Pictures from our France/Italy/Switzerland vacation. July 2003.

Part of our stay was spent near the famed l'Alpe d'Huez mountain stage of the Tour de France. The roads were all closed, so we had to hike 5 miles to the base of the climb, then hike a little ways up the hill. It was HOT!

Maddy and Adele in the make-shift shade waiting for the Tour de France to come through.

Adele and Maddy wait for stuff to be thrown from one of the caravan cars. They ended up with lots of TdF booty including candy, hats, key chains, backpacks, coffee, games,  . . . even condoms.

The leaders of the race at the bottom of the hill (Astarloza and Rous) came through around 4:30, looking whipped. (Note the television camera on the motorcycle pointing right at me -- we saw ourselves on the tape when we got home). They were followed a few minutes later by. . .

US Postal attacked right in front of us. They went up this 10% section of hill incredibly fast. That's Lance Armstrong 3rd in line behind (I think) Beltran and Rubiera. Jan Ullrich (2nd place overall) can bee seen behind in the green jersey.

Frenchman Richard Virenque won the yellow jersey the day before, but quickly fell behind here. Tyler Hamilton is behind him, still nursing a broken collar bone (I know how it feels to stand up on a hill with one of those).

Following them was Iban Mayo (the winner of this stage) and two ONCE riders (probably Beloki and Jaksche).

These guys climbed the 9 mile hill in about 40 minutes -- that's about 13.5 miles per hour climbing up over 3,500 feet to the Alpe d'Huez ski station. I rode up there the day before at a much more leisurely pace of 5-6 miles per hour. And the racers had already ridden 120 miles when they got the place where I started! Here are some pictures from my ride up l'Alpe d'Huez .  .  .

Each of the switchbacks along the climb are numbered. The first is #21, then they count down from there. Starting in le Bourg d'Oisans at 722m (~ 2,345 feet,) the road climbs up to l'Alpe d'Huez at 1850m (~ 6,012 feet). So here, I'm a bit more than 1/2 way up. These signs and the "5 km to go" signs are demoralizing. It is a painfully long time between them.

This shot gives you an idea of how steep the climb is. The upper section doesn't look too bad, but the lower section (which I've just ridden up) is probably 11% or so. The average gradient is around 8%, with some sections as steep as 12%. It starts steep and tapers off as you go, which has the effect of feeling almost constant since you get more tired as you go up.

Looking down on the town of le Bourg d'Oisans from about 2,500 feet above. You can see how the road switch-backs up the hill. As the crow flies, it is probably only about 2 miles, but the road snakes up in 9 miles.

Finally at the top after nearly two hours riding uphill. It felt really strange to ride on flat ground. This picture is not very impressive, but I wanted to get a picture of the woman on the right. I'm a lousy photographer, so you can't really tell -- but she has a 3/4 (right) leg prosthesis! She passed me going fast with about 1 km left to climb. The guy leaning on his bike rode up a little while after I arrived and proceeded to make excuses as to why he hadn't done it fast enough. My favorite was "there were too many distractions". For me, the "distractions" were the reason to ride. I went slow and enjoyed every minute of it. I think several of the spectators were surprised to see someone riding with a smile.

Some other pics . . .

Adele on the climbing wall back at the campground in Rochetaillée.

Madeleine at her favorite alcohol free restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland.

Maddy and Dad on the canal path somewhere south of Frenchtown, NJ . . . or maybe it's PA -- I don't remember, but it looks like PA. (photo by Pop-Pop Foley)