115km. 6 massive climbs. 4 Cat-1 monsters, 1 cat-2 and one legendary Hors Catégorie ascent – La Gallina. Over 4,500m of leg burning elevation gain in the heart of the Pyrenees.
Join me as I take on La Purito Andorra, a bucket list cycling challenge that attracts over 2,000 riders from around the world. From lung busting climbs to high speed mountain descents, all surrounded by breathtaking Andorran scenery, this is a true test of endurance.
Is La Purito the toughest amateur cycling event in Europe? Let’s find out.
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Helmet – Van Rysel RCR MIPS
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We’re here in Andor for one of Europe’s most difficult amateur cycling events. Tomorrow we’re taking on the Laapurito Andor which features all category 1 climbs, one category 2 and one OS category climb. The ride’s going to take on 115 km and over 5,000 m of climbing. So, yeah, it’s going to be a real big challenge. I know there’s some big cycling events that happen across Europe. I’m not sure which one’s the worst, but this one’s going to be definitely up there. Daddy, can I talk now? And then say something. Um and Daddy, Daddy is the most special one. A you’re the most special one, sweetie. So, today is Saturday. The ride starts tomorrow morning and today we’ve taken a bit of a hike up uh to this lake up in the mountains. Nice little way to uh put some work into the legs to warm up before tomorrow’s race. It’s warm in the sun. It’s going to be a bit chilly on some of the descents, but should be okay. So, yeah, definitely looking forward to it. Feeling a little bit nervous. I’ve never really felt too nervous before cycling, but this one’s Yeah, super super tough. Maybe a big challenge for me. So, let’s see how we go. Later today, I need to pop down to the start of the race to pick up the uh the number, the race number and the jersey and all of that stuff. Um, so I’m going to ride down there to warm up the legs a little bit and then yeah, have a good night’s rest and get ready for tomorrow morning. But, it’s just so beautiful up here. Check this out. All right. So, just ridden down to the race start and I’ve collected the jersey. Um, this is a little bit of an exhibition going on. You can pick up some some merch and whatnot. It seems like loads of people. Should be decent turnout for the ride tomorrow. Yeah. Now we’re going to ride back up to the hotel and go for dinner and then chill out and get ready for tomorrow. All right, so we made it to the race start. Um, it’s about 7:30 in the morning, so we’ve got about 30 minutes until we kick off. Feeling pretty good. Ready to go. Training has been going quite well, I think. So, should hopefully be in decent [ __ ] to get the challenge done. But let’s see. In terms of strategy today, I’m not looking for any sort of time whatsoever. This is basically just survival. Pretty simple one. Get through the race, enjoy it as much as possible. Um, I got two numbers to watch out for. One is power. So, what I’m aiming to do is about 230 W up the climbs. That’s uh a power that I can sustain for quite a long time. Um so each of the climbs are going to be about 40 45 minutes probably maybe more in some cases. So need to be able to sit on that power for for that length of time and then get the recovery in the descent. So that’s the power one. And then the other one is heart rate. I’ve got my sort of uh heart limit of heart rate, let’s say, which is 165. So, I know from training that if I go above 165, that’s when I start to get into the kind of red zone where, you know, it’s not sustainable for for too long. Um, so I’m hoping to be climbing at 160, 162, something like that in terms of in terms of heart rate, but it looks like a pretty decent turnout. Still chilly this morning. It’s about 14° coming down to the race start. So, still got the jacket on, but it’s going to come off in a minute. And we basically we we ride up that way through the start gate and then we turn right straight onto the first climb which is the Larabata climb. So pretty much no warm up straight into it. Let’s see how we go. people. I don’t know. straight onto the Larabasa climb to about 50 m from the race start and then turned right onto about 14% gradient. Lovely way to start. Beautiful morning. Look at these views. Not even near the top. Unreal. Yeah. Got to settle in for a long day of going uphill. So, about 3/4 of the way up the first climb now. Still feeling pretty good. Early days yet, of course. Just trying to stay well within my means and save loads in the tank for the rest of the day. We’re only 6k in. Yeah. So, yeah, I think this is going to be a long day. Sun’s starting to get above the mountains now, so taking the jacket off. Definitely warming up coming up the climb. Not sure if I’m going to need to put it back on for the descent or not. We’ll have to see. Yeah, feeling pretty good so far. Coming up to the summit now of the first climb. Only five more to go. Oh, this is going to be a long old day. So, we got a nice little descent coming up now and then we get onto Lagalina, which is the hardest climb of the route today. It’s a OS category climb, so uncatategorized. But yeah, little descent coming up and then we climb again. Looking forward to getting that second climb over with. I think once we got that second one over with, I’ll feel a lot more comfortable to to get through the day. Um, but yeah, big one coming up. Heat. Heat. What an awesome descent. That was really long mountain descent. I’ve never actually done such a huge mountain descent before. So yeah, I’m going to have a few of those today. Really good fun. But some people are fearless, man. Just flying into the hairpin bend, slamming on the brakes and turning in. Jeez, just can’t do that. Right onto the Galina now. Wahoo’s telling me it’s 13k at about 8% but kicks up towards the end and there’s a little bit of