Utah

Back from the USA and did manage to get one ride in whilst away (plus I managed not to add any weight despite the generous portions of food on offer)

Moab in Utah is a great place for outdoor sports (it's a mountain-bike mecca), and is blessed with a very scenic, quiet and tough 100km loop road for a spot of road-biking - the La Sal Loop road. This includes an alpine-like climb up 'the Big Nasty' - a total of 1,200m climbing over 30km. This however hides the fact that the second half is where most of the climbing is done, with gradients of 6-13%.

Emily and I hired a couple of very nice Giant Defy bikes for the day and decided to do the loop anti-clockwise to get the climbing out of the way early during the cooler hours of the morning. This made the trundle up the shallow incline out of town very enjoyable, but the mountain was always directly in our view.

 

Emily left my wheel as the first slopes of 11% were hit, and eventually she turned around having completed the 'Little Nasty' about halfway up the main climb. On my own, I pedalled up the steep slopes of the little nasty, then galvanized myself for another big effort as a second set of steep ramps came into view. My earlier hubris on the little nasty, plus the dry heat of the desert sun and the thin air meant that I was soon gasping for breath, and I began to feel quite light-headed as my heart felt like it was trying to escape from my chest.

Around a sharp left, the gradient eased to 6-8% for the last 3km's of the Big Nasty, before a short but welcome descent into a river gorge, then the final ascension to the highest point of the ride at 2,500m above sea level. The road surface in the last km was particularly poor, and was a complete gravel road by the summit, which was just inside the snow-line. Stopped at the top for a photo, and some calls of 'Good Job!' from some mountain bikers that had driven up the road to descend one of the trails, then it was over the top for the long descent back into the valley.

The road was again poor at the top of the descent, so I had to take it easy, but once the steep switchbacks at the top had been negotiated, the surface improved and I was able to get some real speed up.

If Carlsberg made descents.... they'd resurface this one and call it a day

After the main descent, there is a great 17km section of road with a slight negative gradient that entices you to get on the drops and time-trial the bike through some of the most beautiful desert scenery, and I averaged 46km/h along here. By the time I got to highway 128 for the last 30km home I was shattered and had very little water left. Perfect Marmotte training. I focussed on staying strong mentally as I rode yet another stunning road, with 200m high canyon walls on either side and ground out the kilometres.

With about 10km left, who should I see waiting at the side of the road but Emily, who'd ridden the route clockwise to meet up with me and ride back into town. More importantly she had water, so after a rejuvenating drink we knocked off the remaining distance back into Moab town.

I was absolutely shattered by the end of the ride, but was glad to have got this in prior to Provence and then the Marmotte. I certainly learnt to take it easy on the lower slopes of a big climb as being in the red when in the thin air 2,000m+ above sea level really takes its toll.

Should be happy with this ride, but the constant doubts about my abilities have manifested themselves in the thought that this ride was essentially the equivalent of climbing Glandon and the long pull to the foot of the Telegraphe. Could I have done the Telegraphe/Galibier and Alpe d'Huez straight after? Not. A. Chance.

As a reward for the efforts of the day, we went to the Moab Brewery next door to the bike hire shop for a couple of beers and the best burger I ate all holiday.