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Video: Mike Cotty's 666km Trans-Alps ride, part one

From Evian-les-Bains to the top of the Galibier, in the middle of the night - follow Mike on the first half of his adventure

Epic is a word bandied about a lot where cycling is concerned, but Mike Coty's 666km trans-Alps journey from Evian-les-Bains to Nice is surely worthy of the title. Mavic are producing a two-part video of the ride: part one is online today, with part two landing on 5 September.

What's the point of the ride? "Seeing what I'm capable of, and just enjoying being free and out on the bike, for just a few hours", says Mike at the start of the vid. A few?

The ride featured over 16,000m of climbing and 17 cols along its length, with the climb of the 2,645m Galibier coming in the middle of the night. Mike completed the ride over two hours ahead of his 36-hour schedule.

How did he find the ride? "You have to just switch off, and put yourself through hell, and hang on. But this is what we do. It's not supposed to be easy."

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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8 comments

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Mike Cotty | 10 years ago
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Thanks for your support guys! Ride safe all!

Mike

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disco | 10 years ago
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For all of us wondering what's next? Mikey's just thrown us a huge gauntlet. Well done Mister!

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Leviathan | 10 years ago
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Fantastic. I especially liked his Mavic Bin-Bag Gillet.

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Faroon | 10 years ago
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Amazing. I did La Marmotte this year, which includes the Glandon, Maurienne valley, Telegraphe and Galibier, the way he did it. We then turned right down the Latauret, and finished up Alpe D'Huez, but he's pushing on for another 300K, having done 300 already.

Climbing the section of the Galibier after the restaurants, in the dark must have been petrifying, frankly.

And he's right about the Glandon being relentless, but he missed out the 14% section, and sign warning about the risk of death....

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ashfanman | 10 years ago
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The word "amazing" is overused an awful lot. In this case, it's practically understatement.

I'm particularly amazed at how (relatively) fresh he sounds and looks after climbing the equivalent of Mt Everest! An inhuman, almost impossible effort, and he makes it seem like a casual Sunday pootle.

Can't wait to see the next one.

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Jasonahewitt | 10 years ago
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Sensational ride.
Makes my planned 500k ride for Alzheimer's Society in December look puny.
http://www.justgiving.com/Festive500Kcyclechallenge
http://www.strava.com/routes/1605

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mrchrispy | 10 years ago
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road to hell

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Martin Thomas | 10 years ago
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Awesome.

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