hadn't ridden the event before before and were not aware of what might be needed the day after. Russ and Graham rode the entire course on their motorbikes, I don't think that counts though.

Dave, Alistair, Mike, Steve Barnes, Mark, Denise, Michelle("I'm definitely riding it next year") and James

Race Day

A chilly early morning descent of Alpe D'Huez was followed by a half hour nervous wait for the start. Then we were off, it was like riding with the chaingang, Steve Barnes hadn't ridden it before and he had set off at full race pace. 10 miles later he was still at it on the climb of the Glandon, until Mark Hunter pointed out that he would still be climbing it for another hour and 45 minutes. Everyone settled into their own race for what was turning out to be another red hot day in the Alps, maybe not the 40 degrees that Dave Lloyd thought but well into the 30's again. Russ waited halfway up Alpe D'Huez to pour cold stream water over us, very nice but it does stop you breathing for 30 seconds, which isn't so good when climbing. First home was Mark Hunter in just over 8 hours, a good ride this year again, but can he crack the magic sub-8 next year? Everyone else came home in varying states of distress with never again tales of suffering, heroic descending and saddle soreness. Steve Barnes 'Iron Men' friends finished well and thought that the Marmotte was right up there with an 'Iron Man' triathlon for toughness. After a meal and two or three beers though & it was all about next year and how to ride it faster.

Russ Hepton attached a headcam to his motorbike to film Steve Smith and Pete McGowen descending the Galibier at speeds of up to 50mph. Anyone who has ridden with Pete McGowen will know that it takes an extraordinary amount of courage to just be on the same road as him, never mind a descent with big drops to the side of the road. "Never again" said a visibly shaken Russ afterwards.

Fondo Forever - by Steve Smith

The Fondo boys, Steve Smith, Kev Macklam, Pete McGowen, Peter and a topless Jack Macklam

After riding one of the hardest Sportives in Europe for the past 2 years Pete McGowen and I decided we would see what all the fuss was about with the “Dixon Domestiques” and take on the Marmotte.

After arranging with Dicko to follow him to Bourg d'Oisans we collected our rental car only to find Pete and I at the front with Dicko bringing up the rear, Jack & Kev still somewhere in Switzerland. Pete’s map reading skills and directions found us a pizza delivery boy to point us in the right direction; finally we reached our accommodation to find Jack & Kev had already eaten their evening meal.

The next morning turned out to be not for the faint hearted as we went to sign on. Jack had forgotten that he had retired from GB team driver as he crushed boulders leaving a wake of gravel behind. We ascended the Alp to HQ taking in 2 speed bumps at 50 mph putting the Mondeo estate to further test.

Race day arrived and we finally got to the start after Pete had adjusted the food in his jersey numerous times only for it to fall out when he put it on. The ride certainly lived up to all the hype descending the Galibier was an excellent experience and can be viewed above thanks to our own camera man for the day Russ Hepton. Reached the bottom of the Alp with Pete and then it was every man for himself on the ascent to the finish. Unfortunately Pete punctured which added to his overall time. Overall a well organised and great event, but easier than the Gran Fondo Campagnolo.

From Seacroft Wheelers web site

Steve masters La Marmotte, 4 July.

Less than a week after an extended 'warm-up' ride in the White Rose Challenge Steve Barnes was in the French Alps alongside literally thousands of other cyclists to tackle one of the most coveted sportives on the calendar, La Marmotte. Taking in some of the legendary climbs of the Tour de France including the Cols du Glandon, Telegraphe and Galibier the 174 kilometres culminate on the most fêted mountain top finish of the modern era, l'Alpe d'Huez. In baking 35 degree temperatures even Steve remarked that the famous 21 hairpins were 'tough' as he finished in just over 8 hours to join a select group of club members with the Marmotte 'T shirt'

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The Marmotte from the perspective of a true perennial – By Dave Dixon

Just to point out to some of the above contributors, there actually was a Marmotte held in 2008 and more to the point, there is a core of true hardy YRC riders who rode both that year and this, namely Alistair, Mark H and yours truly. Funnily enough, as it happens, all these riders managed to put in a time, that year, that, in his absence, eclipsed Grahams best effort comfortably but we will say no more about that!

