Alpe d'Huez Training Ride

Due to the bad weather, I decided to do a workout in the garage on my virtual reality trainer. The course I picked for today was Alpe d'Huez... A little bit about the course. It is 11.2 miles from the base to the top, 21 switchbacks numbered from the bottom(21) to the top(1), the average grade is about 8% but the climb starts at the bottom at 11%+ and is 13% in a couple of places. Near the top it is more like 6% except for a couple of steep sections that are back at 11%. When you get inside the barriers it flattens out, you have a short downhill heading towards the finish and then the last hard climb. The French really know how to build switchbacks - each of the hairpins turns is relatively flat so you go from 11% grade to 2% grade, make the turn and then back to 11% grade. In comparison, On Old La Honda (here in the Santa Cruz Mountains) it is 8% until you get to the turn which corkscrews up the hill at 12% and then flattens back out to 8% :-)

My Stats:

• Distance 11.2 miles
• Time 47min 40sec
• Ave Spd 14 mph
  
• Max HR 185 bpm
• Ave HR 161 bpm
• Ave Cadence 93 rpm
  
• Ascent 2,000 ft
• Ave Watts 436 w
• Max Power 780 w

I don't think the course translated too realistically to a real hillclimb in the bay area - Page Mill is the most comparable but it is a shorter climb at 7 miles and about the same altitude gain. It was easier to climb Alpe d'Huez than page mill IMHO. If I can ever figure out how to print a pdf of my ride it is cool to look at the graphs of cadence, speed, ascent, power and HR - you get a real sense for how everything is related and how close to the edge we ride.

Normally I think that riding a garage trainer is like having a root canal without the anesthetic but the virtual reality stuff is pretty good at keeping you focused on what is going on around you. I had a few "auxillary" riders with me. One guy who rode at a constant 350watts, one guy who rode at a constant 300watts, one at 250 watts and one rabbit that always matched my pace, and then some. I killed the 300w and 250w riders, the 350w rider was 1/4 mile behind at the finish and the rabbit and I did a sprint to the finish which I totally botched because once I got inside the barriers at the top and hit the downhill I let go with everything I had and was not counting on an uphill finish :-) Now that I've ridden the course, I'll know what to expect next time...

This is one that I need to make sure I have the fan turned on when I'm riding :-)

Look out Lance, I'm right behind you :-)