Wednesday morning we awoke to beautiful blue skies, cool temps and excitement in the air.  We got our stuff together and rode into Bourg D’Oisans (BdO) which is a great 5 mile downhill, then after filling up our water bottles at the town pump we headed up the Alpe d’Huez.  It was tough but I got there.

I got lost at the top and went higher than where we had planned to meet and I got thoroughly lost in the modern ski village (like Vail).  Chris finally called me on the phone and guided me to the cafe where they were waiting.  We had a lunch of sorts – adequate but hardly good food.

at the TdF finish

After lunch we headed up to the official “arrivee” (finish) of the Tour de France  Then we headed to the col de Sarenne.  Remember the Tour de F went this route the first time up the Alpe.  It was a short but tough climb. here is a graphic of the climb from BdO to the Sarenne through Alpe D’Huez as we rode it, without the lunch break 😉

After a brief rest and some photos we descended.  It was amazing, beautiful and scary.  A narrow road with marginal pavement and HUGE dropoffs.  I was terrified.  It went down and down and down with lots of hairpins and gorgeous scenery. The road was just wide enough for a car and a bike to pass each other.  I rode it slowly and stopped a lot to take pix and let the brakes and wheels cool off.  I can’t imagine the racers bombing down this road.  The pads and hay bales from the Tour were still in place, but you would have to plan your crash pretty carefully 😉 to be able to hit them because they were so small and scattered about infrequently.

Col de Sarenne descent

From there we rode back into BdO on a main road though some tunnels and stopped for our preferred rewards: sorbet (me) espresso (Larry) and chocolate cake and ice cream (Chris).  Then back on the bikes to the lodge – a five mile moderate climb up the Ornon valley.

Col de Ornon

At the bottom Chris put in his tunes and wished us a nice climb knowing he would be last.  He said that the lodge is only 2km from the top of the Col d’Ornon and if we felt like it – it isn’t a tough climb to do it and then return to the lodge.  Well, I felt OK at the turnoff to the lodge (Larry was long gone) and I continued on to the top.  I thought, 2 km and one more col in the bag for one day, why not!  It was a as described and worth the last effort.  I put on my jacket and turned around to descend to the lodge. Totals: 54 miles, 7760 feet of climbing and it was 7:15pm!  Needless to say I was the last rider in. Neither Larry or Chris went to the top of Ornon yesterday.  The day’s unofficial stats: 2 cols, 54 miles, 7760 vertical feet.

Helen and Guy provided a wonderful hearty dinner, the guests were all tired and happy and excited from their rides.  We collapsed into bed to dreams of more rides.