They talked about this incredible experience: a glacier, hundreds of riders, risky overtakes, mind boggling speeds, hard ice, soft snow, mega dust, alpine scree, epic trails, close battles, massive elevation and super long descents across the most spectacular landscape. It sounds like a dream but this dream, born in Alpe d’huez, was first conceived in 1995 and then came true for me in 2009 when I was 20 years young. I guess nowadays I’m on the older side of competitive racing but clearly, I’m none the wiser because I just keep coming back… The course has evolved slowly but the key stats remain fairly consistent with a winning run of around 40minutes over 20km of racing with 2,600m of descent and roughly 60m of climbing which doesn’t sound much but at that altitude and intensity it all adds up to an incredible challenge requiring extreme fitness levels to compete and a high degree of skill to complete.

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