I am (cross fingers) starting a new job in the US early June, but am hoping to cycle up L'Alpe d'Huez before leaving (and maybe head down to Italy to watch Lance win the Giro d'Italia ).

Does anybody know when in the Spring it typically gets warm enough to ride up? Are there certain dates the passes "open" to cyclists?

Also, I really need to get back on my road bike soon and start getting back in shape. If anybody is interested in doing some riding around zurich, let me know!

The pass is open all year as it is a ski resort. It is never really closed for cyclists, it is a road afterall and you can go up on any viable transportation but of course you probably want to avoid the possiblity of ice being on the road on the descent. I have heard that by early to mid May the road is fine, I think that is when Lance used to go there to train.

It is a nice ride, you definitely enjoy it. You may want to Sattelegg pass from the Siebnen side a few times as preparation, as that should be open quite early and the last 4k are somehat comparable in gradient.

I visit Morzine a lot which has another famous climb the Col de Jeux Plane, the top is a ski area in winter and is not open until late april/may depending on the thaw. I think L'Alpe d'Huez is similar as mates ski there. Sorry I can not be more specific.

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?qryMountainID=6018

http://www.cyclosport.org/forum/topic.aspx?fid=27

btw, you may want to go here to ask such a question. I am sure a French site would be better but I don't and assume you don't do French.

Good luck with your move.

I had a quick look on the french sites. First helpful one said "from april onward, but it is not rare to be able to get up in winter when the weather's cold and dry"

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

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I would agree with Heather, that the ride as a single climb is not particularly daunting if you have done any mountains climbs at all (the first 2 km's are tough but it eases up after that). Nothing like Ventoux which destroyed my will to live (just kidding)

I did the ride a few days before the Tour came through on a glorious 23 degree morning. It got up to 30 later in the day and saw alot of cyclists suffering up in the heat.

I stayed on the mountain in the village of Huez which is at about the 11km point. It was perfect as my wife could snap my photo/video as I was going. In April/ early May you may have difficulty getting hotels on the mountain or on the way up because that is mid season between skiing and cycling so I think alot of hotels shut down for a time. Plus there isn't really alot to do after dark, when we were there were tons of Dutch camping and partying all night, but would not be the case at other times

How can you verify that it was non-doping?

Also are you sure about Lance, I seem to remember that the Swiss press announced he was coming and he then denied it later that day. I haven't heard a confirmation from the Armstrong/Astana camp yet.

I seem to remember, that Le Tour has gone up to Alpe d' Huez from Jean-de-Maurienne, via the Col de Glandon. This road is definitely closed and will be till maybe May. However as above contributors have said the road up from Le Bourg d'Oisans is nearly always open. Patrickrd, if you can ride up there, in less than twice the time it took Marco The Pirate, to ride up there, when I watched him fly passed me, in the 1997 Tour. Then I'll send you a quid. Good luck. IT IS VERY HARD TO RACE UP THERE.

HeatherM, Many thanks for the info on the Tour of Romandie, I'll be there to cheer on Lance and a few others.

The timing often depends on where you measure from...interesting list

Fastest time ever recorded at the 13.8km long Alp d'Huez:

01) Pantani in 1995......: 36.40
02) Pantani in 1997......: 36.45
03) Pantani in 1994......: 37.15
04) Ullrich in 1997........: 37.30
05) Armstrong in 2004..: 37.36 (after withdrawing 2:05 for the first 1.5km of the ITT)
06) Armstrong in 2001..: 38.01
07) Indurain in 1995.....: 38.04
08) Zülle in 1995..........: 38.04
09) Riis in 1995............: 38.06
10) Virenque in 1997.....: 38.11
-----------------------------------------
11) Madouas in 1995.....: 38.34
12) Landis in 2006........: 38.34
13) Klöden in 2006........: 38.35
14) Ullrich in 2004.........: 38.40 (after withdrawing 2:02 for the first 1.5km of the ITT)
15) Virenque in 1994.....: 38.55
16) Sastre in 2006........: 38.59
17) Mayo in 2003..........: 39.06
18) Casagrande in 1997: 39.11
19) Riis in 1997............: 39.12
20) Leipheimer in 2006.: 39.13
-----------------------------------------
21) Klöden in 2004.......: 39.13 (after withdrawing 2:09 for the first 1.5km of the ITT)
22) Azevedo in 2004.....: 39.17 (after withdrawing 2:09 for the first 1.5km of the ITT)
23) Indurain in 1994.....: 39.30
24) Leblanc in 1994......: 39.30
25) Sastre in 2008........: 39.31
http://forum.teamcsc-saxobank.com/to...?TOPIC_ID=8031

This is the only list of confirmed races from Lance I can find. I doubt very much that he will do Switzerland if he is doing both the Tour and the Giro. No matter how much drugs he takes he is still only human.

