Thursday 15th of September 2011

I was a little nervous about setting off today given the challenge I had (which turned out I was worrying about the wrong part of the challenge). Heading from the room upstairs for breakfast, which involved going outside, it felt cold and my little kitchen thermometer was telling me it was 5c. Hmm I didn't want to wrap up too warm as the weather was predicted to be the same as yesterday, sunny and in the mid twenties and I didn't want to be dragging loads of heavy clothing up the mountains. By the time I'd faffed about and decided what to wear and to get the bike sorted the sun was appearing in the valley at the temps were soon moving up. So much so that I went back to the room and got changed in to lighter gear.

Heading down the valley presented no problems as expected. Soon I was by the bypass roundabout by Bourg d'Oisans and got rid of the knee warmers, arms warmers and gillet that had been useful on the way down the valley which was still mostly in shadow. I headed down the road to the start and soon spotted a few more riders getting ready to set off at the 'start', the sign announcing the climb.

The climb itself I'd been warned was quite steep at the bottom and then softens off a bit but I'd expected the softening to be a lot more than it actually was. Yes the 12 and 13% sections mostly stopped but it didn't drop down below 9% very often. I was soon on the 25 cog (bottom gear). After not very long I soon found my rhythm and plodded on up the hill. There were a few cyclists out on mountain bikes with nobbly tires, not something I'd have wanted to ride on and I drifted past them pretty easily. In comparison I felt like an olympic athlete but it was mostly down to having a light bike on skinny tyres at 110psi and also probably 10-20kg weight advantage over most of them. The views on the way up are not staggering but there are some nice scenes over the valley and the odd angle showing one or two hairpin bends. I would capture them on the way back down as I didn't want to stop once I was in flow.

The road I recognised from when I was playing support for Dave and Stu on our previous Alps excursion. I'd not ridden d'Huez though as a) I'd just ridden Mont Ventoux and 2 1/2 hours of uphill was enough for me and b) after Ventoux my knee was hurting and I didn't want to aggravate it any further. Perhaps today I did aggravate it slightly with the low cadence but it was no where near as bad as Mortirolo. At the last corner I passed a car of brits who were obviously out to capture someone's progress. "Give it some" the guy shouted as I entered the last straight, my response "what do you think I've been doing" was taken jokingly as intended. And there I was, at the top. After a bit of coughing and spluttering, a banana, a gel and plenty of water (refilling the bottles with the tap next to the finish line) I took a couple of photos and then headed down the hill stopping maybe a dozen or so times to get some pictures of the valley and the hairpins.

Fairly busy cafes at the top 

Rider giving you some idea of the scale of the hairpins 

Bourg d'Oisans in the valley

The 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez.  20 to go... 

Once in Bourg d'Oisans at the bottom again I found a restaurant and ordered a big salad, some chips and a coke. A huge plate of chips turned up of which I only managed half. I knew that I still had probably 40km to go and some big hills too en route to get back to the B+B so the chips turned out to be good fuel for that.

On leaving the restaurant the satnav decided it knew another road to get back to the start of the valley and it meant staying on this side of the river. I followed it and initially all seemed well. A good tarmac road. Then the road turned to unpaved. Hmm, ok no worries. This is fine. Then it got a little more tricky. I stopped and looked and there was still 4-5km to go to get to the main road. I carried on but within 1/2 a km I had to stop as the bumps and rocks were added to by a nice incline. On any old mountain bike you'd have been fine but on the road bike with Look pedals (the shoes aren't designed for walking in) I had no chance. So I turned around and headed back the way I came, although I did veer off a little and ended up heading north along the river before crossing it and heading south down the other side again. It had been an interesting diversion but one I could have done without. Certainly if I'm back in the area with a mountain bike I'll see where it ends up.

The whole area just feels like one big geography lesson 

Think that might be Alpe d'Huez at the top on the right 

Quarry works

Just the valley to go - straight forward before but that was on fresh legs. Kicked in after the bridge and knee aching and left leg minor cramping but stayed in there through the 10-12% and eventually came out at the bridge over the green water. Along the valley a bit more and then up to St Christophe en Oisans and back to the 10% although not quite as steep. Through village great. No not great still got another 14km to do. Even after the last village before la Berade there was still 4km to go up hill. Was a tough day. Beer reward.

Dinner soup again and fish - delicious but wasn't able to eat it all (large portion). Felt starving and sick at same time. Think it was a tough old day. Surprisingly the ice cream which was gorgeous brought me round a bit or maybe the rest of the food was starting to sink in.

Early-ish start tomorrow as I have to drive most of the way across France to get to the Chunnel and then an hour the other side too. Knackered just thinking about it!

Facts and figures....