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

I am looking forward to my first event of the year which is the local (to me) White Horse Challenge, which is a romp around four White Horse Hills, Uffington, Broadtown, Cherhill & Hackpen (Uffington White Horse is the oldest of all British chalk figures and dates back almost 3000 years).

This is my favourite sportive of the year and I’ve ridden in every edition since it started in 2007. It’s not too long and the hills are manageable for an early season event at about 145 km and just under 1,500 metres of elevation gain.

The WHC is on Sunday 25^th of April this year so not long to go now. I just hope the rather disastrous start to the year doesn’t mean I end up being slower than in previous years.

Last year I managed to improve on the previous year by skipping the first feed stop altogether (other than stopping to have the timer dibbed) and then spending as little time as possible in the second stop, just enough time to fill a bottle and grab something to eat.

My secret weapons this year were  a new lighter bike and doing intervals over the winter. The new bike is there but has only had a couple of outings this year so the intervals plan will have to take the strain, although training this year has been compromised by snow and ice and colds and flu.

See below for the summary of my ride on last year’s event from Garmin Connect

Looking back at the year it has been a bit odd with all kinds of stuff going on and affecting the cycling. The old year went out with a bang when I came off on ice in Bampton jarring my shoulder, that caused some problems with training at the start of this year (just a few weeks ago I received a letter from the NHS offering me physiotherapy, better late than never I suppose although I didn’t actually go to the doctor until well after the accident).

My first event of the year was the White Horse Challenge held in late April and organised by Fergal & Sarah McGrath and friends with profits going to WaterAid (a charity helping to provide water and sanitation for the world’s poorest people, see www.wateraid.org/uk

I have ridden every edition of this sportive since it started in 2007 and was hoping to better my time from the previous year and to get around in under five hours. The White Horse is not particularly long and doesn’t have a massive altitude gain but it is hilly and comes early in the season so it is a challenge at 145 km and 1,466 m of elevation gain giving it a ratio of 10 metres per km climbing.

(more…)