The trip to l'Alpe d'Huez was to be check-mark on the "things to do in life" list for David. Perhaps the Tour de France's most feared climb in recent years was to be the site of an uphill time trial for the first time ever. So this is the year to go!
Starting in Berlin, though, was not going to be easy.
An overnight train to Paris put us at the Gare du Nord with all of an hour and ten minutes to travel across town to the Gare de Lyon for a train to Grenoble (closest city to l'Alpe d'Huez). While in New York, a glance at the Paris subway map made it look quite possible.
From Berlin, with the overnight train leaving late... it looked a little different!
Fortunately, the train made-up the time so we arrived in Paris as scheduled. We were further enheartened when informed by one of our cabin-mates, a very Parisian young film director, that the trip across town not only could be completed in time, but time would remain for a croissant breakfast.
David had wisely reserved seats on the train to Grenoble -- this Tour stage was estimated to have over one million spectators! On the train we met two of those one million: a couple of American cycling nuts named Rob and Keith. Former bike racers living in Arizona, they too were pursuing a life-long dream by going to l'Alpe d'Huez. Rob and Keith were very happy to meet us, because we not only had experience attending Tour stages (last year), but also had some good information about what to expect when we arrived in Grenoble.
What we had in mind was to take a bus to Bourg d'Oisans (at the base of the Alpe) or to l'Alpe d'Huez itself, and find a place to camp for the next two nights. David's French was very handy in arranging the bus, but the ride was much longer than expected because of the insane number of cars, RV's, motorbikes, and bicycles on the road, both stopped and moving. Countless amateur and semi-pro cyclists were attempting the very same climb the pros would suffer on the next day, and even more fans were already settled in for the event (for as long as three days before we arrived, as we soon discovered!).
In the end we took the bus (with Rob and Keith) all the way up to l'Alpe d'Huez itself (which, by the way, is a very popular resort with skiing available through August (!) ). We walked down to the 3km-to-go mark and found a (mostly) flat spot next to the road which became our home for the next two days.
Lance Armstrong's greatest rival, Jan Ullrich, is German. Our little campsite was surrounded by Germans -- Ullrich fans! Fortunately, Manfred ("Manny") and his son Stefan, two of the people who had been there for three days already, befriended us so all was good. The night passed uneventfully, though noisily (Germans ==> much beer and singing).
The next morning began with a sense of anticipation more so than any other of the trip, and before we knew it, the famous Tour publicity caravan arrived, complete with free souveniers, water bottles and snacks tossed to the crowd. Soon after, the first of over 150 riders rode past us as we stood by the side of the road. Others followed at approximately two-minute intervals (they begin two minutes apart but rarely finish that way). The quality of riders increased as the day wore on, as they begin the time trial in inverse order of placement.
It is impossible to describe the atmosphere on the slopes of the Alpe. Seeing the suffering and the emotions on the faces of the best bicycle riders in the world on this legendary climb was an incredible experience. It more than lived up to expectation. In fact, it was so far past David's level of expectation that he doesn't remember what he had hoped to see. The stage ended (for us) in spectacular fashion, as our man Lance flew past us, moments before catching his two-minute man Ivan Basso.
With the excitement of the stage past us, reality eventually set in, as the challenge getting off the million-fan mountain presented itself. Apparently, the first bus to leave the slopes was schedulded to do so roughly 24 hours after the end of the stage. We passed the time quite pleasantly chatting with our (disappointed) German nieghbors and our good buddies Rob and Keith. Also, Rob and Keith went with us on a little hike the next morning which put us high above the ski resort, offerng spectacular ("scary" -- David) views of the feared 21 switchbacks up to l'Alpe d'Huez and the surrounding mountains.
Eventually we caught our bus, and began our curiously long trip to our next stop, Lac Léman, a.k.a. Lake Geneva.
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