Can James Still Survive His Favourite Race?

James returns to the legendary Alpe d’Huez Triathlon, a race that has been part of his career highs, personal history, and even his love story. With little recent hill training and far fewer watts in the legs than his glory days, he faces the brutal swim, a 118-kilometre bike over three mountain passes, and an 18-kilometre run at altitude. Along the way, memories flood back, demons resurface, caffeine gets forgotten, and a crash adds extra drama. Will he conquer his favourite race once more, or will the mountain have the final say?

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Chapters
00:00 Intro: The Legendary Alpe d’Huez
01:10 Why This Race is So Special to Me
04:17 A Unique Race Morning
05:21 The Swim & T1 Struggle
06:07 The Big Debate: Road Bike vs TT Bike
08:48 The Bike Leg: Holding Back The Pain
11:23 Descending & Facing The Final Climb
12:27 Conquering The 21 Switchbacks of Alpe d’Huez
14:32 The Run: A World of Hurt
16:23 Disaster Strikes!
17:54 Final Thoughts: A Bucket List Race

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GTN0512

[Music] [Applause] The climb of Aldo is legendary for a reason. It takes no presence. [Music] I’m at the Alpair’s triathlon, an iconic race in one of France’s most iconic locations. Famous the world over for multiple dramatic scenes many times over in the tour to France. The triathon hosted here may not get as much airtime as Leur, but it’s a race that is no less iconic or challenging. Starting in the clear cold water of the Lak Duivere, the race then takes on a bike leg worthy of a tour to France stage 118 km over three coals ending in the summit of the iconic Alp D where many cyclists have collapsed in exhaustion in years past. But of course, this is a triathlon so there’s no collapsing and exhaustion at the top. There’s still an 18 km run leg to do at over 1,800 m elevation. This race holds a special place in my heart. I first raced it back in 2009 in my first year as a pro triathlete. I was on team TB and we had our summer training base in the Alps. Not these Alps, in the Swiss Alps near Geneva. If I recall correctly, the race was on a Wednesday. So on the Sunday before, we threw all our bags into a car that would follow us and we cycled halfway to Eliz, stopping in Elberville over a few climbs on the way. The following day, after sleeping the night in a Formula 1 hotel, we got back on our bikes and rode over the cold glandon 1,924 m high and then up the back way to Alp Dues itself. We then spent one day here recovering and swimming and the following day we did the Alpu triathlon. The first time I would see the famous Alpu climb with its 21 switchbacks was 100 km into a triathlon. I finished third that year after just under 6 hours of hard racing. And the following day, we got back on our bikes and rode 180 km to Anacey before the day after that riding another 150 km back to our home base in Leen, Switzerland. It was our own little mini tour to France. And it was the best week of my whole year. In fact, looking back at it, it might have been the best week of my whole triathlon career. Then the following year, we did the whole thing again. Pretty much exactly the same scenario, except this year it was made even sweeter because this time I won the race. It was my first international pro win. And I shared the win that year with a certain British triathlete named Jodie Swallow. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would go on to marry her 6 years later and we’d have three kids together. I came back to this race a few times after that, including in 2016 when I won it. But as my career took off and I was pulled in many other directions into other parts of the world and to more mainstream events, I didn’t make it back here to help to as many times as I would have liked. You almost certainly wouldn’t say that the pinnacle of my pro career was here in this small race tucked away in the mountains of France. But actually the pinnacle of me being a triathlete. The moment that I look back on with the most fondness, the most memorable, meaningful, the most defining moment of my triathlon career may actually have been here on this mountain on this famous climb of El DZ. I told you this place had a special place in my heart. And now I’m back. I’m older and slower and significantly less fit. In fact, if I’d ridden all the way here from Switzerland this time, I’d probably be crying in a corner right now rather than ready getting ready to race in a few minutes. But I am getting ready to race in a few minutes. And I’m looking forward to reliving all those old memories while I go around the course and making some new ones. Race morning here starts a little differently from your usual triathlon. You see, most people stay up here at Elp Dues, but the race starts in the valley over and 1,000 m elevation lower in the Lak Duivere, which means the most practical way of getting there is to put your