What I do is take 2 bottles from start. One with 180gr of carbs that should be empty on top of Glandon. This way I knew I had enough carbs for the first part.
Never walk on the Alpe. And stop as little as needed ( maybe top cool down when it is hot at a water station ). But once stopped, you loose the mental battle. Keep riding is always better.
If you pace the first climb really well, and not overdue in the valley to Telegraphe, you will be fine. The suffering should start from the right turn at Plan Lachat on the Galibier. There you should still feel pretty ok.
A curiosity… i tend to use 2 bottles of 750 ml, with equal grams of carbs in each one, so i don’t have to think about the choice. When climbing, i drink a little every 5 minutes ( i use the time to stay regular).
A single bottle with 180 grams isn’t too dense and too sweety, that forces you to drink immediatly from the other bottle ?
I had already occasions when there is a segment over 14-15% and just to stay in balance i must push a number of watts that i can’t sustain for (let’s say..) 1 minute. When i find 18-19%, my time reduces to few seconds. In this perspective i think of a possible walk on the Alpe, when my watts will be already reduced by fatigue.
I will look at the right turn at Plan Lachat on Google Maps, thank you for all the tips !
You might consider lower gearing if it’s an option for you. I’m a fairly strong cyclist for an old dude (~4w/kg) and I wouldn’t dream of tackling a day like that with 34:34 gearing. I’d be running my gravel gearing, which is actually MTB gearing. 42 tooth chainring with a 10-52 cassette. It’s pretty much all I run on any road/gravel route that has significant climbing. You don’t get any bonus points for grinding up a hill at 50-60 rpm cadence. And walking steep stuff as you start to cramp makes for a terrible experience. Just something to consider, particularly if extended climbing is somewhat common for you.
In general (not for the Marmotte) i was considering to change bicycle and go for a 50-34 x 11-36 cassette (Shimano 105 12x). I had never thought of switching to a gravel gearing.. but you’re right, and maybe i have only to convince myself that is the right switch to do. I have some doubts for having only the 42 mono, but surely my 50 years of cycling have a weight in those doubts.
And no, climbing at 50-60 rpm it isn’t funny at all.
Yeah, going from 2x to 1x for road cycling does have it’s trade offs with gear jumps. I still have 2x on my road race bike, but I race gravel a lot more than road these days. And unless I’m road racing (which typically doesn’t have long climbs around here), the road bike never leaves the garage. Basically, I pick my “endurance road bike” for all my non-race road riding. And my endurance road bike is just my gravel race bike and it happens to have 1x gearing. When I made the switch to 1x for gravel, I found the bigger gear jumps annoying, but it quickly became a non-issue. I typically keep a 44t chainring on the gravel bike, but will swap to a 42 for particularly hilly/long events.
Even if you don’t like the idea of 1x for road, there are plenty of 2x options that will be better than 50/34 - 11/36. SRAM has an option for a 43/30 chainring with 10-36 cassette.