a downhill section as well. So, it’s actually going to be more than 8% really. So, yeah, tough one. Really tough one, but be happy to get this one out the way. I’m going up there. What’s tidy? My heart ties you around. Last 4K now of the Galina. I think this is where it starts to kick up and bite. Trying to manage the effort as much as possible. Beautiful there. Pretty steep section now. Going above 14% 15 into the last 2K of the Galina. Now that was a tough old section going above 15% for a couple of kilometers, but we got through. I had to go a little bit above my desired power number, but that’s fine. It’s got to happen sometimes. Little bit into the red, but that’s okay. We’re doing good. We’re going all right. Right. Let’s get to the top. And then there’s a feed zone, so going to pull over and grab a bite to eat, I reckon. Hallelujah. Cuz look at all the people here. Grab a donut. Couple of bars as well. Right, I’m going to get back on the bike. So that’s the Galina done. Two big climbs done. Uh we just done about 2,000 mters of elevation so far, I think. So almost halfway on the elevation. Uh four more climbs to go. So yeah, let’s go. Heat. Heat. All right, little update. Made it to another feed zone. That’s three of the six climbs done. Going to grab a little bit more food, stock up, and then get on with the ride. No idea what this is. Some sugary bread, but it’s good. Okay, onto the bashalis climb. Climb number four today. Not sure what the stats are, but yeah, we’re going up pretty pretty sharpish pretty quickly right from the off. So, another steep one. Still going okay. Feeling all right. Trying to stay within myself. Got more to give, but still a long way to go. Real tough start to this climb. Been hitting over 14% straight out of the gate. And yeah, it’s really really hot now. Sweating quite a lot. So, starting to feel it. Let’s push through. Still got about 3k of this climb left. All right, pretty much at the top of the besist climb now. Thankfully, the top end wasn’t as difficult as the beginning. I think average the last sort of 2 or 3k average about 7%. So, not too bad. Yeah, I’ had to open up the jersey, get some cooling in because it’s really, really hot on these climbs now. But yeah, happy to finish this one. Got two more big climbs to go and then we’re done. Right. So, on to the next climb. Heading up the Cold Orin. About 10 kilometers of 7% gradient. Looks like a pretty consistent gradient as well, which is nice. So, yeah, hopefully settle into a bit of a rhythm. We have though crossed over 3,000 m of total elevation gain for today’s ride so far. Still got a good chunk to go, but yeah, it’s by far the most I’ve ever done. Nice bit of support pretty much throughout the ride as well, which has been excellent. Just passed halfway up this climb now and I’m definitely firmly on the struggle bus here. Oh, this climb itself is not actually too difficult thankfully, but it’s from all the previous climbs that we’ve done today and the accumulation of fatigue and everything. It’s definitely starting to burn in the legs. I’m now pushing around 160 170 watts to get up here. So much less than I can usually do, but yeah, we’ve done 3 and a half thousand m of ascending. So, no surprises there. I’ve also run out of water, which is annoying. There’s been nowhere to fill up recently, but I know there’s water at the top of this climb. There’s a food station, so I just got to get to the top and I can refill the bottles and relax for a minute, have something to eat, and try to recuperate myself for the last little bit. But yeah, about 3k to go left for this climb. Struggle is real, folks. This is it. Made it to the top of this climb to the feed station. Managed to grab some water and refill and get a little bit of sugar on board as well. So, starting to feel a little bit better now after a sit down for a few minutes cuz yeah, it was a bit touch and go there at one point. Just having a few minutes to recuperate before we crack on and finish off this ride. This is real tough. It’s an absolute brutal event this honestly. Jeez. Still got one more huge climb to go. Heat. Heat. Okay, on to the last climb of the But it’s a brute 8.7K at about 8 1/2%. Oh, it’s a tough old slog to the top. Can knock back a gel and see if that’s going to help. My mind need my mind. Oh my god. All right, that’s the ride done. I’m absolutely knackered now, but got the medal to prove I did it. Yeah, super super awesome ride and a really great weekend all around to be honest here in Andor. All in I think I was riding for about 7 hours. I’ll put the stats up on the screen, but it was 115 km almost 5,000 m of elevation and about 7 hours of riding. So, the last two climbs was a slog to get up. I think mainly just because I couldn’t keep up with the amount of uh carbs that I needed to to take on. I thought I feel like I ate loads of gels, but towards the end like I just couldn’t stomach any more gels. So, but yeah, anyway, we got it done. Is it the hardest amateur cycling event in Europe? Well, to be honest, it’s definitely up there. I know that there’s some really hard ones like the Mama, the uh Tap Dour is really tough, and there’s probably loads of other ones. So, I’m not going to say this is the hardest, but 5,000 m of climbing squeezed into just over 100 km. Yeah, it’s a it’s a hell of a ride. Like, everyone down at the bottom here is getting food that’s provided by the the race organizers and everyone’s like off their feet, lying down, completely finished. But yeah, it’s definitely like, look, if you’re looking for a super tough cycling challenge, then this is definitely one to look at. Um, there’s others out there, but yeah, this one was hard, man. And I can tell you that much for sure. All right, that’s me done. Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoyed the video.
2 Comments
Nice effort! Spectacular scenery.
great effort, and great video 👍