​​I left Megève just before 4 AM. I knew it was late, but at this stage, there was nothing else to do about, and then just move forward. It was raining, raining pretty hard and it didn’t look like it was going to clear out for some time. I already had my winter jacket on me, and after the first few kilometers, I added a rain one.

After yesterday’s intro into the Alps, the next stage of the race was going to be an absolute climbing feast. 550 kilometers with more than 13000 meters of elevation gain didn’t mean an easy job to keep my achilles quiet, but I was rather happy about the state of it and was hoping that it will hold like that until the finish line. I underestimated the amount of climbing that we were going to get on this section.

For breakfast, there were two really beautiful climbs. Col des Saisies and Cormet de Roseland. Especially the first one stole my heart, giving me a lot of joy, with amazing views, even with the rainy weather. The whole morning I was trying to spot the Mont Blanc somewhere in the distance, but in the end, I can’t say really if I saw it or not.

After another long descent, I arrived at the foot of the highest paved pass in the Alps. In the valley, the weather got a bit better. In Bourg-Saint-Maurice I stopped for a quick morning coffee and baguette, changed my layers for dry but still a bit cold weather, and pushed my way up, towards the long-awaited Col de l’Iseran.

The food that I had on my bike from Megève was disappearing pretty fast. It was only half the climb and I had nearly none. More than 3000 meters were done already and it wasn’t even noon yet. I found myself heaving a huge need for some real fruits, and in Val d’Isère I found a little shop with bananas and apples. I quickly got those, refilled my water bottles with orange juice and I was ready for another long climb.

Col de l’Iseran didn’t disappoint. It was beautiful, long, not steep really, but most of all with amazing views. And the downhill, well, can’t describe it. There were generally 70 kilometers of going mostly down. I don’t believe there is a cyclist who wouldn’t love that right?

When the road got a bit flatter I switched on my phone to write a few words to my family but I also received a message from the race crew asking for an obligatory stop in a safe place, between 3 and 7 PM. It was because of the storm and lightning being super strong in the Northern Alps. As for myself, I was nearly in Val Cenis, and stopping wasn’t really handy. Especially since I had Col du Galibier waiting for me as my next climb, and I was hoping to do it before sunset. I was assured by another text from the race crew, that this stop is obligatory. It was already a few minutes after 3 PM but in order to be in a safe place really, I had to ride for another 20 minutes, to get to Val Cenis, where I stopped in the first restaurant I noticed.

Big food and sleep, that was my first thought, and as I had to stop for four hours, it seems like the best plan. So I ate a lot of rice with chicken, and I probably spent too much time there enjoying myself, but it was so nice to have such great, normal food. After that, I went straight to B&B which I found while eating. There was a Carrefour close to the hotel, that was closing at 8 PM so I set my alarm for 7:30 PM with a plan for resupply just before setting off. I fell asleep like a baby and the alarm rang straight away. It took me a minute to realize what is happening. I wasn’t planning any hotel for this race, but yeah, after my mind started working again, I packed up and went straight to that Carrefour. I was surprised with a little anger as the lady working there decided to close 30 minutes earlier. She just did shake her head through the glass when I pointed to the opening hours shown on the door. It wasn’t nice and I had a whole night ahead of me and not much food. I moved on and was hoping to find something else on my way. There was a small pizza place where I stopped and I bought two margaritas. One I ate straight away, the second I asked for takeaway in an aluminum foil. It was going to be my resupply for the coming night and I was again pretty confident to continue my ride. When I passed the sign to Col du Mont Cenis, the memories from TCRno7 got stronger. The Road to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne was well known already, and as it was still going down, I got there pretty quickly. I started the climb to Col du Télégraphe when the sun was setting, and I was really happy with my speed and progress climbing. The sleep I’ve done was felt and I was sure that I was going to make my personal best on this climb. In Valloire, I stopped for a quick coffee. Funny story, as the restaurant owner knew the race pretty well, and he even remembered The Transcontinental going through the city in 2019. We chatted for a second, he made me an extra sandwich for the road and I did continue my night climb to Col du Galibier.

