Alpe D'Huez - 14 July

Alpe D'Huez - icon of the French Alps and legend of the tour! Ever since Lance Armstrong charged up the 13.9km, 1120m climb in 41 minutes, every keen cyclist has wanted to see how they fare in comparison. This is another 'High Category' climb and averages 7.7% gradient over its length (maxing at 12%).

So, while the tour riders were finding their way from Chambery to Gap in the southern alps, we chose to make an early start and try to beat the heat of the day. Didn't help as the temperature rose to over 35 degrees, was hot early and barely moderated with the altitude.

The ride has 21 switchbacks, numbered in reverse order as you climb and featuring the names of previous TDF stage champions. One picture here shows the view at turn #10 at about 6km up - where I stopped to cool down. You start in the village below and ascend a near vertical drop.
Around the 1 hr 30min mark I made the village summit and joined my ride buddies in some celebrations, a coffee, coke and a quick shop in the bike shop!

We then shovelled some lunch in after finding a restaurant a bit higher on the mountain and headed for an 'apres' climb to Col de Sarene at 1999m. This was closer to a goat track than a road and required my best mountain bike skills to stay upright. The Col gave way to a death defying descent of over 20 km. Half way down I checked my tyre rims and they were near molten. So I let the air pressure down on my tyres and found the going easier.

The final part of the ride took us on a main highway pass through tunnels, gorges and bridges back to the village of La Bourg d'Oisans - a round trip of 65km and 1800m of climbing over 3.5 hours.