Grand Raid Cristalp
The weeks leading up to my trip to Switzerland were disappointing in terms of training. For reasons out of my control I wasn’t able to train as much or as hard as I wanted, so when the time came to leave for Switzerland with nothing to do except for ride a bike all week I couldn’t wait to unpack the bike and climb some mountains! After a few days with a set of Vittoria Rubino slicks fitted to the Focus Raven MTB I was able to sample the best of the Swiss roads as well as the trails. The first few days were spent on the asphalt, with all the big mountain passes around Verbier done, including a massive day with 4200m of vertical climbing. The rest of the week was spent on the MTB on the trails around Verbier and checking out the first section of the Grand Raid course.
Saturday came around far too quickly and I was up at 4.30am ready for a 6am start where over 3000 riders would start from 4 different villages along the route. The start from Verbier was the long route over 137km and has over 5600m of vertical ascent. My Focus Raven was in perfect condition and weighing in at under 20lbs, so I knew it would flew up the long climbs! A few changes were made to what I normally carry compared to a UK marathon, with a few extra tools and plenty of gels in the back pockets and some even held in my shorts. I had been granted a priority race start, which meant I was able to start near the front of the pack, a big bonus with such a large field. With typical Swiss precision the race started at exactly 6am and the pace was rather quick to say the least! A lead group of 20 or so riders had formed and were motoring up the first climb which went from Verbier at an altitude to 2200m. It was probably the easiest climb of the race, but it was by no means an easy climb! 7Km and 35 minutes later I was at the top, just 2 minutes behind the lead group, including some world class marathon racers. A quick traverse followed with a fantastic view over towards Mont Blanc where the rising sun was bouncing off the snow capped peaks. Then we dropped off the top down a lightning fast descent back down to 1400m, through a mountain village before starting the second climb of the day. This climb was altogether more difficult, with a more varied gradient and rougher surface, the very top was extremely steep and had me breathing hard. As I was only carrying a 750ml bottle I would have to reply on the feed stations along the way to keep hydrated so I grabbed a bottle at the top, but it was a real lottery as to the contents.
There was no chance to rest as the course immediately pointed downhill, with a rather ominous triple down arrow sign. Maybe I was a little eager to get back down or too confident in my abilities, but I had rolled off the edge of what was very nearly a vertical grassy bank, still wet with the morning dew carrying far too much speed. I grabbed the brakes, trying my best to feather them and prevent them locking up, then tried switched lines in the hope it would help; big mistake, I just went faster! I could see a pretty deep drainage ditch approaching and my only hope was to try and hop over it, but my back wheel hit the far edge and threw me into the air. I landed hard and watched the bike bounce down the hill in front of me. I seemed unhurt and to my amazement when I reached the bike it was totally unscathed! I walked the remainder of the slope, loosing a place in the process.
After quickly checking myself and the bike over I started riding again, although I had lost a bit of confidence and riders behind were catching me. I tried to follow one of them, but his skills were more honed than mine on the marble like gravel surface and I knew that I would end up crashing again if I tried to stick with him. The remainder of the descent was a mixture between lightning fast gravel roads, technical woodland singletrack and slippery grassy trails and I made it down at my own pace. As soon as I was able I tried the random drink I had picked up at the previous feed stop, the taste was strange but I realised after a while that it was Iced Tea… I quite liked it, in fact it was very refreshing.
I was relived to reach the next village and start climbing again as it gave me a chance to compose myself. It was on the next climb that I looked down and saw blood on my legs and arms from where I fell. It looked bad, but I wasn’t in pain so carried on regardless. The next few climbs were shorter, each with only 400-500m of height gain and they seemed to pass by fairly quickly. After 3.5hrs, 68km and 2400m climbing done I had reached a village called Héremence, roughly halfway although from what I had heard the second half would be far tougher. The climb out of the village was fantastic, by now it was approaching mid-morning and the locals from all the villages and towns were out to support all the riders; “allez, allez, hop, hop hop!!” I must have heard that cheer hundreds of times over the day but it spurred me on each time. I could not believe the amount of people out to watch the race and the level of support we were getting, it was like nothing I have ever experienced before. Part of the climb through a small village was particularly memorable, as we were riding on steep, narrow paved trails which were lined with people.
Passing the next feed station I took the chance to grab another bottle – more Iced Tea, Fantastic! Then it was only the long climb to the Mandelon, which started on the road before turning to dirt and zig-zagged its way upwards to the highest point of the course so far. I had been riding alongside one particular Swiss rider for some time and although we didn’t exchange a single word, mainly due to level of exertion we seemed to understand each other and were working well together and caught some of racers ahead. Towards the top of the climb, at about 2300m the trail turned rougher and steeper and my silent partner slowly drifted away. Once we reached the peak at 2400m I thought it would turn downhill immediately, as most of the other climbs had done but what followed was an undulating section with large rocks which needed precision and short sharp bursts of power to clear. Unfortunately I was starting to feel the effects of the efforts required so far and I was finding the section really hard and had to keep stopping to overcome obstacles that I would probably have cleared if I was fresh. At the same time I was catching riders who had set off on the shorter routes and although most were literally jumping out of the way it still slowed me down at times. There was a big sigh of relief as the descent became a gravelled double track and the speed picked up rapidly down to the next village of Evolène in the valley below.
