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Video: Mike Cotty's 1000km Mont Blanc rideMike Cotty 1000km 2

Video: Mike Cotty's 1000km Mont Blanc ride

Mavic ambassador Mike goes solo for even longer... live it with him in this 13-minute video
by dave atkinson
Mon, Sep 01, 2014 16:28
6

We're all time-pressed and 13 minutes is a lot out of your day. But This video of Mike Cotty's 1,012km ride to Chamonix is well worth it, if only to add a whole bunch of climbs to your bucket list and take in the extraordinary views.

Mike's no stranger to epic rides, having completed a 666km monster ride from Evian-les-Bains to Nice last year. That ride took in 17 cols on its way to the sea but this monster route packs in 21, many of them well in excess of 2,000m, and a total of 21,250m of climbing. Or 2.4 Everests, since that's the universally accepted height gain unit of anything like this.

The mighty Stelvio (2,757m) was the highest point en route and Mike didn't have it all his own way this time, having to endure some heavy rain on the first night. That's when having a full Mavic backup car is a good idea...

The total riding time was 50 hours and 29 minutes, with just over three hours of breaks. Two and a bit days, then, at a riding average of just over 20km/h, over some pretty substantial terrain. The cobbles of the Gottard Pass, some 43 hours in, must have been a whole lot of fun. Chapeau Mike.

Mike Cotty
Mavic
Dave Atkinson

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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6 comments

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DrJDog | 10 years ago
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Beyond chapeau and into the realms of danger, surely. What's the point? Yes you can say that about everything, but if all you're doing is showing that you can ride further than anyone without a sensible rest it just seems daft.

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usedtobefaster replied to DrJDog | 10 years ago
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DrJDog wrote:

Beyond chapeau and into the realms of danger, surely. What's the point? Yes you can say that about everything, but if all you're doing is showing that you can ride further than anyone without a sensible rest it just seems daft.

I point you to the quote from Sir Edmund Hilary when asked about why he climbed Everest .... "because it's there"

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Him Up North replied to usedtobefaster | 10 years ago
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usedtobefaster wrote:
DrJDog wrote:

Beyond chapeau and into the realms of danger, surely. What's the point? Yes you can say that about everything, but if all you're doing is showing that you can ride further than anyone without a sensible rest it just seems daft.

I point you to the quote from Sir Edmund Hilary when asked about why he climbed Everest .... "because it's there"

George Mallory, not Edmund Hillary. 1

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Mike Cotty replied to DrJDog | 10 years ago
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DrJDog wrote:

Beyond chapeau and into the realms of danger, surely. What's the point? Yes you can say that about everything, but if all you're doing is showing that you can ride further than anyone without a sensible rest it just seems daft.

For me this experience wasn't to prove a point to anyone, in fact it's quite the opposite. I tried to put this into some sort of context at http://mikecotty.co.uk/challenge-rides/the-road-to-mont-blanc-challenge/, but the reality is it's not easy to explain and therefore it'll always be open to interpretation. We're all different with unique feelings, desires and dreams, I guess in some respect that's what makes us individual and life interesting.

Ride safe.

Mike

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Cafe Rider | 10 years ago
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After his north to south last year this is even bigger 41

So what for an encore in 2015?

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backflipbedlem | 10 years ago
0 likes

Wow!!!!
That is some crazy effort! I couldn't even stay up that long, let alone do what Mike did!
Chapeau!

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