Post Seven – Alpe d’Huez

Climbing Alpe d’Huez is a very personal experience. Everyone has their own stories to tell about where it’s steep and where it’s not, how they felt along the way, and if they remember all 21 switchbacks. 

I don’t remember all 21, but I do remember rounding Dutch Corner with its foreboding cemetery and switchback nine. Nine stands out because I called out to Steve, “hey buddy, we’re half way up.” We laughed for about half a second and then put our heads down and kept peddling. 

We all made it to the top, grabbed food and prepared for the descent. That is, we stuffed cookies and croissants into our mouths, filled our water bottles, and put on every piece of clothing we brought with us. As with other climbs so far this week, it was cold up there.

What I’ll remember most about Alpe d’Huez is probably not the climb, but the descent. Rather than retracing the climb up, we went down the “back side”. I now understand why it’s not used very often in the Tour de France.  Rough road, rocks, gravel, and some very sharp hairpin turns. At one point we stopped to take pictures, and I could not even look of the side of the road. Straight down for hundreds and hundreds of feet. Oh, did I mention NO guardrails – none. Just to be fair, however, to the French version of CalTrans, the road did get much better the further down we went. 

Am I glad I did it? You bet. Despite sweating on the way up, freezing at the top, and a death defying descent, it was one of the best days of my life. After all, how much better can it get than doing a climb like Alpe d’Huez with good cycling friends? We’ll remember Alpe d'Huez for a life time.