Riding Alpe d’Huez and the Highest Road in Europe
24 July 2008The Alpe d’Huez was supposed to be the day that decided it all for the 2008 Tour de France. Instead, it was the day that ended with everything still up in the air. After a dramatic finish by Carlos Sastre, the Spanish climber of CSC, his teammate Frank Schleck finished over two minutes later and handed the yellow jersey over to the team’s number one rider. Sastre broke away from the peloton early on in the final climb up the Alpe d’Huez, gaining steadily until he had built his lead up to a convincing 2+ min when he crossed the finish line well ahead of the maillot jeune group, which seemed busy playing cat and mouse games with each other. Cadel Evans, Vande Velde, Cohl, Menchov and the Schleck brothers all took turns attacking and then falling back as the crowd cheered wildly. When Menchov took off on a final sprint for second place, Andy Schleck followed him almost jauntily. In contrast, Evans appeared quite fatigued after crossing the line, coming to a complete stop only a few meters after the finish. Exhaustion was understandable after a day that already included two enormous climbs, Galibier and the Croix de Foir, coming right on the heels of a monster stage after the rest day in Cuneo, which took the riders over two passes on their way back into France, with the second one being the highest mountain pass in all of Europe: the Cime de la Bonette. Although Adam Hansen’s roll in the race doesn’t necessitate that he expend all his energy like the leaders have had to do on the climbs, its still interesting to see the power and heart rate he has to put out on the big climbs of the Tour. See Adam’s data files from every day of the Tour at TrainingPeaks.com/tourdefrance2008/
I rode the Cime de la Bonette pass the day before the riders, while they were still resting in Italy, just to see exactly how the highest pass in Europe compared with some of the rides I do back home in Colorado. Although it certainly looks extreme, the 2,700 meter pass doesn’t provide nearly the same kind of oxygen deprivation available on many of the roads in the Rockies, so I found it pretty enjoyable. View my TrainingPeaks file viewer here.
I also rode up the Alpe d’Huez on the morning of the race yesterday, a ride which is probably about equivalent to Flagstaff in Boulder. Both rides took me roughly twice as long as the pros. If you have any interest in that kind of riding, click here to see my TrainingPeaks file viewer of my Alpe d’Huez ride.
For video footage of the descent off Alpe d’Huez through throngs of frenzied fans, especially the Basque fans, who are truly intense, click here. They always seem to find each other and group together, encouraging further madness. To see me on the top of La Bonette, the tallest pass in Europe, click here.
The last remaining stages of the Tour should be relatively peaceful, with the 55km time trial on Saturday providing a final chance for Cadel to take back the yellow jersey. A famously good time trial rider, he should be able to knock quite a bit off of Sastre’s two minute lead.
2 Responses to “Riding Alpe d’Huez and the Highest Road in Europe”
July 25th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Liz & TP,
this is dang cool. Nice work getting next to Cadel.
How about sometime after the tour, you do a step by step process of how to get these graphics and where your getting this info and how it all works within TP? I understand it is most likely coming from a Garmin? with a Powertap?
thanks and keep up the great work.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Hi Mark,
You are right, I was wearing a Garmin Forerunner 301, which is technically a device for runners, but it clearly works okay for riders too. I wore the Garmin on all my rides, and then once I had recorded the ride up Alpe d’Huez or anywhere else along the way, I uploaded the data to my TrainingPeaks account using Device Agent, and then used the File Viewer to export the data to Google Earth, resulting in the image that you see posted on the TrainingPeaks blog. The technology is pretty neat, it’s exciting to be able to wear what looks basically like a glorified wristwatch and then later see exactly where you rode, anywhere in the world. I’m back in Boulder now, so maybe my next ride will show the way up to Ward or Estes Park! Happy training,
Elizabeth