L'Alpe d'Huez

This is Ian.
 Over the June 9 – June 10 weekend, we all went to southern France to get REALLY close to the Criterium Dauphine, a small 9 day bike race in preparation for the Tour de France, the biggest bike race all year. On the last Friday of the school year, we drove to Bourg d’Oisans, located right at the base of L’Alpe d’Huez, a 14 kilometer climb on the French Alps with 21 hairpin curves and an average gradient of about 7%, with the maximum being about 12%. We unpacked at our cabin and went to sleep.



The next morning my dad went out early to ride some of the other mountains that would be in the Marmotte, a bike race in July going over many of the tour de France climbs, then finishing on Alpe d’Huez. (He will be riding 174 kilometers; I will be riding Alpe d'Huez again the next day.) After he got back, I got ready and we went out of our campsite, took a left, and the climb immediately started. In the picture above, you can see Alpe d'Huez in the background, it doesn't look very big right now, but it goes farther back out of sight.

The switchback shown above is only number two; 19 more to go! The other picture above is of the level podium -- it should show what the gradient was, even though the finish was not steep at all compared to the rest of the mountain. Below is switchback number ten, about halfway up and where we were passed by most team busses coming up the mountain.

After another hour of climbing, we finally reached the summit, where the big screen was already set up, and the race was being shown live at the finish. We waited for about a half hour, and then Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack) and Alberto Contador (Astana) came by. Jani is the rider in yellow and Alberto is in the blue and white next to him.

Here is a video my Dad took of me riding up the mountain.

                                        

The next day, we packed our car and drove to the finish of the final stage of the race in Sallanches. On our way, we drove over the Col du Galibier and the Col du Telegraph, both Tour de France climbs and also Marmotte climbs. The peaks of these mountains were snow covered, so I had a little fun in the snow. After driving for another few hours, we arrived at the finish. We got there just in time to see the pros come by for the first of five circuts through the city. Just like last year, the teams were dumping coolers and we got bottles from Radioshack, Garmin transitions, francaise des jeux , Cofidis, Saxo bank, Milram, and Katiowa .

The pros came by about every 10 minutes, so I had time to get bottles signed by riders who had dropped out of the race early; the signatures I got were from, David Millar (Garmin Transitions), Johan Van Summeren (Garmin transitions), Chris Horner (RadioShack) and Sergio Paulinho (RadioShack). After the race ended, I stood outside the RadioShack bus for about 20 minutes and also got a signature from Jani Brajkovic (RadioShack), the winner of the race! (He is shown in yellow below.)

               From left to right:  Chris Horner, Jani Brajkovic, and Sergio Paulinho.