Ride 6 - Alpe-D'-Huez (yeah baby!)

After dropping our grumpy trio of riders in Grenoble to fetch their own Col climbing paddy wagon (oddly they wanted to hotel at the top of peaks and ride down then up - whatever!), Bill and I did a little freedom dance in the Avis parking lot...with the local French folk wondering what drug we took.

With the weather looking really good, we pointed our Renault 9 passenger van Sud (South in French) to le Bourg-d' Oisans (pronounced Boor Doh Sahn) – the base of Alpe-d' Huez. Yes we said...no time like the present to climb the 21 numbered switchbacks 3800 feet to 6000 feet above sea level with an average gradient of 9.5%! We decided to stay a little out of town in Allemont at a little Chateau run by a guy from the Netherlands. It is a hard core cyclist lodging spot, where Michael Boogerd and Rasmussen are housed
during their early alp training weeks. The place was packed with hard core Dutch and Belgian cyclists who loved to drink beer as much as cycle hard. full of many, many beautiful chiseled legged euro men, yum!

So...after completing the mother of TDF "finishing" climbs...I wrote an email to my friend that was as follows:
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I just finished Alpe-d' Huez! OMG!!!! Amazing. Steep. Hard (after 5 days of solid riding - legs shaking now). Took me 1 hour 10 minutes for 23K, yet it only took Lance 37 minutes! New respect! Also...I cruised at on the 10% slopes at 6mph, Lance - 14mph!!!
Even on Mt Lemmon, I can on average 11mph Max!

Wow!...Double WOW! You would not believe the vistas, the sharp peaks, impossible roads ascending into the heavens beyond the clouds.

You must do some riding here...unbelievable as I just have so much joy for life and a real zest for living each time I glide down the Cols, see the peaks, stare at the green valleys, hear the cow bells clank from the necks of cattle strewn across the pastures and wind through the most quaint towns and villages decorated with fresh flowers, patisseries, boulangeries and cafes of the French Alps. Magical!
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I just finished dinner - and I needed it! Dinner was so much fun. The energy of the dining room felt like the feeding of riders who had just finished a tough stage of the Tour de France. The buzz of the ride, the excitement of tomorrow and the massive consumption of calories as nearly 50 people cheered, drank, ate, lived and breathe cycling. If you didn't peddle two wheels, you were clearly out of place. William (one Dutchman probably in his 50's) sat next to me during dinner and was one of those amazing cyclist from the Netherlands. He uses a 39 - 23 to climb Alpe-d' Huez cruising at speeds nearly double me. Bill and I enjoyed talking all things cycling with William and Fieka (his riding companion).

So now I'm very, very sleepy...and a new day starts tomorrow! Stats for the day:

Temp: 71F at bottom and 59 at top. Sunny with scattered clouds.

Distance: 32 miles
Ascent: 3800 feet
Time: 3 hrs 56 min (including pictures + espresso stop) – 72min to top of Alpe-D' Huez.
Calories: 1100