News: The Alpine Challenge 2012 is underway

Riders’ legs including those of Rapha Condor Sharp’s Dean Downing tested by some youngsters in the first two Stages of The Alpine Challenge

HotChillee, London, 6th September 2012 – The four-Stage Alpine Challenge 2012 started this morning with an 11.6km timed mountain Stage. The Stage One route saw riders, including Rapha Condor Sharp’s Dean Downing, Jerone Walters 3x Yellow Jersey holder of The London-Paris and professional mountain-biker Karl Platt, race for King of the Mountains up 900 metres of Col de Leschaux, featured previously in the Tour de France.

18 year old Felix Barker stunned Karl Platt (left) and Dean Downing (right) with his incredible performance in Stage One, taking the Red Jersey into Stage Two.

Starting by Lake Annecy in cloudy conditions, the route took cyclists past breath-taking scenes of the lake. At the bottom of Col de Leschaux, riders gathered in the HotChillee Holding Area before being set off in groups of ten every 30 seconds. The riders were timed up the first Col of the race, setting up their legs for the next few days of spectacular mountain cycling. Once at the top of the Col, riders found themselves in the clouds, with poor visibility.

At 18, the youngest rider on The Alpine Challenge – Felix Barker – impressed all with his riding and won Stage One in 00:23:36, one second faster than professional Karl Platt, who came in second. Felix started Stage Two in the Red Jersey. Tracy McAvoy took the Pink Jersey from last year’s female winner, Kelli Bayliss and entered Stage Two with a 2 second lead.

During a short break at the top of Col de Leschaux the riders were seeded into four groups based on their times and headed up by HotChillee Ride Captains. It was then onto Stage Two. Closed roads, motorbike outriders, support vehicles, timed race sections over Cols, mechanical support and massages all add to the PRO-rider feel of The Alpine Challenge.

Stage Two started with a descent off Col de Leschaux, but then went straight up the 1174 metre ascent of Col de Planpalais where riders battled it out for the King of the mountains in the 10km timed section. Tracy McAvoy held off her female contenders, but Felix was just beaten by Karl Platt, who starts Stage Three in the Red Jersey.

Once at the top, the cyclists found themselves once again hidden in the clouds, but had a 20km descent via Col de la Cluze to look forward to. The stage ended with an undulating 40km back to the base in Annecy Town.

Stephen Roche, who is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his Triple Crown win is also cycling this year’s Alpine Challenge.

All riders have returned in sunny conditions, happy and ready for some rest before stage three tomorrow. And those that are feeling particularly energetic will be able to compete in the Wattbike 500m sprint competition being run in each of the hotels. The fastest male and female riders will receive prizes and every participant will be entered into a grand prize draw to win a 4 night stay at Stephen Roche’s Training Camp, with Stephen himself drawing the prize.