Climbathon

Loyal readers of this blog (there may be as many of ten of you) will recall that last year one of the themes of the blog was Hannibal's elephants.  In 218 BC during the Second Punic War Hannibal crossed the Alps with 37 war elephants.  As Hank and I were (and are) both larger cyclist (AKA clydesdales) we felt a certain affinity to Hannibal's elephant as we pedaled are way over the high cols of the French Alps.

Let's review what we know about elephants (aside from the fact that they are large):

1) Elephants are afraid of mice.

2) Elephants never forget.

3) Elephants like peanuts.

Let's take these points one at a time:  1) Elephants are afraid of mice.  I am not afraid of mice, but I do dislike them.  I trap them occasionally at my house and not humanely.

2) Elephants never forget.  I have a pretty good memory.  This morning I was thinking of the last day of riding I had with Hank here last year - June 29th, 2010.  It was a great day with incredible climbs on both sides of the Romanche River Valley that Bourg d'Oisans lies in.  But what I ws really remembering was the incredible descents we made down from Alpe d'Huez over the Col de la Sarenne and down from Le Deux Alpes on the shelf road through Le Travers.

Ever since Hank and I made those descents last year I have wanted to do the same route in the opposite direction.  The incredible descents become incredible climbs and vice a versa.  So today I did just that.

I got a late start.  The rain days got me in the mode of having a nap after breakfast.  Dinner at the KOM Lodge isn't served until 8:00 PM and, as I have mentioned before, there is still day light even later than that so leaving at 11:00 AM (which is what I did) still gives me nine hours of ride time.  So at the crack of 11:00 I was out the door and descending the Col d'Ornan into Bourg d'Oisans.  And did I immediately ride up the Romanche Valley to the bottom of the sneaky back road up to le Deux Alpes?  Nope, I stopped in Bourg d'Oisans for a lasagna lunch, because I knew I would be needing a lot of fuel for the big climbs ahead.

The back road up to Le Deux Alpes was as phenomenal as I remembered for descending it.  It started out as a beautiful series of switchbacks on a one lane road up through the forest.

Then, as often happens here, I popped out on a shelf road with great views of the valley and the road ahead.

Eventually I came to the main road up le Deux Alpes about six kilometers below the resort.  Like Alpe d'Huez, the switchbacks are numbered and I was five switchback corners from last corner before the ski resort.  I took a break in le Deux Alpes, then dropped down the main road, the same road Hank had been so keen on riding up last June.

I love the way French signage tells you you are leaving a town.

In the valley at the bottom you come out on the main road between Bourg d'Oisans and Le Grave.  If you take a right you immediately cross a damn and are at the foot of the climb up towards the Col de la Sarenne, which the sneaky back way up to the ski station at Alpe d'Huez.

The climbing was quite steep right away.  But I love these quiet, beautiful, back roads.

Once again, I climbed through a forest passing through some tiny hamlets, and then the ride became more Alpine and I could see the switchbacks above me.  I passed the house next to the huge rock that Hank and I had noticed the year before.

Hank and I didn't miss much - especially the obvious.

The switchbacks were incredible.  I used my elephantine memory to remember that last year from the top I had compared them to descending into an abyss.  But now I was climbing up out of the abyss.

And finally I could see the last switchbacks at the top of the col.

Not the best photograph I have every taken.

On top the road rolled though high meadows.  Several ski lifts came into sight as well as some enormous herds of sheep.

As I came into the ski station of Alpe d"Huez I once again saw the scariest airport I have ever personally set eyes upon.

That is one short runway off of a cliff.

And just like that I was in Alpe d'Huez.  I now had the classic 21 hairpin turn descent from Alpe d'Huez  to Bourg d'Oisans before me.  It was great fun.  There was one climb left, back up the Col d'Ornan to my home away from home, the King of the Mountains Lodge.

The bottom of the climb up the Col d'Ornan

It was a great day.  52.5 miles of riding and about 8,100 feet of climbing and all of it had been fun.  Here is the Garmin Map of my route:

Bottom Left KOM Lodge / Bottom Right the road up le Deux Alpes / Top Right  Col de la Sarenne / Top Left Alpe d'Huez

3) Elephants love peanuts.  I love peanuts.  And the funny thing is that the French use the same word for peanuts as the Mexicans and Spanish do: cacahouètes (French) / cacahuates (Spanish).  So when I go into the little Mini-Casino Supermarket in Bourg d'Oisans I know what to look for.  The word come from the Nahuatl (Aztec) language as do other words that have made it into English and other languages, like chocolate and coyote.

This year I am going to make it over the cols and into Italy.  Now some may consider it cheating, but I will be flying from Lyon to Milan on Swiss Air next Sunday.  But I think I have already done enough climbing to prove I could have done it like Hannibal did.