After damaging body and soul on the Tour du Mont Blanc in 2024, I couldn’t gather up the courage to face another big test this year, so I abandoned my entry for the Race Across Switzerland (500km version). But there’s always that guy sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear that I need to man up and register for something ‘big’. That guy’s name is Karsten this year.

10 years ago Karsten and I, along with friends John and Pierre (see blog post here), rode what turned out to be a historically hot Marmotte. Two of us survived and made it to the finish line, but I think we both felt we had unfinished business with this event – not because of the furnace we had to ride through, but that year (2015) they changed the traditional route because part of the road between Le Bourg d’Oisans and Briancon was landslided out. The numbers were similar, but La Marmotte is the oldest and hardest of all French cyclosportifs, and to say you’ve done it means that you’ve done the historic route.

So there you have it. 177km and 5000+m. It’s a big enough test to scare me into losing weight again, I think. Also in keeping with tradition, November 1st is the beginning of training season, so I should probably get going.