This is a contemporaneous account of our day attending above said stage of the Tour.
We, meaning Wendy, Laura, and I, have a 7:00 breakfast at our hotel, load our water bottles and snacks, before we head over to the parking garage, 100m away from our hotel. We try to make our way to the 2nd level where our car is parked, but surprisingly find the staircase down blocked off. Not being deterred that easily, we descend down the car ramp, only to end up in a totally dark area of the garage. We do see light thru some opening so carefully head that way. Relieved to still find our car, we jump in to drive away, fully expecting to have the arrows guide us to the up ramp. Getting there we find it is blocked! Now what??? After some discussion, Wendy heads up stairs, in order to get help. After what seemed like an extra ordinarily long time, she reappears in the company of a security guard bearing a flashlight. He guides us back into the dark area of the garage, unlocks the post blocking the upramp and finally we are free. Altogether, that takes like 30 minutes!
We are finally on the road. However, the minute we hit the freeway, there is a massive traffic jam, which lasts at least another 30 minutes, with us inching forward. At various intervals, groups of police cars with sirens wailing will pass us, each time invoking thoughts of Inspector Clouseau in me. The onboard navigation system, not Google Maps but a to me unknown system, tells us there is a roundabout ahead. However, just before the roundabout it changes into a hard left on the screen! Of course I panic and take the 3rd exit on the roundabout, which is wrong, forcing us to circle on the next roundabout and we finally head into the right direction.
Our ultimate destination is the sleepy little mountain town of Le Bourg d'Oisans, which sits at the foot of Alpe d'Huez, about 40 km from our hotel in Grenoble. While driving down D1091 we notice signs that say "Le Bourg d'Oisans saturated" which we assume to mean in proper English "Le Bourg d'Oisans at capacity". This of course does very little in lowering our anxiety level as to where to find a place to park. Nearing the town, we discuss what our absolutely farthest out limit is for walking, we decide on 5 km. Cars, camper vans everywhere. At 4 km we randomly decide to make a right onto a smaller road, spot a field already jammed with cars, beg some German woman to move her coffee table outside of her camper van, so we can secure a spot. She grudgingly accommodates us. We park the car, relieved to have found a spot. No one seems in charge, no parking fees, just plunk your vehicle anywhere you can.
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| Grey/brown car between the two camper vans is ours. |
We put on our back packs and find a forest path that seems to parallel the main road into town. A great place for a much needed natural break. After a good walk of about 3 km, we take the nearest side path that leads us to the centre of town, already jammed with people. One of us spots a Carrefour (grocery store), so we head in, buy a baguette, cheese, ham, a salad for Wendy, who, apparently, wants to remain healthy.
Along with hundreds of other people we cross the bridge from town to the other side where the mountain begins to rise. We find a retaining wall in the shade, Laura expertly breaks the baguette in two, opens them up sideways and loads them up with ham and cheese. Wendy devours her healthy salad. While eating, literally hundreds of other people pass us by.
Alright, after lunch, ready to attack the mountain. We pass the famous E. Leclerc polka dot sign saying 13.8 km to the top.
Now comes the part where we make a serious mistake, at least for me. We blindly followed a stream of people heading up some forest path, in what we think is a simple shortcut to the next hairpin turn. Wrong!!! This is a serious mountain path at a 1:1 slope with switchbacks every 50 feet or so. I estimate the number of switchbacks to total 12. I have to stop at various intervals to catch my breath, as I am not about to keel over and die right here. We cannot turn back as there is a steady stream of other fools also coming up this path and it is barely wide enough for one person. Wendy is kind enough to take my backpack, what a woman! We finally see daylight, and I am still alive!
From that point, we just follow the road, avoiding even glancing at other forest paths. Even though the road rises significantly, it is easily doable (while walking, that is). We pass a hairpin bend where a giant party is unfolding, men dressed as Beefeaters organizing a conga line. Loud music of unknown origin blasting away. Camper vans, tents, revellers everywhere. Deciding this is not for us, we head up further on the mountain, finally deciding to find a spot on and in front of a retaining wall. This will be our home for the next 4 hours.