But Romandie is usually a warm up race for the Giro...

D'oh... yea your right... I was thinking of TdS not Romandie... either way it appears that he is not confirmed for either. I seem to remember reading something that implied he was a little peeved with the Swiss for anouncing his appearance when he hadn't been planning it. (Pretty sure that was to do with TdS though).

I think it would be rather tough to do the Giro, then the TDS (or the Dauphine - which Lance preferred in the past) and do the TDF.

Especially when his training is way forward on previous years. He will find it hard to peak at the Giro and the Tour.

Yes it's quite likely that Lance may start the Tour of Romandie as a warm up race for the Giro. He won't ride with any intention except for preparation and he may well not intend to finish. I'll be going anyway, to watch Mark Cavendish win a sprint.
Eire, It's a real shame that you are convinced that Lance was on drugs. It would be like branding everyone, including yourself, of being a murderer because no one has managed to find you guilty. Lance has been tested more than any living athlete. People are still testing his blood, from years ago, right now. He has always tested negative. Imagine how many people there are out there, that would love to find a positive test for any banned substance in one of Lances hundreds of samples. We are all innocent, until proven guilty, otherwise, we have to believe that all of our other heroes, including the Brilliant Stephen Roche. And What about Sean Kelly, surely you cant think that he wasn't clean. I know that keener eyed cyclist will see that my avatar, is of Tommy Simpsons Memorial. Things were different in those days. And I whole heartedly support all measure to clean up the sport, that has been the love of my life. Ban all guilty athletes for life and sequestrate all of their earnings to date. But lets not condemn the innocent.

I am under no illusion that either Sean Kelly or Stephen Roche were clean. To the contrary there have been many reports about both of them. To be honest my comments about Lance are mainly tongue in cheek, but... BUT, we are talking about a guy who beat everyone for 7 years. Try as they might the best cyclists in the world who prepared in many cases in similar ways to Lance have all been caught for some sort of infringement of the doping rules.

Now look at the facts, Lance has never been tested positive. But, he raced mainly only one race a year. During his tour years many of his "preperation" races were lack lustre. So we have someone that didn't need to perform early in the season or even shortly before the tour. No questions would be asked about poor performances early in the season, very easy to remove a pint or two of blood here and there. Suddenly we are at a competition where as it turns out everyone was doping... Pop back in a unit of packed red blood cells, instant increased oxygen carring capacity, and guess what... There is still no test for it!

I am actually fairly non commital as to whether Lance doped or not, but I wanted to believe in Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Micheal Rasmussen and many others too. I am a realist, and I have a pretty good understanding how the body functions in these situations. I think Lance had some sort of help, exactly what it was I am not sure but the scenario I posted above is certainly possible.

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It seems quite common for any cycling thread / conversation at EF cycling events to degenerate into this same debate I quite enjoy it. As for the Lance debate, I don't have any reason to believe he doped (all the tests suggest he has been clean), but I don't have any reason to believe he didn't either (as eire always points out the blood transfusions are not detectable). I'd love to see him win a major race this year, that would go a long way to validating he was clean during the 7 wins. But I'm not sure any human could do that after taking years off.

See, I never believed that Tyler, Floyd or Michael could have done what they did without drugs. Don't ask me why, but somehow, I believe in Lance, as there are so many people that worked with him, for such a long period of time and just how many of thoise people would gain something out of dissing Lance? I'll agree that it's debatable and that it's also down to beliefs.
Fair enough, we have our own.

You make a good point, this year will be interesting. If Lance can maintain consistent performance throughout the season and then do well in either the Tour or the Giro it will help his credibility. However, if he suffers at any point it could be seen to support the blood doping theory.

I think he is in a lose lose situation. It will be very difficult for him to win the Tour or Giro in which case people will presume he didn't win because he didn't dope! Of course if he has an off month at some point and then suddenly destroys everyone in either of the Grand Tours...

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