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news
Mike Cotty Alps madness 15783_000015782Mike Cotty unveils 666km trans-Alpine epic challenge + Video
Mike Cotty, former Cannondale marketing bloke and quietly insane ultradistance road cyclist has finally admitted what he’s been training for all summer: a 666km non-stop traverse of the Alps featuring 17 cols and over 16,000m of climbing.
Here’s a bit of a teaser video:
Mike will start on August 5 in Evian Les Bains and over the following 36 hours will cross many of the most famous cols of the Tour de France: Col de la Colombière, Madeleine, Glandon, Croix de Fer, Télégraphe, Galibier, Izoard, Vars, Bonette and Madone. The journey is equivalent to four consecutive mountain stages of the Tour de France and the ascent is almost equivalent to climbing Mount Everest twice.
Scared yet? You should be. Here’s Mike’s nominal schedule:
And here’s the elevation profile:
You'll be able to follow Mike's progress here and on his website's event page as there will be a live tracking device on his support vehicle.
We look forward to vicariously suffering with him, starting Monday.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
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I had a brief moment of déjà vu about established reds Established enough, according to your reverie? This is Polestar 2 OV74 URX
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"How was the weather today?" "Balkan north wind."
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Nice. I'd ride that Madone now.
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41 comments
I'm with Scotchpoth on the advert, I'm afraid, Mike, but the ride looks incredible. Very best of luck.
Good luck Mike - Hope it all goes to plan!
Should be an awesome adventure. Wish I could get time to do something like that ... and the fitness! Oh well, one day maybe.
All the best
Unbelievable. Best of luck. Thanks for mentioning that front light- sounds awesome. Want!!
(It's always funny when the internet and the real world intersect. You know, the "real world"- where someone tells you about an incredible trip they are going to do and the cool video they made and you go "great stuff, mate" instead of "that reminds me of a VW ad"...)
; )
The trip sounds fantastically mad. The idea of night time descents scares me and I'm only thinking about them; not planning to do them.
Good luck Mike.
Wow. What a challenge. And what a measured response to that dreary comment. Not sure I'd fancy doing the Glandon or Galibier at night. Hats off to you Mike - and take care out there.
Sounds like a fantastic trip. A journey both within and without. I wish you the best of luck, especially on descending at night!
Hopefully you'll get a chance to do the trip in a way that you can also enjoy it sometime! As someone else put, that's some Strava segment.
Good luck to you Mike! It's an epic for sure! Did the Colombier and the Aravis just the other week (staying in La Giettaz). Watch out for the top 3 hairpins on the descent of latter – they’re really chewed up at the moment.
@iamelectron - Note made! Thank you!
Just a question, not directly related to your proposed expedition: When you come back from doing multi-day endurance activity do you experience pro-longed fatigue, elevated metabolism and such like related to the body changes? Or does your body now exist on that level permanently?
I just ask as I always feel sluggish and tired afterwards, but during the event I just seem to be 'on it'. The worst thing seems to be stopping the activity....
(btw - I've now watched the video, and it is excellent. You must come back and tell us what your weirdest thought/experience in the long dark night of your cycling soul was on this trip....there always one that pops up when you're milling out the miles).
Hi Colin,
Many, many, years ago I read an interview with Lord Seb Coe. The interviewer asked "it must be amazing to feel so fit all of the time", Seb's reply was "I wish. 90% of the time I feel completely exhausted. There's only 10% of the time in competition when I feel ok".
I think I remember this as it's something I can relate to. I seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time feeling like I'm "in a box with the lid closed". It's only when the adrenalin starts to kick in that I feel like my body is ready to do what my mind dictates.
I'd be more than happy to share my experiences post challenge. Just got to make it to Nice first. Here's hoping....
Mike
Good luck Mike, what a fantastic adventure. Remember to keep it real and be safe. I liked your film, hope the one you do about the ride is as good.
equal parts stupid, impressive and inspiring
“in bocca al lupo” Mike
Good grief, good luck.
Straddling a very, very fine line between genius and madness.
Looking forward to seeing this, best of luck Mike.
Thanks for all the well wishes chaps, really appreciated and definitely something I'll draw strength from in the dead of the night when underneath my skin I'm screaming.
@CyclingDan - Did you know you live in the centre of the universe?
@CarbonBreaker - For night vision I'll be using the Exposure Reflex front light. Anything that has oncoming car drivers flashing you to turn it down should do the trick I hope!
@UsedToBeFaster - Sounds good to me. You may have to put a time limit on it though. I've been known to talk about cycling for.....well, days at a time!
Awesome.
I freakin' love it when you almost catch yourself doing a "chapeau" at just the plan, let alone the execution.
Bon courage!
Bonkers
Mike,
I can't work out if you're absolutely nuts or a complete hero !!
Any chance you can come to our club during the winter and present on you're experiences? (We're west Southampton based)
Cheers
Paul
Not to dissimilar to my daily commute.
Great itinerary for a weeks holiday. Even were the world full of Audax hard-men this would still be mental - good luck Mike!
For a similar style (i.e. bonkers amount of climbing etc.) ride, you can head to Provence to ride the Mille du Sud....
https://sites.google.com/site/le1000dusud/
4th-7th September, 1000km, 16,000m climbing.
Only jesting with my comment,dont take it seriously
good luck with it all,hope you have a great experience
Hi Mike. For those who may not know you for the amount of work, promotion, publicity, guidance you've put into cycling over the years via the internet, forums etc especially riding abroad in the 'Sportive' area, have you moved career from Cannondale to Mavic or are you now freelance? What bike will you be using?
All the best for this next challenge.
@Roberj4 - Many thanks for your words. I wrote this little piece back in 2009 to remind myself in years to come where it all began - http://www.mikecotty.co.uk/News.asp?NewsID=432.
Like many others, I get a huge amount of joy from cycling and if there's any way I can help someone have a better experience on the bike then I'll do what I can to help them. Things like the Etape recon videos and Sportive guides are really satisfying if riders can use them to their advantage.
In response to your question, after 12 years working for Cannondale I left the company last year. It came to the point where I found I was practically doing as many hours after work (magazine articles, videos etc) than I was for my day job and I knew I couldn't sustain both. It was a gamble, walking away from stability and all the perks that come with working for a big corporation but I just really wanted to try and bring to life everything that I've worked for and believed in my whole life, so that meant handing back the company car, mobile phone, laptop etc and going it alone. The conclusion I came to was that I'll always kick myself if I didn't at least try.
So, I'm now working for myself. I still have a close connection with Cannondale as I manage and produce the video content for their Pro Cycling Team but I've also been able to build on my relationships with other brands (like Mavic) whilst doing more media work (writing, video and photography) which I really enjoy.
*Cue the "This is your life" music
I'll be riding a Cannondale EVO next week. One thing's for sure, I'm going to be in bits long before that thing even breaks a sweat!
All the best,
Mike
Who is this Les Alpes, and is he going with you?
Any symbolism in the distance?
People often mix him up with his brother Des.
Or his cousin "Wes"
... Or the crescent moon in the schedule? Fox News would have a field day with this one...Seriously Mike, massive respect just for attempting it. An example to overweight slobs (like me) everywhere.
Woah, good luck! Makes the Haute Route in 3weeks a little paler! Mind you that is 800+ KM and 21,000m of climbing., we get 7days though!
Do hope you have an awesome lighting rig for descending Galiber in the dark.
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