2012 Day 3 in France - Alpe d'Huez

On the day that the Pro Challenge bicycle race came through Boulder and finished on Flagstaff Mountain, our (Boulder's) little Alpe d'Huez, I decided to ride up the actual French classic.  But I instead of riding up the main route, the first 14 or so switchbacks I had ridden two days ago on day 1, I chose to ride up the Alpe one of the back ways, this time up through Allemont and then up several switchback on a beautiful forrest road that is much quieter than the main route.  One of the beauties of Alpe d'Huez is that there are several side routes, two of which have beautiful balconies roads high up on cliff faces that bring you on to the main route higher up on the climb.  As I started my descent for the KOM Lodge down to the valley floor I had a beautiful view of the balcony road I was heading to.  The road is the white line that slashes across the cliff face near the top of the photo below.

Here is a google map that I have cribbed before from the internet for this blog to give my loyal readers a better idea of the lay of the land.

Route D526 bottom left of the map is the Col d'Ornan, the King of the Mountain Lodge is located about five miles up the col from the valley floor, about two miles from the top.  The black squiggly line is the classic 21 virage route up Alpe d'Huez.  My route for today is the purple line that sneaks on to the main route about two thirds of the way up the climb in the town of Huez.  As I said, the climb on the switchbacks through the woods up from Allemont is much more peaceful than the famous main route.

After you climb up seven or eight long switchbacks you pop out on the shelf road.  Here is a view of the Col d'Ornan road that I come down and go up everyday when I ride on the Bourg d'Oisan / Alpe d'Huez side of the col taken from near the start of the balcony road.

The balcony road is two lanes as far as the tiny town of Villard Reculas.

Then, as you leave Villard Reculas, the road goes to one lane.

It stays that way for about two miles or so.  This one lane balcony road is the white line that slashes across the cliff face in the first photo of this post.   The road is one lane until you hit the town of Huez on the main route up the Alpe.   Here are two views of the classic route fas you come up to it on the balcony road.  The second photo shows my turn around point from day one, the old church at Virage 7.

From Huez you are about 7 virages and 300 meters below the actual ski station of Alpe d'Huez.  A funny thing about Alpe d'Huez is that there is a false finish line near a row of restaurant/bars and souvenir shops that have figured out a way to reel in the cyclist trade before they hit the actual Tour de France finish area.  To be fair all of the local races and time trials up the Alpe do finish here.  

And here I am, further up the hill at the actual TDF finish.

From the finish I descended down the classic route to Bourg d'Oisans where I ran into Guy, Craig, and little Alice from the lodge while I was buying some postcards.  I took advantage of that by catching a lift with them in the van back up to the lodge. Making today one of the few days that I didn't have to ride up the Col d'Ornan  to go home.  It was a fun day on the bike: 33 miles of riding and about 4,100 feet of climbing.  

That evening, back at the lodge, I had the surreal experience of watching the Colorado Pro Challenge bicycle race hit some of the roads and climbs that I do all the time back home.  Usually, I am in Colorado watching the TDF racing on some of the cols I have ridden in the Alps or the Pyrenees.  Seeing the incredible views of my favorite Colorado routes from a helicopter was great fun and the crowds along the race course were amazing.