Some friends and I are considering entering next year’s Marmotte but I’ve read that entering online is very difficult. One of the things I can’t find out is can one person enter a team of six riders say or does every individual rider have to register and enter separately?

Any other advice or info also appreciated.

You can enter a group but the website is quite unreliable. IME you just need to get on it at midnight and keep trying. A group of 6 all got in last year but it took us all several attempts. It’s chaotic!

Don’t forget to train…. 😉

Am I understanding you 69er? When you say “You can enter a group but it took us all several attempts” were there 6 of you each trying to enter the whole group?

If so, did eventually one of you get through and enter all six?

Also, what does the entry consist of? Do you have to pay at the time you enter?

I’m just trying to get a handle on what to expect because I know from the web that it is very chaotic and I don’t want to balls up the entry for want of something important.

We entered seperately this year, but there was a group option. Previously I have entered friends, so it is possible. You just need all their personal details and a card to pay online at the time. Entry is personal details and a health declaration, and confirmed by e mail. It’s great value as long as you don’t take a package. (But don’t underestimate the stress of organizing a group trip)

For simplicity and in order to avoid antagonizing the interweb we elected to go solo on entries in 2013 and all got in.

One of our group did end up receiving someone else’s entry but Sport Communication were pretty good at sorting it out.

It’s a cracking event, good luck!

And don’t forget to train…. 😉

69er- I’m looking at doing this event- could you advise on what training regime you stuck to / planned to complete the event ok? Ta!

I’m no expert guys, but my goals were;

To finish
To enjoy the ride
To enjoy the social aspect

It’s 109 miles and 5000+m of climbing. It can be hot (39 degrees this year) and very humid.

1) you need to be comfortable. Riding for 9 – 12 hrs in mountains, in extreme heat, over poor road surfaces (in places) makes bike fit important.

2) Build up to being able to ride 100+ miles with sustained efforts to replicate climbing for hours on end!

3) Lose weight. I mean you, not your bike. The cycling industry is equipment weight obsessive, they need to keep generating income. A light bike is nice to have but that is all. For 99.9% of the cycling population the real gains are in losing body fat.

4) Don’t underestimate the descents. People have died on the descents of La Marmotte. You need to be confident riding at speed aroung others on bendy roads. Some sections are very steep, and can be rough. I would ride them in advance for safety.

5) Feeding strategy – plan your water stops, keep eating. Energy drinks and food are a very personal choice. Feed stations are excellent but very busy if you have a late start. Pack a couple of sarnies and some savouries to offset the sugar onslaught. Be disciplined about sipping your drink regularly on the climbs.

6) Plan your trip. A big one this, arrive early. It would be beneficial to acclimatise. Ride the climbs and descents. Go out in the heat and humidity of the day. If it rains go out and get some climbing in and practice descending in the wet.

I’m sure there is more…. Maybe I should start a blog!

Thanks for the extra info/advice 69er. Three of us have done the ride several years ago as part of a charity team and had nothing to do with the organisation/entry of the event.

We did do a lot of training for the event and got round with no bother but totally misjudged what the event was all about so came in outside a classified time. As it was our first time riding in the Alps we wasted a lot of time taking pictures and having mini-picnics en-route and admiring the scenery!

We have ridden in the area a couple of times since so know all the climbs quite well now. Assuming we get in we will approach the event a lot differently this time round and I’m sure some of our group will be capable of Gold medals, fingers crossed.

hopefiendboy,

There are a number of training approaches you can take depending on what part of the country you live in and what sort of terrain you have to hand. One of our group who did the ride last time lived in pan-flat Holland but still managed a Gold medal.

Basically though there is no substitute for long base training miles and hilly training routes. I would say a minimum of 3 rides a week with maybe one long weekend ride, working your way up to 100 miles. Then two midweek rides one of which should be 30-40 miles of as many of the steepest, longest hills you can find. Don’t overdo it though and work your way up gradually.

Also, mix things up a bit otherwise it can all get a bit repetitive and throw in some off-road stuff as well regularly to make things more interesting. If you have a group of friends to train with as well that will help a lot.

There will also be a lot of advice and training plans on the web if you Google for them as well. I would also advise you to fit your training plan around a number of UK sportives through the Spring and leading up to the Marmotte. This will give you maybe 3 or 4 training peaks to aim for and help set goals for your training and provide feedback to your progress.

Finally, don’t underestimate the amount of recovery you need especially after long or strenuous rides (a protein-based recovery drink immediately after the ride will help as well). Over training can be worse than too little and it can all get a bit joyless just hammering round the same bit of road week-in week-out. At the end of the day it’s got to be enjoyable. Good luck, maybe see you at the Marmotte next year!

More good advice from 69er as well, especially/drinking eating enough. If you’ve done any 100 mile sportives in the UK you should know this. If not my advice about entering some will help you get experience in managing your energy and water intake. Too little will have you bonking, too much (of the wrong thing) will give you chronic guts ache.

The Marmotte will be another step up from anything you will experience in the UK though so don’t underestimate how much you will need to consume even if you don’t feel like it. Bonking on something like the Galibier would not be a pleasant experience I can tell you.

cheers chaps (or chapesses! ;-)) for the advice. I’ll draw up a programme of training. Currently I do 60-70miles a week cycling 3 days to work and try and get out for a longer road ride a tthe weekend. I need to up the distance of the weekend ride as the year goes on then expand this to include some hilly regions.

Food for thought!

I trained for the Etape du Tour this year, and I do a similar amount of commuting to you by the sounds of it. I didn’t really do enough but by getting in some a couple of 2/3rds distance rides and doing some big climbs I managed to build up enough fitness to make it to the end. The advice on nutrition little and often same with fluids, I went mad on food at about 70km in and suffered there after.

Also sound advice above on the descents, they are big and when you are tired can get pretty hairy, I saw quite a few crashes and backed off a bit after hitting 70kms an hour in a few places with people overtaking me and me overtaking people. At that kind of speed braking late, clipping someone or hitting a pothole could really be disasterous.

But my one single biggest bit of advice would be to train your self to do a poo at 5am without fail.

Basically though there is no substitute for long base training miles and hilly training routes. I would say a minimum of 3 rides a week with maybe one long weekend ride, working your way up to 100 miles.

Having done it this year, I would say a combo of long, steady base miles over winter and short fast rides into spring and summer work well. Due to illness & injury, I was a bit undercooked tbh, the final climb up AdH in the heat was absolute purgatory. Bear in mind I was hitting gold times in UK sportives!

It may be worth getting a proper fitness “ramp” test. It turned out that I have good power but am a bit rubbish at burning fat, so my advice was tailored around that. You may be completely different.