{"id":51,"date":"2018-10-21T14:14:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T04:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willblake.com\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2018-10-21T17:56:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T07:56:31","slug":"haute-route-alps-2018","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/willblake.com\/?page_id=51","title":{"rendered":"Haute Route Alps 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve put in quite a bit of effort this year in preparation for the Haute Route<\/a> Alps ride and it’s now time to share a little\u00a0 of that experience.\u00a0 There a few other detailed accounts of the ride on the web but they seemed to relate to riders younger and faster than me so I’ve a few things to add.\u00a0 For those who may not know, Haute Route run commercial. amateur, supported multi-day cycling events. Their annual Alps event is their premiere offering and has been described as the world’s hardest amateur cycling event.<\/em><\/p>\n

About me<\/strong>. I’m a 45yo surgeon working full time and not a particularly accomplished cyclist.\u00a0 I tended to run mainly during my 30s and completed a bunch of distance events including two marathons.\u00a0 My best marathon time is 3 hours 31 minutes which is neither fast not super slow.\u00a0 Running was starting to cause injuries which were making me increasingly despondent, so, around the age of 40 I bought a bike and some lycra.\u00a0 I subsequently rode a number of single day events around my part of Victoria, Australia and in 2017 I was looking for a challenge.<\/p>\n

The event.<\/strong> The HR Alps is a seven day, seven stage event run in the French Alps each year.\u00a0 The course is different each year but typically around 400 cyclists complete 800km with 20,000m of climbing.\u00a0 Those numbers are terrifying but I didn’t realise how terrifying until after I was committed.\u00a0 This year the course was North to South, finishing in Nice and the event ran in the last week of August.<\/p>\n

Entry.<\/strong>\u00a0 A friend challenged me to enter the HR at just the right time but I looked the event up and thought he was mad.\u00a0 I discussed it with my personal trainer who encouraged me to give it some serious thought so a week later, after a couple of drinks and a long series of text messages we both signed up on the same evening in November 2017.\u00a0 That meant the event was almost nine months away.\u00a0 The series of challenges quickly became obvious:<\/p>\n