Day 24: Life after Alpe d’Huez

So will life ever be the same post Alpe d’Huez?

Today we were meant to watch Le Tour at Alpe d’Huez.  However, after watching the traffic jam of people flooding into the town on the road below our accommodation last night, and knowing we have ‘been there done that’, we decided that waiting until 5pm on a steaming hot French day with 1/2 million crazy cycling fans with no toilets, water or shade was not our idea of a good time. So we packed up our idyllic gite up in the beautiful mountains and drove away from Alpe d’Huez and past those sitting in hours of traffic to get to the Alp.

Although I thought I had hung up my cycling gloves for this holiday. I found this ‘easy’ ride around the lake at Ax-les-Bain. We had stayed here with the kids and had enjoyed the pool and water slides in what was one of our worst apartments of the holiday… even Ed remembers having to sleep on the couch. 

Supposedly
 “Cycling around Lac du Bourget — France’s largest natural lake — is a beautiful and largely accessible circuit with just one real challenge: the Col du Chat, a 400-metre climb on a balcony road above the lake. The classic loop covers 50 km from Le Bourget-du-Lac, or around 70 km if you start from Chambéry, with 800 metres of total elevation gain. It is one of the finest cycling routes in Savoie — and one of the most rewarding half-day rides in the French Alps.”

When I read this blurb, I thought to myself “it can’t be as hard as Alpe d’Huez”… what I think will now be my catchphrase.. but I think to describe it as ‘largely accessible’ is a bit of an understatement!!

That being said, the Col du Chat was definitely worth the incredible views we had of the Lake. And on the way up, we continued to say “it’s not as hard as Alpe d’Huez” and “look how far we have come.”

On the downhill, I should have exercised more caution when I saw the sign for gravel, and Mark slowed down and unclipped from his pedal. It might have been hairy for a few seconds as my back wheel

Slid from side to side- but praise the lord… I did not hit the gravel.. but went much slower downhill from there.

Back to our apartment in Annecy and into the cool air conditioning where we watched Le Tour take on Alpe d’Huez. Have I mentioned that we have ridden Alpe d’Huez?

I don’t think life will be the same post Alpe d’Huez. No hill we ride in Australia will ever be as legendary nor climb as steep.

But there will always be the thought can I do something bigger, harder to top this?  Could I do it again faster and not take as many stops?  But don’t let Mark read this… we have loved taking this challenge together and he loves to dream big.