Eiffage and the Millau Viaduct
Eiffage is an important french construction company, that together with Sir Norman Foster as architects, was successful in bidding for the contract to build the viaduct over the Tarn Gorge. Construction began in Oct 2001 and it opened in Dec 2004, a month ahead of schedule.
As of 2019 it remains the tallest bridge in the world, with one of the pylons and masts reaching 343m above ground level, which is higher than the Eiffel tower. The road deck is at its maximum 277m above ground level; where it crosses the River Tarn. However, it is not the highest bridge as there are others with substantially greater drops from the road deck to the ground beneath, but these bridges are typically suspended from the cliffs at each end, so their supporting structures are shorter. The Viaduct de Millau is 2.5km across and uses 7 pylons.
Eiffage are the main sponsor of this race.
Millau
Millau is located in a large depression at the confluence of the rivers Tarn and Dourbie. It is surrounded by the landscapes of Gorges du Tarn, Causse du Larzac and Causse Noir.
It has around 22,000 inhabitants and is famous for sheepskin glove making, as the french centre of paragliding and for Roquefort cheese produced in nearby caves. At one point its church supposedly possessed a part of the Crown of Thorns. That didn’t seem to help much as the church was destroyed in 1582.
Millau is twinned with Bridlington, UK as well as, amongst other places, Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Race – 27 May 2018
This race is run every other year, and this was I believe the 5th such event. It requires closure of the motorway for about 5 hours so does cause disruption with traffic having to descend down into the Gorge du Tarn, go around Millau and then hairpin it’s way back up the other side.
I had intended to use public transport to get to Millau, but as the French were participating in their national pastime of going on strike, I rented a car instead.
I had to arrive the day before to pick up my running stuff, and the town was busy, with plenty of street activity, bands, etc. It was also hot and sunny, the temperature having reached 29C on the drive there. I stayed in an AirBnB near the town centre.
Luckily the race started early the next morning, and even better, it was cool and overcast on the day, ideal for running.
Whilst the race officially started at 9am, only a few elite runners were allowed this, with the majority being released in 4 subsequent waves at 10 min intervals. I was in the second and crossed the start line around 9:21.
The first 6km took us out of town, running downhill along the Tarn river, which was a bit worrying as that meant we’d have further to climb later.
For the next 3km we zig-zagged our way up the hairpin service road to the Aire above, a brief stop for refreshment, then another 3km of gentle uphill onto to motorway and across to the high point at the far side of the Gorge du Tarn.
After that is was ‘mostly’ downhill all the way back.
The uphill sections were a pain a times with walkers line abreast across the road, “Marcheurs à droit s’il vous plait”, but the top arrived rather sooner than expected. Given my ‘wobbliness’ nowadays it was good it was nearly all on tarmac – just a kilometer of downhill on a track, but it was not too bad.
It was a great run, not nearly as difficult as I thought it might be, so I was able to run all the way. A training run I had done a few days earlier in Sete from Theatre de la Mer up to the top of Mont St Clair was much harder. Although the height gain was less (approx 200m), it was steeper and I had to push myself to get to the top without stopping.
Some stats
