Day 11b

The Alps are stunning. They are considered young mountains formed by the collision of the continental plates of Europe and Africa mash together . (I think this is correct. I read it on the Internet, so it must be true.) The peaks are sharp with jagged edges. The faces are craggy with many water fall lines running the length of the peaks. In some places, you can see layer upon layer of rock. It was as if liquid rock was poured in a pile. The rock was allowed to cool, then the next layer poured on. The shape of the mountain takes the shape of the underlying hardened lump. Then, keep doing this until you are at 8,000 feet. Eventually, the peak you form is pointed and sharp. Just like in Colorado, you can watch the weather change as you enjoy a coffee. The clouds surround the summits as the sun works to break them up. The clouds slowly keep their steady pace of enveloping the peaks and eventually win out towards the end of the day.

We are atop Les Deux Alpe. It is a sister peak to Alpe d'Huez. Starting at the village at the bottom, each day we'll have an 18 km climb to the hotel. This is not unlike Rod's logistics the year we had team training camp in Georgia at the top of Neil's Gap. This is about 2x as long and an average grade of 6.2%, so a bit steeper as well. Rod, this is your kind of place. Now, put the village of Helen, Ga atop the climb and you have the setting here, with huge snow covered, cloud shrouded peaks in nearly every direction. Pretty awesome scenery. Since this is the off season, we got a pretty good deal on the best hotel in the area. It is a well appointed place. The only disadvantage is that it is at the very highest point in town. So, after doing the 18 km to the town, you have another 2 km to the hotel with grades that will touch 15%. For the guys who did camp with us. Imagine the climbs to the cabin we rented this past season at the top of 2x Neal's Gap and you only have the ascending parts of the wind through the community to the cabin, none of the descents. We are here for the next three nights; nice! I may not be game for this 18 km leg crusher each day, but I'll give it a go. The option is to catch the bus in town.

This is a pretty hotly contested TdF and the Alpe d'Huez stage looks to be a race making stage. It will be a 210 km race, with both Galibier, Croix de Fer and Alpe d'Huez (all are HC - beyond category - climbs). We drove past the start of the climb. The place is packed. In years past they have had more than 1 million people on this final 15 km. They anticipate more this year. As a result, the warning is Alpe d'Huez may be scrubbed as a possibility for our group to climb. The plan for a few in our group is to roll down our mountain at 6:30 AM on Weds and give it a go. We should be at the base of Alpe d'Huez by 7:30 AM and take about an hour to climb. We are looking to take an alternate route off the mountain and come in the back way to town before climbing the 18 km back to our hotel. That's the plan anyhow. The plan was hatched by a couple of Aussies and me at dinner last night. The plan was influenced by a fair bit of mountain juice and likely excessive confidence in conquering Mt. Ventoux. It was also done without the tour guides and maps of the region I scrounged up on my way to dinner. Getting very lost is a highly probable outcome, but it should be an adventure.