Alpe d’Huez, I have the segment. July, three years ago, with the club, the backpack and a coffee at the bottom that I counted in the time, because I’m honest. One hour thirty-eight. There are twenty-one hairpins and I counted twenty-two, the last one was a car park.
Richard Carapaz won up there this summer, at the Tour, after Orcières-Merlette. He finished in the king of the mountains jersey. On Friday, NSN Cycling announced he was signing with them for two seasons. He leaves EF Education. He said it was an incredible opportunity to be one of the team’s leaders.
Let’s do the column. Take off the backpack: six minutes, I weighed it. Take off the coffee at the bottom: four minutes. Take off the Dutch guy who was weaving about on the seventh hairpin: two. Take off the wind, which I took both ways, even on the climb, don’t ask me how. I get to one hour twenty-five. One hour twenty-five left. There is him, and there is me, and between us there is the 2019 Giro, Tokyo, ten Grand Tour stage wins. I lose. By a distance. That’s the column.
What reassures me is the word leader. I’m one of the leaders too, at the club. There are four of us who say we lead the nine o’clock ride, which leaves at twenty past nine. Nobody has ever issued a statement.
One of the leaders, Xavier, is already better than the car. I was never one of anything.
At the café we argued till noon over whether a car park counts as a hairpin. Carapaz has two seasons ahead of him with a new team. Me, Sunday, with the same backpack.
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
