La Marmotte Granfondo Alpes is one of those events that sorts itself out in the first 30 kilometres. The Col du Glandon starts before the legs have warmed up, and from there it is four Alpine cols across 174km, 5,180m of vertical gain, and a finish up the 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez — all on the same day. The course is routinely compared to a Tour de France mountain stage. That comparison is fair.
The riders who finish well — and by well I mean riding the final kilometre of Alpe d'Huez still making power, not weaving across the road — are the ones who treated it as a pacing and fuelling exercise from month one of training. The riders who blow up are the ones who trained for a hard sportive and arrived at something closer to a mountain grand tour stage.
This guide is the framework we use with riders inside Not Done Yet who are targeting the Marmotte, the Etape, and comparable Alpine events. The numbers are grounded in real finisher data, the sessions are specific to the demands of four-col Alpine riding, and the pacing plan reflects what actually works when you're staring at Alpe d'Huez after 140km in the saddle.
What Makes La Marmotte Different
Most sportives test one thing — sustained endurance. The Marmotte tests several things simultaneously and in a specific order that makes each one harder.
The four-col structure. You climb the Col du Glandon (1,924m) first, and it's 21km at 7%. Then the Col du Télégraphe (1,566m), 12km at 7.1%. Then the Col du Galibier (2,642m), 18km from the Télégraphe side at 6.9% with the final 5km averaging above 8%. Then, after a 60km descent and valley road, you finish up Alpe d'Huez — 13.8km at 8.1%, the 21 hairpins, when you have already climbed over 4,000m.
The problem is not any single col. The problem is the accumulation. By the time you reach Alpe d'Huez you have been riding for six to nine hours, your glycogen is depleted, your legs have absorbed 4,000m of climbing, and you are staring at 1,120m more. The riders who handle this are the riders who paced the first three cols correctly. The riders who don't are the riders who went 15 watts too hard on the Glandon because the legs felt good at 8am.
The Galibier as the crux. At 2,642m, the Galibier is the highest point on the course. It arrives after 120km of racing. The final kilometres are steep, exposed, and potentially very cold — summit temperatures of 2-5 degrees Celsius in July are normal. Riders who arrive at the Galibier without adequate fuelling, without adequate clothing, and without adequate pacing margin are in serious trouble.
The finishing climb. Finishing on Alpe d'Huez is what makes the Marmotte the Marmotte. Most sportives finish on a descent or a valley road. This one finishes with 13.8km at 8.1%. The first 3km after Bourg d'Oisans average close to 10% and that is where most Marmotte finishes fall apart — riders who have paced everything beautifully for 160km go too hard in the first three hairpins because they can smell the finish and they crack at bend 14.
Fitness Benchmarks: Where Do You Need to Be?
Your power-to-weight ratio is the single most predictive number for your Marmotte finishing time. These benchmarks are based on finisher data across multiple years and assume proper pacing and fuelling.
| Target | W/kg (sustained climbing) | Approximate Finish Time | Notes | |--------|--------------------------|------------------------|-------| | Gold | 4.0+ W/kg | ~7:00-7:15 | Strong climber, aggressive descending, dialled nutrition | | Silver | 3.4-3.9 W/kg | ~8:00-8:30 | Solid amateur, consistent pacing, no major errors | | Bronze | 2.8-3.3 W/kg | ~9:30-10:30 | Fitness adequate, pacing and fuelling matter more than power | | Finish | 2.4-2.7 W/kg | ~11:00-12:00 | Completion target, conservative pacing, full use of feed zones |
Two important caveats. First, these are sustained climbing watts, not your 20-minute FTP test number. Your FTP might read 3.5 W/kg in a lab, but after four hours of climbing the Marmotte, your real output on Alpe d'Huez will be closer to 85-90% of that. If you want to check where you stand right now, the FTP zones tool will frame it, the Climbing Time Estimator will translate your W/kg into projected ascent times on each of the four cols, and the Race Predictor will estimate your overall finish time. Second, pacing and fuelling shift these brackets significantly. A 3.2 W/kg rider who paces perfectly and fuels aggressively can finish faster than a 3.6 W/kg rider who hammered the Glandon and ran out of food on the Galibier.
The 16-Week Training Structure
The plan follows a base-build-taper structure. It assumes you are already riding 8-10 hours per week with some climbing in the legs. If you are starting from a lower base, add 4-8 weeks of aerobic foundation first.
Phase 1: Base (Weeks 1-6)
Volume: 8-11 hours/week. Four to five rides. 80% in Zone 2.