For myself this years event was something of a disappointment, eventually pottering round in 9 hours 55 mins, some 40 minutes slower than last years PB, this failure I largely put down to me being a bit of a wuss after letting some trifling early season accident, on a reliability ride, affect my legendary descending skills. Indeed, so much so, that after climbing the Croix de Fer, pretty much on schedule for a PB, and in reasonable shape, the subsequent descent of the Glandon quickly developed into 40 minutes or so of pure terror, with rims at melting point and eyes closed in expectant anticipation of a tube bursting and sending me down a ravine (an experience that, some will know, I am familiar with, after an earlier trifling incident in the 2006 event). This inauspicious descent saw me arriving at the foot of the telegraph some ten minutes behind schedule, the ascent of the telegraph was hot and hard and James passed me here, for ½ an hour, looking nice and fresh, which always makes you feel good!!!. Then having met up with big brother Mike and James at the Galibier base camp for food, a feed stop where, incidentally, some reports have it that a young Pete McGowen, of Gran Fondo Fame, was said to be near delirious and having to be coaxed off his bike so as not to attempt a suicidal ascent of the Galibier un-fed and un-watered! Anyway, here I recovered somewhat and managed to climb the Galibier well, managing not to cry this year, and passed both big brother and James on the ascent, James seemingly going through something of a bad patch, regretting his casual glibness when he passed me on Telegraph me thinks!  At the summit of the Galibier, I waited for Big Brother to arrive, but set off on the descent before him as storm clouds were threatening and I was getting cold. This descent is better than the Glandon and I felt a little more assured, until a few miles down when big brother passed me shouting some typically encouraging remarks like “what you f***ing doing Dave there’s a traffic Jam behind you” buoyed with confidence from the ringing brotherly support, I proceeded to lose so much time on the descent that I was half an hour down on schedule at foot of Alpe DHuez., this ascent was typically hot and hard, but having decided not to crucify myself as I was so far off a PB, I eventually finished in reasonable shape if a little disappointed. An evening of much merriment followed as the pain of the day dissipated and every ones alcohol fueled tails of the days events took on ever more unbelievable proportions, though but most vowed to return for another dose of the same in 2010.

For Mark H and myself, the true perennials, we both mused, after the event, that we had both recorded our PB’s in 2008, in that year we had both ridden the Gran Fondo, along with many of this years Marmotte team, an Italian sportive, recommended by Steve and Pete. So maybe, we thought, the Fondo proved to be a decent warm up for the big event, however, with its excess of descending, downhill finish, less climbing spread over a longer distance and being held in the more favorable climate of early June, it can never prepare you for the last 10 grueling miles of the Marmotte, 10 miles played out on cycling’s most infamous stage, the seemingly endless hair pinned ascent of Alpe D’Huez, usually in temperatures exceeding 30 C, an experience few forget, but I’ll be back for more in 2010.

The 2008 heroes take centre stage. Flanked by Mike ‘Iron man’ Dixon, seemingly forgetting to breath-in for the shot, and Virgin James Atkinson (Marmotte virgin that is!)

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MARMOTTE PAST MASTERS GIVE THE REST A CHANCE - by Graham Heath (Marmotte PB 9:42:26)

Russ admiring the view after begging me to go a bit slower	That’s how to get up the Galibier – not even out of breath

After recording a famous 1-2 victory in the last Marmotte, Graham Heath and Russell Hepton decided to give the others a bit of a break and sit out this year’s event.  I know some of you will think that we may have been a bit hard on ourselves, but I will never forget seeing the pain on Mark Hunter’s face as he realised that he was a broken man on hairpin four. That memory is still etched on my mind, and of course I don’t like talking about it, so I have decided to ‘play it down’ a bit from now on – if fact, I will hardly ever mention it again! 

We decided to go for a different type of event this year and went for a full tour on motorcycles.  The only rules were that on the first day that we didn’t arrive in the resort of Annecy at 7 O’clock in the evening, and Russ, true to his word , made sure that didn’t happen – we arrived at 10 O’clock instead.  If you think that riding a push bike is fun in the Alps, then you should try it on a motorbike. It really is something that I believe all cyclists would enjoy.

When we arrived at the digs in Alp d’huez, we were met by Steve Barnes’s mates who immediately presented us with cold beers – top lads!  Of course, we almost felt a bit guilty about not actually riding our push bikes – but it didn’t last!  With the ‘big guns’ out of the event, it was the time for the others to shine. Rumour had it that ‘Iron Man’ Dixon was likely to step up to the plate – but once again, he crumbled under the pressure and came in with a PB of about 13 hours! (actually 9hrs 39mins beating Graham’s PB)

On the day of the event we stopped at various places on the course, giving the gang a cheer and some moral support (including those famous lies of - your nearly there now!). The weather seemed a little bit cooler than in previous years and it seemed that it would be a good year to compete, that said, whilst riding the motorbike up Alp D’huez the needle went off the temperature gauge, something that it has never done before or since.  Maybe it wasn’t as cool as I thought!

Although it was a lot easier than actually riding the event, we did have some pressure when riding in the middle of the bunch.  Whether it is all the footage from the great classics showing motorcycles in amongst the peloton I don’t know, but the riders were happy to surround us at every opportunity.  This was never a problem until we came to the downhill hairpins, what people don’t realise is that a motorbike needs a lot more room to get round a bend than a push bike!  I think the fastest we clocked any of the riders was at just over 50mph down the Galiblier ( I think that it was Pete McGowen out of control!)

Ever since the event, me and Russ have been inundated with attempts to get us to do the event next year, it seems it that Mike Dixon just can’t hack it under the spotlight and wants us to give him another ride as a domestique!  So you never know, if I can get rid of these extra couple of pounds I have put on, then I should be able to give Mark another stuffing! (Sorry I forgot that I said I wouldn’t mention again!)

After travelling 3 miles up a mountain track, Russ discovers that the map is upside down and we are lost– team leader my a***

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