The day the Tour came to Bourg and had its finale up the top of the great Alpe Huez. Weather hot and sunny, and predictions for it continue all day. We set of on foot, the walk into the town of Bourg D’Oisans, a cycling Mecca, the gods of alpine cycling live here in the rocks.
The walk into town itself take about an hour then we decided to watch the Tour come past up the Alpe itself. We began the walk up and picked a spot just past turn 20. There are 21 hairpin bend switchbacks to the summit, the bottom being No. 21 so this wasn’t far up but the bend had English flags flying and a DJ with music playing so this seemed as good a spot as any to keep us entertained the good few hours before the Caravan came past and then the riders and hour or so later.
We could see the town of Bourg D’Oisans below us and around 15:30 the Caravan was with us and then around and hour or so later the riders. The atmosphere was carnival like until the riders came and then it turns into a feeling of admiration for these guys that have ridden over one hundred miles and then to ride up this mountain to the finish. Some powering up with what appeared relative ease and others looked like they was dragging every drop of energy into getting them and their machine up this lump of rock.
An awesome day, great experience and I take my hat off to the guys before we walked down for a bbq and beer.
