The day I ascended Alpe d'Huez

I am happy to say that my personal project of ascending Alpe d'Huez on bicycle was successfully accomplished. There were a couple of last minute changes (including the traditional oversleeping and missing the bus) but nothing serious to stop me saying this:

I CLIMBED UP ALPE D'HUEZ ON BICYCLE!

more pictures here

I have only three advice for those amateurs like myself willing to do it:

1. The first part of the ascending is indeed brutal and you feel it is endless!, so do not waste energies there, keep it cool and just mind to get alive to curve 16. There you've got a chance breathe.

2. Prepare yourself mentally, so you don't get surprised by how hard it is!!

3. Get a personal reason to do it, don't do it for glory, a personal motivation will pull you stronger than just thirst of glory (at least in my opinion)

Personally I did it for my father, who soon will reach 14 years of death. I know Alpe d'Huez meant a lot for him due to the victory of Lucho Herrera in 1984, and I wanted to offer my ascending to his memory. Additionally the constant pain in my legs reminded me the constant pain and hurdles my mother had to overpass to rise my brother and me just by herself. After thinking about her life of struggling without quitting a single day I couldnt allow myself to stop pedaling. Those were my personal reasons.

The experience was awesome, I think climbing is something almost spiritual. I think the hardest part is in the head rather than the pain of the legs. Pedaling and feeling pain becomes mechanical, it actually becomes a background process that is just there and won't leave until you reach the top.

The real struggling happens in your mind, because there is a moment when you unplug yourself form the body and from the physical pain it feels, and then you start a discussion with yourself that actually holds you during the ascending. 

The struggling is between two parts of your mind. One pushes you to quit, to stop, to give up, it reminds you how painful it is, and the other part denies any of those possibilities, it uses your personal motivation to make you push and push and push until the moment that you realized you are at the top of the mountain. 

Here is my Strava information about the ride.

Even though the most important for me was to get there no matter the time, I have to admit that I was pleased to see that my time of ascending the 21 curves (1h29m38s) was few seconds better than my most optimistic timing (1h30m). I know I know, there is practically no difference, nor it is an amazing time but I don't care! it just makes me happy to know I made it.

If you live in France, in Italy or have the possibility to come, don't hesitate it! it is the Mecca of cycling, if you like this sport, you better come and do it at least once!

Le Petit Prince, Sixteen Years After...

Once I heard Crime and Punishment was that kind of book that everytime you read it, it become a different book. I've read it only once so I cant comment on that yet, instead I can say that "The Little Prince" is a book of that type.

The first time I read it in Spanish, back in 1996 when I was 9 damn years old. After sixteen years I read it again, this time in the original language (French), when -as arithmetic dictates- I am 25.

In general I enjoyed reading the book in French, it was easy without me being an expert on the language, it has interesting reflections but the best thing for me was to have the chance to reassess it. I give it 2 from 5 stars and I recommend to read it, though not to expect to be awesome.

It is widely believed that it is a children's book, but it is not!!. It's impossible to understand it and enjoy it when you are still a child and haven't lived the whole spectrum of things such as love or friendship, when you haven't taken decisions about life itself when you haven't left yet your planet and understood that there are many other planets around. Precisely for that impossibility for children to understand it, I think it is why the author rather dedicates the book to the child that is within us and that now is a grown up. In a nutshell it is a book written for our past, not for the present children...(the power of literature).

Personally, my impression is that the intentions of the book are to makes us reflect on mistakes and bad life-choices the grown ups make, thought I felt kind of uncomfortable with all the judgments the book has and with its simplistic and superficial approach to many of those.

Still the book has interesting parts and messages. The one I liked the most is the one with the fox, it is a nice reflection about what friendship (and love) is, about the power of those to enrich the world and the experience of life, no matter if there are tears, that's the part where the highlight of the book appears, from the voice of the good-old fox:

"... On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux..."

"...we can only see with our heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes..." 

Weather and company updates

This morning Julian has confirmed his willingness to die in the mountain, so we have booked a second bicycle for him. Now my ride wont be alone, I am very glad for that. I know he will be a good challenger.

Finally the weather for tomorrow seems perfect, between 16°C and 21°C. Probably we'll bike back to Grenoble instead of taking the bus.

Bike for the challenge: Checked!

The bike I have been riding on is this one, I call it "La Gorda":

A mountain bike Decathlon RockRider 6 Limited Edition with 21 gears, very thick tires and strong grip. About the weight, well mine weights 18.8 kg. Not exactly a route bike...

With a big challenge in front of me (Alpe d'Huez) I have decided to rent a more adequate bike for the climb and enjoy for the first time a route bike:

A route bike 2012 Specialized Secteur Sport Compact, 2.5cm tires, 9.5 kg and 30 gears. I am paying 35€ for one day. More decent bike indeed.

Sections of Alpe d'Huez ascending

I have just made a not-very-strict analysis* of the ascending parts of Alpe d'Huez, but I think it is good enough to be used as a "rule of thumbs" about the different sections of the ascending. 

I did it based on some readings describing the climbing. I included the number of the bends (yellow) and some guide values about the steepness of the segments (white), I tried to simplify the segments by colored bubbles (Red is "hard", Blue is "not-that-hard"). 

Note: Everywhere I read they agree the first part is the hardest, despite the 12% you'll find around curve 9!

Below there is a more detailed graph taken from here:

References: 

- Alpe d'Huez: La Subida

- Altimetrias Alpe d'Huez

- Alpe d'Huez mythical ascent

- Strava Segment: Alpe d'Huez "Vieil Alpe"

* If you see any mistake or have any suggestion to improve the graph, drop me a comment! ;-)