Hearts and arrows pass beneath me, frayed lime letters form words and names: Ullrich, Armstrong, Virenque. The cheers still seem to vibrate in the air. I shift up a gear. The names blur before my eyes. Cycle after cycle I pull myself up. It's no different for the heroes of the Tour de France. 14 kilometres, 1100 metres in altitude and an hour and a half later, I arrive in Alpe d'Huez. Marco Pantani's record stands at 37:35 minutes. I want to call the fire brigade to extinguish my legs. Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux, Col de Tourmalet - the sound of these names raises the hairs on the back of every cycling fan's neck. Franz, Martin and I want to discover the fascination of these mountains. But we are bikers. We want to ride down single trails.
We roll through Alpe d'Huez somewhat haphazardly. Hidden at the end of a car park is a small signpost to happiness. The trail leads inconspicuously around the mountain, harmless at first, soon more difficult. It swings along the flank like a mountain and valley railway, sometimes going up, sometimes down. I find myself between black boulders, the mountain drops steeply next to my front wheel. Don't tense up now, take a deep breath! But technically this was already the most difficult part. Behind it, the path leads into the forest.
From here, it's mostly downhill over loose forest soil. The dips before the counter-climbs push me into the saddle. I pedal slowly down the mountain. But I have to go up again, because I want to return to Alpe d'Huez via the Tour de Lac Grandes. The path gets so steep that I can only carry my bike. After an hour, I finally reach the top. At the top, the sweeping panoramic view over the Savoy Alps makes up for all the effort. Not even the locals could name all the peaks that stretch up into the sky in front of me. My heart pumps endorphins through my veins.
In the free PDF download you will find the short descriptions of the tours Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventoux and Col de Tourmalet.
