Terry Morse wrote in message ...
amh wrote about getting down Alpe d'Huez:

On the way down the mountain we encountered pretty heavy traffic.
While we waited a gendarme chatted with us and said the crowd was
almost 500,000 fans large. Once we moved again another gendarme
signaled us on to a side road for an alternate route down. As much as
I hate sitting in traffic I think I would have rather sat and fumed
than drive this road. It was a one lane affair that made me feel as
though I was in an airplane. The road makers had thoughtfully not put
a guard rail up so we had an unobstructed view of the valley way
below. I was driving and also the one overlooking this drop.


That's a very cool cycling road, leading down to the village of
Allemont. They were only letting bicycles and official cars (no
trucks) down the road. Our group rode down that way and had a nice,
scenic cruise back to Allemont. Here's what it looked like after the
stage:

http://www.terrymorse.com/terry/temp/P7130101.jpg

A nice descent with several switchbacks. A little harrowing for a
car, but excellent on a bike.

A little harrowing is putting it mildly. Add to that the sun glare
every time I went around a right turn! That was an amazing day! The
scale of the race first hand is so much larger than it is on TV.

Thanks for the pic. If you want to trade any let me know. We came home
with 400+ pictures including a few videos.

Andy