Wednesday July 17th - Warm and sunny then slightly overcast 18°C to 26ºC
Notre Dame road cut in mountain
Alp d'Huez, 21 HairPins - 16 to go
Hot and hard but hapy
All types on the road to Alp d'Huez
Looking back at hairPins Alp d'Huez
12 HairPins done, 9 to go
Dutch Corner near Hairpin 7
Happy Dutch Orange atmosphere
Still going and I think I'll make it
Looking below to Bourg D'Oisans
Clouds gathering on Alp d'Huez
Nearly there
We made it to top of Alp d'Huez
Village of Alp d'Huez - crazy circus
Blue thumbs from squeezing brakes
At the bottom safely
Time to celebrate with a wine
A great day. We cycled up Alp d'Huez, AND arrived back just in time to see the end of State of Origin which Queensland won 12-10. AND it's Luca's birthday, he's 30 today.
We sleep in til 7.30am - the kids had a busy day yesterday and aren't up so early. French breakfast of bread and jam, but I bring down my own oats and nuts that I carry around. We've decided to go up Alp d'Huez, with several options. To ride some of the way then ride back down or to ride and walk most of the way. After yesterday's difficult climb to Notre Dame, I'm already planning to just walk most of the way. Alp d'Huez is a mythical mountain monster of any Tour de France. The climb is 13.8 km at an average 8 per cent, with 21 hairpin bends. It was first included in the race in 1952 and has been a stage finish regularly since 1976. Marco Pantani holds the record for the climb at 37 minutes 35 seconds. Most good cyclists can do it in 1hr 20 minutes. I'm hoping to just walk most of it.
We leave at 9am and look back at the road to Villard Notre Dame cut into the mountain high above our gite. It looks impossible to build let alone ride. The village of Bourg d'Oisans is even more inundated than yesterday and I'm not prepared to stand in a queue for 1hr just for the one tomato we need for our picnic. Within a few k we have reached the traditional start of the Alp d'Huez climb. It looks steep and there's thousands of riders starting the climb up and hundreds already zooming down. The cycle up is hard but safe. The ride down is totally crazy.
Starting out slowly, it's a slog for the first few k and I'm thinking I'll get off soon. But we both feel pretty good and the climb, while 8% is not as steep as yesterday to Notre Dame so it's seeming to be a bit more doable, if only slowly. Inch by inch we climb and stop every few hairpins for a drink and i minutes rest. It's impossibly to retrieve a waterbottle from below while there's so many other riders around and it's hard enough just to balance. My speedometer is reading between 5.9 and 6.8 kph - I can walk as fast, but I'm not getting off yet.
We pass the sign for Hairpin number 16 and we're starting to feel as though we can ride it out. It's hot and I'm dripping with sweat. We pass Number 9 Hairpin, past half way. Then to Hairpin number 7 and the Dutch corner where the Dutch traditionally camp and set up a carnival atmosphere with hooters and loud music. Every second or third hairpin we stop to meet up and have a drink.
Soon we're at Alp d'Huez village with thousands of tourists milling around. But there's still a few k to go to the top and I'm determined to get there without walking. It goes on and on, and no one seems to know where the finish line is, so we all cycle past until we realise it's one hundred metres back. Better to go past than stop short. We both made it in just over 2hrs - average speed 6.5kph by my cyclometer. IWe're both really pleased considering we're twica the age of teh average cyclist up the Alp d'Huez and our touring bikes weigh twice as much.
t's cold and spitting to rain as the clouds are closing in. Time for a quick cup of coffee from the billy set up in a warm nook near a flash hotel, then it's back down the mountain.
Breakneck speed is true to name. How some of the cyclists don't come off and break their neck doing 80kph down the mountain is a miracle. Just so long as we keep out of there way. My hands are seizing up from squeezing the breaks for so long. It takes 40 minutes to come down - about the same time as Marco Pantani cycled up in 1997.
Back to the gite by 1.30pm and time for lunch and a beer before Face Timing Bonnie to check out the State of Origin Score. We watch the last two exciting minutes to see QLD win 12-10. As I said, a great day.
Time to sit back and relax and watch the Tour de France on real time TV in the lounge at the Gite. Everyone in the gite is here to see the Tour de France so it's a great atmosphere.
Dinner is superb. Melon and ham, followed by potato pie plus meat stew, then peach tart. We sit chatting to Kim and Carstein from Denmark and Bjorn and Eric from Norway. They all speak English very well without an accent - everyone in Scandinavia learns English for 12 years from Grade 1 - Government policy.
Time for bed in our 2 bed little room with one of the few power sockets in the place.