Since living here in Bourg d’Oisans I have cycled my local climb – Alpe d’Huez at least once a month – the summer months are great however December and January are really tough. You have to pick a good day to ride and wait until 1 pm before tackling it and the temperature rarely gets above zero degrees. For the first time on a winter ascent it started snowing half way up but was only settling on the road on the last couple of bends.
At this time of year I usually get Helen to bring me back down in the minibus however this time I decided to ride up with a rucksack and a whole load of additional clothing. I still froze within 3 bends of starting the descent – despite 5 layers on top, two layers on my legs and my ski gloves.
For the record this was my 54th consecutive month.