Transmaurienne Vanoise 2024

Introduction

This is my first time participating in this event. I didn't really know much about it in advance apart from what their web page says: http://www.transmaurienne-vanoise.com/

The race is surprisingly cheap: €500 with boarding and one meal per day. And the living quarters are nice and spacious. I have four beds, a kitchen and my own loo.

The stages are split into two locations but it's just a 20 kilometer drive in between so no biggie.

We're racing high up in the mountains. The stages start at 1300 meters of altitude and we cross over peaks way over 2000 meters high.

I was put in the M45 category. Yeah, no M50, and M45 is from 45 year to 54 year olds. And I'll me 54 this year. Lots of youngers to race against in other words.

Race stats

Type: UCI Mountain bike race

Length: 5 stages / days, third stage shorter XCO race

Location: Val Cenis, France

Bike and setup: Lapierre XRM (120mm/120mm suspension) with Maxxis Aspen 2.2" tires (1.5 bar)

Gearing: 32T up front, 10-52T in the back

Stage 1

The stage started of with a real long climb as you can see by the profile map. First on asphalt, then a mix of gravel roads and some singletrack. And when I say "started" the climb started at the spot where we left the start box, literally from the first meter. I really don't like that kind of shock start. First part of the climb I held about 310W, then down to around 280-290W towards the top.

Here I should describe some of the "singla track", or rather hiking trails, that came up high in the mountains of this stage. It's sort of hard to explain because I've never seen anything like it in any of the other stage races that I've done. One section at around 40 kilometers was going by the side of the mountain. So mountain face on the left and sheer drop on the right. Now I'm used to riding in that kind of terrain and it doesn't really scare me all that much. But this trail, while being hikable, was not rideable at all. Everyone went of their bikes and started walking. This was on flat terrain so not uphill or anything. And I could see below still walking kilometers in front of me. And not only that but the trail was so narrow that you could not really lead your bike beside you either because there was not room for it. It was no fun, not even as a challenge, and it ruined my mood. I checked my Gopro footage afterwards and we were walking for about 25 minutes all in all.

After the walk it was hard to get into a competitive mood again.

I finished the stage in 11th place.

Today's anecdote: A guy with an AXS dropper post (electrical) ran out of battery and had to bike the last 15 kilometers of the stage standing up as the dropper post would just sink to the bottom as soon as he sat on the saddle.

Stage 2

Even longer climb to start the stage of on this second day: 18 kilometers and it took me 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to the top. I felt I kept good speed all the way up. I found a good group and a guy ahead of me paced me all the way up.

We crossed a glacier close to the top of the mountain. That was cool. About 20 meters across snow.

Very nice downhills segments which obviously were meant for mountain bikes. Rather high roots and tight switchbacks. Technically very difficult but entertaining.

I was quite happy with the tracks on this second stage until the end of it when we came to a another hike-a-bike section. This time because the track was very narrow and extremely steep.

After two stages of lots of walking the heel of my left foot now has blisters that hurt.

Finished the stage in 12th place. I actually thought this stage went better that the first so was surprised to be back in 12th place.

Overall in 12th place as well.

Stage 3

The last three stages all had a new starting village, Aussios. It was just 20 kilometers away from Val Cenis so I just threw my bike in the back of my car and drove there in the morning. No biggie.

Starting time for my category was 11 o'clock. It was really warm.

Third stage was a bit different. It was four laps of an XCO track. Now there were no A or B lines like a typical XCO track, but it was plenty technical anyway. Crazy amount of altitude gain as well: 250 meters per 6 kilometer lap.

The stage was extremely hot and I managed to run out of drink after three laps so stopped at the refreshments station and filled my bottle with coke. They were not ready for that and coke went everywhere!

Finished the stage in 9th place. I'm up to 10th overall now. Ninth place is 5 minutes ahead, and the dude in 11th is just 5 minutes behind me. Anything can still happen!

Stage 4

Stage 4 again started is Aussois. We did the same start loop and decent as in the XCO race the previous day.

Ahead of the stage the race organizers sent out an email warning of extreme temperatures and saying that water replenishment was allowed outside designated zones. This was obviously only applicable to those riders who had teams behind them handing out water bottles. I did decide in advance to be careful with my drinking and to stop at all water stations.

The first uphill went well and I picked up some places, then the old XCO downhill from the previous day went okay as I already knew it. Then, however, we got to a part of the course that I had not seen before, and then on a technical downhill it happened: I saw a rather large rock covering the right hand part of the path so I moved to the left side. However there was something there in the grass which I snagged my left pedal on and I went flying over the bike. Luckily I had my saddle down so I didn't get too far. On the left side of the trail there was a steep 'ravine' and I managed not to fall into that, while one of my competitors held onto my bike and prevented it from falling of the edge.

My Garmin bike computer went flying and I had to re-attach it. Managed however to put it into indoor mode so I missed logging about 10k of the stage.

At first I thought I was completely unharmed but then I noticed that my left leg had gone hard into the levers on the left hand of my handlebars. My knee and lower part of my thigh muscle were hurting. I did manage to continue the stage but the next day I woke up with a very stiff left leg that would not turn a complete revolution of the pedals.

Surviving the crash without injuries was one thing but crashing like this totally took my self confidence away for all the technical stuff on this stage. And it turned out to be the gnarliest of the stages so far with crazy downhills. This meant I was off the bike and walking a lot, something that always ruins my mood.

I did still manage to finish the stage in 10th place. Ahead of tomorrow's last stage I'm still in 10th place overall, just one minute behind 9th place, but 11th place is also just one minute behind me.

Stage 5

The fifth and last stage again started in Aussois. It was quite short at 37 kilometers with almost all the altitude gain in one long climb.

I started this last stage with just a single minute to gain on 9th place but also just one minute to lose to 11th place. That means all was in play and it was a stressful situation.

We got the same email as the previous stage warning of high temperatures. But, for some reason the race organizers decided to start this stage at the hottest time of the day: at 12 o'clock. We speculated about the reason for this and came to the conclusion that it must be because they had planned a party of the evening and didn't want people to leave the venue before that.

We started a slightly longer uphill on asphalt, gravel, and asphalt again, compared to the previous stage. with a similar downhill to the previous stage. I had gained back my confidence from the previous stage and the downhill parts went better as I was brave again.

However, then it happened: About one hour into the stage, a couple of kilometers into the long climb, at a super-steep section I saw my heart rate jump 30 bpm up to 190 bpm and stay there for the whole steep section. I've had this happen before in races and usually if I just take it easy for a while my heart will go back to its normal rhythm. But even when I slowed down a bit it stayed high. After about 20 more minutes of this I decided to stop altogether and get under the sade of a tree. I sat down and waited for my heart to start beating normally again. After 15 minutes of this, and no change, I decided to abort the race. I bicycled and 10km back to the start, very slowly, and still my heart was 30 bpm above what it should be. Not until I had sat down in my car did it drop down to normal.

Result: DNF