World’s Best Climber + 3kg Bike = Alpe d’Huez KOM?

The plan was perfect. The world’s best amateur climber. A mind-bending 3.6kg superbike. One target: the Alpe d’Huez KOM.

But this is Alpe d’Huez, a climb famous for creating legends and breaking dreams. When you push the limits of technology and human endurance this far, things rarely go to plan.

This isn’t just a record attempt; it’s the story of one of the most unpredictable and chaotic challenges we’ve ever filmed.

Join Ollie Bridgewood & Andrew Feather as they battle the mountain, the clock, and a series of unexpected events on his quest to make history. Will pure talent be enough to overcome the odds?

Check out the effort on Strava https://www.strava.com/activities/15076751141/segments/3378680276363050626

You can see a full breakdown of that amazing build over on GCN Tech! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iYqQxp0UeU&vl=en

Chapters ⏱️
00:00 – The Challenge: Alpe d’Huez KOM
00:22 – The Backstory & The KOM Target (Kuss vs Pantani)
01:06 – The Official Alpe d’Huez Segment Explained
01:54 – Plan A: The 3.6kg Superbike & Ollie’s Domestique Role
03:07 – About The Incredible 3.6kg Fairwheel Bikes Build
04:36 – DISASTER STRIKES
08:04 – The Alpe d’Huez KOM Attempt Begins!
10:25 – “This is world class” – Witnessing Feather’s Power
12:41 – DISASTER STRIKES AGAIN
13:35 – The Aftermath & The Result

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📹 3.6kg Bike Build 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iYqQxp0UeU&vl=en
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📸 Photos – © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sirotti Images

