L'Alpe d'Huez Revisited

We drove up L'Alpe d'Huez yesterday morning before heading down to Provence and Ventoux. It was our plan to drive both mountain passes but the crowds on Ventoux scuttled that plan.

What a fantastic thing to do in a car! The road was littered with cyclists on their way up in various states of exhaustion. We've seen a number of mountain passes that they include in the TdF, and this one was pretty fantastic. Officially there are 21 switchbacks, but we counted several more towards the top.

Above you can see me standing relatively refreshed in my 2008 TdF Alpe d'Huez t-shirt by the Arrivee sign, as well as an exhausted rider rolling across the official finish line used in the Tour. One of us biked up, the other, nearly blew out the car's clutch.