To the Alps: Part 1
A few weeks ago Andrew flew over to France to experience riding in the alps for a few days. Below is a recount of his experience:
It’s not often that a New York City shop owner gets to travel to the continent, to follow in the tire tracks of the greats, in the country of two-wheeled champions. I am lucky enough to have some good friends who extended an invitation to ride in the French Alps for 5 days this past September. A frequent-flyer-mile plane ticket and some couch surfing brought the expenses in line, so the decision to take some time away from the shop was an easier one. The account that follows in the next 2 blog posts, while longer than what our intrepid readers are used to digesting, is my best pass (with an assist from NYC Velo team member and travel companion Tom Stephenson) at communicating what was a most fantastic cycling trip.
Kurt Dienel:
First things first, a few words on our host, Kurt Dienel. Kurt deserves his own paragraph, if not his own post, and not just because he graciously put us up for 5 days. I was introduced to Kurt by his friend Tom, and had the pleasure of getting to know him over several days in the saddle.
Kurt grew up in the US, mostly in the western half of the country, and learned to downhill ski from his father when he was 3 years old. He started riding bikes seriously when he was in college in Berkeley, CA. For the past 12 years or so Kurt has been living in France spending his weekdays working for the man in Paris and his weekends (and much of his 6 weeks vacation — merde!) in Les Hieres, one of the tiny 200-inhabitant postage stamp villages scattered around the high French Alps. His chalet can be found several severe kilometers straight up a very narrow, winding road, (sans guardrail) from the ski town of La Grave.
To say Kurt is an outdoorsman is a supreme understatement. To start, he is an avid mountaineer and rock climber, with experience white water rafting, paragliding, and windsurfing. When on the bike, his regular summertime dilemma is between cycling the most famous and challenging paved Alpine roads, and completing marathon XC and downhill mountain bike routes that reach heights far above the motorways. To relax, he kayaks down class IV rivers for a few days, stopping to fish those same waters for dinner each night.
When you spend a short time with Kurt it becomes clear though, that his true spirit awakens with the first autumn snow fall. I’m not sure what exactly an alpinist is, but I would have to believe that Kurt would exemplify one. In the fall and winter, he routinely hikes his way up to vertigo-inducing Alpine peaks, with the help of his trusty ice axe and a set of crampons, to then turn around and ski down some of the most dangerous and devastatingly beautiful runs on the planet. Kurt doesn’t sit still, and his energy is contagious, perfect for leading a couple of state-siders through the best climbing that France has to offer.
Day 1:
Our longest day of the trip, clocking in at 20+ hours from the moment our plane left the ground, and the only day presented in chronological order.
6:00 PM EST Our AA 7X7 leaves the gate of JFK. It’s a downright miracle we both made this flight and had time for a brew at the airport bar.
7:45 AM (1:45 AM EST) Touchdown at Charles de Gaulle airport just north of Paris.
8:15 AM hop in a cab and head into the city center to pick up a set of house and car keys from Kurt. 10:10 AM Our typically “friendly” Parisian chauffeur had mentioned “un peu de traffic” but we were grossly unprepared for the epic 110 minute/60 euro cab ride to the peripherique of Paris. (those of you keeping score at home, we were headed to Lavellois Perret).
10:15 AM Grab the keys and hop on the Paris Metro towards Gare de Lyon to catch the TGV to Grenoble. Miss our train, narrowly due to a self-proclaimed “rookie mistake” by Tom — remember kids, you can’t use a US Credit Card to pickup your train tickets in a French machine. You have no chip in that card! Instead, always remember your reservation #.
10:30 AM Andrew “enjoys” a “cappuccino” while waiting for the next TGV. (see picture)
11:30 AM Board train and promptly pass out
3:30 PM Arrive Grenoble, pickup Kurt’s diesel sportwagon and head east towards the mountains.
5:00 PM Arrive Bourg d’Oisans, at the base of the famed Alpe d’Huez climb, rent Scott CR1 Team bikes. Use broken french to ask when sunset is. Find out that it’s 6PM in the valley, closer to 7 on the mountain. Book to the car.
5:30 PM Change, set up the bikes (has anyone really actually ridden these things?), Tear off, with heads full of steam to tackle the autoroute made famous by the world’s biggest bike race, Le Tour de France. Ride 1.5 k, and *boom* no rest for the weary, we’re on the climb — nearly 12% towards the first 21 “virages” … look up, Lance Armstrong, 2001, jump out of the saddle and get to work. Tom notes his HR at 171 already.
6:30 PM Arrive at summit. Marvel that Pantani did it in 37 minutes. Take advantage of the day’s final sunlight for a magnificent view from the ski resorts atop the Alpe, note 15 degree decline in temperature, hit a car-free, screaming descent down.
