The Raid Alpine (La Randonnée Alpine Léman-Côte D'Azur) is a permanent cycling challenge from Lake Geneva to Antibes on the Mediterranean through the Southern Alps and over some of the most legendary Alpine climbs and the two highest; the Col de l'Iseran and the Cime de la Bonette. It is 712 kms long and crosses 27 cols of which 9 are over 2,000 metres. The total ascent is 18,187 metres (just over twice the height of Everest!).
It is organised by the Cyclos Randonneurs Thononais and by officially registering with the club you get a control card which has to be stamped at set locations along the way (shops, cafes and tourist offices) to prove you have completed the route. There is no time constraints and the route can be done in stages or all in one go.
Chris, Phil and I had survived two epic cycling tours together and we still had an appetite to do another one. Each tour had been just that harder than the previous one and having survived a traverse of the Pyrenees in 2016 our thoughts inevitably turned to the Alps. The second part of the Raid Alpine from Lake Geneva to Trieste was dismissed as requiring too much time to complete and so we settled on a 6 day tour with the aim of conquering the first part of the Raid Alpine.
How ever hard you train it's impossible to replicate the climbing conditions found on the continent. Our longest local climb on the Mendips, Cheddar Gorge, takes about 25 minutes but in the Alps you could easily be climbing for well over 2.5 hours. So despite putting in the miles and the climbs it's still a shock to the system when the first Alpine Climb kicks in.
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