From: seales@taquilee.inria.fr (Brent Seales)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles
Subject: Tour de France:  my trip to see ANDY win at l'Alpe
Date: 22 Jul 92 16:00:17 GMT
Organization: INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France

Here is a short description of my trip to see stage 14 of this year's
Tour de France at l'Alpe d'Huez.

First a few statistics:  Bourg d'Oisans is the town in the valley at the
foot of the climb up to l'Alpe.  The elevation at the beginning of the
climb is 735 meters.  The distance from the foot of the climb to the point
where the finish line was situated is about 14 km.  The elevation at the
finish line is 1860 meters.  This gives a total elevation change of 
1125 meters in about 14 km, for an average grade of a tad more than 8%.
(I got these numbers and distances from l'Equipe).

I really had a great time.  We camped 4 km outside of Bourg d'Oisans (the 
town at the base of the climb up l'Alpe d'Huez).  We got there Friday
night and there was absolutely no space in any of the campgrounds (where
there were showers, etc.) but we found a field that had been prepared for
campers and tents.  It was like the town square of a really small group
of houses, and there were toilets set up and water for dishes and drinking.
The campsite was nice - it turned out that not too many people found it
so it was quiet and fairly private.  We also found a mountain stream down
the road about 2 km where we could wash - cold but effective!  Actually I
enjoyed that more than a shower...

Saturday we rode to the top of l'Alpe.  We went slowly and it took us a
little over an hour (14 km).  There are 21 marked switchbacks, each of which
has an elevation marking.  I used a 39x21 and felt fine but did not try to
go fast.  Because we went slowly we weren't toasted at the top so
we walked around a bit - it's a ski area with lots of shops and condos.  
Probably a lot like the ski areas out west.

On the way down we looked for a place to watch.  We found an area up off
the road just past the last switchback, 2 km from the finish.  From there,
straight ahead of us, we could see the straightaway between turn 2 and turn 1 
(where all the people were in the road just before the barriers).  To the left
up the hill was the "2 km to go" flag, and just below to the right was
turn 1.  Since we were up high on the bank, we could also see the "3 km to 
go" flag, the "4 km to go" flag, and turns 5, 3, and 2 (turn 4 was obscured
by some buildings).  It really was a nice spot.

Saturday afternoon we went back down to the base of the hill in Bourg
d'Oisans and sat in a bar to watch that day's stage.  After we finished
that we just went back to camp and chilled out.

Sunday we climbed l'Alpe again all the way to our spot (2 km from the
finish) and we waited there from about 11:00 am until the riders came
through.  It was hot!  There was an unbelievable number of people there -
at least 300,000 and maybe almost 1/2 million.  The entire climb was lined
with people.  Our spot was good, but it was impossible to get down to the
barriers (we could have waited there all day but didn't think it was
worth it).

The caravan came through at 3:30 or so.  It took them an hour to get up.
This included all kinds of advertising cars (like the Oscar Mayor car in
Madison, WI) and loudspeakers, etc.  Finally at 4:45 or so we saw the copters.
We could tell where the riders were by the position of the copters until
they came into view.  You could hear the crowd roar as Andy came up the
slope - kinda like the wave in a stadium!  At the straightaway before the
barriers (we had a good view of this) it seemed impossible for the riders
to get through, but they did.  When Andy came by us everyone was cheering
and he was working very hard.  He had a good rhythm but was obviously 
tired - his hair was soaked with sweat (and water that people poured on him) 
and he wasted no time.  Then Vona came by about 1 minute later, and I knew
Andy would win.  I can't believe I got that lucky - no American has ever
won that stage (that I know of) !!!

Other scattered riders came in (I think next was Boyer and then Chiappucci
and Indurain together) before the pack finally came up together.  After
them we waited a little more before starting down the hill.  What a crowd!
We got stopped in a huge crowd by the police at turn 5 to wait for some
more riders to come through.  Luc Leblanc was the last to come through - he
missed the time cutoff and is now out of the Tour.  Riding down on the
bike was nerve-racking because the cars on the right were absolutely 
deadlocked.  I mean NO movement.  So all the bikes were descending on the 
left, along with thousands of pedestrians.  It took us 30-40 minutes to 
descend 12 km.  My hands were aching from holding the brakes!

We went back to the campsight to wash and eat.  The traffic jam on the hill
lasted until 2:00 am.  Some people sat in their cars for 8 hours.  We stayed
the night right there and left early the next morning to drive back, and
by then many people were gone.  But many were still there to see the start
of Monday's stage, which began at Bourg d'Oisans.

We bought l'Equipe on Monday and I was REALLY disappointed to see that the
cover photo (always huge and in color) was of Indurain and Chiappucci, NOT
Andy!  I thought that really stunk, but the big news to the French was that
Indurain is still in Yellow and that Lino is still in the top 5.  Of course
inside was a small photo of Andy, but he deserves more than that - l'Alpe
d'Huez is legendary and he beat Indurain, Chiappucci and a host of other
favorites in order to win.

Here are two rules if you ever go to see that stage:  do NOT take a car up
there unless you plan to stay until the day after the stage;  take an 
umbrella or something to provide shade - it's hot when the weather is nice.

What an experience!  Definitely worth it.

Brent