bag on your back and ride your bike down to the race start. And so, the organizers allow everyone to check their bike in on race morning. And that’s pretty much what everyone does. It makes for a unique and fun way to start your race morning. Pre-race was much like any pre-race, pretty relaxed really with everyone arriving on their bikes and all their gear already there. So nothing too stressful until I realized that the start shoot was pretty narrow and so you had to be pretty quick to seed yourself in the fast wave near the front and I wasn’t for the first time today I wouldn’t be fast. The swim itself didn’t disappoint. As expected here when you got in the water it was fresh. As soon as my face hit the water, I was pretty glad I had put on that neoprene swim cap. As I reached the end of the swim, there had been little to no drama. Until I got to the end of the swim, as I tried to lift my hip flexors up onto the exit ramp, both of them cramped. I struggled to stand up and to climb up the steep ramp out of the water and then to get going and get into transition. I told myself, not very convincingly, that if Matthew Markard can overcome these things, so can I. I’d be fine. But the swim is just a small part of a long day. The bike, as you’d expect, is the crux of this event. As you can see, I’ve bought my Canyon Aero road bike with clip-on arrow bars. The natural choice for a course like this. Or is it? Road bikes are better for climbing and descending and time trial bikes are better for well time triing. We’ve made quite a few videos about this recently. Uh the difference between road and time trial and which one is better for different courses, most recently around the Iron Man World Champs new course in Nice. And the conclusion is almost invariably that a time trial bike is faster on pretty much every course. I’m willing to bet that tomorrow you will see most of the pros riding TT bikes. And at Nice, we saw pretty much all the pros riding TT bikes. The TT bikes are just faster. And so I bought my road bike with clipons. Huh? Let me explain. Your TT bike will be faster, provided a few key criteria are met. Firstly, you have equal or better specs on your TT bike than your road bike. Check. You have the right gearing on your TT bike. Check. You can handle your TT bike on the technical parts of the course. Check. And you’ve done most of your training, climbing, descending, and time triing on your TT bike. Uh yeah, no, not check. You see, back in the day, I would spend most of the summer on my time trial bike in the mountains, but that is just not the case this time. I haven’t spent any of my summer in the mountains on a Ty bike or a road bike, which may come back to bite me. But regardless, I haven’t been doing any time on my time trial bike on the mountains. And so, I will almost certainly be better off on a road bike. So, I have brought this my Canyon Aero CFR in its shiny sparkly bling, complete with a gear groove arrow bar extensions mounted onto them, which is a pretty nifty design by Canyon to put clipons on your road bike. Urggon SRM team saddle and full dur specs 5236 in the front and 1134 in the rear. So, hopefully that 3634 should get me through the climbs. I definitely didn’t have such good gearing back in the day when I was racing on my TT bike. And of course, I’ve optimized the chain with some uh Silka wax coating. Let’s get back to the race and see how I’m handling those hills with a distinct lack of hill training. [Music] As we headed off down the valley, everyone seemed to be going fast. But unlike my mistake I made in Roth not too long ago, I wasn’t getting caught up in it this time. I knew I had to keep my powder dry and hold back for later on in the race. So, I just let them all go. But man, those guys were flying. Some of them were risking not only blowing up later, but risking their lives. It’s only a race, boys. About halfway up the first climb. Memories are flooding back. Although my memories of this climb are it was a lot more intense, media, camera, motos, a lot of shouting. Right now it’s a bit of a quiet almost solo slog. Still pleasant, warming up. The memories as I climbed this first climb were flooding back. But they weren’t all good memories. In fact, as I went around this course, I would face a good few demons from years gone by. In fact, there was one corner where I crashed and ended my race one year. Uh, and a few places where I remember being in lots of agony. I was just hoping that today wasn’t going to turn into more not so good memories. [Music] We at the top yet. So, I felt okay going on the first climb and I uh felt great going down that first descent, but now the road just punched up again. And uh I do not feel good. My legs are, should we say, sore. My uh hip flexors feel a little crampy. And uh we’ve got two more massive climbs to come. One of them being out turns itself off. [Music] I remember the final descent like it was yesterday. I absolutely