At first, I was not happy at all that I have to do it through the night, but once I was getting higher, and the sky was opening up, I was more and more excited, and finally when I reached the top I was pretty grateful for this opportunity. Stopped in front of the iconic sign somehow at about 2 AM. I ate a bit of pizza, while putting all the clothing on me, and rode down, with even bigger excitement. Until Col du Lautaret, I did play it safe, but when I got to the main road, I went full gas. It was empty, with no cars, no people, all roads and tunnels only for myself. Amazing experience.

After 30 kilometers of fun, there was another and another climb. Col De Sarenne was tough. I found it much steeper than expected, and my achilles felt that. It was already bright when I got to Alpe d’Huez. but it was still totally empty. I felt pretty tired really, and descending to the valley wasn’t an easy task because of that. On my next big climb, I was already really slow. Col de la Croix de Fer was the sign that I was following, but after the first hour, I knew that I need a short break. I found a small coffee place, that was going to open in 25 minutes, and I decided that this will be a great opportunity to make myself able to ride properly again. While I was waiting I ate all the food leftovers I had on me, cleared all the rubbish, change my layers, as it was getting warm again, and just after 8 AM, the man opened the door. The smell of the morning coffee was there already.

The rest of the climb felt much better, even if it wasn’t an easy one. Steep parts taking us up the reservoir were super tough, but once the climb got up there, and the view opened up, it become one of the best climbs in the whole race. It was already busy with local cyclists and I had fun playing with some of them and chasing them up to the summit. After that, I had another amazing downhill off the Col du Glandon. Super long, super nice, super fast. It was also one of the best I did so far.

The lower I got, the temperature got higher, and like nearly every afternoon so far, my Achilles was once more calling for help. I believe it was also due to the temperature, and cold fresh high altitude air was like a painkiller for it. Now I was going to pay the price for this.

The next climbs were super hot. Not high, maximum of 600-700 meters, but the road to Grenoble was up and down like that all the time and every hour later my achilles was getting worse. I was hoping that I got this, but not. It wasn’t over. There was also this sad news that came up from the race team, that one rider got hit by a car and died during the race. Pretty sad moments of the race. At one point the pain got pretty strong and I started to hear achilles squeaking. I knew that I did most of the climbing already, but I also realized that there is still pretty a lot to do. The decision was fast. I found a nice bus stop in a shade and lay down with my legs up for at least 30 minutes, just to give my tendon some space and to cool it off a bit. I also changed my saddle a bit lower and after all that maintenance I could pedal again. Still wasn’t what I was hoping for, but I could move forward without making too much pain for myself.

I arrived in Grenoble after 8 PM, which meant no resupply place was open. The TCR memory was here. The last time I’ve been here was three years ago, leaving the hospital without clarity about when will be the next I’ll ride my bike at all. And here I was, crossing the French Alps with a huge screw in my tight bone, and waving goodbye to all the bad memories. It was a beautiful personal moment.

Coming back to my missing resupply, once again I invested in pizza, and with another one in my Apidura backpack I left Grenoble into the final stage of the day; the CP4.

As trying to recall it now, I don’t remember much about the last climb before the Saint-Jean-en-Royans. I was pretty tired there and must have been in some kind of auto-pilot mode, just moving forward with whatever comes. Once I got to the top it was already dark, and there was only the long and never-ending downhill to get to the CP. The perfect condition for the sleeping monster. It was pretty strange. I was descending a wide straight main road, and in a blink of an eye, the scenery changed and I was descending the narrow bendy road with tunnels and cliffs all around me. I don’t know for how long I was asleep, but that was pretty scary, and paradoxically, it woke me straight away and I stayed super conscious until the Saint-Jean-en-Royans.

I arrived there around 1 AM. ​It was pretty busy, mostly because we got mixed up with riders doing the shorter 1100km distance. There was also a French rider Regis, who was doing the same 2500km one like myself. When he saw me, he brought me a coffee and… get ready for it… a CAKE!!! Yes, he remembered me complaining about the lack of it in France when we met and chatted for a while before Grenoble. How cool was that!

At this CP, the main thing was to calculate, what time I should leave to make the Mont Ventoux, the last big climb of the race, during the daylight. I did my calculations and I went comfortably to sleep setting my alarm clock for two hours. More than 2100 kilometers were done, and the final stage of the race was already visible. 

Photos©: @widenprod, @assosswitzerland

STRAVA: https://www.strava.com/activities/7368373759

RwGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/94587753