How to ride up l'alpe d'huez
It made me 
"Counting down the 21 hairpins, reading all the cycling graffiti on the mountain, doing the fastest tyre change of my life to fix a puncture between turns 6 and 5, making it to the top and plunging my head into the ice-cold fountain."
How I did it: Go to Bourg Douisan, get a punch card from the tourist information and ride out to the bottom of the climb. Punch the card and go -- make sure the card is in a plastic bag because by the time you get to the top it will be so soggy from sweat that you cannot force it into the second punch card machine. Ride up the mountain, pick your pace, enjoy it, try not to get a puncture! Get to l'Alpe and find the second punch machine and find your time, stick your head into the fountain next to the carpark without thinking, without realising that the water is straight snow-melt and only just above freezing. Get your breath back, go and have a beer or a coffee as the mood takes you.
