French Alps Tour 2003

July 9th - the Col du Galibier

Vallorie sits at the end of a long valley and the road rises about 1500 feet up along the eastern side. After about 5 1/2 miles, the road does a u-curve to the right over the river and immediately starts a 10%+ climb as it starts a winding trek up to the Col. About 1/2 mile from the top, the road flattens where a tunnel goes through the mountain and then goes sharply up again in a series of 4 switchbacks over the headwall to the top. The pass is the second highest point of the 'Route des Grandes Alpes' at 8618 feet.

Somewhere around 7500 feet the altitude got to me and my legs went flat. Up until then it had been a great climb. I remembered my pressure breathing from my Mt. Rainier training and after about 5 minutes of that I felt better. Finished the rest of the climb feeling strong and enjoyed the incredible views from the top of the pass. After the obligatory pictures at the top Eric and I quickly made our way down 1500 feet to the top of the Col du Lautaret. The Col du Lautaret is a pass that sits astride the ridge running up to the Col du Galibier, so the road that comes down from the Galibier joins it and then forks right to le Bourg d'Oisans (the foot of the climb to Alpe d'Huez) and left to Briancon, our route today. Three days from now "Le Train Bleu" would climb the Telegraphe, Galibier and the Alpe d'Huez all in one day. An amazing feat, and all the more appreciated since we were doing those hills - one per day.

The rest of the 'official' ride for our group was 18 miles of downhill into Briancon. Eric and I decided to keep on going up the Col d'Izoard. The Izoard or the Lizard as we named it, tops out at 7500 feet and is another legendary tour climb. After lunch in Briancon and a right turn we met another one of those 10% starting hills.

The climb goes up a river valley with alternating farmland and scrub vegetation for about 9 miles and then turns up another valley rising more sharply through beautiful pine forests interspersed with small alpine meadows. Just before the top, it opens up into a bowl and you can see a rocky headwall and a series of switchbacks about 3/4 of a mile ahead. Just before the last part of the climb there is a restaurant, Le Refuge Napoleon, originally built with funds bequeathed by Napoleon as a sign of gratitude for the enthusiatic welcome he received in Gap on his return from Elbe. We didn't stop there but riders who stopped the next day gave it excellent reports. Good food and awesome views of the valley we had just climbed. At the top there is a monument to Alpine forces who helped build the roads in the Alps and a small museum dedicated to the Tour de France. Nothing else on this windswept rocky outcropping. Back to Briancon was another exhilarating descent, 15 miles and 3500'.

We had a rest day in Briancion and I took advantage of it to stay off the bike and walk up to the old town and explore. Eric, trying to win the King of the Mountain compeition rode out to Sestriere just over the Italion border; another major climb on the Tour and the place where Lance nailed the yellow jersey three years before.

Gynapi is a local alpine flower that they make into syrup, a liqueur and, best of all, ice cream. We discovered it at dinner our first night In Briancon where Eric, Craig, Ciaran, Meg, Shannon and I shared this wonderful new treat. We also discovered it the next three nights. It was an unusual taste, a cross between lavender and berries and everybody fell for it. But we wondered if it would only taste so wonderful here at this time and in this place. Dinner on our second night was in old town, out on a balcony with views of the city and valley below and a wonderful sunset. Most of our group ended up at various restraunts in the old town and everyone found the ice cream palor for desert.

Old Briancon is beautiful, surrounded by high walls and a moat, is built mostly of stone and stands just below a fort at the very top of the hill. The cobblestone streets rise sharply upwards and have a gutter running down the middle. The fort, about 200 feet higher than the town has a commanding view up 4 valleys that join at the bottom of the hill.

July 11th and 12th - the Alpe d'Huez

The road to the little ski village of Alpe d'Huez is the most famous of all the climbs on the Tour de France. This is cycling's Mecca, a legendary climb with 21 switchbacks, rising 3700 feet over 8 miles. To get there we had to ride the 18 miles back up to the Col du Lautaret, and then down 29 miles to le Bourg d'Oisans. The ride up was not hard, a gentle 6 to 7% for the last 5 miles or so, which after the big climbs seemed almost flat. I had my own domestique, Eric, who rode at a constant heart rate that allowed me to draft all the way up at a similar easy rate, a good warm up to the main event later in the ride. The small village of Les Ougiers served as a rest stop and was at the beginning of a very slightly downhill 5k last stretch until the turn up the hill. We used this 5k stretch to ride at a good warm up pace (about 20 mph) so we were well warmed up when we turned off the N91 onto the D211 and the climb itself.

