How Hard Is It to Climb Alpe d’Huez in Under 50 Minutes?

The legendary 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez are a brutal challenge for any cyclist. I came into this ride with an ambitious target: break the 50-minute barrier on one of cycling’s most iconic climbs.

But after battling illness all week, would my legs show up?

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Timestamps:
Intro – 0:00
The Climb – 3:04
Aftermath – 8:00
Results – 10:15

#AlpeDHuez #CyclingChallenge #PBAttempt #TourdeFrance #ClimbingCycling #CyclingVlog #insta360

Alp dues 21 hairpins and probably the most iconic climb in cycling history from Tour Front’s fame. The record is still held by the one and only Marco Pantani when he set the ridiculous time of 36 minutes and 50 seconds, assisted by maybe some slightly unnatural substances back in 1995. And that time has actually stood ever since with no one even really getting close to it in the modern era. Now we all know these days if it’s not on Straa it didn’t happen. So taking a look on Straa, Sept Cus has actually got the K at the minute in a time of 39 minutes and 21 seconds which is set during the 2022 tour to France on domestic duties for Yonas Fingerard. Unfortunately, Yonas and Tad didn’t post their times on Straa that year, but they weren’t actually that much faster than Cus with that stage being a bit of a stalemate. And no, we’re not talking about the Mickey Mouse short route that ends at the bottom of town that was used to model the Alp. We’re talking about the 2 km further toward France itinerary right up to the top of the town. That’s the only time that really counts. Now, while going for the K would make for a very entertaining video, unfortunately, I’m not quite at the level of the Tour to France pros. So, in today’s video, I’m going to be setting the target of cracking the 50minute barrier. Something that in the age of Straa only 140 people have posted rides being able to do. I’m aiming to take that up to 141. This won’t be the first time I’ve done a big effort up Al DuZ. Back in 2023, two years ago, when I was away touring, I made a video about trying to do the Alp in under an hour, which I did succeed at setting a time of 57 minutes and 45 seconds. Now, due to the nature of that being on my holiday when I was touring, I was on my really heavy gravel bike with Schwe marathon tires, which if you know anything about them, you’ll know have absolutely horrendous rolling resistance and weigh an absolute ton. Fortunately, this time I’ve got my old time on road bike, which is well, not quite as light as my hill climb bike, a pretty featherweight climbing bike at only around 7 kilos. So, that will be a far more appropriate setup for the effort. And I am going to get the excuses out early. I haven’t been very well the last couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’m completely recovered now, but I was going to attempt it two days ago and actually I’m quite glad I abandoned the effort because one, I weren’t feeling very well, and two, I’ve actually just looked up after watching GCN’s video about updo. Turns out on Fridays, there’s a market on and actually I would have been stuck by that in the same way they got stuck when they were trying to set the K. So, things did work out in my favor a little bit there. So before the effort, I’ve just ran the numbers on best bike split and it’s looking like I’m going to need to do just over 310 watts to hit that 50minute mark. And looking at the pacing, it is pretty even throughout. Just letting the power slip a little bit towards the end when there are some flatter stretches. Right, it is time to shut up and get on with this effort. I am still absolutely full of cold, but I’ve got to give this a go today. It’s probably my last opportunity. Hopefully the 50 minutes will be achievable, but I’m not going to be too distraught if it isn’t. I’m just gonna give it my best shot and leave everything out on the road. So, yeah, let’s get on with it. Got the polka dot socks on. Hoping they’re going to give me a few extra watts. Okay, then. Here we go. This is going to be a painful 50 minutes. And off we go. Right, it’s all about keeping it nice and steady for this first hair pin. Stay within that power target. Keep it around 310 to 320. [Music] Right. Hair pin number one. Pretty much banned on power. [Music] 10 minutes done. Oh, it’s getting spicy. Making these flat corners for micro rest. [Music] And that early on, I knew I still wasn’t over this cold with my heart rate through the roof and feeling like I had nothing on my legs after only 10 minutes of pushing just over 300 watts, which for me at the moment is way below where I should be, even considering the moderate altitude I was at. I might expect to be at 180 BPM, not 190 right now. And it just kept getting worse with my heart rate climbing to unreasonable levels, and I was just feeling weaker and weaker by the minute. I tried a last stitch attempt to kick out the saddle and get myself back on top of the gear, which sometimes does help me when I’m really suffering on efforts like this, but today it just was not happening. And as you can see now, I was seriously contemplating giving up with my power even dropping below 200 at times, but it not feeling any easier. And that’s where I completely cracked. It