Following on from the previous Marmotte 2023 thread, thought it’d be good to see who’s doing the 2024 edition.
Tips, tricks, advice, training discussion all welcomed 
I must say events like this are my long-term goal. At the moment I’m stuck on 130km / 3000hm for long rides. Also I don’t want to finish these grinding my teeths (it’s ok if the last 2 hours are dull/hard, but not half of the ride).
I’m training longer rides (5hours+) and also working on my power. So I will follow this thread closely. 
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I reckon between now and June 2024 you can get yourself into a good position to be able to complete it
Top tip that i learnt from the 2023 version and one that I’m deffo going to implement next year is bring way more gearing options than you can possibly imagine. If i could fit my gravel 11-42 on my bike, i would 
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For the '23 edition, registration opened on the 8th of November '22. So i guess it will be around the same time this year.
Thinking about making my '24 goal to place for the Gran Fondo World Championship, so won’t be doing it next year. Maybe in '25 again.
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Will have to check my familiy schedule for next year but I’m thinking of making this one of my main events if I get a spot… Maybe also do the Alp TT if I can get away for a few days. The Tour des Stations Marmotte should give me a good feel for how I should set my goals for it.
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I was just looking at the ultrafondo route to see if it was even a remotely attractive goal… putting myself in my shoes from 10 days ago at the top of the Alpe considering “ok, back down the hill then back up again”? No thanks 
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I’d rather throw my bike off the side of the alpe than do another ascent
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Brilliant event and great training target. Although I was generally happy with my time I reckon I can knock 10-20 minutes off my time.
2 mistakes on the day, undergeared and went slightly too hard on climbs before galibier.
In terms of training my focus will be extended tempo rides out to 4+ hours rather than 6 hour hilly rides with threshold and sweetspot.
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If you can do those rides you’re already not far off what’s required. However, I’d say almost everyone suffers either in the Galibier or the AdH or both regardless of their level.
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What’s everyone’s opinion on riding the route on your own (with friends) vs. doing the official event? If I do the official event I can only arrive there the day in advance and leave the day after. If I go during summer holiday or perhaps spring holiday I can stay there for an entire week…
Biggest con I can think is the lack of drafting on the flats and needing to support myself for the entire ride.
Biggest pro for me would be that I get to stay there for longer and maybe pick a time of year where it’d be less hot.
If you have a competitive streak and enjoy the buzz of competition then would be a shame to miss the event. The first few hours are a great buzz with thousands of riders around you, it does thin out later in the event to the point at which you are generally riding solo or in small groups.
I arrived Friday and left Tuesday which meant 2 small rides around the event. I will definitely do a week in Bourg with friends at some point in the future but for now the event merits the sacrifice of limited riding.
My only regret is I never got a chance to ride Alpe Duez hard so next year I will do the TT and main event and arrive a few days earlier.
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On of my coolest memories of this years (my first) edition was after the first small descent on Gladon/Croix de Fer. Seeing all those red blinking lights of riders already going uphill again was really cool. Even though everyone is suffering and there’s not much speaking going on. Having riders around you the whole event really makes the time fly by.
I arrived the Thursday before the event. Did the first climb on Friday, rest on Saturday. Event on Sunday and rode back on Monday.
You can do the event solo. There are tons of places to fill up water along the route. But if i would go on a cycling holiday in the Alpes, i would do one of two climbs a day, spread over the week instead of one big ride that would probably leave you empty for the rest of the week.
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You could do it yourself - you’d be able to carry enough food/powders for bottles as there’s plenty of fountains that you can get water from.
However like @arthurdaly says, you’ll miss out on the hype, all the spectators, the amazing water gods & goddesses on the alpe who’ll douse you in water when you’re melting
On one hand i think I’m paying all this money for 4 days, 2 of which I lose to travelling and I only get to do a short ride the day before and then obviously the event, but it was incredible. It’s well worth it in my opinion.
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Agree with the ones above.
Especially with the new route (not sure what they will do next year), the flats are really limited, not much real drafting going on. We anyhow brought enough food along during the cyclo, so if you’re not planning on relying to their food, not much difference apart from ambiance.
In an unrelated topic, my goal was to get gold, but ofcourse that ship sailed when they didn’t declare new timings with the added km’s on the CdF, Mollard and cote de le Bochet. In my age category, the previous time was 08:13 after deducting the neutralized zones.
I see the winner took 40 minutes longer (30 minutes after deduction neutralization) than last year. What do you guys reckon would have been equal to gold on this new route?
Think about half an hour extra would be fair. Loaded both routes in best bike split and the new route was just over 30min longer in BBS.
That surprises me a bit, given the top 5 already took 40 minutes longer than last year, both very hot versions.
I think I would add minimum 45 mins to time for a Gold time.
This will be my main target for 2024 i think.
Does anyone have any suggestions for stays in the area?
Im gonna travel with my girlfreind and my two kids at 2 & 4 years, and do this race as part of our vacation next year.
Any suggestions to kid freindly places near by?
Hi, depends what you’re looking for. If camping is an option, we found a stay at Rencontre du Soleil quite nice. Small playground and a swimming pool available for kids.
Just make sure you book something as soon as the date is known. When looking for a place to stay I noticed that most of the hotels were already full and there were only some Air Bnb places left closeby.