Dick Powell, Bicycle Outfitter's owner and our tour leader had announced a time trial for the group. He handicapped it using Lance's winning time in 2001 (38 minutes) and then adding one's age. He then added 15% for the ladies and 50% for recumbent riders. It turned out that the ladies didn't need a handicap (they were tough!) and the recumbents needed a lot more. The winner would be the one who beat his or her handicap by the most time. This effectively gave older guys a minute a year, and gave me 10 minutes over Eric, the next youngest. Eric and I decided to go for time the first ride up and then use the next two days for 'backup' if needed.

The D211 passes under a large starting banner almost right away and then after about 400 yards of fairly flat it makes a sharp left turn to a long straightaway going up at over 11%. There are 5 turns before it begins to ease up at the little village of la Garde. La Garde is perched on a hill overlooking the Oisans River valley. I gratefully accepted the 7% grade through the village before heading into the trees and the steeper 10% section as the road wound its way up to the slightly larger village of Huez . At turn 7 (the turns are numbered from 1 to 21, with 1 at the top) the Dutch supporters of Team Rabbobank were encamped. They had been there for some days, with RV's, tents and lots of music and beer. I stood and accelerated, buoyed by the loud rock music and encouragement from the roadside.

Looking up after turn 8, I could see the village of Alpe d'Huez itself high up on the mountainside. I decided not to look up any more, it seemed so far away. More turns, more turns. Each one with the name of a previous winner of a past Alpe d'Huez stage. Finally, at turn 4, the road splits and the end seemed in sight. Unfortunately, the distances between turn 3 and 2 and turn 2 and 1 seemed longer than the distances between the other turns. To top it off, turn 1 is the last switchback, but not the end of the route. That last stretch goes up at 11%, then 7% and then finally 11% before it levels off in the town. The actual finish was in the town and I couldn't see how far that last stretch went.

Finally, legs no longer talking to me, I managed to wind my way through the crowd milling about the street at the top and on to what appeared to be the finish. Most of the time there is a banner overhead announcing this, but when Eric and I arrived it was down. I knew that it was supposed to be right before a tunnel so I could mark my approximate time - 1 hour, 14 minutes. I had originally thought I would climb it in about 90 minutes so I was pleasantly surprised at turn 3 when only an hour had passed. Turn one had been taken over by a British cycling group who were supporting Lance with an American flag painted on the road and a "kick ass, Lance" banner on the side. I passed them at about 69 minutes still ahead of what I thought I would do.

The Hotel d'Dome was still futher up the hill. In fact, the actual finish of the Tour is about 1 1/2 miles further than our finish line. The tour riders have to climb another 400' or so, winding their way through the village. After a brief stop, checking the map to see where I was, I managed to wind my way up as well and found Eric at the front of the hotel, drink in hand (Eccelerade of course). He had managed a time of about 63 minutes so that, on an adjusted basis, I was behind just him.

The next morning I rode down the hill with Ciaran to try the time trial once again. We stopped in le Bourg d'Oisans for an iced tea and to buy an Alpe d'Huez cycling jersey and then headed out the 5k to Les Ougiers. Turning around we came back at our warm up pace. This time I knew the route and so hoped that I would be able to use that familiarity to get a faster time. Going under the banner I accelerated to close to 30 mph to go through the flat section. Hitting the climb, I stayed seated and tried to keep my heart rate between 150 and 155. While the day before I had been pleasantly surprised at how fast I was going, today of course it was psychologically the opposite. I was concerned that I was not going as fast as yesterday, not really remembering how long it took to get to each turn. The crowd at Dutch Corner, now even larger and noisier, helped, as did seeing turn 3 at last. My watch said I was a few minutes ahead of yesterday and at Turn 1, I stood and tried to accelerate the rest of the way to the top. Tried, but could keep up the accelerated pace for only 3/4 of the way and had to sit down for the last bit. In town the crowd was now huge and it took several excited cries of 'pardon!' 'pardon!' to get through to the (now visible) finish line banner. I stopped my watch at 70 minutes and 50 seconds. I just missed my target of 70 minutes, but Eric would have to race again to regain first place.