My Ride Down and Up Alpe dHuez

CHECK OUT 2 GARMIN CONNECT GPS LINKS BELOW FOR THIS RIDE. ----- THEN PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION BELOW, WHICH WILL PUT THE WHOLE DAY'S RIDE IN PERSPECTIVE----- http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365211727 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365211698 This was a most unusual day! It started off nice but there were indications (weather forecasts) that the weather which had been sunny and warm to hot during the days and cool during the evenings and nights was going to change with a cold front and 90% chance of rain with thunder and lightening. I didn't think to check the weather forecast because we hardly had any rain during the preceding two months with warm to hot weather. Speaking with one of the bike store owners who spoke English, he mentioned that it looked like the front may dissipate and not arrive to Sunday instead of Saturday. Since I arrived on Thursday evening, I could have done my ride on Friday a warm beautiful sunny day with 0% chance of precipitation,but because I rode the previous Sunday, Monday and late Wednesday each with 2,000+ feet of gain, I wanted to give my body a rest before attempting this arduous climb. A bike store owner said, that if I did Mt. Ventoux (12 1/2 miles straight up with an average 7.7% incline while Alpe d'Huez was only 8.4 miles up with a 7.9% incline average) Alpe d'Huez will be easier. He also suggested making a loop out of the down hill ride rather then zigzagging down and zigzagging up (21 times in each direction, down hill and uphill)? You see when you are living on top of the mountain you must go down first before climbing back up. So on Friday I took a ride with my wife, Ronnie in our car, on my possible suggested route and recorded it on my bike track phone app. so that I could get an idea about how many extra miles and vertical feet I would have to do in addition to climbing Alpe d'Huez. I found out that his suggested route would add 11 extra miles and approximately 515 extra vertical feet up hill. Saturday arrived and was such a beautiful morning I decided to do the longer more scenic route/loop. The town of Alpe d"huez is on the top of the mountain called Alpe d'Huez, After a minor GPS mishap (I initially missed my turn to do the bike store suggested route/loop and went down the mountain and had to turn around and climb back up the mountain approximately 300 meters [10 to 12 degrees incline]), to found the correct path that the bike store suggested . I made it down doing the bike store owners suggested loop to the starting point of the time trial (where they started the Tour de France's time trials in years past) in approximately one hour and 18 minutes, approximately 18 1/2 miles from where I started from my rented one bedroom condo. That was within 3 minutes of the time it took me by car for that 18 mile stretch. Even Though 1) I didn't go in the wrong direction by car (like I did when I rode it by bike) and 2) plus after going in the wrong direction by bike I had to climb approx. 300 slow arduous meters by bike that I didn't have to do when doing the exploration ride by car. My trip up Alpe d'Huez by bike was hard especially the first four turns (approx. 10 to 20 degrees incline for about one to two miles or more) but after the first four turns the road continued up at about 6 to 10 degrees incline from then on. The ride up starting point was at an altitude of approx. 2,400 vertical feet and at about 4,300 vertical with 9 turns to go the sky got dark, the temperature dropped approximately 15 to 20 degrees and it started raining. I was wearing my GoPro Camera but had not put the weather proof back on it, so I decided to stop at a semi protected (by a rock cliff above) area at 9 turns to go. I removed the camera, stowed it, and put on my rain jacket that I brought along which I was earlier cursing myself for bringing and having to carry up (extra weight) this hard climb. I found an indentation in the rock cliff (a little cave like shelter) at the bottom of this cliff although parts of me were getting wet (even through my rain jacket, my hands and my arms were soaked and getting cold). Then it started lightening, and I was sure that I was soon going to be struck and dead. I Had Broken All The Rules! Started the ride too late up the mountain. Going against weather reports. Not having a secure place to hide or a back up plan to get help.