The Alpe d’Huez triathlon in France is a spectacular event and I would recommend it to anyone considering it.
I was one of 6 Canadians doing the event on July 27. A nice touch of the event is that they put all the Canadians together in transition zone so you can chat pre-race. I’m from Ottawa and the others were from Halifax, Calgary, Newfoundland and a couple from Montreal. There were many Yanks right beside us but we ignored them, haha, except for one stud from North Carolina who was the only competitor wearing a sleeveless wetsuit.
The distances are near half Ironman length at 2.2K swim, 115K bike and 22K run. What sets it apart from a Half IM is the bike course which features three tough climbs including Alpe du Grand Serre, Col d’Ornan and finishing the bike course with the famous climb up the 21 switchbacks of Alpe d’Huez. The road surface up the Alpe d’Huez was still covered with writing from the dramatic TdF stage finish there less than a week before.
The race is well organized with lots of good swag and aid stations featuring liqueurs (Creme de Menthe, Grenadine) and baguettes, cheese and sausage. There are even cheerleaders with pom poms greeting you as you exit the water. The race bibs all have flags indicating the racer’s nationality which makes a great conversation starter during the long climbs on the bike or walk breaks on the run (oops).
There were a few things about this race were making me very nervous in the days leading up to it including:
Cold water – The forecast water temp was 14 to 15C (58F) and it felt at least that cold. But some tips picked up on Slowtwitch worked – neoprene cap, nose plug and ear plugs. Looked super-dorky, but they were effective and the cold wasn’t really a factor.
Hair-raising downhills – as one who still lacks confidence on steep descents, and with rain in the forecast, I was sweating bullets. But I learned that brakes still work well in the rain, and not being too proud to use them on the steeper downhills kept everything under control.Tough climbs – Another tip picked up on Slowtwitch was to have the right gearing, so I switched to the recommended 50/34 compact crank and 27/12 cassette. Stronger climbers don’t need as much gearing, but this was a great combination for me. I was very discouraged when an attempt to climb Huez a few days before required a couple of rest breaks to settle down a red-lining heart rate. But I forgot about the effect of race day adrenaline which allows you perform so much better on race day than in training. The climbs were awesome, and I was thankful for the many hill repeats done in training up the Keene hill in Lake Placid and in the Gatineau Park near my home town Ottawa.This race was one I targeted just to finish and enjoy the experience, so from that point of view it was successful. Although I was in the bottom half of finishers, coming 6th of 20 in the super-geezer MV4 category (M55-59) was better than I expected. Hopefully I will be recovered in time for IMC later this week.
My wife and I were on a 3 week Europe holiday and rented a nice little chalet for a week in the town of Bourg d’Oisans at the foot of the Alpe d’Huez. Our kids (adults) joined us for the week, daughters with boyfriends, so it was a nice group of seven of us in the cosy two bedroom apartment. It was a great week, and we rented bikes for the five kids one day and they all completed the ride up Huez in widely varying times, proving that nearly anyone can do it if they take it slowly.
