After the end of my Croatia trip, I hopped over the Italic Peninsula to land in Lyon, France.
One of my goals for my time in Europe was to ride some of the classic Tour de France climbs like L’Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux, and Lyon was the easiest connection from Croatia.
I was a little short on time, because I was supposed to meet some friends on the other side of France (Nantes) in a few days.
My trip started slowly, partly because my stomach was still not feeling right from the bug I picked up in Croatia. I’d found the perfect shop to rent a touring bike, but unfortunately the owners were on holiday, so finding a bike took longer than I expected. After calculating the time I had available, and examining the distances and train schedules, I realized I couldn’t really make both peaks work without doing over 300km in two days. So I decided to just go for L’Alpe d’Huez, which is definitely the most iconic of all the TdF climbs.
My plan was to take the train to Grenoble, then spend three days on the road, climbing the 22 switchbacks, then touring back through the Rhône Valley to Lyon. At least I’d get to bag one of my trophies, and hopefully enjoy myself.