The goal here is aerobic capacity and saddle time. Dan Lorang's athletes at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe spend enormous blocks in this zone before Grand Tours, and the principle scales directly to amateurs. Keep the easy riding properly easy — if you can't hold a conversation, it is not Zone 2.
Weekly structure:
- 3-4 Zone 2 rides (1-2 hours midweek, building long ride on weekends)
- 1 quality session: tempo or sweet spot, 2x20 minutes at 88-93% FTP
- 1 long ride building from 3 hours to 4.5 hours, with 600-1,200m climbing
- 1-2 gym sessions: single-leg press, lunges, core, hip stability — posterior chain work that supports climbing posture without excessive load
Key metric: By week 6, your long ride should be 4.5 hours with sustained climbing at conversational pace. If that feels like an event rather than a training ride, you need more base before moving to the build phase.
Track your training load across this block. CTL should be climbing steadily — roughly 3-5 points per week. ATL spikes followed by recovery dips. If CTL is flat by week 4, the volume is too low or the intensity distribution is wrong.
Phase 2: Build (Weeks 7-12)
Volume: 10-14 hours/week. The climbing-specific work begins.
This is where the training starts to look like the event. Two quality sessions per week, long rides building to 5-6 hours with significant vertical, and at least two weekends where you stack back-to-back climbing days.
Weekly structure:
- 2 quality sessions (see below)
- 2-3 Zone 2 rides
- 1 long ride building to 5-6 hours with 1,500-2,500m climbing
- 1 gym session (reduced from base — maintain, don't build)
Quality session 1 — threshold climbing: 3x15 minutes at 92-97% FTP on a real gradient (5-8%), progressing to 2x20 minutes by week 11. Recover for 5-7 minutes between efforts. This is the workhorse session that builds the sustained power you need for 18km of Galibier.
Quality session 2 — VO2max intervals: 5x4 minutes at 106-115% FTP with 4 minutes recovery. VO2max work builds the aerobic ceiling that makes your threshold efforts feel more sustainable. Professor Seiler's research is clear on this — two intensity sessions per week in a polarised framework, separated by enough recovery to execute them properly.
The stacked weekend: At least twice in the build phase, ride a 4-5 hour Saturday with 1,500m+ climbing followed by a 3-4 hour Sunday with 1,000m+ climbing. This teaches the body to recover overnight and ride hard again — the exact skill the Marmotte demands when you arrive at Alpe d'Huez with six hours already in the legs.
Climbing cadence work: One session every two weeks, incorporate 3-4 low-cadence torque intervals (6-8 minutes at 55-65 RPM on a moderate gradient). John Wakefield prescribes these at Bora-Hansgrohe for a reason — they recruit type 2 fibres at aerobic intensities and build the neuromuscular capacity for sustained grinding on Alpine gradients.
Phase 3: Taper (Weeks 13-16)
Weeks 13-14: Volume holds at 10-12 hours. One final stacked weekend, ideally on terrain with sustained 20-30 minute climbs. Reduce the threshold work to maintenance — 2x12 minutes at FTP, nothing heroic.
Weeks 15-16: Volume drops 30-40% in week 15, 50% in week 16. Keep short sharp efforts (3x5 minutes at threshold, 4x90 seconds at VO2max) to keep the legs responsive without adding fatigue. This is where most riders make mistakes — they panic about fitness and add volume in the final week. The taper does not build fitness. It sheds fatigue. Trust it.
A well-executed taper is worth 5-10 watts on race day. A poorly executed one — training hard until Wednesday of race week — costs you more than that and you feel it on the Galibier.
Col-by-Col Pacing Strategy
Pacing the Marmotte is a four-act problem. Each col has a different role in the day, and the effort distribution across them determines whether you ride Alpe d'Huez or survive it.
Col du Glandon (1,924m — 21km at 7%)
Target effort: 75-80% FTP. This is the discipline col. Your legs feel fresh because they are fresh. Adrenaline is high because you are riding the Marmotte. Every instinct says ride hard. Ignore that instinct.
The Glandon's job in your day is to get you to the top in good shape without spending matches. Your VAM on the Glandon should be 15-20% below your peak sustainable climbing speed. If you are chasing wheels up the Glandon, you are racing the wrong climb. Save it. The feed zone is at the summit — fill bottles, eat, descend to the valley.
Col du Télégraphe (1,566m — 12km at 7.1%)
Target effort: 80-85% FTP. Slightly higher than the Glandon because it is shorter and you have the Valloire feed zone waiting at the top before the Galibier. The Télégraphe is a proper col but not the hard one — treat it as a warm-up for what comes next. Settle into a sustainable cadence of 75-85 RPM and stay on top of nutrition.
