It was a chilly morning but yesterday's rain had cleared leaving us with blue skies and some fresh snow on nearby peaks. Fortunately, the pass we were taking today didn't head up that high. We had a slow morning with coffee to get us into gear. Breakfast consisted of fresh bread (which Hille had gone into town to get) and cheeses. We had purchased an Italian stove-top espresso maker the day before that made six shots and it was perfect for four café au laits and one espresso. Today, we were climbing one of the biggest (read: most popular) cols in the Tour – Alpe d'Huez. Of course, the climb was just the beginning and were going down a lesser known road on the other side to make a loop back to the campsite. Magge had done this loop once before which was reassuring to some degree. The climb was 13.5 km long with 1065 m of elevation gain and an average grade of around 8%.

It was nearly 11am by the time we headed out as we were waiting for the sun to come out from behind the mountains and warm up the valley. I wasn't quite sure what to expect on this ride after my epic ride up Telegraph and Galibier. I was definitely nervous about running out of steam so I had made sure to carbo-load the previous night and ate a hearty breakfast this morning. I got my usual iso-tonic drink tablet (tasted something similar to grapefruit) from Rod & Tan, stuffed a few gels and bars into my jersey back-pocket and headed out. Megs was driving again as our support person which was great since we didn’t have to carry extra clothing/water/food, etc. I had thought we were going to have a bit of a warm up before starting the climb as we had done with the last two rides. I was mistaken though because we passed the roadside distance/elevation/% grade marker within a minute of leaving the campsite! I was in completely the wrong gear and as I stood up to pedal, I made the mistake of switching gears at the same time and popped the chain off the ring. So I pulled off to the side thinking this wasn’t a good omen and got my chain back on. The others were keeping a pretty good clip that I didn’t think I could maintain and so I just toodled along at my own pace. The first part of the ride was fairly steep and I soon turned the first of twenty-one switchbacks! We gained elevation very quickly and on the third switchback or so, had a bird’s eye view over the town and valley below.

It was a tough ride to the top but the views were a good distraction as was watching out for Megs, our official mini-Tour photographer, popping out at various pullouts to take photos. If I look comfortable and am sitting upright and smiling, trust me, it only lasted until I heard the shutter click. If you’re wondering why I’m wearing a long-johns and knee warmers, it’s because it was still pretty cool out (low double digits) despite expending all that energy. Somewhere after the 15^th switchback, I caught up to Rod and Tan (ok, let’s be fair, I caught up to Rod - and by default Tan, only because she was waiting for Rod :) . A few minutes later, I caught up with Magge and passed him, but that was short lived. I was informed days later by Rod and Tan, on top of Ventoux, that it was poor etiquette to pass someone that you couldn’t stay ahead of. I’m not sure why this is so but then again, I’m not really a cyclist.

Only a couple kilometers from the top, I was still feeling good so I started pedaling harder and managed to pass a few more riders. I made it to the top with Megs and Hille cheering me on and sprinted across the finish line. I wasn’t competing against anyone but I guess it’s just my competitive spirit to go hard to till the finish line. Shortly after, Rod and Tan came across the finish line. This is the only one of the climbs we’ve done that has an actual finish line marked over the road. We then made our way over to the van, put on some fresh clothes and got some photos on the podium (yes, there’s even a podium that’s there permanently). We then went over to a coffee shop for some coffee and treats before continuing on.

The remainder of the loop was on some really narrow roads so Megs decided she was going to turn around and head back to camp. We continued on passing through the town of Alpe d’Huez which is actually a fairly big ski resort. There was a fair bit of construction work going on in the town and around some of the lifts. We came out the other side of town on a narrow road that wound its way past an airport. It had the shortest landing strip that I’ve ever seen…I would not want to be landing up there with such a short runway and strong winds. I was told that the rest of the loop was going to be mostly downhill and I believed that because it was Magge that had selected this loop. If it had been Tanya, I would’ve known that downhill actually meant uphill (and uphill is also uphill). The scenery once we left town was simply stunning and was one of the best of all the rides because of the combination of the panoramic views and almost non-existent traffic (I guess that’s one of the benefits of going on a really tiny road). The road was paved the whole way but it was only wide enough to fit a single, European-sized, car. There were also a lot of loose rocks and debris on the road that had fallen off the mountain sides so you had to be extra vigilant while cycling.

We dipped down into a little valley which was a really fun descent but on the other side, I could see that we had to cycle uphill for a few kilometers over a plain. It didn’t look very steep (probably a 5-6% grade) but what I didn’t realize was how much harder that could be with a headwind. The wind was blowing so hard (maybe 20-30 km/hr) that even standing up and pedaling, I was moving very slowly. I was pushing really hard at this point and it almost felt as hard as some of the steepest parts of the Alpe d’Huez climb, if not harder. Luckily, it was only a few kilometers to the pass. We didn’t linger long at the top because the cool wind was cutting right through all our layers. Getting on our bikes again, we continued heading down the other side. The wind was so strong at this point that I nearly fell off my bike as a gust caught my wheels from the side. I managed to stay on the bike and after a few kilometers the wind died down as we were in the shelter of the mountainsides once again. The descent down was spectacular both in terms of the views we got and the fact that only a couple motorcycles passed us the whole way down until we got close to the campsite. Before heading back to the campsite, Hille, Rod and Tan stopped off for a crêpe (Hille’s staple food) in town. Magge wasn’t up for food and I cycled back to camp quickly to see if Megs was interested in joining us for a crêpe. She wasn’t so I pedaled back and joined them at a tiny Middle eastern-ish café that served crêpes, too. I had one with ham, mushrooms and cheese which hit the spot after a long ride. The guy making the crêpes was an older gentleman and he was asking us where we were from and so on. Just before we left, he went back inside the store and came out with a bottle of wine and told us that it was on the house. It was a real pleasant surprise and very kind of him! We headed back to camp and that evening, Rod made a delicious stir-fry for dinner which we all had no trouble polishing off. Another fantastic day of riding and we still had a few cols to look forward to – I was, to my own surprise, beginning to understand how one could enjoy cycling these mountain passes!