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I re-watched season 1 of TDF Unchained as prep for watching season 2 this week and all the drone porn of classic climbs got under my skin. Kicking around the idea of heading over there to string together some of them, either as a supported dentist tour on some 14 lb rented road bike or as a self-supported (but lightweight) cycle tour. Has anyone ridden those climbs like Alpe d'Huez, Tourmalet, etc., or have any scuttlebutt?
I did the climbs in the pyrennes self-supported on a mtn bike setup for touring with panniers but we only did one col a day and camped,
no stove cuz there is great food everywhere
A group on road bikes with a transit van carrying all the gear would be much faster and we seen a group doing that
I let GF plan it all cuz she liked doing that, it was all well planned and I was just the mechanic so I didn't realize we were doing all the climbs of the TDF in the pyrennes til day 2 when I asked
the french will climb the col du tourmelat and then put the bike on the back of a motor home which i couldnt figure out
Riding some of the big climbs is on my bucket list. A couple of my buddies went on a “tour” a couple years ago that was lightly supported and focused on hitting the big passes. It looked epic and intense. They trained a lot for it an needed. I’d love to do an etape someday as well. I saw Alpe dhuez as a teen at a ski camp before I even knew what the tour was and was like holy fucking shit! Def want to ride that someday
hahaha "So...I noticed we've been climbing a fair amount, what's up with that?"Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
I would be so fucked if I wound up on a trip like that without training for it
Yeah, definitely a bucket list thing - I'm realizing that I only have so many years to do the more physically demanding trips like this one. I would need to / want to do serious training for an effort like this - no fun to drag yourself up there at a snail's pace. Not sure I have any cycling friends with the time, money, and masochism to join, so might be looking at a guided tour.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcski
I think the convo on day 3 went " we are doing all the major climbs of the TDF aren't we ? " which was just never really discussed, so that was 07 so I was early 50's and fit, I didnt really train cuz just bike tourists eh but I had retired and was just playing, I don't think I would want to do it now, the col were just a matter of put it in granny gear and pump it up
the col du tourmalet was not so bad as I remember altho the last km was really steeper
the col du aspet du portet was the steepest, I seem to remember a sign telling us it was 18%, the granny on my 3x9 mtn bike setup was not low enough so I had to weave back & forth on the road, right around there was a sign commemorating where Fabio Casartell would have been decending, hit a curb, died, it was insanely steep descent