Hi Patrick,

1. If you want to watch Lance race, you can do so in Switzerland at the Tour de Romandie in late April/early May. According to the Swiss press, he has confirmed his participation in the 2009 edition. So there's no need to trek all the way to Italy to watch Lance race, although I'd definitely recommend making the trip if you've never watched big ProTour stage live... it's a great experience.

2. I rode up Alpe d'Huez last June, and although we had grey and rainy weather on the day, I should imagine that typically you'll have decent climbing weather by late April or early May, depending on how warm this spring is. As dakman pointed out, the road is open year round, the only thing you really need to wait for is reasonable weather. I did it on an exceptionally cold day in June (8°C at the bottom) but even that was okay with decent clothing.

To be honest, the climb wasn't nearly as difficult as I expected it to be considering how legendary it is: you climb 1071m climb over 13.2 km, and the elevation at the top is 1815m, which is much lower than the big mountain passes (see the stats at climbbybike.com). Alpe d'Huez is famous in the Tour for it's 21 dramatic switchbacks (which are excellent for spectators and helicopter aerial views of the race) but I have done climbs that are much harder. Still, it was a great experience. Bourg d'Oisans is a quirky but nice little town (I can recommend a hotel if you need one). And doing a climb that you've seen the pros do on TV is reallllllly cool. Of course, if you ride it you have to time yourself to see how you compare to the pros... the record is 39 minutes (Pantani) and the non-doping record is something like 41 minutes. (Mind you, that's AFTER 150km of riding through the mountains, but anyway...)

If you have any more questions, ask away....

Heather