Col du Galibier (2,642m — 18km at 6.9%)
Target effort: 85-90% FTP, dropping to 80-85% above 2,200m. This is the crux. The Galibier arrives after approximately 120km of riding and it finishes at 2,642m — the highest point on the course. The final 5km average above 8% and the altitude starts biting.
Here is the critical piece: at 2,500m, most amateurs lose 8-12% of sea-level power. That means the 250-watt climbing effort you trained at home is closer to 220-230 watts at the Galibier summit. Build that deficit into your pacing. If your plan says 250 watts on the Galibier, your actual target above the Plan Lachat tunnels is 225 watts. Anything else and you are writing cheques your oxygen delivery cannot cash.
Eat at the Valloire feed zone between Télégraphe and Galibier. Fill bottles. Put food in pockets. The Galibier is where under-fuelled riders crack and the only fix is eating beforehand.
Alpe d'Huez (1,860m — 13.8km at 8.1%)
Target effort: 85-92% of whatever you have left. This is where honest pacing across the first three cols pays off. If you have ridden the Glandon, Télégraphe, and Galibier at the right intensity, you arrive at Bourg d'Oisans with something in the tank. If you have ridden any of them too hard, you arrive empty.
The 60km descent from the Galibier into Bourg d'Oisans is your final recovery window. Use it. Eat. Drink. Spin easy. Do not hammer the valley road. When you reach the base of Alpe d'Huez, start the first 3km at 90-95% of your target power — those bends average 10% and going too hard here destroys the final third. If you have trained and paced for this specific scenario — arriving at a big climb already deeply fatigued — the Alpe d'Huez guide covers the bend-by-bend breakdown.
For a broader framework on pacing across long events, the sportive pacing guide applies directly.
Gearing: Essential, Not Optional
This section should be short because the answer is simple. Run a compact crankset (50/34) with a 34-tooth cassette. Minimum. If your frame and derailleur can accommodate a 36-tooth, consider it — the weight penalty is negligible and the insurance is significant.
Riders running an 11-28 cassette on the Marmotte are making a mistake they will feel at kilometre 140. The Galibier has sustained pitches above 8% and you will be climbing them on four hours of accumulated fatigue. At that point, the difference between 34x28 and 34x34 is the difference between grinding at 55 RPM with rising heart rate and spinning at 75 RPM within a sustainable aerobic window.
Here is the maths. A 75kg rider (plus 8kg of bike and gear) climbing an 8% gradient at 34x28 needs to push roughly 250 watts to maintain 80 RPM. At 34x34, the same cadence requires roughly 200 watts. After five hours of riding, those 50 watts are the difference between finishing and walking.
Check your gearing early in the training block. Swapping a cassette in week 14 is fine mechanically but you want to train on the gearing you race on — your legs need to adapt to the cadence and effort pattern.
Fuelling Strategy
The Marmotte is a 7-12 hour day. A 75kg rider finishing in 9 hours burns somewhere in the region of 5,500-6,500 kcal. You cannot carry that much food and you cannot absorb that much in real time. What you can do is close the gap enough that your glycogen stores and fat oxidation cover the rest.
Target: 80-90g of carbohydrate per hour from kilometre one. Not from when you feel hungry. Not from the first climb. From the start. Use the fuelling calculator to plan the exact quantities against your ride time.
The first 90 minutes are the most important fuelling window. Gut function is best when you feel best. By hour five, your ability to absorb carbohydrate drops. The riders who eat aggressively in the first two hours are the riders still eating comfortably in hour eight. The riders who skip food early because the legs feel good are the riders dry-heaving on the Galibier.
Feed zones. The Marmotte places feed zones at the Col du Glandon summit, in Valloire (between Télégraphe and Galibier), and at the base of Alpe d'Huez. Use all three. Do not ride through them. Stop for 2-3 minutes, fill bottles, eat solid food, take a moment. The time you lose stopping is less than the time you lose bonking on hairpin 15.
Hourly plan:
| Hour | What to Eat | Notes | |------|------------|-------| | 1-2 | Drink mix (40-50g/hr) + 1 gel or bar per hour | Easy to absorb, save solids for later | | 3-4 | Drink mix + real food (rice cakes, banana, energy bar) | Flavour variety prevents nausea | | 5-6 | Mix of gels and solids, whatever stays down | Gut tolerance drops — eat what works | | 7+ | Gels and liquid carbs, small amounts frequently | Solid food may not sit well this deep |
Hydration. 500-750ml per hour in normal conditions, up to 1,000ml in heat. Sodium matters — 500-1,000mg per litre. The hydration tool will help you dial this against bodyweight and expected conditions.
