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Published: March 19th 2018
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topping-out 1
It's hard to imagine Marco Pantani having done this in under 38 minutes. It was markedly cooler following yesterday's rain (yay!) and gloriously sunny this morning, providing excellent conditions for today's assault on Alpe d'Huez. The Alpe isn't the highest or toughest climb around, but it does have a well-earned cachet that puts it on every serious cyclist's to-do list. I last climbed Huez 15 years ago, and I was curious to see what difference the passage of time would make. But first I had to deposit my bag in the hotel across the street from the lovely place where we have stayed the last 2 nights. I found out when I checked in after my ride that our new home is pricier but very much inferior, although I am pleased to report I did manage to reconnect the toilet seat to the toilet. But I digress.
The road up Alpe d'Huez has 21 switchbacks, and they are all numbered, counting down from 21. I am proud to say I think the time it took me to ascend was about the same as it was in 1998, although I am fairly sure the official end of the climb was slightly lower then (the road continues through the village up to the ski station,
and the current finish line is not far from the top; I remember it being further back in town). But this time I started the day with the climb intead of ending with it, which would certainly make a difference. And whereas I was dripping with sweat on the ascent, I had to put on a vest once at the top because it was so chilly there, a sure sign the heat wave has broken. Also unlike last time, I chose not to descend the way I went up, but to continue on to the Col de Saurenne and then loop back to Bourg d'Oisans. A cyclist we had met at the Col du Telegraphe had told us the descent from the col was full of gravel, and that he had been "on the brakes all the way down" - conditions I had confirmed at the Tourist Office here - so I had originally planned to avoid it, but after having seen photos in a brochure I decided it might be worth seeing. True enough, the upper stretches of the road did indeed sport
topping-out-2
The Col doesn't seem like much from this side (although you can gauge the steepness of the climb from the size of the cyclist in the background) gravel comforters (presumably grit put down in winter that had accumulated after the snow had melted), and so I descended cautiously. The road was fairly bumpy, plus some of the tarmac patches had the same colouring as the gravel, so it was often hard to predict if an upcoming section of road would be firm or mushy. As you can imagine, this added a certain frisson to the switchbacks.
Eventually I made it through the dodgy bits, though, and was starting to enjoy shedding altitude when one of the bumps caused my pump to dislodge (some of you reading this may recall that I had the same thing happen to me in last Year's MS Bike Tour, when the pump had jammed in my rear wheel. To avoid that happening again, I had installed a strap to secure the pump, and it worked fairly well: this time the pump lodged in the front wheel). Fortunately I had been able to reduce my speed by that time, and the only real casualty was my pump, which quite literally lost its head in the encounter. I
dropping-off
The gravel added an extra dimension to this descent. secured (literally) a new one once I got back to town.
I chose to return to the Bourg on the same route we would be using tomorrow (albeit in the opposite direction) to get a sneak preview of what was to come, but in so doing apparently missed an absolutely stunning road that hugged the edge of a cliff. I'll have to come back again, I guess.
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Tot: 0.059s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 11; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0283s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb