Dusted off some winter boots...dressed up cosy and installed heat pads everywhere (toes,fingers,butt cheeks,groin,lower back,chest) and took 4 spares unopened in my pocket.
Aim was Col des Portes... about 102 kms all up with a 16 km climb up to 1000m.
Sun was out...but I decided to leave about 9.30am so it was cold (about -8C).Ride all up should have been between 4 to 4.5 hours.
But from the start it was cold...bitterly cold with a good wind,mainly a tail wind to the base of the climb.But before I got 10km's my hands were feeling it...I have new Look mittens and they are good,but the fore finger is on it's own and so is the thumb.It wasn't long before all my fingers (and thumb) were in the center section trying to keep each other warm!. That worked for a while but in the end I opened a couple more heat pads and wrapped my fingers up.
I was glad once the climb started to slow the speed down (and wind chill!) and build some heat climbing into the sun.But after about 8kms of climbing my hands were getting cold.In the end I had to stop and warm up and eat my 3 bars.My bottle was starting to freeze as well even though it was in my back pocket, so I took one of the socks I had wrapped around my bits out and put the bottle in that.
About the 10km mark the ice waterfalls started appearing...didn't take a photo as I was going to stop on the way down,they were pretty impressive.Also about that point the road started have pretty big patches of ice.At the 4km to go mark the road wasn't cleared anymore,had had plenty of traffic though which had compacted the snow well.The 23mm tyres were fine as long as you stayed in the saddle and in a biggish gear, otherwise you would just wheel spin.It was really beautiful ridding in the sun and everything white including the road.No records were being made and the last 4kms took a long time.
Photo stop at the top lasted one frame before the iPhone died. 2.5 hours max out of the battery.
So turned around and headed down...it was unbearable, at least on the snow it was fun controlling the two up slides and trying to brake.But once you hit the clear road it was about 40kmph max and agony. I stopped twice on the way down to try and get some feeling in my fingers, didn't have much luck. 16km's of descent and only a tiny uphill in the middle was testing my metal...in the end I just gave up and rolled down losing all feeling in feet and hands.
The snow on the bike took about hour after getting down to melt...which even included a 15 minute stop out of the wind to try and warm up my hands,I had given up on my feet.I felt rather ill as my hands started to get feeling again.I don't know if others have the same but for me thawing out my hands is agony!.
Back on the bike, ride should have been over by then but I still had 75minutes to go... so had run out of food and drink.Was nearly another hour before I found a bakery and went in looking like death... Expresso and two croissants and a seat on top of the heater. I started feeling like I was going to vomit so got a coke for the sugar hit.It made me feel a bit better.I sat there quietly for about 15 minutes warming up.I had lost a lot of feeling in my legs and realised that I was probably getting pretty hypothermic.Once I had feeling back I headed off...the cold hit me again instantly and as the sun had gone it was about -9C.
The last 15kms were not too bad and apart from the big head wind went by pretty quick.
To be honest I really over and under estimated a lot of things... never again
...well until next time!.
If I had had a mechanical I would have been stuffed...I looked like an idiot trying to get the money out of my pocket for the cute girl at the boulangerie, no way I could of changed a puncture, my body just stopped producing heat.