Thanks to my friend Frank Steele at TDFblog.com, I've read another account of the experience of riding this year's L'Etape du Tour that finished at the end of the Road to Nowhere-- on Alpe d'Huez.

I've talked about wanting to participate in L'Etape du Tour previously on Operation Gadget, but this year I might have paused before sending my application even if I'd had the resources to go and the time to train. I've been to Alpe d'Huez, five years ago with my wife Kathleen on our honeymoon. I'm sure I could climb it on a bicycle if I started at Cycles et Sports in Bourg d'Oisans after a good night's rest. I'm not at all confident that I could have finished L'Etape du Tour this year when it went from Gap to Alpe d'Huez on July 10.

Andrew Tilin competed in L'Etape du Tour this year and lived to tell about it. It's a great story.