Once word was out, early in the trip, about the infamous Alpe d'Huez all in handicap, there has been a tangible and nervous tension whenever the topic was broached.

Who would be grouped with who?

What will the time splits be?

Have you seen how well Daz has been climbing? He has to be behind me!

I have saddle sores and aren't sure I can do the handicap.

The list goes on...

The final groups and time splits were released late the night before. The plan was to send the first rider off at 7 am and have everyone in by 8:30 am to celebrate at breakfast on our final day here.

There was a quiet acceptance when the riders saw the splits...

Rusty — Scratch
John and Quinny — 10 min
AB, Amy and CCCC Phil — 14 min
Kent, Filthy Phil — 15:30 min
Dave, Ben W and Munro — 20 min
Daz and Jamie — 22 min
Jason and Clarky — 26 min
Christian and Ben — 31 min
AK and Andy — 35 min
Dan — 41 min

AK and I headed down early to prepare the start ramp, hang the Aussie flag and be ready to send riders off at their prescribed times.

There was one late DNS... John resorted to eating some raw chicken for dinner beforehand and brought it back up during the night. Anything to get out of racing a handicap, it seems.

The riders appeared off the Alp and to the start area in dribs and drabs, cold from the early descent, visibly tense with nerves but joking around to hide the tension. It really felt like race day!

Rusty was first off the ramp and was out of the saddle to the start of the climb. He meant business and was making the most of his allocated limit spot.

Timekeeper AK was sure to have everyone off on time, and with only a single DNF, all riders were on the climb by 7:41 am. Christian suffered a Di2 malfunction and was uninterested in climbing with a single gear. He pulled the pin early and jumped in the car with AK and me, who had taken on the roles of race organisers, timers, photographers and cheerleaders.

Dan had his work cut out for him and was tightly handicapped based on his past form, with no interest in stories of not riding much lately. Looking for any marginal gains, he went full Euro style with no helmet and no bidons.

Catches were on from mid-mountain, and riders were happy to always have other riders in sight for much of the race.

Notable mentions go to Filthy Phil, who rode a solid race and outperformed his expected time by a ton.

Little Ben and Kent showed terrific camaraderie when pulling the pin on their chances to place when they decided to stick with Rusty to the finish line.

And no one looked like they wanted the win more than two of the wolfpack, Jas and Daz. Although Daz was pulling out a smile for the camera, he was every bit as much about performing as Jas was.

At the end of the day, though, there can only be one winner, and the 2023 title goes to David, who rode like a machine and was the absolute best we'd seen from him up until that point of the trip.

Funnily enough, he continued to ride as strong after the handicap and into the third and fourth week of the trip. Hmm... was David sandbagging in week one?

The fastest time was from Dan with a 52 min something — incredible ride, and he looked like he left everything out on the road by the finish line.

Overall, there were some great times with quite a few sub-one-hour rides. Awesome stuff!

The vibe was sky-high after the ascent, with back slapping, high fives, fist bumps and congratulations. What a way to finish our time at the Alpe.

A group photo, breakfast, some light packing and we were heading for Lake Annecy.

The big question on everyone's mind and lips was if Annecy will be anywhere near as good as Alpe d'Huez or if we had already seen the best of things.

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2023 Stop Five — Lake Annecy

2023 Stop Three — La Chambre, French Alps

2023 Stop Two — Provence

2023 Stop One — The Pyrénées

Week Four — The final week

Week Three