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Can you climb Alpe d'Huez on a Santander City Bike?

Video: Taking on Alpe d'Huez on a Santander Cycles hire bike

Team from Huez* clothing aim to get up fabled Tour de France climb and back to London inside 24 hours
by Simon_MacMichael
Wed, Sep 21, 2016 09:37
3

Remember Martin Cox’s blog here on road.cc from May which recounted how he and eight other intrepid cyclists set off from the London headquarters of clothing brand Huez* to take on the mountain from which it gets its name while riding Santander Cycles hire bikes and raise money for charity?

> Fancy riding Alpe d'Huez on a Boris Bike?

Well, Huez* has now released a video of their attempt to hire the bikes in London, get them down to the foot of the mountain, ride them up and back down again and return them to the docking station, all inside 24 hours.

Watch the video above to see how they got on in the challenge, which was for a good cause, with getting on for £20,000 raised to date for the Stroke Association and the National Brain Appeal.

13.8km long, the Alpe d’Huez climb has an average gradient of 8.1 per cent, topping out at 13 per cent, and with a vertical gain of 1,860m.

Each of its 21 hairpins has at least one plaque commemorating a winner of the 29 Tour de France stages that have finished there – a list that includes the likes of Fausto Coppi, Bernard Hinault and Marco Pantani (but not, since 2012, Lance Armstrong).

Huez*
alpe d'huez
Santander Cycles
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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3 comments

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marxtrom | 8 years ago
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"13.8km long, the Alpe d’Huez climb has an average gradient of 8.1 per cent, topping out at 13 per cent, and with a vertical gain of 1,860m." That does not add up...it is  has a lot less vertical gain. 1860 is the height at the top(?) but the climb starts at more than 700 m height. 

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Leviathan replied to marxtrom | 8 years ago
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marxtrom wrote:

"13.8km long, the Alpe d’Huez climb has an average gradient of 8.1 per cent, topping out at 13 per cent, and with a vertical gain of 1,860m." That does not add up...it is  has a lot less vertical gain. 1860 is the height at the top(?) but the climb starts at more than 700 m height. 

Yeah, they say the height at the top, not the vertical gain, so no mistake. You know I see a lot of comments these days where people just don't read something, then batter away at their keyboard correcting a phantom error. 

Avatar
marxtrom replied to Leviathan | 8 years ago
0 likes

Leviathan wrote:

marxtrom wrote:

"13.8km long, the Alpe d’Huez climb has an average gradient of 8.1 per cent, topping out at 13 per cent, and with a vertical gain of 1,860m." That does not add up...it is  has a lot less vertical gain. 1860 is the height at the top(?) but the climb starts at more than 700 m height. 

Yeah, they say the height at the top, not the vertical gain, so no mistake. You know I see a lot of comments these days where people just don't read something, then batter away at their keyboard correcting a phantom error. 

 

Text still says vertical gain not total height, sorry, but  you seem to be the one not reading before typing 3 maybe they say something different on the video but that was not what I was referring to.

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