Pee Oui Returns to Alpe d' Huez

Pee Oui is older.  Alpe d' Huez is older.  Even Steven?  Not.  Alpe d' Huez wins.  Pee Oui at 68 is slower.  Alpe d' Huez is no easier.  Pee Oui had fine tuned his S&S coupling  Schwinn Paramount to a fair-thee-well.  His bod was as good as it would get. 

The group, Pee Oui, Mark Pernitz, Sue Ellen Olsen, Jeff Bergey, Tom Helke and Georgia Kaftan,  rolled into Allemond, actually a nearby hamlet named Le Mollard,  a few days before the Tour de France arrived.  It's about 10 miles from Bourg d' Oisans at the base of Alpe d' Huez.  Cycling tourism, which was strong a decade ago has increased four fold.  Road cycling and downhill mountain biking are huge.  There is a new self-timing system where you rent a chip for two euros a day at a tourism office and it records your time between Depart and Arrivee flags on 30 different routes.  Alpe d' Huez was the only one that mattered to Pee Oui.

The weather had mercy on him the day before the race.  It was cool with a light drizzle.  The count down began.  The first hairpin, number 21, was .8 kilometer up on one of the steeper ramps.  Makes you understand why in the race guys look like they are going backwards on it.  A good wake up call.  A rider charged past like he was going to set a record.  Then reality set in and he was soon grinding gears just like Pee Oui.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, who would climb Alpe d' Huez that day.  All were treated to the show put on by the fans lining the route with their campers.  Motor vehicles were going up too, and down along with cyclists.  That part was not as crazy as it sounds.  They only pass when it's safe.  For about K Pee Oui is followed by a car blaring American rock and roll helping him set a rhythm. 

The hair pin turns pass quickly or slowly.  Neither the distance or steepness are consistent.  Halfway up the Dutch are out in force at the St Ferriol corner.  They've got their own sound system booming.  Pee Oui gets all the encouragement he needs, but doesn't stop for a beer.  Soon he passes the village of Huez.  On the ramp beyond a fan is sitting in the road alongside a line of maybe 300 empty beer bottles, all the same brand, in a perfect line.

Less than 5 K to go and his mantra comes to him.  From the old Bo Diddley song, "Who do ya Love."  "Got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind, I'm just 22 and I don't mind die'ng."  But Pee Oui is not dying.  He's not even suffering or hurting, just grinding it out.  Countless riders pass him.  He can count on two hands the number he passes.  Life is good.  A pony-tailed woman on a "go to market" bike shoots past in a sprint with a buffed, full-fit guy on carbon fibre.  The crowd goes wild.

At the 3 K to turn the photo agency is out same as ten years before.  They hand you a numbered card so you can get your photo at their shop or order it on line.  Pee Oui flashes the "peace sign" as before.  He notices that the turn is named after the late Marco Pantani, who won the Tour in '98.  Pee Oui had read that they were going to take away the name of Armstrong on one hairpin for his crimes.  If there was ever any crime in cycling it was the retribution that drove little Marco, who one at Alpe d' Huez twice, into despair.

But Pee Oui is not doping.  He's high on life.  The course seems to level out after the last hairpin turn, number one, in the ski village of Alpe d' Huez.  He passes the Tourism office an hour and forty minutes after his start.  That's about 20 minutes slower than ten years before.  If he can do it under two hours ten, or even five, years from now he'd be grateful.  At the "eau potable" fountain across from the Tourism Office he mounts the faux podium and gets a lady to take his photo with his American steel bike.

The descent back to Bourg d' Oisans at the bottom was obviously easier, but more nerve wracking.  Pee Oui stopped in Huez at Hotel l' Ancole where he'd stayed in the past to say "hi" to Yve Forestier, the owner.  He asked if he and his friends could watch the race the next day from his over-view if the bought drinks at his bar and he said, "Of course."

On race day our group drove 7 K down to the village of Allemond and took the free bus up to Oz (pronounced Oh-z) where we caught the ski gondola to Alpe 'd Huez. This allowed us to walk down to the village of Huez and watch the first passing from the l' Ancole over look.  Pee Oui walked further down to trade with the Dutch, but the timing was bad.  The Tour publicity caravan, which tosses out free trinkets, was just going though.  Hard to hustle euros for cheap American crap when they are flinging cheap French crap for free.

At Huez it was incredibly exciting as American Tejay van Garderan went through in the lead.  After going over Alpe d' Huez they went down into the same valley and climbed it again.  We took the gondola up to the finish at Alpe d' Huez and were able to get a good view of the finish.  Tejay didn't win, he got passed by Rincon a few Ks before the end,  but to be there and feel the excitement was amazing.

Pee Oui may be old, but the Tour is always new and exciting.  Next stop Annecy, one of the most beautiful inhabited places on earth.

The road goes on forever and the party never ends,

Pee Oui Roubaix