Cycling Alpe D'Huez

Dave1441

Hi I'm planning on cycling Alpe d'huez next year and I need some advice for training. I'm guessing I should do hill repeats and long hilly rides but I could do with a plan and what I should actually do. I would be much appreciative if you could give me some past experience and an idea of how to train.
Thanks
P.S I'm planning on doing it next summer so I'm just getting some help so I'm ready when I start training

glasgowbhoy

If you are just cycling up it then being able to pedal and grind out a pace for an hour or so is all you need.
You could do that on a turbo trainer.

P_Tucker

Exactly. Practice riding quite hard for an hour to 75 minutes, since that's most likely what climbing the Alpe will be to you. Doesn't matter greatly whether its uphill or not.

Dave1441

Thanks for the replies do you have any idea of when to start training?

bigpikle

the sooner you start, the better you will be on the day!

the training described above will help just about every part of your cycling performance, endurance, speed, hill climbing etc, so start today and keep going until next year and you'll likely transform your fitness

the key thing about the UK and hills is that they are generally far steeper than European cols, so blasting yourself for 60 secs up a 1 in 4/5 doesnt really help, as you dont tend to do much of that on a 1-2 hour climb up a col. Its about being able to keep pushing a gear for 60/90/120 mins up a steady, but relentless 5/6/7/8% climb. Mix up 2x20's at a steady pace as hard as you can maintain for both intervals, with 1-2 hour steady rides where you dont coast and keep pushing at the hardest steady pace you can. A few months of that took me from newbie year to successfully riding the Raid Pyrenean and all its cols

phreak

In addition to what others have said, you might want to think about your gearing. In ideal world you'd want to ride up it at your natural cadence, but you'll want to do your 1hr tempo training at the cadence you think you'll be riding up it at. It's one thing doing a tempo session at 90rpm but if you end up grinding up the Alpe at 60rpm it could be tough.

You might also want to think through your feeding as well. Very tough to chew when climbing hard so try out gels etc. that you could wolf down a bit easier. If you're just riding the Alpe on its own this won't be a huge concern but if it's part of a longer ride you'll need to take it into account.

cougie

Just ride hilly routes as much as you can.
If you are chubby - lose weight - thats a big help.
Make sure your gears go low enough - you'll get an idea from your hilly rides.

Its a fantastic climb - and the descent is pretty good too. Even more fun off the other side with unguarded drops, gravel and fords.

Dave1441

Should I upgrade my chainset to a triple as I'm currently using a double?

cougie

Depends on how strong a climber you are - and your weight.

I prefer double chainsets myself - a compact may be an idea as a compromise. Whereabouts in the country are you ? Really the only way to get good at hills is to practice them. Unless you're some kind of masochist who can do that thing on a turbo.

Dave1441

I'm from norh Yorkshire and I'm quite a strong climber

shockedsoshocked

Dave1441 wrote:

I'm from norh Yorkshire and I'm quite a strong climber

Where abouts? Some good options for long climbs in the area.

Dave1441

Harrogate area

shockedsoshocked

Dave1441 wrote:

Harrogate area

Thought you might have meant North York Moors area!

daviegb

You'll love Alpe d'Huez!
It took me 1 hr 25 mins to do the ITT course - I'm a rubbish climber, (as my time shows) so needed a triple!!! I live within 30 minutes of Cheddar Gorge, so did all my training on 1 to 1.5 mile hills with gradients of 9 to 10% - started with 4 hills & built it up to 8 hills over the course of 2 months.

As others have said, the key is riding at a cadence/effort that is sustainable for 60 to 90 minutes.

If you get a chance, Croix de Fer / Glandon & Galibier are amazing climbs too.

sungod

Dave1441 wrote:

Should I upgrade my chainset to a triple as I'm currently using a double?

ye gods and little fishes, get a grip man!

sram climbers kit is what you'll be wanting, then you can spin up like contador et al., choice of cassette, up to 12-36, you can get a kit for around 150 quid give or take a tenner depending on options

http://girodilento.com/contador-conquer ... -sram-apex

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... t-11-45331

fudges sram pricing is usually good...

http://www.fudgescyclestore.com/index.php?p=11563

Dave1441

Thanks for the replies so far you have been a great help.

Rule74Please

Dave,
get yourself a turbo trainer for the winter.

set the front wheel up to simulate a 10% gradient. Spend an hour with the turbo on a harder than normal setting. Ride it for about an hour at a time.

As for gearing your double will be fine. Invest in a 27 tooth cassette for the ride an enjoy. Lower gearing won't really help as this is only a 12% max gradient hill. Most of the time it is about tapping out a rythym. Plan to ride around the outer side of the corners to give yourself a breather.

It's a good challenge but far from the hardest climb in the area.

for those power heads out there 300 watts has you doing it under 55 mins

Dave1441

Thanks for the reply rule74 it summed up everything I wanted to know

P_Tucker

Rule74Please wrote:

for those power heads out there 300 watts has you doing it under 55 mins

Well that depends entirely on how much you weigh FFS

NUFCrichard

Hi Dave,
I was in the same situation a few years ago, if your goal is just to ride up without stopping (as mine was) then just ride your bike plenty next year and you'll be fine. When you say you have a double, do you mean a 52:39 or is it a compact ie 50:34 or 36? If you are a fairly new rider I think a 39:25 is a big gear for the bottom few k of the climb so you could do with at least a bigger cassette.

