Alpe d'Huez

Random observation: have been filling my head with the Shins again; they fit my current mood(s) perfectly.

Before my long report, here are some photos, a map, and a video!





I love baseball, but I will never get the chance to play on the grass at Fenway; I love hockey, but I probably won't ever skate at the Joe; I love college football, but I can't get (legally) get a pickup game with friends at the Big House (ok, ok, one can sneak into Michigan Stadium without too much trouble). Endurance sports are different. You can pay your fee and ski a loppet with Olympic champions (and a few thousand others), you can run in a marathon with the world record holders, and although you can't actually enter the TdF, on most days of the year you can get on your bike and have a go at its most famous climb. Alpe d'Huez is neither the longest climb in cycling, (13.8km), nor the tallest (~700m up to 1800m); but its 21 hairpin turns, each labeled with a sign commemorating a winner an Alpe d'Huez TdF stage, have seen some great racing and fantastic duels, including "the look" from Armstrong-Ullrich in 2001 (click on the last photo above). It did not disappoint.

I'd been wanting to climb the darn thing since I bought my bike (a sweet, sweet Libera, from ca. 1986) a few months back. Unfortunately there is only one road that goes between Grenoble and the Bourg, the N91. It is a pretty road, climbin up alongside the Romanche through the Gorges of the same name, but also quite busy. The "N" roads are definitely not as friendly for cyclists as the "D" roads I've been using. As a result, I kept delaying and delaying. Finally, last weekend, I decided to go for it. The original plan was to leave work promptly at 5pm on Friday and make it to the Bourg by dark, do the climb on Saturday morning, and ride back that day. I started out around 6pm, stopped at Carrefour to load up on fruit and a hearty breakfast for the next day, but then got very lost trying to get over the Rocade Sud near Echirolles. Then I realized I'd forgotten my lights and all my cold/rain gear. These facts made me a little worried, and started to wonder if I should turn back or check into a hotel as the sun set behind the Vercors. Disasters in adventures like this always start out so innocently, and I imagined myself stuck in the middle of nowhere, sans lumière, biking in the dark next to a busy highway. But I kept pressing on near Vizelle, when bang I heard an explosion then the sound of metal snapping. My back tire, which was very old and thin, had exploded and a spoke broke. I'm not sure if it was the rough road surface, the heat of my wheels (I was whipping along at a pretty good pace which would have heated up my tires and, well, PV=nRT). I took this as a sign that I should go home and try again the next day. I had no idea how I would get home, but when I walked to the next town, I found that there was a 20.48 train back to Grenoble. I ditched my bike near the bike shop and walked home.

The next morning I woke up early, bought two new tires, new tubes, finally found a spoke of the correct length at my third bike shop, installed it (my wheel is not quite true, but I figured it would do; I only need it for one more week), and started out again mid-afternoon. The ride to the Bourg was beautiful, but harder than I expected. From Grenoble, it is about 40 miles and 500m climbing to the base. I met an 86 year old man (the first fact he told me) at a water fountain around mile 20, and he told me it was 31 degrees (about 88F). I finally made it to the Bourg in the late afternoon, shopped for some postcards, bought an IHT, ate a nice pasta dinner, and checked into Hôtel Terminus to watch the Coupe de Monde and get a good night's sleep.

Sunday I woke up, ate my two-day old breakfast of yogurt, bananas, and croissant, and then went to the fastest mass I've ever been to outside of Ireland. It was 28 minutes, and included the priest saying "depechez-vous!" to the cantor at one point. Unbelievable. I guess he had somewhere better to be? After breakfast I went to a café and had two big coffees, had a go at Will Shortz's best, and climbed on the bike around 1. Most of the hardcore riders had gone up in the morning, while the sun was low, and were descending as I started out. Following what I read about climbing from Chris Carmichael's website, I started out deliberately slow, and got some rest in. Surprisingly, the first 1/3 went really fast. I didn't need water, my legs felt great (no knee twinge like in the Vercors, which had reappeared on Saturday, and had me worried... I think a higher seat might have helped). The grade is about 8% average which again isn't that steep, but unlike other climbs, it never flattens out. Pretty much the only relief your legs get are on the hairpin turns themselves. Still, between 16 and 15, there is a long stretch with no hairpins. You're still climbing, but it's a wee bit flatter. I'd read some about this climb, so I knew to expect it and was able to slip down a few gears and make up some time. Otherwise, I thihnk I would have been depressed. The middle section of the course is a blur. I hoped to hold back for the final third, and really for the last 3 turns, but I remember it being really hot, it being difficult to keep the bike straight (when you're going slow climbing, you can lose a lot of energy if your front tire is wobbling), and pouring some of my bottle on my face a few times. Finally, turn 7 came and I felt free to up the pace again. Then 6, a long stretch to 5, 4, 3, 2, where a photographer pops out of nowhere and snaps a bunch of photos and hands you a flyer, turn 1, then into town! Again, I knew that the TdF finish was a ways into town, but I didn't quite realize how far away it would be. Watch the video of Armstrong. The "look" to Ullrich comes at the very end of the climb and he pedals away like crazy to the finish. It still takes him a while to get there. Well, I was not pedalling anywhere close to that speed. But after the roundabout, there's a little downhill (or maybe just flat, it felt like downhill!) and I picked up speed and sprinted through to the finish.

I highly recommend a trip for anyone who likes cycling, especially if you're a TdF fan. Doing that climb is something I will never forget; watching the video now makes me want to go do it again!