loved this on race day many years ago. flying down this at full speed, completely at one with my machine and my body singing and getting ready for the climb up the Alpes. This time, let’s just say I was a little bit more reticent to push, a little bit less comfortable on my bike, having not spent a whole summer in the Alps, and a little bit more worried about climbing Els. I haven’t seen this climb for the better part of 9 years. I mean, I’ve been in my garage and I’ve seen it on Ruvie. During my hour a day challenge, this was one of my favorite routes to, you know, do a solid hour of climbing. Not that I ever made it all the way to the top. But still, even the ultra realistic roots on Ruvie don’t really prepare you for the epicness of this climb in real life. The climb of El Dur is legendary for a reason. It takes no prisoners. The first kilometer just surges to 12%. And it really kicks you in the teeth. I wasn’t the only one suffering at this point. In fact, pretty much everyone I went past was suffering and everyone who came past me looked like they were suffering just as much, just a little bit faster. We were all in pain at this point. I’m halfway up the Elp and every fiber of my being wants me to find a shady tree and just sit down underneath it. [Music] I’m absolutely shattered. The support on this climb has always been incredible, but this time it was even more spectacular. A little bit quieter further down the hill, but as you went through Huer village, my word, it was exciting. It really did feel like you were in the tour to France. If I had anything left in the tank now, I would have really pushed hard, but I didn’t. So, I just smiled at the people shouting at me and shouting my name and kept churning onwards. I was smashed. [Music] [Music] So much for not collapsing at the top of the hill. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] The start of the run was painful. Like a brick session worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. And it pretty much stayed like that for the whole first lap. It’s not a great feeling. Feeling like the slowest, worst prepared person out in the course. Everyone seems to be passing me. But uh the vibes are good and uh I’ll just make it to the finish even if it’s slow. I walked when I needed to walk, but I tried to convince myself to just run. Walking is so slow and I would have been out there for even longer than I was. I just needed to keep jogging, trotting, plotting, whatever I could do to keep moving forward. Little hike in the stunning countryside. I mean, views. It was at this point as I was really struggling, I ran through an aid station and thought, “Hey, now’s the time to turn to some caffeine, some cola, sugar, and caffeine.” And then had a startling revelation. I forgot to put caffeine in my mix bottle. The only caffeine I’d had the entire day was the rather rubbish coffee I had at the hotel breakfast that morning. I can’t even get through a day at my computer at work on one coffee. I need at least four. No wonder I was struggling so much. I actually found a decent rhythm in lap two. I managed to run most of the way up the big hill and uh I felt a lot better than lap one. That was until disaster struck. Okay, mate. Yeah. Go on. Just take a minute. Thank you. Thank you. After dusting myself off and getting moving again, I tried to do a bit of a systems check. My right knee was definitely banged quite hard. Uh, and I had grazes and a few holes in my hands. But other than that, I was actually moving pretty well again. In fact, I was moving really well. Better than I was before I fell. Yeah, I guess adrenaline will do that to you. But we all know adrenaline doesn’t last very long. Luckily, as the adrenaline wore off, the finish line was pretty much in sight, and I could find that last bit of energy you always find at the end of a race to get down the last hill and in to the finish line. So, what am I saying about this race? I am glad I came even though I suffered like a dog out there. I did actually predict before the race. My videographer asked me what time was I going to do and I said well I did 552 years ago so add 2 hours and round it up. I’ll be around 8 hours and I was 8 hours and 1 minute. Pretty accurate. Can’t be too unhappy with that. Also, pros who are doing 30 hours a week can back up three or three and a half weeks after an Iron Man do another event. If you’ve done an hour a day, 7 hours a week, you probably shouldn’t do that. As if we need Italian. I will say, and I have said it many times before, this race should be on everyone’s bucket list. It is epic. You will not forget it for the rest of your life. It will go down as one of your most ultimate triathlon experiences regardless of how your day goes. It is a magical, magical event. So, if you haven’t already, put this one on your bucket list. Oh, and if you are reliant on caffeine, don’t forget your caffeine. Thanks for watching. On to the next challenge.