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We’re going to use a 3.6 kilogram bike to attempt to take the KM on the most famous tour to France climb, Al DuZ. When I say we, I actually mean Andrew Feather, the best amateur climber in the world. How will he stack up against the world’s best riders in the tour to France? Can he beat them? Let’s find out. Previously on GCN Plus. Assisted by a crack team of amateur hill climb champions, Andrew Feather attempted to get the K of Alders. With a horrific headwind, the weather was against him and his domestics struggled. He fell agonizingly short of this prestigious K. The K currently stands at 39 minutes 54 seconds and was set by the American cyclist Sept Kus during the last time the tour to France came up here. Now, the official fastest time is said to be Marco Pantani, who did it in 3735, which is absolutely rapid, but it’s it’s not on Straa. So, did it really happen? Anyway, there’s something we need to clear out. It did happen. There’s something we need to clear up though about Aldis, and that is there’s a lot of confusion as to the length of the climb. Some people have gone up Aldu and posted rides on Straa and said that they’ve gone quicker than Marco Pantani and Setus, right? But the thing is they haven’t because they finish there in V Alp, which is 12 km long. That’s also the segment that Alswift is is modeled on. But the real finish is 2 km further up the mountain and two more hairpin bends of the famous 21 hairpin bends. So you can’t compare if you’re riding against tour to France riders that have had to go an extra 2 km. So that is the section. That is the official section. It’s 14 km long. That’s what we’re going to do. No one wants to finish too soon. So we’re back and this time I think Feather has an excellent chance because I will be his domestique. And yes, I while I have got considerably fitter, uh I’m in decent shape for me at the moment. I could only last about four minutes at Andrew Feather Pace, which is why I will be riding this, an ebike, although this is no ordinary ebike. It’s Now, before you say, “Wait, that’s cheating.” In the tour to France, a lot of the other riders riding up will have domestics. The ones setting the fastest times up there will be doing that with domestics. And on the lower portions of the climb, there will be a bunch that they’re riding in. And there’s the convoy with all the motos and everything giving a significant draft boost when you’re riding at the speeds that Andrew Feather rides at. So, that’s my bike with the extra assistance I’ll need for the task. But I expect you also want to know about the bike that Andrew Feather will be riding. Well, it’s been built by Jason Wnik and his team over at Fairwheel Bikes, which is an amazing bike shop over in Tucson in Arizona that uh well, it sells lots of very nice bikes, but one of the things they do is custom bespoke builds and lightweight builds like this. So, definitely check them out if you’re interested in that sort of thing. But we’ve got a full video breakdown on GCN Techch of all the details and all the mods on this bike in all the details. So, if you want to find out more about it because it is absolutely nuts. I mean, the bearings in it are like fully ceramic. The tires are for indoor velros, but they’re super light and super fast. Go check that out after you’ve watched this. Here you go, mate. Thank you. What do you make of that? Wow, that is incredible. How much is it? I love how enthusiastic you sound. You’re just cold like a killer. You’re just like It’s like a hitman that comes after climbs. Just like Wow, that is that is incredible. It’s pretty light. Yeah, it is insane. That’s way lighter than anything you’ve ridden before. Right. Yeah, that’s that’s Yeah, that’s crazy. Um Yeah, definitely lighter than anything I’ve ridden before. Do you reckon it’s on? I think it’s on. Certainly with a bike as that. Yeah, let’s go. And so we were set. We had a heat adapted worldclass hill climber in peak form, a bike 3 kg lighter than what he’d previously used and good weather conditions. What could possibly go wrong? We have a problem. Uh that is Alz behind us there. Um however, this is Andrew Feather’s original chain ring. It’s made from carbon fiber and during his uh test ride, his opener’s ride last night, it’s delaminated. So, we fitted our second spare chain ring, which is a combination of carbon fiber and alloy. However, on his warm-up before about to do the attempt just now, that too has delaminated. And so now it’s bent and the chain just isn’t staying on uh at all and just keeps dropping meaning that the bike is unridable which devastatingly means I think we’ve answered the question can a bike be too light um but how did it before that happened how did it feel? I mean it felt incredible to ride. I mean 3.6 kilos I think it’s absolutely amazing but obviously the the gears were slipping which was which was pretty frustrating. And then this morning chain kept on shipping and then I knew that we had some problems really. So, but really disappointed cuz it is an amazing bike. Fantastically put together. Um, but yeah, the Yeah, I think it’s just too light. I think I This could spell the end of our record attempt, but I’ve got a cunning plan. I’m I’m so gutted. Like it feels like this is just a massive anti-limax now because the guys at Fairwheel have done an amazing job and I feel bad for them and you know we’re pushing the boundaries of how light a bicycle can be and it feels like in some ways we we’ve found that boundary but got a plan B as I said. So let me show you this. I also brought with me my bike which is this beautiful Orbeea Orca which I’ve actually been trying to make as light as possible so that I could have a go on outdoors and it’s about 6.1 kilos. Now Feather rides a smaller bike than me. This is a 55. He normally rides like a 52 or 51 but I’ve lowered the saddle and I’ve put him on it. It’s got the same crank length he uses. He’s had a go on it and he actually loves it and says he feels really comfortable on this. Uh, and that’s mainly because although it is a little bit too big for him, we’ve managed to slam the saddle all the way forwards and he rides mainly out the saddle. So, the size is not super critical for him in terms of getting the power out. Now, uh, I’m just going to sort of tweak it. Lower the saddle for him now and just check everything’s okay. Bonus taking the bottle cages off because these Topique bottle cages with the titanium bolts, they are 11 g each. Um, so that’ll be 22 gram saved for him. He loves that. I’ve also taken the top cap off here as well, cuz you don’t need that. It’s just for cosmetics. So, uh, yeah, he’s, uh, he saved another gram there. Right, this is on. I’m excited. He feels good. He loves the bike. It’s really stiff. I Oh, I took the bar tape off as well. 100 g saved. Right, let’s go. It may not have been perfect, but we were here now. and Feather was still keen to give it a crack. He felt confident and decided, “Let’s do it.” Right, mate? You good? I’m good. Right, we’ll uh we’ll set off steady running from here and then we’ll hit it when we get to the base. Okay. Get try and build up some speed behind me. