Alpe d’HuZes

Alpe d’HuZes – Final Notice

This day next week around this time I hope to be ready to start my 3rd climb up the Alpe d’Huez during Alpe d’HuZes.

Deemed physically impossible by those who have a medical degree, I (still) beg to differ. As stated before, I may – or will – have to come to terms with the idea that six climbs will be impossible, but to not try is not an option.

We will leave for France tomorrow morning and I will have some time to run cycle a final test or two. As we do not have Internet in the apartment, this may well be my last post untill after D-Day. We do have Wi-Fi in Le Bourg-d’Oisans and probably around the ‘Alpe d’HuZes area’ too, but that means some Twitter or Facebook posts at best.

So, needing all the help I can get, keep your fingers crossed and I will try to defy science 🙂

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Alpe d’HuZes – Two Weeks Notice

In two weeks from today, I will be struggling on the flanks of the Alpe d’Huez. Some 5.000 fellow (crazy) Dutch cyclists will be attempting to climb up that famous alp as many times as possible. The ultimate target being six (6!) times, which means that you will conquer around 6.400 altimeters in approximately 79 kilometers of climbing…

This craziness is called Alpe d’HuZes, “zes” being the Dutch word for six and we do this to raise money for cancer research, so that one day cancer will be a chronic illness instead of a deadly disease. June 7 is not the only day we’re doing crazy stuff on the alp – the Wednesday is reserved for some 2.500 more lunatics, running, skating and also cycling (but not six times) up the mountain.

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Les Ménuires – AD6 Training Camp

Les Ménuires – AD6 training camp

Veloviewer Activity Wheel(Dutch here)

Between May 11 and 17, we were with all but one members of Team AD6 Tweets on a training camp for Alpe d’HuZes in the French mountains.

We were stationed in Les Ménuires – Réberty, 10 kilometers north of Val Thorens, a beautiful albeit almost completely deserted area, because the (winter) season ends mid-May here.

Paula and I picked up Stefan on Thursday and we arrived on Friday, a day ahead of the rest. So, after settling into the apartment,

Stefan and I went out for a first ride. From the apartment we headed down towards Moutiers, where we turned around to make our way back up again: a solid 1500 altimeters to ‘warm up’.

Not that we needed to warm up in the true sense of the words, because the temperature was well above 30 degrees down in the valley…

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Berchtesgaden – AD6 Training Camp

Veloviewer Activity WheelRelated: Berchtesgaden revisited

Berchtesgaden – AD6 training camp

The first altitude training for Alpe d’HuZes this year would be in Berchtesgaden, a trip booked back in October 2011, long before I crashed and disrupted my schedule towards Alpe d’HuZes.

But training routine has been resumed and in the Berchtesgadener Land the Kehlsteinstrasse awaited, so off to Berchtesgaden we went!

Upon arrival, I choked on my first deception: my plan to conquer that “Zoncolan of South Germany” would have to wait until some other time.

The Kehlsteinstrasse was in fact still closed, as there remains a lot of (snow) clearing and road repair work to do.

In short, the road cannot be cycled until the end of May…

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