TDF 100 - Alpe d'Huez Part 2 - Bike Racing Action on the Alpe

OK Where were we?  Oh yeah, about halfway up THE ALPE when camera 1 loses battery.  Onward.

You will be happy to see that we are still having FUN:

This photo was taken at TURN 1 (see that tiny sign over our heads?  It says 1!)  That means that we don't have too far to get to the top.  We are gonna make it!  We made it through Dutch Corner, through people falling over on us, through cheers of GO SUFFERLANDRIANS (Yes, we chose today to wear our Sufferfest jerseys.  Good call because we got a ton of shout-outs on them).

 

Let's also take a look at the view from UP here - @ around 4,500 feet of elevation gain over 7.5 miles with an average grade of 8.6%. YAY.  Nice views.

Crazy up in the village.  Cars, people, bikes.  Same old Same old on the Alpe I guess.  Soooo nice to have a place to go to stow our gear and change into dry clothes.  John Gatch, Rodolfe and Bertrand were there to take our bikes so we could go have some lunch and some "biers", and then go watch some racing action!  Here we are with our buddies Lance and Cathy.  Then we took a walk and saw the podium and finishing area.  These pics give you a good view of what it is like in the Ski village on top of Alpe d'Huez.

Then it was time for the riders to come in!  It was very exciting watching the last few K in our cafe, as it seemed like our own Teejay Van Garderen was going to pull out a win on the Alpe.  Heartbreaking to see him overtaken in the final K by a Frenchman, but it is what it is.  We ran out side to cheer on Teejay:

Bauke Mollema rode a brave tour (on an awesome bike :-)

 I'll take a dozen OK.  Delivery instructions to follow.

Peter Sagan was really hurting.  He is such a champion though, not back with the sprinters, not up with the climbers, but solidly in the middle.

Yay Team Cannondale!  

We will take a couple of these Cannondale EVOs too.  We have room.

Race is over for today can we please go home now?



Need to find transportation down the mountain.  Can't ride our bikes down, and traffic is to heavy to get in the cars - that would take hours and we are tired.  Oh!  Ok let's go down the easy way:

Now that was a classic JnJ Adventure!  

Au revoir for now from le Tour de France 100.