hello my little beans in rural France where the views are gentle and the vibes are feral once a year over 8,000 people gather to test their glutes and their emotional stability at a cycling event called Lamont Grand Fondo it’s a 175 km ride over four all category climbs that frequently feature in tour to France the translation for this is it’s basically a giant cosplay for riders pretending to be pro except no one is functioning the next day so naturally I thought sign me up after traveling to France and divine the odds for how many doctors and engineers you need to fit a single bike box into a car we woke up at the spiritually violent hour of 5:00 a.m and things immediately started to go wrong because I had a mechanical with my brakes before even reaching the start line but thankfully this was fixed by a nice French bike rental man who saved me from having to Google how to use an Allen key at dawn but because of this delay we were literally the last people to start the race but the MC was particularly enthusiastic and we were made to feel special with our own little
This is the start of your adventure 2025 are you ready 3 2 1 To catch up with everyone else we had to put off foot on the gas for the first 20 km and by that I mean Sam was pulling like a diesel engine while Matt and I were on his back wheel fighting for our lives now some elite cyclists finish my mark in just over 5 hours i on the other hand a proud ambassador of the aggressively recreational club completed it in 13 hours and 8 minutes that is not just a ride that is a full shift and let’s talk pain i was renting a bike and I forgot to bring my own saddle and the rental one felt like it was shaped like a medieval punishment device my butt has never known suffering like this i now understand why cowboys walk like that the climbing was biblical there was over 5,000 m of ascent and the descents were equally spicy one of them was like 45 km long and I was gripping my handlebars so hard that they literally turned into claws in fact I’m pretty sure I’m still part crab but the piece of resistance has to be the final 13 km which only go up out the wares it climbs 1700 m has 21 switchbacks and a man with a hose who will baptize you back into sanity with cold water if you weren’t broken before this it will make sure that you don’t cross that finish line until you’ve made it all the way but the views were unreal worth every drop of sweat and saddle induced trauma would I do it again absolutely will I pack my own saddle next time that’s a mistake you only make once
3 Comments
Well done, i’m a finisher of the Grand fondo marmotte too👌
Can I get a “Member of the Aggressively Recreational Club” t-shirt? 🎉
Yeah get those shirts done! My first marmotte too, loved it,when i finished the mc asked me for a word, "horrific" was my answer which he said was the best comment of the day. What a supercride and i absolutely will do it again