Pre-race. 8-10g of carbohydrate per kg of bodyweight the day before. Breakfast 3-4 hours before the start — 2-3g/kg of carbs, moderate protein, low fibre, low fat. This is the same protocol covered in the 100-mile sportive nutrition plan, scaled up for the extra hours.
Train your gut to this volume. At least four long training rides in the build phase should include the full 80-90g/hour protocol. The Marmotte is not the place to discover that a particular gel brand disagrees with your stomach at altitude.
Race Day Execution
What to Wear
The Galibier summit at 2,642m can be 2-5 degrees Celsius in July. The descent is 60km and exposed. You need a gilet and arm warmers in your pockets at minimum. A lightweight packable rain jacket is cheap insurance — if it rains on the Galibier descent, an unprotected rider in a wet jersey descending for 30 minutes at 60kph loses core temperature fast. Overheating on the valley climbs is a problem you can manage. Hypothermia on the Galibier descent is a problem that ends your day.
Start the day in shorts and jersey with arm warmers. Pocket the gilet. Put the warmers on before the Galibier summit and the gilet on at the top. Strip everything off in Bourg d'Oisans before Alpe d'Huez — you will not need it for the final climb.
Descent Tactics
The 60km descent from the Galibier through the Lautaret and into Bourg d'Oisans is the longest continuous descent in any major sportive. It is fast, it is technical in places, and it is your last chance to recover before Alpe d'Huez.
Use it properly. Soft-pedal. Eat. Drink. Do not chase groups down the mountain. Do not ride the brakes so hard your hands cramp. Stay relaxed, stay fuelled, and arrive at the bottom with your heart rate in Zone 1 and food in your stomach. Riders who treat the descent as a race lose 10-15 minutes on Alpe d'Huez because they arrive at the base with an elevated heart rate and empty pockets.
The Final Hour
When you turn right out of Bourg d'Oisans and see the first ramp of Alpe d'Huez, everything from the previous seven hours either works or it doesn't. If you have paced the Glandon at 75-80%, fuelled at 80-90g/hour, eaten at every feed zone, used the descent to recover, and arrived with a gel and a full bottle — you have a good climb ahead of you.
Start the first three hairpins 5-10% below your target power. The gradient is steep and the adrenaline of seeing the finish pulls you too hard. Settle in by bend 18. Find your rhythm in the middle section where the gradient eases to 7-8%. Push from bend 7 to the finish if the legs allow it.
The crowd noise on Alpe d'Huez is something else. Thousands of spectators. Painted names on the road. The atmosphere of a Tour de France mountain stage. It is one of the best experiences in amateur cycling — but only if you arrive there with enough left to enjoy it.
Frequently Asked Questions
The answers above cover the detail, but here are the questions we get most from riders inside Not Done Yet who are targeting the Marmotte.
Can I train for La Marmotte with limited climbing available? Yes, but you need to simulate it. Indoor trainers with gradient simulation (Zwift's Alpe du Zwift, for example) can replicate sustained climbing efforts. Outdoor riders in flat terrain should use overgeared work and long tempo intervals to simulate the muscular cost of climbing. That said, at least two weekends on real mountain terrain in the build phase are strongly recommended — the bike handling, the heat management, and the mental stamina of a real 40-minute climb cannot be replicated on a turbo.
Should I ride the Marmotte course before race day? If you can, absolutely. Driving or riding the Galibier descent, seeing the Glandon's gradient profile in person, and knowing what the first 3km of Alpe d'Huez actually look like removes a layer of uncertainty. Plenty of riders finish the Marmotte without a recce. But those who have ridden it before pace better — because the course stops being an abstraction and starts being a plan.
What if I'm targeting just a finish, not a time? The training framework still applies, but the pacing shifts. Ride the Glandon at 65-70% FTP instead of 75-80%. Use every feed zone for 5-10 minutes, not 2-3. Take the Galibier at whatever pace keeps your heart rate in Zone 2-3. The finish on Alpe d'Huez is the same whether you arrive in 7 hours or 11 — and every rider who crosses that line has done something most cyclists never will.
How important is heat training? The Marmotte is held in July. Valley temperatures can exceed 30 degrees Celsius while the Galibier summit is near freezing. The contrast is brutal. If you are training through a European or North American summer, your body is already adapting. If you are training through winter or in air-conditioned conditions, add 5-6 heat adaptation sessions in the final three weeks — ride indoors without a fan for 60-90 minutes at moderate intensity to trigger the plasma volume and sweat-rate adaptations that matter on the valley climbs.