This year the Tour de France did not have a mountain top finish on Alpe d'Huez, but luckily (especially for Piet) the circus was still 2 days in the area. On the first day the stage finished in Chamrousse, the ski resort near Grenoble, and the second day the peloton cycled though the valley, on the way to Briancon, and further.
Chamrousse was difficult to reach due to all the closed roads. Fortunately there is a small road going up from our valley, to the famous Col Luitel, ending up on the Tour route some 8 kilometers from the stage finish, halfway the the Chamrousse climb. Piet went by himself, left the car in the valley and cycled up to Col Luitel. Unfortunately it was the hottest day this summer, with temperatures going above 35 degrees. With the steep road this meant a real struggle to cycle up, and Piet was not the only one. Many people had thought of this shortcut, and everybody was overheating..... No complaints, as the Tour cyclists had almost 200 km that day, and Vicenzo Nibali took the stage and full control over the race.
The following day we divided our efforts. Mary and Paula watched near our house on the flat valley road, and Piet and Dorien tried to cycle up toward Col de Lauteret to see the cyclist on a steeper section. Unfortunately the police was very strict this year, and we were not allowed to cycle anywhere. In the end we had to walk almost 5 km (with our bikes) and found a good spot at the start of the climb. A large breakaway group passed first, followed a few minutes later by the peloton, led by Nibali's Astana team.
As always the spectacle was very enjoyable, and next year the Tour will start in Piet's hometown of Utrecht: very different scenery!
Michael Kwiatkowski, left behind by the race leaders on Chamrousse
Brice Feillu is struggling up the Chamrousse climb
Sylvain Chavanel is leading a small group up Chamrousse
Dutch talent Tom Dumoulin
Belkin's Steven Kruiswijk is leading the breakaway group on the Col de Lauteret
The Astana's are leading the peloton on the first slopes of the Lauteret
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