7:30 PM Grab a couple of Emmental pizzas and a sixer of tasty, trusty Kro to fuel the 30k drive up the into the mountains to Kurt’s abode in Les Hieres.
8:30 PM Arrive at Kurt’s, completely disoriented. It’s pitch dark and the switchbacks up this slope were even more vertigo-inducing than those of the Alp d’Huez 2 hours earlier. It’s nearly a miracle we were able to get the old school key to work in the lock. A a view of the high alpine scenery is going to have to wait until the morning.
Total Ride: ~30k
Total Ascent: ~1,100m
Total distance covered in 20hrs: 6611 k
Proposed Route (aborted due to daylight): http://beta.mapmyride.com/routes/detail/22712976/
Day 2:
The second day would be our first full day in the French Alps and plans had been drawn up for a solid but reasonably gentle ride, the general idea being 3 cols in decreasing order of difficulty and about 130k total distance. Fueled by mediocre crepes (sorry Alp’ Bar) we headed back down from Les Hieres to Bourg d’Oisans, where we parked the car and made some minor tweaks to the bikes.
The first 20k of the day was more or less downhill along the departmental road that is the only way in or out of La Grave. Within the first few k, we somehow attracted the attention of a local rouleur, who was fully kitted out in his clubs colors and interested in the curiosity of a US duo. A regular Thomas Voekler, he was determined to look good while proving to us that he could pull us the whole way. To be honest, it was a welcome slow 45 minute warmup as we spun down the hill, quickly losing about 500m in altitude. Tom yelled a hearty “Salut!” to our new friend as we took a hard right turn north in the town of Sechilienne that led us to the base of the very unassuming Col de Luitel. This 10k paved “goat path” went directly and viciously to the summit of the Col, but it would be another 7k or so of softer climbing up to the real summit at the Chamrousse ski area before we would be able to head downhill.
A quick note: later, back at Cycle et Sport in Bourg d’Oisans, Tom would chat with the shop owner about the Luitel only to find out that it has a bit of a local reputation as being much harder than Alpe d’Huez for its fierce and unrelenting pitch… “aucun de virages.” It’s a pity the Luitel will never be included in a stage of La Grand Boucle — it would be nearly impossible for team cars and support vehicles to make it up the path without killing spectators (and wildlife) along the way — but it remains one of the more challenging routes around, softened only by the fact that the 900 m of climbing in 10k begins at at a mere 300m altitude.
Some clouds had rolled in, and the air temperature at the top of the Chamrousse was again a solid 15 degrees cooler than the 60s sunshine, so an espresso/baguette/Nutella stop was in order. A quick check of the watch showed it was 2pm and we were only 50k in — this means we’d have to crank in order to be on time to meet our host at the Lyon airport. The descent off the northwest side of the Chamrousse was refreshingly fast, a zero-braking sort of affair down to the town of St-Martin d’Uriage, and onto Vizille. Unfortunately, a missed turned in Vizille led us to a heavily-trafficked autoroute with cars and trucks passing at 80k/hr while we slogged 8k up to the town of Laffrey (average grade 12%), where another caffeine stop was in order. Tom noted that even the autoroutes are chalked here and that the most prominent was a huge “VDB” … maybe it was an omen that we should have obeyed…
We were starting to realize that this day would be a bit longer than anticipated as we still had 50-60k (?we thought?) left and had been on the bikes for almost 4 hours. The eastward trip around Lac Mort on very local (one car width) roads was a welcome relief from the previous climb, even if we were dodging manure all the way. We were rolling now, heading steadily downward across the gorge to Valbonnais to the foot of the Col d’Ornon. It was 4 pm and we were supposed to be in Lyon at 6:50 — Tom thought “this is never going to happen.”
At 22k in length, the Southern approach of the Ornon is easier than the shorter (13.5k) steeper Northern route, but a quick check of the computer as we left Valbonnais showed a day total of 140k so far and we could feel it in our legs. No time to relax, we had to get on the climb. It was pleasant really, with almost 10 alpine towns sandwiched in between switchbacks and grades alternating between 1-2% and 4-6% until the last 5k that was a steady 7-8%. Still, it was nothing compared to earlier in the day, though the elements made it more interesting: a driving rain and wind began as we neared the halfway point. Neither of us remember much of the descent back to the car back in Bourg d’Oisans besides the fact that it was fast, winding, and completely freezing when soaking wet.
The ride on day 2 pushed both Tom and I, but we couldn’t imagine a better place in the world to suffer on a bike. (For those of you keeping track at home: Kurt’s flight was delayed an hour and we made it to Lyon in time, with 5 minutes to spare for Tom to chug an entire Family Size bottle of Chocolat Yop! <-puncuation included in name)
Total Ride: 168k
Total Ascent: 2750 meters+
Approximate Route (without wrong turns): http://beta.mapmyride.com/routes/view/22714474/
Stay tuned for the final 2 days of the trip…