Now the dust has settled

Packing up Rose at Nice airport

Well, I'm home now but what a way to finish a great adventure! Ventoux was the last of my climbs. From there I went to Nice for a few days before flying home to New Zealand. It was a great end to a fantastic adventure, but I suppose you want to hear about the numbers…

The climbs I did of Mont Ventoux really were a great way to end my trip. It is an iconic mountain that holds so much history, and by climbing it three times really showed me how far I had come since my first real climb, Kitzbuheler Horn, six or so weeks earlier.

Up the Kitzbuheler Horn I had no control over my heart or lungs, it was just an all out effort just t to make it to the top. The whole way up all I could think about was getting somewhere on the climb that I could make an excuse to have a rest and get my breath back. I never once thought I wouldn’t make it up, I just had to give everything to do it.

It didn’t take long though before my body started to adapt. I can remember after a week that things were already easier, and after three weeks when in the think of the Italian climbs I could climb, control my heart rate, and even had gears to spare going uphill. It really did amaze me just how incredible the body is at overcoming the stress you put it through.

Up Mont Ventoux, it was even more evident. I never once went to my lowest two gears even though I had all my bags on – I just didn’t need them. On that single day up Mont Ventoux I even did 3,000 metres more climbing than when doing Kitzbuheler Horn on my first day, and rode 70 kilometres  longer as well. And even though I wasn’t doing these climbs to be the fastest one or anything, I was certainly a lot faster climber at the end than at the beginning, even in my overly fatigued state.

It was at a cost though. I lost a lot of weight, how much I am unsure of as I still haven’t weighed myself. However, it was plainly evident when trying to put my clothes on when I arrived back home and swimming in them all. Even the items that were slightly on the tight side before leaving were now massive on me. I did also feel I had overcooked my body on this adventure. I wasn’t sore in the mornings, or I wasn’t dead tired or anything, but I could feel I could push all I wanted and my heart would not elevate, and I could feel my legs did not have much power left in them even after a good night’s sleep. Most annoyingly though was that my stomach could not take much of the available foods anymore. I guess there is only so many days that you can shovel the huge amount of additional calories into your body before your stomach gets tired of digesting all the carbs and sugars.

So, the numbers:

• 37 of 46 days cycling;
• On average each day cycling was 100 kilometres long and 2,200 metres of climbing;
• In total 3,725 kilometres were cycled;
• In total 80,482 metres were climbed (almost 10 times Mount Everest);
• I climbed 63 cols, but if you count three times up Ventoux and twice up Croix de Fer that makes 66 summits;
• The highest I ever got was 2,770 metres on the Col d’Iseran (highest mountain pass in Europe);
• I climbed six of the seven highest paved mountain passes in Eroupe (would have been all seven but Col de Bonnette was closed by the time I got there);
• Single longest climb was 2,157 metres up the Col de Telegraphe and Galibier;
• Most climbed in a day was 4,321 metres up Mont Ventoux;
• Steepest climb was Mura di Sormano (average 17% with maximum 25%); and
• Longest distance in one day was 167 kilometres. 

I guess one question a lot may ask is which was my favourite climb? I can’t answer that. Each climb, and the enjoyment I got from it, was no doubt influenced by the weather on the day, how I was feeling, the traffic, all of which are changeable. For example, when I climbed into the clouds going up Grand St Bernard it was amazing and really made the ride more enjoyable, but doing the same when going up Monte Zoncolon  and I was gutted as it meant I couldn’t see the views. What I do know though is that what I enjoyed the most was the rugged beauty; brown hills, rocky peaks, tussock, alpine meadows and single lane dodgy roads. For this Italy was best but that is probably because in Italy more of the climbs naturally finished a lot higher there, above the tree line.

I also really enjoyed the feeling you get when your front wheel starts to roll onto a climb that is steeped in history - you get this sudden feeling of awe of what you are about to do, and of what so many others, both famous and not so famous, have already done. In this respect I enjoyed France more, but that is probably only because the Tour gets more coverage here in New Zealand and so I knew of more climbs and their history before setting off.

So overall, you just can’t go wrong no matter where you go in search of climbs in the area as there will always be something amazing to see or feel. You just have to do it!

I have already been asked if I would do it again, and if so what would I change?  Well, would I do it again? HELL YES!!!! What would I change? Ummmm, that’s a bit harder to answer.

I was happy with the bike choice and the light credit card touring nature in which I did it. It still brought frustrations as I could not always find accommodation as easy as I would have liked, but I never got to the point where I was really worried about where I would sleep that night – there was always somewhere and the most I had to go was an additional 20 kilometres to find it. I am glad to not have taken a tent and camped both after seeing quite a few who did take a tent (and kitchen sink it seemed) struggle up those mountains, and it seemed to me that it would also be very hard to find a place to camp most days.

