Grand Raid Cristalp

And still the climb went on. A Dutch guy next to me asked how I was feeling, “Not great. I‘ve got strange shooting pains running up from my palms”. “You as well?”, came the reply.

The scene at La Vieille

Nearly 9 hrs in and I can honestly say I have never had a worse time on a bike. My hands were of little use to me other than to lean on the bars. I mean they were not just numb, now the weird shooting pains were a constant. Thankfully I didn’t need to change gear. I had been stuck in the highest available one for a very long time and the gradient showed no sign of changing. The stream of riders coming down was steady, some telling us “C’est finite”, others staring grimly ahead and avoiding conversation. I turned to Ross to find that he had gone. Always a sensible one, and with nothing to prove having completed it before, he had turned around…

Finishing was not an option now, but heat and shelter were, so I pushed on up to the refuge at La Vieille. The scene up there was fairly chaotic, with a strip of tape blocking the path, and bikes and riders strewn around in different states of distress. It was at this point that for the first time all day I wished I had a higher BMI. I’m not entirely sure how you define hypothermia, but if shaking uncontrollably for 45 minutes, unable to even hold a drink are signs of it then I’ll assume that’s what it was. I found myself wrapped in a blanket and huddled around a stove with lots of other shivering, vaguely coherent lycra clad men. Frankly, a very odd and not entirely pleasurable experience.

Blanketed, under shelter with a hot drink; once my hands worked I managed this selfie.

After 9 hours and 107km this was it. 18km short. That brutal 800m climb up to the Pas De Lona and the famous descent down into the beer tent at Grimentz were not to be.

The next 4 hours were spent getting off the mountain and taking a series of buses to pick up bags and then back to Verbier. Though chaotic, the task of clearing the mountain of all those riders and bikes could not have been an easy one. Heavy dumper trucks were commandeered, and tens of thousands of pounds worth of carbon piled unceremoniously in and shipped down the valley.

During the wait I bumped into the tough French guy I had talked to earlier. He told me that we were lucky. 15 minutes earlier and we would have been allowed through, onto the final slog up the Pas De Lona which was by now a river. The unlucky few who managed to get up to the top were in such bad shape that they required a helicopter rescue off the mountain. So in the end that fact that I climbed so slowly might have saved me…

The scene at finish in Grimentz (photo taken from Christoph Sauser Twitter feed.)

So, once the dust had settled would I do it again?

Well, having failed to finish, and with 14 out of the 34 British riders who started being quick enough to beat the weather and finish, I cannot help feeling that there is unfinished business here.

However, the logistics of the race are a little dubious. The route requires a long bus journey home and contains a little too much fire road and tarmac for my liking. Also, the financial investment is a factor; nothing in Switzerland is cheap. Entry to the race was 140 CHF (approx £96), and accommodation and food are just about as pricey as Europe gets. If you are not a banker or oligarch then Verbier, beautiful as it is, is probably not the sort of place that you would choose to spend too much time in.

And yet, I do fancy another shot at the Cristalp. One never dwells on the negative. I’m already thinking about some of that incredible single track, and imagining what the final descent past the lake off the Pas De Lona is like…

Next year then.

9 hours later and just short of the finish… there’s unfinished business here.

Canyon Bicycles
 
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Grand Raid Cristalp Website
 
This article first appeared on BritishCycleSport.com