April 21, 2024
The season has got off to a good start, even if the snow has made a massive and belated return home. Oh well, I’m back on my skis for a few days. Bonus powder skiing in my backyard: I’m not complaining.
That said, our recent family holiday in Sardinia was an excellent excuse for two 3-day bikepacking trips between the Alps and the ferry, on the outward and return journeys.
These long days on the bike got me to work on my tan lines, eat my first ice creams of the season and spend time, lots of time, with myself. That’s important for an introvert like me.
Crossing Pisa on a beautiful morning: my idea of a training camp
During these trips, I’ve also been racking up the hours in the saddle in preparation for some big scary milestones that will shape my season. This year, I’m planning to take part in several events covering distances of 400 up to 1000km.
In recent years, I’ve concentrated on big work projects, riding and shooting for most of the summer. And so as not to put any extra pressure on myself, I haven’t added any massive competitive goals.
I’d also noticed that I tend to replace fun adventurous outings with more structured workouts when I’m preparing for a race. As a result, I am fit but I spend less time exploring and pushing beyond my limits, leaving me somewhat frustrated at the end of the season.
This year I’m going to try to combine the best of both worlds: exploring and being race fit at the same time. Why? The simple answer is: I love racing. The slightly more sophisticated reason is that I took part in my first bike race in 1984, at the age of 12. I will therefore celebrate 40 years of racing in 2024 so I thought I’d make it count.
The events I’ve selected will help me to not obsess about my training : in ultracycling, FTP and all those sophisticated benchmarks play a more secondary role than in other competition formats. Of course, you need strength and endurance to do well. But other elements such as resilience, choice of equipment, problem-solving skills and a good dose of humility will be just as, if not more, important in getting me to the finish in good conditions.
So I’m not trying to follow any particular training plan this year, apart from putting in the hours required to prepare my feet, my upper body and my bum for the abuse I’m going to give them. And as I live in a part of the world where few roads are flat, those hours inevitably translate into a certain level of intensity that will benefit me. That, plus strength and mobility training as well as a bit of trail running to make my body more resilient: that’s my fancy training regimen.
Finally, the events themselves will be exploration, as they’ll take me to regions with which I’m not entirely familiar. And what are they? Drumroll…
Léman Gravel Challenge (18 May)
The Tour du Lac Léman is a 170km loop on mostly flat, busy roads. It was perfect for training on bad weather days when I was competing at elite level, towards the end of the last century. Nowadays, I hardly ever do the ‘tour du lac’.
That’s why I’m excited to be taking part in the first edition of the Léman Gravel Challenge. Instead of the main roads, the event will take us on a mix of small lanes and gravel paths. With, no doubt, a healthy dose of underbiking or even hike-a-bike: the LGC is organised by Lausanne Gravel, a community known for its, shall we say… adventurous approach to gravel biking.
The 400km route promises a total of 10,000 metres of ascent. If the weather cooperates: with less than a month to go before the event, the high points of the route in the Jura, Portes du Soleil and Alpes Vaudoises are still buried in snow. I’m optimistic, but I’ll probably take a spare pair of socks (or two) with me.
Gravel biking in the Alpes Vaudoises, Lausanne Gravel style. Without snow
Gravel Trans Jura (30 May)
Ten days after the Léman Gravel Challenge, I’ll be at the start of the Gravel Trans Jura. I probably won’t have recovered, but that doesn’t matter. It’s a friendly event, and no night riding will be allowed on the 400-kilometre route between Baden and Nyon.
I’ll be taking part in a duo with Lillie, for whom this will be a real challenge. She’s got the distance in her legs but she’s first and foremost a roadie. So it’ll be a question of managing our progress, keeping the rubber side up and making the most of the time spent together crossing the Swiss Jura, a mountain range that is ideal for gravel and bikepacking.
Lillie and Ben on a family gravel bikepacking trip in the Jura in 2021
Alps Divide (7 September)
This is the big event of my season: 1000km and 32,000m of ascent across the southern Alps, from Menton to Thonon-les-Bains. All on a mix of road and gravel.
This new event is organised by Katie and Lee. I met Katie at the Transcontinental Race in 2015: we bumped into each other several times, notably under a bus shelter in Croatia in the early hours of the morning, and as we were crossing the border into Albania.
Since then, I’ve followed Katie through the events she’s taken part in, and I have no doubt that the route she’s crafted will create lifelong memories for all participants. I’m particularly looking forward to reaching Colle Sommeiller at an altitude of 2,993 metres, on the French-Italian border.
I’m also expecting to spend a lot of time off-road, and I’m contemplating the idea of taking part with a mountain bike, which would be a first for me.
On the 2019 Torino-Nice Rally, which passed through some of the regions we’ll be crossing on the Alps Divide
Dead Ends e Dolci (4 October)
Last year I took part in the first edition of this event as a duo with Lillie. This October, we’ll both be on the start line in Ticino, but in a different configuration: she’ll be teaming up with her friend Heather and I’ll be riding solo.
The format is fun: around 500km with 5 checkpoints to be connected in the order of your choice and on a course that you design yourself. They’re all on dead-end roads, but it can pay to venture further – to get to the next valley more quickly, often at the cost of an adventurous section (on or off the bike). We’ll spend many hours on the maps studying all the possible routes (or not) before the event, and that’s part of the experience.
And the volunteers will be waiting for us with sweets (dolci in Italian) at every checkpoint! Ticino is a beautiful region and it will be nice to end the season south of the Alps.
Lillie during the inaugural edition of Dead Ends e Dolci
I’m looking forward to sharing my experience of these events, both on this blog and on socials: Instagram, Strava, Linkedin and Threads.
And a big thank you to my partners who continue to support me with the best equipment: Scott, Velocio, Garmin and Julbo.
See you on the road!
Alain
Title photo by kuva.swiss, all others photo by Lillie & Alain
