Last Thursday Doug and I set off for our weekend in the Alps, we stayed at a cheap F1-hotel near Reims to be at our destination in time to do a short ride on Friday afternoon. To our suprise we found out that the Chalet we were staying in was actually at the top of a 8km climb (and not at the foot…), not too far from Alpe d’Huez. As we arrived early afternoon we unloaded the car, got our bikes ready and went off to the Alpe d’Huez - we had to descend the 8 km’s and then another 12 km through the valley towards Bourg d’Oissans. There the real stuff started, in a steady pace we climbed all 21 hairpin turns up to the ‘Dutch Mountain’. What a history, in every turn there is a sign with the remaining number of hairpin turns and the winner of previous Tour de France stage finishes on the Alpe d’Huez. For Doug this was the first experience in the Alps, for me this was the third time climbing this beast. It was a bit hot that afternoon, humid as well as we just had a massive rainfall (which lasted for 5 minutes and was the only rain we saw during the weekend) but we did allright - I got there in 1 hour and 6minutes - Doug did it in 1 hour 14 minutes. It’s 13.5 km long with around 9% average climb.

The second day we went for the big one - the same route as the Marmotte, which means going over the Croix de Fer (2050 meters and a near to 30 km climb!), than through the valley towards St Michel de Maurienne (where we had salty lasagne for lunch) and then de Telegraphe (from 700 meters climbing towards 1600 meters in 12 km) and continued to the Galibier (which brought us in another 20 km from the descend of the Telegraphe 1300 meters to to 2650 meters altitude on the Galibier).  Although the sun was shining (on the Telegraphe the tarmac was melting!), it was around freezing point on top of the Galibier - brrrrrrrr, cold! We then descended via the Lauteret towards Bourg d’Oissans and did the 8 km climb to our Chalet-Hotel (which to be honest was comparible to the Alpe d’Huez) - the ride was 180km long, with 4500 climbing meters, our average was 19.8 km/h.

The third and last day we went to Briancon and did the Col d’Izoard (20 km climbing from 1100 meters to 2350 meters). Again it was sunny, but on the top of the Col it was cold again. After a short break on the top to enjoy the absolutely stunning views, we descended via de Casse Deserte towards Guillestre, has a lunch there and went on to go back to Briancon. And then….I was stupid enough to fall of my bike - on a flat piece of road. Bad enough for me, this resulted in a bruised shoulder and hip, scratches all over my body, some more serious cuts and a broken nail (and I mean the whole nail came off).  I also must have been unconscious for a few second as I don’t remember a thing! My helmet is pretty damaged and needs replacement. Anyway, after a first aid treatment by Doug, with socks and tape - I did what every cyclist would do - stepped back on the bike and continued riding back to Briancon.

The Chalet Hotel ([1] www.chaletbeyond.nl) was extermely good, only cyclists with proper cycling food for breakfast and dinner - a nice couple (Els and Maarten) who run the place are cyclists themselves. Let’s see if we can go as a group next year and improve our times on the Alpe d’Huez.

I am sure we will post some photographs soon.