By now it was getting extremely hot, near 30 degrees and I knew I needed to take on as much fluids as possible. I grabbed another bottle, hoping it was more Iced Tea, but it was some kind of energy drink which wasn’t quite as nice. I drank it quickly and also took a Torq caffeine gel that I had saved. Having completed 100km it was on to the final climb of the day, although this one was a monster! The village was at 1300m, one of the lowest points of the race. The first section was fairly slow, with a few tricky climbs up to a small village at 1700m where I stopped to refill the bottle and adding the sachet of High5 extreme that I had carried and grabbed some banana and some kind of warm and sticky cereal bar. As I left the village the course started descending and although the descent was a fantastic woodland singletrack trail I was cursing every meter of it as I knew that I would have to make it all up again. With the descent over it was back to the climbing and the caffeine was starting to take effect. I got into a good rhythm and felt strong again, catching a few riders on the same route in the process and passing a near constant stream of riders on the shorter courses, “Allez Matthew, Allez Verbier, hop, hop, hop” were the calls from people as I climbed, they knew my name as everyone had their first name on the number board – such a brilliant idea. I kept glancing at the Garmin Edge 500 and ticking off the meters as they went by. I knew the climb would top out at 2800m, but by this time the vertical meters seemed to pass by far slower.
The trail weaved its way upwards eventually reaching another feed station at 2500m, I was taking the chance to drink and eat at every station along the way as the heat was really taking its toll and with over 7 hours of riding done I was starting to run low on energy reserves. Only 300m of climbing to the top, it would be over soon I thought. The climb continued for a few minutes before turning left where I caught the first glimpse of the mountain that stood ahead of me, the ‘Pas de Lona’. As I glanced upwards my mouth dropped and then what followed from it was a long string of expletives as the trail in front of me was frightening – a steep, long zig-zagged scree slope with an endless line of ant like riders inching their way upwards far into the distance. My first response was to blast it! I motored onwards and climbed fast, passing riders constantly, all walking upwards as I cleaned section after section, cheers of “Allez, Allez, Superb!” coming from the riders I passed and spectators alike.
Eventually I had to get off the bike and I took a second to glance upwards again, it seemed like an impossible task to overhaul. I had prepared my bike for some hike-a-bike by placing a spare tube under the top tube to act as a cushion but I didn’t think I would have to carry the bike for 4km of evil ascent. At first I was taking normal sized steps as it was less steep but this soon changed to baby steps as it turned steeper and eventually I was taking micro steps and having to traverse the scree in order to keep going in an upward direction. The support from spectators was amazing with people cheering the whole time “Verbier, Verbier”, other competitors ahead would move out of the way as soon as they heard those words. My body was screaming as my legs were tired and my shoulder hurting from carrying the bike but I stayed positive and refused to stop, readjusting the bike on my shoulder every so often to relieve the pain. As the top approached the crowds grew larger and the final hundred meters or so was packed with people, all cheering and shouting, some had even carried massive cow bells up there and the noise was amazing. Somehow I managed to find enough strength to take bigger steps and then I started running upwards, spurred on by the noise of the crowd. Once I reached the top, after about 20-25 minutes of walking I let off a shriek of both pain and joy as I knew that the hardest part was now over. One last feed stop, a chance to take on board more fluids and bananas, but I declined on the “bouillon”, some sort of salty soup apparently?
From the top the trail opened up on a fantastic flowing descent that equals anything I have ridden previously, but it didn’t last for long as there was one final climb, back up to 2800m although thankfully it was rideable this time. From the top it was downhill all the way to the finish, over 13km of non-stop descending – sounds great! It started well enough, on awesome singletrack before changing to lightning fast doubletrack with tight switchback turns, there were lots of riders ahead of me, but a quick shout “Verbier!” had the desired effect as they diverted to the side to allow me to pass. The views down below to a magnificent turquoise coloured reservoir and upwards to the glacier and high mountains were simply breathtaking. I only managed a few glimpses, making sure I was concentrating on the fast and sometimes rough sections. Such a long and rough descent was starting to hurt and when the trail became rougher, then as it went below a dam it became rougher still and more challenging as my arms were pumped and legs were hurting from taking all the weight for so long. I caught a glimpse of the village of Grimentz in the distance which I knew was the finish, but it was still several kilometres away and several hundred meters of descent lay ahead of me. The trail followed a river as it made its way downwards, crossing it several times. At times it became so steep and rocky that I had to get off and walk down – tiredness had taken over my whole body and I was risking a big crash if I tried to ride them, even the winner walked the same sections. As the finishing village approached the trail became less steep, but it was almost entirely on a rock garden which had my arms screaming and my fingers were struggling to keep hold of the brakes, desperately trying to stay in control. The trail then flattened out and went into a short wooded section before it opened up and all of a sudden the finishing line was directly ahead, far sooner than I was expecting! I flew across the line and came to a halt. My immediate thoughts were utter relief and joy that I had finished and the hurt was over but I started to feel quite sad as I realised just how special this day had been and that I would have to wait a whole year to experience it again. The Grand Raid Cristalp was over and my journey had taken 8hrs 35min which placed me 25th overall and 13th in category (under 30’s). I was also top British rider in an event that is totally dominated by the local Swiss racers.
The experience of racing abroad was amazing and it has completed changed my thoughts on racing. The Swiss people have such a positive outlook on racing that puts the UK to shame. I’ve never raced anywhere where the local people come out in such numbers and celebrate an event with a festival like atmosphere, according to the event press over 60,000 people come out to watch. It’s got me hooked and I can’t wait to do more similar races next season. Right now though its time to look ahead to my big race of the year, the race that everything is aimed towards – The 24hr World Solo Championships, in Canberra Australia. The race is now under 7 weeks away and preparation is now well under way.
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