This year I managed to convince my lovely partner Leah to come along for the fun as well and join me on the Haute Route Alps. It did not take much convincing as she is also a cyclist and was up for the challenge. Also joining us was Peter Hope, a friend from Amsterdam, who is new to the Haute Route idea, but is an experienced stage racer, skinny like a climber, and a strong cyclist.
This years version of the Haute Route again goes from Geneva to Nice, but they added the monster climb of to Ventoux to the mix. It was also the hardest and longest Haute Route overall, and had the longest and most climbing stages in the race. Some statistics:
- 7 stages plus a short prologue in Geneva to warm up the legs
- 900+km
- 21,400m climbing
- The longest day 187km (stage 5)
- The most climbing 4,700m, and it was cold and rained ALL day (stage 3)
- The rest day was a time trail up Alp D'Heuz
- 400 starters, and 320 finishers
Each day I blogged and they can be found here.