How to get your best result at the Marmotte

[@jimmytooshoes]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together Marvin. This was my 5th marmotte and there were still loads of useful tips in your presentation. All the best

[@alpinecols]

Thank you Tom: I appreciate the feedback. I'm pleased to hear it was useful!

[@Christian-sh9uh]

Very good advice. I have done the Marmotte three times in recent years. I always find the most challenging things are being able to carry everything I need and the heat/sweating , being from the UK. I find salt stixs useful.

[@alpinecols]

Thank you Christian for your feedback. Excellent point on salts. Different people sweat at different rates so individual needs vary but on a hot day all riders should be ensuring they take on an adequate amount.

[@cedricwacker2840]

Thank you so much Marvin! I got sweeped on top of Galibier this year, and told myself I would come back next year to finish it. This is super helpful!

[@alpinecols]

Thank you Cedric, I very much appreciate your feedback! Good luck for your training and for next year's ride.

[@trekbiker5110]

Thanks for the video, Marvin! Hope to see you again next year.

[@alpinecols]

Thank you Trek Biker! Good luck with your training and see you in Alpe d'Huez in 2022!

[@fishtail123]

super useful, will revisit this a month or so before we tackle it next year - we deferred in the end ....

[@alpinecols]

Thanks for the feedback Nathaniel: see you next year!

[@simonworsley8631]

Useful stuff. I’ve done Marmotte 10 times in the last 11 years and still looking for gold time. Need to find another 15 minutes on my best time.

[@alpinecols]

Thank you Simon. It shouldn't be impossible to find 15 minutes. Let us know if we can help. Maybe 2022 will be the breakthrough!

[@simonworsley8631]

@@alpinecols thanks Marvin, there were a couple of tips in the presentation that I’d not thought of before.

[@alpinecols]

@@simonworsley8631 Good luck with your training Simon. If our routes don't cross before, we will be in the event village in July: come and say hello!

[@simonworsley8631]

@@alpinecols will do Marvin, I caught the tail end of your presentation at the start / finish in 2020 I think

[@global_nomad.]

just signed up for next year and this has been very useful, thanks..also looking to do the etape the follwoing weekend given the same location - would be good to know how to recover between the two..

[@alpinecols]

Thanks for the feedback! It's hard to give specific advice for how best to recover between the two events because response is highly individual and depends a lot on your training history. In general terms the goal is to recover as much as possible AND to sharpen up for the EDT. If it were me I'd probably take 2-3 days off, then do a couple of very easy recovery rides (Z1) and then "wake the systems up" with a couple of short rides with some intensity thrown in, but only to an extent that it won't create fatigue. Perhaps 5-10' climbing at threshold and 3-4 x 30" at VO2max.

[@global_nomad.]

@@alpinecols thanks for the suggestion and taking the time, i appreciate its a general answer but thats helpful

[@jelle9880]

I ride a 52-36 chainring with 30 sprocket, is this considered too heavy?

[@alpinecols]

Hi Jelle - it depends how strong a rider you are. For a young, strong rider this would be fine. Most people, however, prefer a compact 50-34 with a 32 or 34 tooth sprocket. Best wishes, Marvin

[@peterhoghoj509]

Great videos. I believe it is 5000 Kcalories needed.

[@davidverbeeck9066]

those are nice and usefull tips but i think you are conservative in the pacing strategy(especcially if you're going for gold) myself i have ridden several gran fondo's(including the marmotte alpes and pyrenees) but i ride at a pace between 80 and 90% of my ftp and never got in trouble, but maybe this is for me personal.for me the most important part is eating and drinking if you forget those you are in trouble.

[@alpinecols]

Hi David - thanks for the feedback. First you are 100% right about the need to eat and drink, there's no doubt about this. On the other hand, there's a great deal I could say about the pacing recommendation. I agree that my pacing recommendation is relatively conservative. This is partly because the presentation is addressed mainly at the "average" rider, and partly because I know from long experience that whatever number I give people will almost always ride harder in reality. The top 1000 or so riders are certainly climbing at >80% of their FTP, and the top 10-20 will be at +/- FTP for much of the climbs. The right answer for any one individual depends critically on their personal power-distribution curve (adjusted for form, fitness and motivation on the day), and especially how fast it decays after the one-hour point chosen as the reference for FTP. For some people it drops very quickly, for others it may only decline quite slowly out to 1-1/2 or even 2 hours (defined as high fatigue resistance). If you are able to do all the climbs at the Marmotte at >80% of your FTP it either means that you have a higher-than-average FTP/kg (and thus you are able to complete the climbs before being fatigued), OR that you have an exceptionally high fatigue resistance (and can therefore hold >80% of FTP for longer than the average person). It's also important to bear in mind that your FTP is not a fixed number but varies with your fatigue. It will certainly be lower at the start of the final climb than at the start of the first climb. Again, depending on your fatigue resistance, the reduction will vary by quite a large amount, but the metabolic cost of holding e.g. 230W on Alpe d'Huez will be higher than holding the same number on the Glandon. All these factors combine with others (such as how many matches do you burn to stay with fast-moving groups in the valleys) to make a general recommendation hazardous. Each person needs to reach their own conclusion. If you have always managed to ride the Marmotte at 80% to 90% of your FTP you are obviously doing something right. Time to push the envelope a bit?