Tools on Tour 2010

Day 9 - Ornon & L Alpe d Huez

A good sleep only interrupted by Howard from Tronics at 6.30am.

A simple breakfast and we were off with Guy, our host for the next 4 days. With the van jam packed with our gear we headed up to our accommodation which is at about 1100 metres and promises to be much cooler than in the valley. It is so amazing to walk around Grenoble, Como etc where it is in the mid 30's but sit anywhere and look up to the mountains and clearly see the snow patches.

The mountains are so amazingly big and high and steep. Huge plates of the earths crust pushed extremely high into the air till they are at amazing angles and create vertical drops of hundreds of metres.

We arrived at our accommodation and were amazed at the village of Ornon and age of the place. It is such an old house that has been renovated to have 3 bath rooms and accommodate at least 8 people. The houses all around are inhabit ate by locals and the views are simply gorgeous. Out the back is a fast running stream that is extremely cold. I know this as I sat in it 6 time to do blood shunting on my legs which aids the muscle recovery process. My feet hurt very painfully within 10 seconds of being in the water. I hope it was worth the pain.

Back to the riding. We took sometime to get ready but were soon on our way. Down the drive we went. It is a very long and steep drive which seems to be something Andy likes.
It was a 10km ride down the hill which was a bit daunting for the trip home
Especially seeing it is a lot steeper than Evans hill grade. It is approximate 5-6%.
Helen gave us instructions on how to get to where we were going and warned us of the dangers. The first danger was the first two hair pin bends heading down from where we were staying. Away we went. At the first hair pin I was going a bit fast and hit the brakes. I had pumped up the tires to very hard before leaving. Big mistake. Into the corner I went and lost the back wheel out from under me. I was now heading to the Armco rail very fast. The chain came off and I unclipped my inside foot and was soon scrapping down the road sideways making a he'll of a noise. I have never been so scared riding in my life and really thought this was the end of the tour for me as it was a a drop over the rail that would cause a lot of damage to me. Dom heard amid said he seen me side ways, Mark who I was directly behind said he heard my shoe on the road and a deep " ooo ohhh". Everyone is amazed that at the last few metros I got the big under control and headed down the road. My shoe is a bit worn and my legs were shaking all the way down.

We stopped at the bike shop and purchased energy/electrolyte drink additive.

The day was extremely hot and the trip up the hill was very steep at the start with the grade being 14% for a couple of kms. That hurts a lot. By the time the grade became bearable, approximate 8%, which is quiet a lot steeper than Evans hill. it did not take long, another km before the sick feeling started and the heat really was taking it's toll. It is a funny feeling to feel that way but still push yourself to go that little bit harder. I was drinking at every hair Pin bend as the grade levelled off on them if you stayed on the outside. Not always easy given there were so many cars zooming up and so many riders coming down. Drinking became an issue for me as every time I drank I felt very sick. I passed every one but Dominic but had to stop at one of the many streams running into troughs along the way. The air pouring from the small water fall was heaven and the water so cold. I reached in to fill a water bottle from the large drops falling down and rejoiced at the feeling of the cold water on my arms and soaking my gloves. It wasn't long and Jo, Bob, Andy and Dave stopped to do the same. I headed off after Jo and that's the way the order stayed until close to the end where Bob over took me. The grade never changed much until we reached L'Alp D Huez where we went through the town and it leveled off for a while. Most riders stop there but we went till the Tour de France route. I came in second after Dom due to Jo taking a wrong turn in town and Bob stopping as he seen her do it. All in all great ride to have accomplished. Dave seemed to have got lost as he was missing for a very long time. He ended up coming from the wrong way as he also took a wrong turn.

I got a person from the car park to take a pic of all of us and then got one of most on the podium.

We stopped at a local cafe which was dedicated to American Indians and had coffee and brownies served by a woman who had the abs from he'll. She was not young at all either.

We rode down the mountain, taking some magical pics along the way of the Vistas. Funnily enough the first few hairpins made me very wary and I was a lot slower than normal. It wasn't long tho before I got my mojo back and was soon living on the edge flying down, barely staying in the lines coming out of the corners and just avoiding cars. I love the speed down the mountains. A bit dangerous I have proven but to much fun not to do.

Again we stopped at the bike shop, ran into some Aussies from Sydney and talking for quiet awhile before heading off for home.

The trip to the mountain was steady. The climb started ok but soon became tough. I pushed myself harde and rode up with Ross ahead of all but Dom and Andy. We had a good chat on the way. My average heart rate was Very high up the last part of the ride being around 140 beats per min. For the whole ride it was 136. This is high given the down hill bits. Max was 169 which is the hardest it will go.

We got back, had a sit in the stream as previously described.

A shower and beer followed before dinner was served at 8.00pm. This was a great meal with Helen having cooked all afternoon. Entree was a salmon salad which was divine. Next came a chicken breast cooked with tomato, and served with tomatoes, carrots baked with garlic and coriander, cabbage with creme which was very nice and rice cooked well as well as having wild rice in it. Heylen served an amazing desert of creme boule which was sooo nice.

Some tv with the downloading of photos ensued. Hopefully they will be posted on the blog soon.