Our view for the next 4 hours
The lack of shade is a serious concern. Fortunately, we all brought umbrellas, which give us some relief, but still, the midday sun is unrelentingly hot. Now the shortage of water is starting to concern me. You'd think somebody would be making a killing selling water at a premium price out of a cooler, but there are none to be seen. I carefully ration my own water, and Wendy is kind enough to give me some of hers, what a godsend. At some point I think this is too much, alternating between sitting on the retaining wall and on the ground against it. Finally a breeze begins to rise and we get some relief. Then the Tour Caravan approaches! This is a long line of advertising vehicles tossing free goodies into the crowd. Hats, candy, key rings, scarfs, flags, drinks. It is amazing what the chance of getting free junk does to people. I swear some are willing to jump over the retaining wall to their deaths several hundred feet below in order to catch a free key ring. A cacophony of sounds accompanies the caravan, it had me worried for the staff members on those vehicles, driving around for 3 weeks must cause some hearing damage. But at least the Caravan reinvigorates us to some extent. We catch baseballs caps, candy, crackers and also a drink which we share between the 3 of us.
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| One of the floats in the caravan advertising sunglasses |
Another hour or so passes. We hear the roar of helicopters, 5 in total, which means the riders are nearing! The crowd rises to their feet. The first cars approach followed by motorcycles, then the vehicle of Tour director Christian Prudhomme arrives. He passes our site and gives me a thumbs up (not). More motorcycles, then the first riders are in sight. OMG, Thymen Arensman in the lead! Can this be true? Another Dutch victory on Alpe d'Huez? Only time will tell. The crowd clap and yell enthusiastically, but are well behaved in our area, with plenty of room for riders to pass unimpeded.
Thymen Arensman in the lead
Laura is displaying a rather large sign saying 'Go Derek Go!' to support our lone Canadian rider in the Tour, Derek Gee-West. Amazingly, he actually sees the sign when he comes up, somehow manages a smile and tosses her his water bottle. We all just explode with excitement. The bottle still contains some water, which we pour over our backs and arms to cool off.
The exact moment Derek tosses the bottle
Wendy, me, Laura, the bottle and the sign
More riders arrive. You can tell some are really struggling, what a godawful way to make a living. Finally la voiture balai (the broom truck) arrives, signalling the last rider has passed. The crowd en masse starts to walk down hill. I talk to a Belgian, then a German, finally a Dutch person who are listening on the radio to the further development in the race, finally learning that Tadej Pogacar has beaten Richard Carapaz to the line.
At the first instant back across the river into town we manage to buy 3 fizzy drinks for 9 euros (Pellegrinos). Anything liquid, I must be nearing the stage of dehydration. We purchase another 2 litre bottle for 3 euros a bit further down, so good. We march into town, the walk seems so much longer than this morning. We find the same forest path paralleling the road and make our way back to the car. It is still there! Undamaged at that. We get in, finally happy to sit, after 22,000 steps. A friendly gendarme helps us make a left turn to get back on the road to Grenoble.
There are literally hundreds of bicyclists on the road as well. Tricky to pass them at times, but all goes well. We get back to Grenoble, confident that we have faced the worst the day could throw at us. Ha! Fooled you. While following the GPS to get back to the parking garage, all of a sudden, the road is blocked with barriers for an unknown reason. I make a left, the GPS tries to send me back to the same point. We switch to Google Maps on Laura's phone, but, unbeknownst to us, it is in predestrian mode. So it announces street names, but since our speed highly exceeds that of a pedestrian, it changes every few seconds. I finally pull over to decide what to do, when, what do you know, I look on the map and see that we are just around the corner from the parking garage! Thankfully we are able to get in without causing any further disturbances and head back to our hotel on foot.
We arrive at the hotel at around 8:30. After a quick shower (oh my, that feels good), we head out for dinner, where the waiter chastises me for not pronouncing the word 'ravioles' properly in French, threatening to call the language police on me. All in good fun. The ravioli with sausage tastes mighty fine.
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