Local cyclist, endurance coach & nutritionist, Joe Staunton, recently competed in the Haute Route Alps, a 7 day mountain stage race through the French Alps, which is considered to be the worlds hardest amateur cycling stage race.
Joe finished 12th overall on the general classification whilst gaining 2 top 10 stage finishes in the process.
350 of the best amateur cyclists from across the world descended at the start in Megeve to compete over 7 gruelling stages that worked their way down through the French alps, to finish in Nice.
The race covered 750km of road, over 20,000M of climbing (2 x up Mount Everest), featured 14 mountain passes and a time trial up the famous Alpe D’Huez. The biggest day involved being on the bike for over 6hrs and riding up 3 mountains in 30 degrees of heat.
Speaking on his achievement, Joe said:
“I’ve wanted to do this event for a long time. Racing the Tour de France climbs is a special thing to experience as a cyclist.
“It was an exceptional experience and brilliant opportunity to test and develop training and nutritional strategies that I can now help athletes I coach utilise’.
Training for an event of this magnitude is no easy task, and Joe had to design training methods and nutritional approaches to help simulate riding in the French Alps, whilst living and training on the Isle of Wight.
Joe went on to add:
“We don’t have any mountains, altitude or heat on the Island! And almost all of the racing in the Alps was 2000M above sea level, where the air is really thin, on climbs lasting well over an hour and in temperatures often in excess of 35 degrees C.
“I spent a fair bit of time on my indoor trainer, looking rather silly wearing a hazmat suit with no cooling to get my body used to riding in extreme temperatures and at altitude”.
Joe is supported by Wightlink and is an endurance coach and sports nutritionist for Ceyreste Performance, a coaching company that helps athletes of all levels train and prepare for sporting events.
Well done Joe! A great achievement.