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do it. Right on. [Music] This is good, mate. I’ve got your power on. Because Andrew is riding my bike, it’s connected to my power meter on my Wahoo. So, I can see the power he’s doing. He’s actually helping me pace him cuz I know what he’s trying to do. And the trick is on this first section not to go too hard cuz it’s the steepest bit of the climb. You can get it back. This is mega. Nice. [Music] Right, I’m just easing off just a touch for you here. I’m going to try and get you around. Yeah, that power there that you’re on. Get into a nice rhythm. Kick out the corner. drama. We own this place. Yeah, we own this place. Oh, this is amazing, mate. [Music] It’s actually amazing that I can ride at this worldass pace using an ebike. And it’s giving me an idea of what it must be like to be one of the best in the world because the speed that we were going at was around 20 km an hour. And seeing in real time the power that Feather was putting out was incredible. It was like having a a front row seat. Little squeeze here cuz you’ll get a rest on the hair pin. Little micro rest. [Music] Yeah, that’s good though that you feel good right now. That’s good, mate, cuz that’s what it’s supposed to be like right now. Power’s amazing, mate. [Music] [Applause] [Music] So we are 6 km in. Feather is absolutely killing it. Currently averaging 395 watts. He is absolutely smashing it. This is world class. It’s incredible to see. I’m just doing my best to not go too hard and put him in the red and just keep the the pacing nice and consistent. Doing a good job. Do you want some ice water? How can you talk? You absolute freak. Do you want some ice water? Right. Shout when he hurt it. The ice water will help. I had ice water in my bottles to cool feather down mid effort. He is heat adapted, having done some heat training with a core sensor in prep for this event. Something that is absolutely crucial when doing an effort in heat like today. It was 28°. Well over halfway now. This is where this is where legends are born, mate. Average pace is going up very nicely. [Music] [Applause] [Music] A little bit more, please. A little bit more. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Looking back at the footage, it dawned on me that I could have removed further weight by taking the saddle and seat post out. I can’t believe anyone can spend so long out of the saddle. It is ridiculous. Yeah. Keep at that. This hairpin’s the big one. Nice, nice, nice. At this point, it was going well. We were up on Feather’s previous pace and had paced this effort to perfection. ready to do a negative split in the final 3 km. But then disaster struck joking. It turns out the French love cheese so much they decided to block the road with a market selling it. Meaning we had to do a fume and get off and run. Following a quick remount, we then had 2 km left to race to the finish and make up as much time as possible. Keep going. Keep digging. Just dig in now. I’ll TT you in now. That was a phenomenal ride. That’sing market. Well, you just don’t expect there to be a market, do you? Well, you have to actually get off the bike and walk up steps, mate. That was that was unbelievable. Like irrespective. I don’t know what the time was, but like way down the last time like 2 minutes really. Even though more power 390, it’s just like that market screwed us. Once the dust had settled, analysis of the ride suggested Andrew was on par with his previous best coming into the market, averaging an eyewatering 397 watt and 19 km an hour. At 66 kg, that puts him at 6 W per kilo, which is world class. All the more impressive when you consider he was on a bike that wasn’t even his and was too big for him. Chapo, I was trying to push you. Yeah. Yeah. And I was I was trying to lift it and you could tell and I could tell you were being a bit you were a bit ropey so I like backed off a bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s really hard. It’s I mean you did such an great effort because it made such a difference for you to be so consistent in the pacing as well. Like when I did it last time when we’re riding as a four or as a group, it was more sort of jumpy with people coming off, people coming on kind of thing. Whereas whereas when you were riding, it was just so fluid, so consistent. That made it felt so controlled virtually all the way except for the last few where I started hurt where it started hurting really. The thing is though is I I think like as well like your power was massively dented by that market section and I think your power would have been even higher. I think you would have been really close to pushing 400 which is just that’s my I mean three it was three neutralized power 3 3 95 but obviously the bottom bit it was a run in so you’re just going very gently there. It’ll be interesting to look at segments when we get back kind of thing but I certainly did more power than I did last time but a lot of it is probably you know thanks to yourself with that really consistent pacing kind of thing throughout. Yeah and it really really did help. I felt all, you know, I could speak. I felt control. Wasn’t really hurting. And then the last bit was just uh just suddenly bites you. I suppose I’m not used to the the longer climbs kind of thing. That’s where it starts, you know, really counting. But Oh, mate. That’s interesting. Mega, I hope you’ve enjoyed this this video and if you’ve been impressed by, couldn’t use the bike. I’m so gutted about that. But yeah, it it it’s an amazing bike nonetheless. And um yeah, really really cool. So yeah, hope you’ve enjoyed it. Right, should we go get a quason on? Let’s go get a quass on. Yeah. Yeah.