After racing the Alpe d’Huez Triathlon for the first time last year, it instantly became one of my favorite races. The legend of the 21 hairpins! With its stunning location, incredible cycling terrain, and the amazing atmosphere of a true local race, I couldn’t resist signing up again this year. Even though this race wasn’t originally on my schedule, I was lucky enough to get an entry based on last year’s result, huge thanks to the organization for that!
This time we traveled to France for two races: Alpe d’Huez and the famous Embrunman. We planned to stay for a full month, lots of cycling, soaking up the sun, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Luckily, both of our employers allow us to work flexibly from abroad, which made this the perfect combination of training and working.
The race in Alpe started as expected, with a chaotic and cold swim. Last year this caught me off guard, but this time I knew what was coming. I came out of the water fairly satisfied, not the fastest split, but even the strong swimmers struggled with the conditions. From the swim exit, it’s immediately full gas on the bike. The climb starts right away, so you warm up quickly! After that first section, the real climbing begins, with Col de la Morte followed by a manageable descent into Col d’Ornon. The Ornon climbs through a wide valley and ends in a technical descent. I was happy I had previewed all of this before race day.
After the Ornon, there’s just a short stretch to Bourg d’Oisans, where the climb up Alpe d’Huez begins. At the base of the climb, I was around 10th place and my legs felt strong. The climb went well, and by turn 7, the dutch turn, I got time splits showing the gaps ahead,there was still something to fight for! I pushed hard and managed to enter T2 in 8th position. The gaps behind were small, but the front group was well ahead. I was really happy with my bike leg overall, lost a bit on the descents, but gained a lot on the climbs. Descending is hard to practice when you live in the Netherlands and your biggest downhill is an overpass!
The run in Alpe d’Huez is always a unique experience. Running at altitude feels different, but I found a good rhythm and held onto 8th place comfortably. For a while I could still see the next athlete ahead, but over a 20 km run there just wasn’t enough distance left to close it.
A solid 8th place, and very satisfied with the race, especially against athletes from countries where mountain cycling is second nature. After the race I felt great, so I decided to cycle to Embrun the next day instead of driving, combining the travel day with a good training ride! We stayed in Embrun for about 2.5 weeks before lining up for the legendary Embrunman.
