Wednesday 18th July 2018 - Stage 12 - Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs - Alpe d'Huez

With the 3rd day in the mountains, some riders were apprehensive of what lay ahead for the day. This was not helped with a very poor breakfast of only croissants, bread, pastries, orange juice and coffee.


With a long day in the saddle ahead, we were pedalling just after 8:05am with a slightly downhill start into a light wind. We covered 31km in the first hour before starting the first climb of the day which was the 25.3km Col de la Madeleine. By then it was hot and got hotter as we climbed. The first feed station was at the top where I waited some time for the next rider but left on the downhill just as they arrived.

The initial sign for the next climb said 16km and went through rock cliff faces on both sides of the very narrow road. About half way up, the route detoured downhill which was a bonus.

Carrying on, the next col was 29km long and it was very hot climbing it. However, there was snow on the road side near the top and we also passed a glacial looking ice block. Quite randomly, one of the riders had been talking about the TV show Allo Allo and about 4km from the top, two Frenchman were handling a painting of what appeared to be the fallen Madonna.

We regrouped after a long wait just before the final climb of the day. One rider wanted the group to ride up Alpe d'Huez together so we started this at about 5:30pm. It was slow and hard work with some riders needing assistance and one wanting to quit. After cajoling, motivation and assistance, we all made it to the top through the carnival atmosphere and cheering crowds (who were of course not there for us but for tomorrow's stage proper) at about 7:30pm. With the sun quickly falling below the mountain tops, we headed back down the mountain and passed the women's team early on their ascent. We also rode the first few kilometres of tomorrow's stage before reaching the vans at about 8:30pm.

The Garmin recorded 9hrs 43m of riding (including the group ride up and down Alpe d'Huez plus part of Thursday's stage), 204.1km and 5,085 metres of climbing although Strava is suggesting 6,322m of climbing which is over 18 Te Mata Peak climbs.

Once in the vans, we drove straight to another Flunch restaurant for dinner. We arrived at 9:23pm with them closing at 10pm. As such, choice was a little limited but the quantities plentiful so we were sated.

Arriving at the hotel at around 10:30pm, we made it to bed by 11pm. The hotel had air conditioning which was much appreciated.

As it was a late finish, tomorrow's start will be delayed.

A video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTmy2pqZDck