Roadie Trip to Vaujany, 2003
Roadie Trip to Vaujany, 2003
Vaujany 2003 started off promisingly. That is, we all got to the airport promptly at the absurdly early hour of 5am. This despite the fact that three of our number had been ‘out on the town’ the night before, for which Simon had to be lent a pair of long trousers in order to cover up his newly shaven legs, helping to avoid certain death in the ghetto that is Luton town centre.
After a slight delay due to the airport scanning machine identifying Paddy’s GT85 as a dangerous item we made our way through to departures and boarded our plane. Seeing as though Simon also had some of the offending GT85 packed away we were safe in the knowledge that we would get through the week without having to listen to squeaking chains. Though we were slightly concerned that the highly flammable lube might cause the plane to blow up.
Thankfully this was not the case, and we landed to find all our bikes had made it, and to find The Cool Bus, along with Rob Cool, waiting for us. After a swift(ish – damn that bus is slow, but damn it’s cool too, and damn it’s cheap) transfer we arrived in Vaujany, a small village half way up a mountain that was “the most consistently steep 6km the cool bus has ever made it up” (Rob Cool, 2003). Everything seemed to be going very well when we found all our bikes to be in good shape, and the chalet to be bonza. An enormous bonus was that there were 4 toilets between only 6 of us. However, a disaster was about to occur that would leave us all shaken, and one of us severely stirred…
Having settled in and re-assembled our bikes we decided to check out the newly named ‘Col de Vaujany’ that had had the cool bus seriously struggling. However after just 0.63 miles and nigh on 2 minutes of riding Paddy managed to crash straight in to a stone wall, resulting in a snapped front wheel, broken sti’s, snapped peddle, broken handle bars, possibly cracked forks, a totally crushed helmet, and a somewhat broken Paddy. There were fragments of tooth on the road, an extremely swollen fore arm, a gaping ankle wound, a neck that wouldn’t turn, and a severely road rashed thigh and arse. Altogether not a pretty sight. Luckily our Pads is made of unbelievably tough stuff and he was hard enough to hire another bike 2 days later and ride Alpe d’huez and the Galibier.
After ‘the accident’ we set off minus paddy the next day at a very controlled pace, and made our way towards Alpe d’huez. James ‘Billy’ Latimer, young at heart accountant and former Lufbra student, had been particularly vocal over how fast he was going to go up the 21 hairpins – even claiming he was going after beating the 45 minutes David Millar did this year in the Tour - and set off with a sprint which only Barry followed. The two did indeed fly up the hill, both beating the hour barrier, with Barry posting an impressive long 56 on his mtb, with Billy only slightly over a minute back.
However, having devised both a points and king of the mountains competition, Nick and Stefan knew that the Alpe carried no points in either competition due to the slow average speed required to get up the mountain, and so despite being slightly adrift up the mountain Stefan had wrapped up the KoM jersey after day one, and Nick was in Green.
The days efforts were clearly taking their toll on our poor bodies though. On our way home we stopped at a road side café and each one of us swears, absolutely swears that there was a large tiger prowling round in a cage just a few metres away from us. Not only this, we were also completely sure that some French dude put ‘Eye of the Tiger’ on in his car parked just by us, on repeat play. This is totally true. It actually happened. Bloody unbelievable, and undoubtedly the highlight of the entire trip.
The following days took in 8 more cols and another 220 miles of beautiful riding on surely the most scenic roads in Europe. Though the night life was not the most vibrant (one bar open, and hotel restaurants that we could eat at if we booked in advance) we managed to have a fantastic time in the chalet amusing ourselves to the sound of Barry’s amazing cd collection, the pick of which was the bizarre ‘Royal Philharmonic Play U2’. Unfortunately there was not so much as a boulangerie open in the village, which forced Billy, Simon and Nick to make the shopping trip from hell down the Col to a nearby town, and then back up again with rucksacks full of rations. The task of carrying beer up the bitchassed mountain was too much for even these strong men, and so when our 2 crates ran out after 2 days we became regulars at the local bar, where by the end of the week we had even been persuaded to entertain fellow guests by singing (sort of) kareoke without the aid of a microphone. Well Simon and I were persuaded anyway. We even did YMCA complete with dance moves and some immensely popular hip thrusts.
Day 4 was the most challenging when Billy, Barry, a partially recovered Paddy and I decided to set out at 8am and tackle a 112 mile route similar to a tour stage, that took in the hors category Col de Croix de Fer, the Col de Glandon, the second cat Col de Telegraph, the hors Col de Galibier (at 2600 metres the highest point of this years tour) and the Col de Lauteret, as well as the toughest of them all, the Col de Vaujany. This was undoubtedly the hardest ride I’ve ever done and our riding time was slightly under 8 hours, though Paddy’s was slightly less, due to his taking a power nap half way up the Galibier before hitch hiking the last 45 miles home due to a severe bonkage.
Meanwhile Stefan (Billy’s mate) and Simon were making waves with a group of Belgian riders they had come across on their own 70 mile ride. Complete with support car and video camera, the peloton was visibly shocked when Simon ‘Simoni’ Hearne whupped all their arses up the last few hairpins of Alpe d’huez on his Kona Mtb complete with bouncy front end. One rider remarked to Stef that ‘your friend, he is craaazzeee’.
So a fun week was had by all, apart from maybe Paddy, though he’s a resilient fella and I think he enjoyed the challenge of it all. He certainly perfected his hitch hiking skills. Complete with hangovers, and one tactical chunder (Stef), we set off in the cool bus back to Geneva, and thanks to the kind people at Easy Jet we all got home with our bikes relatively ok. Here’s to a fantastic week!
King of the Mountains (points awarded for hills that have an average ascent speed of over 15mph) :
1. Stef
2. Nick
3. Si
(6. Billy)
Points Jersey (points awarded for going past land marks on the flat whenever Nick or Stef is in the lead):
1. Nick
2. Stef
3. Si
(6. Billy)
GC (time bonuses awarded for points gained in above competitions):
1= Stef and Nick
(6. Billy)
Special Note: Had Paddy not got back on his bike he most certainly would have won the highest average speed award.
Nick Latimer