oxfordsportive

Quebrantahuesos or Bearded Vulture (opens new window)

Several years have passed since my one and only big  European sportive. That was the 2006 Etape from Gap to Alpe d’Huez which I have to admit nearly killed me.

For one reason or another I haven’t been able to sign up for another since then. So now I am going to ride in the 2010 Quebrantahuesos sportive in Spain. This is the 20th edition of this popular sportive, it has about 8,000 people riding each year which places it on the same level as the Etape du Tour. This is a hard event at 205 km with 3,500 metres altitude gain, not as much climbing as the Marmotte but it does go up the Marie Blanque from Escot which is by all accounts a real pig of a climb.

The name Quebrantahuesos comes from the Bearded Vulture or bone breaker which seems appropriate given how tough this event is, interesting stuff here on this rare bird at the Quebrantahuesos Foundation.

Marie Blanque profile

The one thing you can’t train for here in the UK (apart from the long climbs that is) is the weather, it can be very hot and that is difficult to deal with if you’re not acclimatised, in 2006 the temperature on the Alpe d’Huez was said to have reached 40° C and it certainly felt like that at the time.

The allocation of start numbers takes place on Thursday 15th of April. The best places will go to finishers with good times from previous years. After that it is first come first served in the starting pens.

There is a good write-up on the RCUK website by a spanish cyclist who has started ten times and finished five times.

There is also an informative and entertaining blog post on the Quebrantahuesos at www.davidmullarkey.com.

There are three climbs on the Quebrantahuesos with the Marie Blanque being the hardest, the final four kilometres average 11% with sections going up to 15%, see here for details www.altimetrias.net of the Marie Blanque profile.

For a description of my actual ride see Quebrantahuesos Cold and Wet