Today is a significant day in my (our) life - Liz and I have been together for three years.
After one of the coldest nights camping (wore all my clothes) brekky in the tent with an amazing vista of the towering massif above me.
Name and blog picture says it all. The Alp D'Huez is infamous for being one of the most difficult climbs of the Tdf and high Alp cycle routes, for good reason.
Left La Grave after chatting to a Dutch guy who also rides a BMW and has made some big and I mean 'BIG' tours. He told me about a 1000 km off road traverse of the Pyrenees! Also chatted to two Dutch cyclists who gave me the good oil on where to ride and hire a bike.
The first shop in Le Bourg d'Ossans had the best bikes and the guy offered to look after my moto and gear so he got my business.
Checked out all the outdoor gear shops and cycle shops in Bourg d'Ossans and there was plenty of choice (still searching for a gift for Liz).
Hired a nice carbon Giant and left rather late after 2 pm so it was now 35-40 degrees! Nice hard conditions for one of the hardest climbs I have ever attempted (shop owner said should be easy for an Aussie!). Drank loads of water, took sports drink and ate banana sarnis before I left. However all that preparation falls into oblivion if the body is not prepared. Let me say - sat on a motorbike for the best part of two weeks is NOT good preparation for a cycle ride of this gravity.
As expected it was hard, very hard approx 1.5 hours in duration - reasonably happy until a guy who loaned me a bike tool told me his mate was third fastest this morning (they time the climb every Wed starting at 10 am) and that he did it in under 45 minutes!
The climb has 21 corners, huge vistas, but personally prefer other big climbs for several reasons. Its French law that you must pass cyclists by 1.5 metres, and automatically the driver is at fault, so generally cyclists are given a good space.
Many cyclists pulled over on my descent and shouted words of encouragement on the ascent, nice.
Think will have to come back and ride some of the other climbs my Dutch friends recommended, there is certainly plenty of choice in this location both on and off road.
Alp D'Huez is a huge and I mean a HUGE ski resort that was stupidly busy. Even had a couple of helicopters working on trail maintenance!
Nice to see a huge coach with trailer doing uplifts for downhill MTB, a resort that has captured this growing market segment.
But the resort had some great gear shops so went shopping again (gifts! honest).
Ride back down was a huge buzz, 60-70 km an hour overtaking cars, in fact they got in the way, so stopped three times and allowed a gap to develop as they were getting antsy being overtaken - still caught them up! Even with waiting for the cars I took around 20 mins to get back down.
Asked bike shop for the best camp site in town, and requested a 'quiet site' (will need my sleep tonight) was shown to rear of site by woman on a golf buggy. It's a big site probably biggest I've stayed on - has a restaurant, bar, free live music, sports, etc etc. But no free wi fi :-( so no Ewen five star rating.