Alpe d’Huez

(This is a catchup post for events that happened on Tuesday.)

We’ve been hinting about this for a few days, so here it comes. Our second day with the rental road bikes in Bourg d’Oisan had us out on the most famous climb in all of cycling. The traditional climb involves “21 classic hairpin turns” and is relatively short but very steep (up to 14%), particularly at the base. We did not do this exact climb, opting for a longer but slightly more gradual climb (12% max) with fewer switchbacks because of the gearing on our bikes. However, our climb would finish on the most famous section with the exposed switchbacks everyone thinks of when you say Alpe d’Huez, and of course we covered the same altitude change.

The day was hot; it was probably in the upper 80’s, and there were an abundance of people doing the climb. We joined the Alpe d’Huez route in the village of Huez, at turn six after a few hours of serious climbing and fantastic mountainside views taking us above Allemand and through the beautiful town of Villard-Reculas.  The last section of the road up to Alpe d’Huez is also heavily used to supply the resort town for which the climb is named, so there were cars and trucks screaming around the switchbacks.

A good number of riders were seen walking sections, but not Liz. She persevered and wrangled those final six switchbacks in with only a few near-breakdown moments. Having ridden the hardest ride of her life a day earlier, I feel like she earned a bit of complaining. 

Liz reached the top to a round of applause from some Dutch friends we had made on the way up, and then we snapped some pictures (which are all trapped on the camera until we have access to a real computer). Oh yeah, and then Liz got trapped in an electronic, self-cleaning bathroom from the future.  Good times!

For what it’s worth, the Alpe d’Huez is without a doubt overrated.  It may be difficult, but it’s not the most difficult. It’s reasonably pretty, but nothing compared to other climbs like what we’d done the day before.  Honestly, I think it is mostly marketing at work because the other climbs all have a snackbar at the top, if anything, whereas Alpe d’Huez has an entire ski resort. So no regrets at all, but we won’t be doing that ride again.