Alpe D'HUEZ

Been a bit slack recently, plus lack of power meant we had to be selective in what we used the iPads for. Alpe d'huez Well the trip from Paris to Grenoble was fast, with some beautiful scenery flying by. Grenoble wasn't a very spectacular town, apart from the Bastille up on the hill. Took advantage of the a beautiful weather and long days to get in a short ride. The beauty of this part of the world is if you want a hard ride you dont have to go far, you just head up the numerous climbs. even in such a short climb the views are amazing. While I was o ur riding Baz was getting his first taste of driving in Europe, and it was a sour taste, straight into a gutter a popping the hire car tyre. Next morning it was off to the famed Alpe d' Huez to tackle the famed 21 hair pins. The town of Bourg Di-oisans is a quaint village with a few nice bakeries and bike shops. As we were running late that morning it was a very short warm up (5kms) before hitting hitting the slopes. After 500m of the 14.5km climb I was out of gears, wishing I had of listened to old man Westcott and put on a 27. Anyway grinding through the first few kms it gets a bit easier although the grind a the lack of warm uplingered. Favorite part of the climb had to be Dutch corner (hairpin number 7). Made it to the top, took a quick pick and it was down to see how dad was going. He was suffering along but loving it. Taking it a few corners a time. We were blessed with unbelievable weather, the garmin was showing over 30. It was great still having the snow on some of the slopes and dad had one of his stops in the snow and we were able to fill up our water bottles straight from the streams running down the mountain. Dad was rapt whe he made it to the top. We had a coffee and coke up there before starting the descent (with a few stops for pictures). All the hairpins have signs that have a name of an Alpe D'Huez stage winner. Westcott told me he wanted a photo of the Greg LeMond corner. So each hairpin I kept an eye out for that corner. There was one corner that I missed and by the time I had got to the last hairpin (21 L. Armstrong, F Coppi) I was annoyed as the one that I missed must of been LeMond. So back up I went in search. Got to the corner I missed, no LeMond so went to the next corner just in case. No LeMond, Wtf. So down I went. Had fun on th descent passing a few cars along the way. At the bottom went to the bike shop and was looking at the photos of the stage winners when I noticed LeMond hand in hand with his team mate and 5 time winner Bernard Hinault. The penny dropped, the stage win had been given to Hinault. Apart from the sunburn, the poor gear choice and the lack of time, it was a great day, can cross that off the bucket list. Well done to Baz for his awesome effort too. After hearing my phone get a text message after 1km I was relieved to get to the top and see it wasn't a message from him quitting