[Closed] Climbing an alpine pass

I see the new shiny forum still randomly misses out words that have been typed on a fully working keyboard.

Maybe one day, maybe. At 90+kg though I'm not exactly built for climbs

Doesn't matter, just get the right gears.

Yes but a 24/42 is going to be sloooooow

At 90+kg though I’m not exactly built for climbs

Doesn’t matter, just get the right gears.

Never a truer word said. I'm around the 90kg mark, a bit over and completed the Etape du Tour last year. Probably got down to about 88KG's after the training but did the Etape - 5,000m of climbing over about 70KM of climbing with the last climb being 35km long. I had 34/34 at my disposal as a bail out but didn't use that gear. Managed to stay within my power zones without engaging granny gear...but probably got into the 32 a few times. Took advantage of the fuel stops and had a jolly good day out. An f'ing tremendous day out actually. Took me a bit over 9hrs...was aiming for a quicker time, but the final climb was touching 40 degrees in parts so the heat sapped some energy out of me so instead of my original tactic of saving it all up for the last climb I just paced myself up the final climb. People were dropping like flies in that heat so it was about survival at that point. To be honest the climbing around the Peaks near me is harder...much shorter obviously but two to three times steeper. The Starkholmes climb up to Riber Castle out of Matlock might only be 1.8km long but fills me with more dread than any typical alpine climb! There is no gearing in the world that can get you upto Riber easy.

Yes but a 24/42 is going to be sloooooow

alot quicker than pushing a macho big gear and not making it at all. Of course we'd all like to be pro-fit, but most of us are not so you get up any which way you can...it's the getting up that matters.

I don't mean to sound like a nob, but the col de joux plane is not a hard alpine pass. I'm 100kg and rode up it a couple of years ago with my who was 10 at the time. He was on a xxxs decathlon road bike and I hired a carbon kona road bike. Lovely ride.

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It’s not too bad from Morzine...quite a lot tougher from Samoens.

I managed to get my hardtail up the Angliru in Spain last year. With 46/38 gearing. It was a bit of a monster.

Most Alpine passes have much shallower ramp angles so that brakes and engines don't overheat.

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I don’t mean to sound like a nob, but the col de joux plane is not a hard alpine pass.

Depends. We hit it at the end of Etape du Tour, 85 miles and 3 climbs in the legs, it was 35 degrees and everyone was flaking out big time. Absolute bitch of a climb.

With about 6km to go, Marcus expressed a desire to go and sit in the shade for a moment. Upon hearing this, Pierre – who had been cycling five yards ahead of us, looking for all the world like nothing was remotely troubling him – instantly climbed off his bike and went and sat in a stream.

That sounds like me, 2/3rds of the way up the Afan White's level climb last summer, midway through doing W2.

It’s not too bad from Morzine…quite a lot tougher from Samoens

We went up from Samoens, my son was hurting by the time we got to the top, and maybe because I was going slower than normal I didn't find it too bad. I had been doing all of of training for the tour of Wessex a couple of months previous but I didn't think it was hard climb. I'll do it again when I'm there next in the summer.

Depends. We hit it at the end of Etape du Tour, 85 miles and 3 climbs in the legs, it was 35 degrees and everyone was flaking out big time. Absolute bitch of a climb.

Admittedly, after that it would be a lot harder than just going up and down from Samoens...

I plan to make it into a bigger circular ride next time I'm there.

I've done a few hefty ones as standalone rides, and they're surprisingly OK no matter how big you are, or what your condition is.
It's one thing to go up the Col d'Iseran, though - photo at the top, turn round to cane it back down to the campsite, back on the red wine. And quite another to string a few of these monsters into a circular ride. Then you are talking about a sustained level of climbing that is totally alien to the UK and needs v good condition.

I’ve done pretty much all the climbs mentioned in the article (spent 12-13 days based in St Jean d’aulps about 8-9 years ago). My one and only time in the alps.

Pretty much every alpine climb is 1&1/2 hours in the granny ring...

Col de joux plane definitely harder from samoen than morzine (but descent into morzine is better). I quite enjoyed avoriaz (the Valle verte was a nice descent, but watch out for the goats in the, err, goat village...). I did the joux plane 3 times iirc all times also including la ramaz, don’t recall anything particularly taxing from the morzine side on la ramaz but climbing up through the tunnel was weird (well the noises inside it were). It was interesting hitting it at speed on the way down in sun specs...

I remember the col de corbier being hard (probably because I tried to ‘race’ up, just about puked just out of the village I was trying so hard).

The Alpe is definitely harder (but I found it most satisfying).

The day that just about killed me was the ‘rest’ day when my mate wanted to up mont evian. Iirc it’s 16 degrees of steep in places. I thought my knees were going to burst (it got so steep I decided to turn back rather than actually damage myself...)