Race Report by: John Ramsell

So the day was finally here…E-Tape du Tour…a Bike Race from the Town of Gap to the top of the legendary Alpe Du Huez… A 191 km sufferfest over the 7800ft (elevation) Col D'Izoard, the 6800ft Col D'Lauteret and ending with a climb up the fabled 21 switchbacks of the 6100ft L'Alpe D'Huez. 12,000 feet of climbing over 85 kilometers of climbing up just three of the Col’s (mountains) on the course, closer to 15,000 plus feet of climbing if you add in all the smaller ‘rollers’ through the route…with almost 8000 racers including 6 Aurora Master Ducks…Spencer Lavis, Mark Gilbert, Brian McGee, two adopted Ducks Steve Bentley and Mark Angela and myself… Yikes…The big guns will be doing the exact same route 1 week later as stage 15 of the Tour…Yeah, the Tour baby.

Let’s rerun though a few days to set the scene…..

July 6th – Off to the airport in Toronto for our flights to France, a connection to Frankfurt and then a final flight to Lyon France. The bus ride south from Lyon, France to Orzieres was pretty wild as the “foothills” loomed larger and larger en route to our destination.

Saturday morning brought the realization that the mountains around here are frikking huge. And we all thought…Holy crap we have to cycle up those things…After a couple of days of registering, walking around the expo and acclimatizing ourselves…who knew that the wine was so good in this country…

And then race day arrived, Hot and sunny, with around 8000 people in this race, our group was spread out into different starting waves with some taking almost 20 minutes to cross the start line after the gun went off. With 8000 racers it was impossible for us to ride as a team but with that many people in the race there was no shortage of company along the route. There were constantly people around the entire way speaking all types of languages and wearing all the brightly colored riding kit supporting their favorite Pro Cycling team…making the who experience quite the international experience…Having all the racers on the road forced you to ride carefully which was good in a way as it forced us to go out easy and warm up and take the time to look around and enjoy the amazing scenery.

So after 60kms of riding the climbing started….The Col D'Izoard is the first real climb of the race and rises 4800 ft over 40kms and climbs up past the treeline into an arid moonscape. The severity of the slope is dizzying as you look down at the snaking line of riders coming up the Col behind you.

The top of the Col D’Izoard was the second of only four aid stations on the whole course and it was a zoo. We all had to stand in line in a scene reminiscent of a refugee shelter, begging for water with 100s of other racers pressing against the back of a semi truck. And in the case of Brian McGee and Mark Gilbert, pay 2 euro’s each to the little café owner to get water…then back to our bikes to eat some food to give us the energy to maneuver down the descent of the Col with some semblance of control.

The descent was as hard going down as the ascent was going up, with the addition of extreme fear kicking in to boot. The Euros are fearless. I saw three separate ambulances on that first big descent all tending to people that had careened off the edge of the road. There were also a lot of people on all the descents with flats, some pretty banged up looking. The roads were pristine so I can only think that the flats were caused from the hot ambient temperatures (well over 30 degrees C on this descent) as well as the heating of rims from braking during so much on the descents. Some of the larger Ducks recorded speeds of close to 100kph going down that descent..:-)

Even though there were only four aid stations for the whole race there were a lot of natural springs and glacier meltwater waterfalls lining the route. Stopping occasionally to fill up a water bottle with ice cold meltwater was a real treat. The second climb up the relatively gradual 2800 ft 30km long Col D’Lauteret was difficult due to its position in the course, the prevailing headwind and the fact that you could see the avalanche tunnel at the top 12kms away as you started the climb, making progress feel very slow. The 40 km descent from the top of the Col D'Lauteret was a delight as you could feel the air temp heating up through the descent to prepare for the climb up the L'Alpe D'Huez. One more stop at the aid station at the base of the final climb to try to get a bit of extra fuel into the body and you were on your way.

By the time we had started the final climb it had been between 7 and 8 hours since the start of the race. The ascent up L'Alpe D'Huez was going to be tough and we knew it. The first 3km of the 14 km ascent to finish of the race was extreme with the average gradient through those opening kms at 10-12% with some portions to almost 15%. It didn't disappoint. The temperature was 38+ degrees with not a cloud in the sky and boy was it rough. The climb was lined with racers who had climbed off their bikes and were slumped at the side of the road waiting for some energy and resolve to creep back into their body so they could continue.

Each of the 21 switchbacks on L'Alpe D'Huez are marked with a number starting at 21 and declining as you roll through the corners to #1 up near the top. The names of tour greats were already spray painted onto the road in anticipation of this year's stage 15 only 7 days away with people already looking like they were there to stake out their spot for the great day to come. On this day though they were watching us pretenders grind our way up the Alpe in stifling heat after riding 180 km over some intense terrain. The carnage must have been quite entertaining. One thing that stands out so clearly was the silence out on the entire course. Apart from the spectators out on the final climb and scattered throughout the villages on the race, the racers themselves were very internal and reserved a pretty quiet bunch. Likely saving every last bit of energy we could for what we were quickly realizing was a truly brutal day. Glorious, but brutal.

In that heat and after that many hours of racing, the climb up the final Alp was amazingly hard. We all had compact crank sets put on our bikes before the race and had a 34-27 (the equivalent of four easier gears than we ride here in Ontario) helping us up the hill. I was in that first gear almost the entire way with the exception of the times where I would drop down a gear or two, stand up (pray that my quads wouldn't cramp) and press harder for a change of pace.

The natural waterfalls on the side of the mountain were glorious. Allowing you to stop on the climb to briefly hop of your bike, fill up 1 or 2 bottles with ice water and hop back on. The scenery was stunning as you climbed higher up the mountain. You were constantly reminded that you were only a part way up the 21 switchbacks when you looked straight up the face of the mountain and could see the cyclists above crossing back and forth across the face, unbelievably high above. You can't imagine how steep and hard this mountain is, and they say that relative to some of the other climbs in the tour this is a relatively easy climb.

It was amazing. It was all I could do to turn my legs over at times but the feeling of being on this road, in that heat, after riding that long, the two huge climbs, the two amazing descents, and now grinding my way up this frigging mountain with my back, arms and shoulders now aching increasingly as much as my legs from the effort of the day, was such a glorious pain it was surreal. I couldn’t help but love the experience and drink in every painful wonderful moment of every second of that final ascent. The images of pain, resignation and determination I could see on those around me (and likely myself) as well as the images of the mountain above and below me will most certainly stay with me forever. It was easily the best and worst cycling experience of my life. But surely the best because there was so much bad in it.

Finally turn #1 appears and I'm thinking I'm there. Success at last. You've got to be kidding me. A sign “Summit 2 km” and we're still climbing. This is unbelievable. A few more determined minutes though and the finish line appears. I'm over and I made it.

All of the Ducks finished, which was no small feat, of the 150 people in the tour group we were a part of 60 didn't finish and of the approximately 8000 that started the whole race less than 5500 finished. It was quite the day…and did I mention that the food and wine in this country was pretty good…