Day 19 Alpe D' Huez

The tour leaves St Etienne today towards Chamrousse. (pronouced Shan roos). Peter and myself are climbing one of the most famous climbs around. The TDF riders only complete this climb every two years. Le Bourg d'Oisans is the town at the base of the climb.

Grenoble

Le Bourg D' Oisans Campsite

 But this is what we woke to in D'Oisans







Went into a local bike shop could not resist the Alpe d' Huez outfit, got changed and set off for the top about 10.00am. immediately hit 12-13% I thought this is not a good sign, with the famous 21 switchbacks to come I was nervous. However once we started to climb the switchbacks we found it less of an effort than we thought. There are a few reasons for this. All the switchbacks were numbered from 21-1, so we could just count each corner down, this was psychologically better for me, secondly you could not resist stopping at each corner as the views were jaw dropping, and it also gave you a few minutes breather. Each corner was surprisingly flat which provided a slight break in climbing and thirdly we were not pushing ourselves to the limit.Between each corner it was 8-12% all the way for the 13 klm climb.

Oisans in the valley. Part of the switchbacks

Being used to riding with a heart monitor it is surprising to find that @ 165 bpm you can ride long distances at this rate, yet @ 180 bpm I am in the red zone and this can only be sustained for short distances. only 15 bpm amazing.

Enough Said!!

@ 1865 mtr  we finally made it. A good ride for the day.

we continued through the village out towards the airport and then back down to Huez on a back road about 250 mtr lower down the mountain, and then ride back up again. Have some lunch watch the race in a chalet, then roll back down the mountain at 6.00pm, complete some washing exchange stories with other rides in the area and exchange details. Australia is well represented in Oisans, as well as many other nationalities.