The morning was cloudy, but I could see the clouds breaking up on the mountain, which was encouraging, It was also cold, particularly in my hotel room because the heat was not working, so I was motivated to get moving. My stomach felt almost normal and my energy was good. I could do this. I had a quick coffee, got set up and headed towards the mountain.
Leaving from Le Bourge d’Oisans, the climb up L’Alpe d’Huez starts almost immediately. I passed the official timing post, and saw the first bend, numbered 21. In true geek fashion, they count down to zero, not 1, so this was the first of 22 switchbacks.
The mountains and valley were beautiful, and the angle of the light reminded me of the morning climb up the Going To The Sun Road, one of my favorite cycling days ever. The road was in the shadow of the mountain, but it was climbing towards the light. The climb was steep but not oppressively so; I wasn’t even in my lowest gear for much of the bottom section. I was taking it easy, taking a lot of pictures, and getting passed by lycra people.
There was still a surprising amount of car and truck traffic for what amounts to a dead end road; probably most of it was servicing the ski areas at the top. I experienced a bit of mental difficulty around bend 6, reaching Huez Village, which is a natural high-valley settlement that feels like it should be the top. But this climb goes up to a ski resort, which makes it a lot different than Going to the Sun.
Higher on the mountain the bends become less frequent, with longer bits between, which made progress feel slower. I was starting to feel the altitude, but generally, it was pleasant riding, and beautiful. At one bend the thermal breezes were taking the seeds from mountain lupine and floating them gently over the road above.
I kept the pedals turning through Bend Zero, and more or less followed the confusing signs through the ski village at the top, which is a huge, strange, development, almost deserted at this time of year. I made the ceremonial peak feeling fine, had a bit of a snack, zipped some extra zip ties on my front bag just in case, and headed back down the mountain. The descent was fun! I was going faster than the drivers, and stopped once to let a car get far enough ahead that I wouldn’t have to brake. After just a few minutes, I was back in the valley and ready to head back towards Grenoble.
I decided that if I reached Grenoble by 16:00 and felt OK, I would continue on in order to make riding back to Lyon plausible for tomorrow. There was a bit of a headwind but made good time going back down the river valley. Having a little extra time, I stopped at a rock called “Tete de Louis XVI”; this region is proud of its history of resistance, first to the kings and later to the Nazis.
On the way back, I was more successful finding good bike routes this time, with only a couple of minor navigration errors. Eventually I ended up on a long double boulevard with a bike lane on outside, a little like the new Octavia Street in San Francisco. It was generally easy to ride, not super-fast because of intersections, but a very direct route through the light industrial outskirts of Grenoble.
I reached downtown at 15:45. I felt fine, and the weather was great, so I decided to keep going. I found a beautiful trail along the river dike, smooth asphalt with limited foot traffic and almost no intersections. It was great riding for the end of the day, easy mileage. It followed the river to its valley, and exited the gateway to the mountains. It felt like an appropriate day, having started at the peak and followed the river until it lost its transport capacity.
After about 15km on the path, I turned north away from the river, on quiet farm roads through corn fields. When I came upon a charming little town (Moirans), I looked for lodging and called it a day. Overall, it was probably my best riding day so far in Europe.
Daily musing: Trophy hunting and mortality
At my age, I’ve seen enough friends with life-altering illnesses or injuries that every physical problem brings the question: Will this be the big one for me? Just today I’d heard a friend was diagnosed with colon cancer. Fortunately I was feeling better, riding strong, staving off mortality for one more day. It felt great.
Trophy hunting, wanting to climb L’Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux, is partly born from those fears: How long will it be before I am unable to ride these climbs? But it’s important to remember that the point of the ride is the ride, not the trophy; I love climbing big hills. If I had tried to do 300+km in two days to be able to claim both peaks, I probably could have done it, but I couldn’t have enjoyed it. I would have had the trophies but not really the rides. I had to release my goal orientation.
Everyone I saw climbing L’Alpe d’Huez was a guy (except for one married couple). I’m not sure how much fun most of them were having. Me, I had a great day.