Dave1441

It's not a compact and I did know the ratio but I've forgotten it :-/

twotyred

As for gearing your double will be fine. Invest in a 27 tooth cassette for the ride an enjoy. Lower gearing won't really help as this is only a 12% max gradient hill.

Well that's entirely down to how heavy and how powerful you are and what your optimum cadence is. Lower gearing will certainly help if like me you're paddling in the shallow end of the aerobic power gene pool. I can certainly get up the Alpe OK on a compact with 28 tooth cassette but for this years Marmotte I've just fitted an SRAM Apex 32 tooth cassette with Shimano medium cage mech to get my cadence up to a more efficient rpm whilst riding at tempo effort.

You'll find the continentals are more sensible and a lot less macho about gearing down for big climbs than Brits are.

I really think people should quote their 1 hour power to weight ratio before they go offering advice on gearing for alpine climbs. Mine's 3.0 watts /kg by the way.

sungod

couldn't agree more, i happily stick on a 28 for long climbs, much kinder on the knees!

op, how about applying a bit of calculation to see what gearing you need...

aiming for a minimum cadence of 80ish would be good, it should be efficient and also much easier on the knees - lacking low enough gears for a short sharp climb is tough, but it's over soon, on a long climb it's just a grind

to start, you need a rough estimate of the power that you can maintain climbing for around 90 minutes (given the length of the route and me making some estimates)

find a steady climb that's at least 1-2km long, ideally you want a climb you can do at cadence of 80ish, time yourself going up it, you'll also need the distance travelled and altitude gained (unless you can find out the average gradient somewhere), you need to stick to a pace that you could maintain for about 90 minutes - do a few repeats of the climb to get a feel for what you can really maintain, then use the time from the last one

now use this to estimate power...

http://www.analyticcycling.com/ForcesPower_Page.html

...you need your weight (you+bike), slope (as a decimal, divide %gradient by 100), and speed (distance metres / time seconds), leave the other parameters alone

now that you know, roughly, the power you can maintain, you can use this to calculate speed up alde d'huez...

http://www.analyticcycling.com/ForcesSpeed_Page.html

...in addition to your power and weight info, use 0.081 as the slope, leave the other parameters alone

now that you know the speed you can maintain, you can select gearing based on that speed and keeping a cadence of 80+, use a gearing calculator like the one on this page...

http://www.climbbybike.com/training.asp ... untainID=5

...put in the speed from the previous step, select the correct small chainring size, then experiment to see what rear sprocket you'll need for a cadence of 80 at that speed

maybe 80 isn't doable, even 75 isn't too bad, but the lower it goes, the more it'll punish your legs

P_Tucker

Christ, I've got a maths degree and I soiled myself reading the above. Why not simply do the sensible thing and take a 34/27 or 34/28 (or 32 if your RD can cope), and if you don't need it then great - and if you do, you've got it. I'm going to the Alps in September and I'll be taking a 34/28, and I'll have an FTP of 5w/kg ish. NOTHING is more manly than climbing an Alpine col halfway down the block (er, except climbing in the big ring, but thats largely for the pros).

briantrumpet

P_Tucker wrote:

Why not simply do the sensible thing and take a 34/27 or 34/28 (or 32 if your RD can cope), and if you don't need it then great - and if you do, you've got it.

Quite. I've just returned from the Alps (including doing Alpe d'H) - I normally run a 50/34 11/25 but put on a 12/27 for the trip just so I had one extra small gear in case it was needed. It was, in order to keep spinning up the long climbs. Going up Alpe d'H I was mostly on the smallest two, and passed plenty of people grinding away in more macho gears.

bahzob

Some good advice here. I've been up the Alp many times and would especially endorse fitting a compact or using a triple.

One extra suggestion.

Once you get to the top of the Alp you'll need to get down again. If you haven't done a massive descent before this can be an interesting experience especially if theres a lot of traffic. An option to make this a bit more pleasant is to turn right in Huez which takes you along a balcony road with superb views of the valley. After a couple of km it descends down a road that's much quieter to a lake from which you can head back to Bourg or wherever you are staying.

cougie

When I was younger and skinnier I did it on a 39 x 26 - and I'm an ok climber but nothing special.

If I were going back to the alps I would probably go compact. And avoid triples unless you're heavy.

Watch out for weather too. It can be tarmac meltingly hot or snowy. Take plenty of kit !

bahzob

cougie wrote:

When I was younger and skinnier I did it on a 39 x 26 - and I'm an ok climber but nothing special.

If I were going back to the alps I would probably go compact. And avoid triples unless you're heavy.

Watch out for weather too. It can be tarmac meltingly hot or snowy. Take plenty of kit !

What cadence did you maintain when using a 39x26? If it was anything under 75rpm that's not climbing its struggling. Folks would be a lot better learning from the pros in terms of their form and technique rather than trying to use the same cassette. Look at the example below and just focus on 2 things
- the cadence the riders maintain
- how smooth they look even under max pressure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vHHuKg0SS0&feature=related

That's real climbing.

Compare with this footage of folks who measure ability by size of gear they can push (3mins in or so)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdDbBcLWdh4&feature=related

They are struggling and could all have ridden better if they just used the proper gearing.

cougie

This was 20 years back - I cant remember the cadence - but it didn't feel like I was struggling up it. The Alpe isnt that steep.

And Ullrich seemed to manage at his lower cadence - you'd not tell him he was struggling !

bahzob

Ullrich's "lower" cadence was only so by comparison with other pros. Here is his TT up the Alpe... his legs are going round pretty fast I think you will notice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpPWTaE-0gM

ilovebigwig

please see my post, near the bottom.

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