just was not my day, and I had to pull over to the side of the road. After about 10 to 20 seconds contemplating turning round, I got back going and decided, you know what? I just have to finish the effort. Obviously now 50 minutes was completely out the window, but I decided, you know what, that doesn’t matter anymore. All I want is a faster time than 2 years ago. I slowly cranked out the gear and got back on top of a reasonable pace and settled in for the next phase of the climb. And it’s safe to say the next stretch was really painful. My heart rate was through the roof and my power was pitifully low. But I just kept gravelling on slowly chipping away the distance up towards Dutch corner. Rounding corner 7, otherwise known as Dutch Corner, you enter the final phase of the climb with some longer, steadier gradients here. There are some slight chances for recovery. So I obviously took full advantage of them, but it was still a very long way to go, especially when you’re going all the way to the tour of France finish at the top of the town. The next section was weaving our way up through village and onto the grassy banks leading up towards the town of Alp Duez. Even though it feels busier and like the gradients are lower here, this section is not to be underestimated and often is where a lot of people really start to suffer. But the finish line is in sight with the town of Aldz looming over you in full view. Now you know what you’re aiming for. However, that’s not the end of the story. Reaching the base of the town, you still actually have two kilometers to climb up through the town through some complicated turnings, dodging traffic, weaving roundabouts. It’s not an easy stretch up to the finish line, even though you feel like you’re almost there when you hit the town. If you’re going to attempt this yourself, I strongly recommend you bring a head unit like a Garmin with you with a map loaded on because honestly, it is not that easy to follow the Tour of France itinerary through town with loads of turnings, sometimes seeming counterintuitive. As you can see in the footage, there were several moments where I struggled to navigate my way through traffic and unfortunately had to shave off loads of speed. But now it’s time to hit the final roundabout and get up to speed on the finish straight, giving everything I got to the top. and absolutely exhausted. Finally, it was over. Absolutely not. Bad idea. Oh my god. Right, we’ve made it to the top and unfortunately that was a bit painfully slow. I think it was just over 55 minutes. I’ll check when I get back down to the bottom. But yeah, my cold has absolutely destroyed me. I think my nose was streaming the whole way up. Even like 290 watts was a challenge. I think that’s what I averaged around 290 the whole way up, which you know, not horrific, but considering normally that’s like a sweet spot ride for me back home. Yeah, not great. I think there’s two factors that have really harm my performance today. One is not being used to riding at even a moderate altitude like we’re at here. And secondly, yeah, this cold has not been great. Yeah, honestly, my body was just not feeling right today. I even had to actually take a brief stop around 20 minutes in. And actually, I contemplated just turning back and giving up entirely. So, I am really proud of myself for knuckling down and getting up to the top even if the time wasn’t what I wanted. So, yeah, I’ve got a ride back down now. I might shoot a bit of B-roll on the way down. Then going to go get a coffee and board to treat myself and gravel all the way back up to DAL. Considering two days ago I felt so unwell that I couldn’t even make it up to Duzel and I had to get the cable car back up the mountain. To be honest with you, doing this in 55 minutes was still a pretty good show in. So, I can’t be too disappointed. All it means is I’m going to have to get myself back out here and have another go. I thought I’d just have a brief stop here on the way down because this is the point where some people would consider to be the top of the climb and it’s where the virtual output also is modeled to finish. However, it’s really cheating only stopping here. You’ve got to go all the way to the top of town. The only downside is after this point the roads do get a bit congested and you have got quite a lot of traffic around roundabouts and junctions to deal with. Also, I would recommend having the route on your head unit because it does get a little bit confusing with the turns you’ve got to make to follow the actual tour to France’s itinerary through town. Let’s get on with the descent now. So yeah, the scores are in and I did 55 minutes and 19 seconds, which honestly is a little bit disappointing and is over 5 minutes slower than I was hoping for. But I can’t really complain. Look at these stunning views. At least I’ve had a brilliant ride out in the Alps. And you know what it means? I’m just gonna have to get myself back out here and give it another go when I’m feeling a little bit fresher and a little bit healthier and not full of cold. And you know what? Maybe next time I’ll get closer to that 50inute mark. Make sure to get yourself subscribed so you don’t miss that video and all my amazing other content coming out from this Alps trip. And I’ll see you all in the next one.