I did get frustrated with finding food, and I put that down to the quiet villages you pass when in the mountains as opposed to the bigger cities. I did work it out towards the end but I just wrongly assumed that food would be easy to find. Instead, I was often limited to a single restaurant (no supermarkets, fast food places or any other food sources in most small towns) which had a single set menu for that day designed around the calorie intake of a non cyclist. Supermarkets were just hard to find, and often if you did find one choice of food was very limited – muesli bars were the hardest to find unless you wanted minimal calorie weight watchers type ones. Even patisseries were hard to find until I got to the Sourthern Alps. Although the food was hard to find, going through these small villages really got you up close and personal to the real France and Italy instead of what you see in the touristy spots or major cities, and I would not change that aspect at all.

The blog did take up a lot of down time and was a bit frustrating at times, and did mean I had to take a few extra kilograms with me up most climbs (tablet, chargers, cables etc all add up). Once again though, I really wanted to document this so I could come back to it in future years when my memory fails me and remember what I did. It certainly would have been easier to not have done the blog, but I would have regretted it for ever and a day if I had forgone it. I would certainly invest in the best tablet I could find next time as my HP Stream tablet was horrific at best and caused a lot of stress, frustration and delays. I believe it is also the culprit that wiped every single photo from this trip from my camera so I am even more furious with it. Luckily I still have the photos and video from my Garmin Virb still or I would be really upset!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, what else would I change? By the time I left it was really getting very cold up those mountains. If, however, I had gone earlier in the year I would have instead had to put up with 35+ degrees of heat day in day out. I had a few of those days and am glad it was only a few as like the saying goes when it gets hot you can only take off so many clothes to get cool, but when it gets cold you can always put on more clothes. In the heat I had to occasionally stop and dunk myself in the town fountain to cool down, so once again even though the cold may have been frustrating I am glad it was more cold than hot when I went. I would, however, take more warm clothes than I did – a light jacket and light vest were not enough to keep warm on those descents in the snow!

I did, along the way, bust a lot of myths and initial concerns though.

• French and Italians are so rude. Even though I literally only knew how to say, very poorly, “can I have….”, “do you have…”, “”please”, and “thank you” in the various languages not once was I turned away or not spoken to because of this. Everyone I met would bend over backwards to help me or try and communicate somehow so I could get what I wanted. Maybe it was because I was not in the tourist traps? This was by far the biggest myth busted.
• You need to have a light bike to climb those mountains. Wrong. I saw fully laden cycle tourists climbing up, classic steel frame 20kg bikes, bikes with trailers, folding bikes, dual suspension mountain bikes, anything and everything. Might be easier if you are lighter, but you can get up these climbs on anything.
• You need to be so fit to climb those mountains. Wrong. I saw people of all sorts of fitness giving it a go and succeeding. There were people who looked like they had not ridden a bike in 30 years, people who looked like they hadn’t left the couch in 30 years, as well as the super slim and speedy heading up.  You may not get up there with the smoothness of a gazelle, but anyone can get up given enough time. 

I do find those last two myths quite interesting as there really was an air of how massive the mountains are and how you have to be perfect before going there to climb them. I searched online and I asked a few people for some advice on climbing these mountain passes to try and prepare as best I could – coming from literally the other side of the world the climbs really hold this mythical status really. Invariably the answer was always that you can’t prepare. Having now done 63 passes, do I agree? Yes, and no.

Can you prepare physically? It is very hard to replicate the burn and suffering you endure for up to two, maybe two and a half hours without a break as you climb a high mountain pass. You can work on it with smaller hills or on a wind trainer though to get stronger before attempting them and that will certainly help a lot. Your body is amazing though and after a few climbs will adapt to what you are pushing it through.  You may not be the fastest but you will be able to do it!

What you cannot prepare for though is just the sheer exhilaration and sense of achievement when you get to the top of a climb, look down or look at the view and know that you climbed up there, one pedal stroke at a time, from the very bottom to the very top and that you, and you alone, conquered that mountain. Nothing can prepare you for that feeling!

So, where to from here for me? Well, the legs may need a wee rest first but my next big adventure is the Tour Aotearoa in Febuary which is a 3,000 kilometre self-supported brevet ride the length of New Zealand (http://www.touraotearoa.nz). Before that I will do a mixture of single and multiday events like the K2 (200km), Taupo (320km), Queenstown to Picton Randonee (1,000km), Great Southern Brevet (1,100km offroad), as well as the occasional overnight bikepack just for fun.

Thank you to all of you who followed my adventure through this blog – your comments were uplifting (sorry didn’t reply to many), and even if you didn’t post a comment just seeing the number of visits the blog was getting each day was enough to lift my spirits in times of need. Will start to sift through all the video I have and put up some clips on youtube so keep checking in every now and then if you want to see what some of the climbs were like in moving pictures.

Oh, and have a read of this month’s NZ Bike magazine if you want to read about my Gavia climb in glossy print. 

Last days in Nice before flying home