1000 Miles Home on BMW GS Alpe D’Huez Tour | Final Part | 4k

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Running Order of this video;

00:00 Intro
02:13 Riding up Alpe D’Huez
10:46 Down Alpe D’Huez
15:29 Home reflecting

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DISCLAIMER:
*Some footage from this video may be edited and or sped up for cinematic effect.
*Some footage was also filmed on private land.

Good morning good morning good morning good morning here we go day four I booked tonight’s Hotel on the toilet this morning I know that’s probably too much information I tried bookie it last night after dinner but I was just too tired I couldn’t think I’m kind of

Making this trip up as I go along I left on a Thursday morning I’m coming back on a Tuesday evening I was trying to avoid the weather and so far I’ve been very lucky last night we got close to that rain so today our first real stop is Al

Duz which is about 2 hours and 39 minutes away it’s another famous tour climb and I’ve got a couple of other personal stories that I’ll tell you about when I get there I’m feeling remarkably good I’ve taken some of the weight off my back I.E my laptop it’s

The hardest thing with with motorbike vlogging is is the mic setup I’ve got my little Zoom mic in here and it’s hard right into my helmet but it’s still not completely uh reliable hopefully you can hear me cuz I got my visor open as you can

See just because it’s so much cooler and more refreshing like this then with the visor Down Well that’s been an enjoyable couple of hours to get me across here to the base of Al Duz in fact you can’t see much of it you can just I think that’s it in the distance what we see in front of us is just the start I can’t remember how many hair

Pins but it’s something City Good Tour to France Rider off memory does it in about 45 minutes I came out here at the end of 2015 so almost 8 years ago on my Brompton bicycle for those of you that don’t know I used to race Brompton bikes they had something called The World

Championships I raced around in b Austria various ones in the UK at Goodwood and then in central London and I came out here as part of my training but also to clear my head a bit like this trip although that particular trip was just to get away

From the life that I had in the UK at that particular time 20156 weren’t the best years for me so I came out here on my Brompton and I set myself um a challenge to climb outz in an hour and a half exactly double of what the tour Riders do and I

Should have checked this morning but I’m pretty sure I did it in exactly an hour and a half which is impressive on a Brompton folding bike albeit you know a fairly trick one I recall weighing about 95 kilos back then I’ve never been much lighter than that I think 92 93 was when

I was really fit many years ago I’m now 105 so 10 kilos of blubber I remember starting that climb like it was yesterday I remember turning into this left hand it was quite cold cuz it was end of October November time and I just remember thinking oh

Here we go cuz the first bit is painful that’s my first story and actually the link to that video if you want to watch it is up here somewhere it’s on my YouTube channel so some of you might have even watched it I think it’s done over 40,000 views obviously the fun part

Of that was The Descent coming down and yeah I was fast I was overtaking cars and everything on my bromton folding bike that’s one part of my more recent history with outz something else is way way way before that we have to go back to 2003 so 20 years

Ago and I was racing mountain bikes downhill and I was racing a World Cup round out here in Al toz I had a big accident put me in hospital for some time had to get rushed at a hospital in an ambulance groby hospital I I don’t

Even remember I think they induced me as well and it was not good in practice I had a big accident I must have fractured the handlebars because just as I was about to finish on my qualifying or seating run in the fastest part of the track there was

Nothing to it it was just fast about 35 mph Offroad on gnarly rocks so that feels pretty fast my balls just decided to snap so this right hand side bar just snapped obviously throwing all my body weight over to the right onto the floor smashed my head so heavy and so

Hard uh completely knocked me out did some nerve damage but I managed to get back on the bike so obviously I’d gone into shock i’ got back on the bike managed to sort of push it across the line cuz the line was Finish Line was only 100 m away and I

Just remember looking up and I I saw a rider called Steve Pete any of you guys that know mountain biking would know who Steve Pete is uh and Chris gavar and they both looked at me obviously they’d seen the crash I think on the big screen or something and

They both just looked at me like like how how did that just happen and how are you still conscious and then not long after that I wasn’t it’s a lot easier on this than it is on the Brompton I remember this section on the bromton because it it flattens out a

Little bit here it’s just like oh get my legs back it’s just Relentless I mean this probably look flat on camera but it’s really not I think that sign counts down the hairpins so that’s 13 to go yeah I remember this bit as well just thinking oh man Savage look at that

Map I’m going to get myself a motorbike will it be a GS I don’t know I need to try others but if you’re going to have one bike I mean it would be really hard to argue against this apart from my hands are a little

Bit slightly numb and a little bit s I’m thankfully okay today which is amazing and I think a lot of that is because I’ve got my big heavy laptop in my bag now as in the bag on the bike not on my back so the rock sack on my

Back has a couple of liters of water in it my underwear and a few other bits but it’s light as a feather I don’t even know it’s on so I think that’s where I went wrong carrying that big heavy laptop and a few other bits and pieces look at that

Drop oh I can smell brakes they’re not mine now it’s telling me to turn right here but I’m pretty sure I’m pretty sure I just I’m pretty sure I went this way yeah I did yeah definitely yeah look at that look at that view sorry about the noise

You think you’re high and then you look over there and there’s mountains that are towering over you and they’ve got snow on them and in fact I think that one Straight Ahead that way I think that’s Le Alps at the top of this climb sorry at the bottom of

This climb I filled up the fuel got myself a baguette I know there’s lovely places just to sit up here and enjoy lunch so that’s exactly what I’m going to do oh now I really want to get back into mountain biking properly I need about four lives I need Joe in cars Joe

On mountain bikes Joe on motorbikes and Joe to be about 20 years younger and about 10 times fitter H I’m not sure not sure I could make all of those things happen well I think this will do just before we head back down the hill this is actually the finish of the

Abdar to aan Stage so they come up here and under there uh and up here is a board of all of the winners over the years there’s some absolutely legendary names in there like Marco pentan Yan Schleck uh more recently Pino garant Thomas and some english fol called Tom

Pitcock I’m being sarcastic by the way of course I know who Tom is he’s just won the uh Mountain Bike World Championships a few days ago and hopefully get him on the podcast at some point well that was a delightful lunch I mean it was just a normal baguette with

Chicken in it but it was a delightful location I just sat up there for 45 minutes probably taking in the fresh air drying out all my leathers and also just enjoying the the surroundings the quickest I saw on my Brompton I think it was 48 M an hour down here which is 80

K woohoo it’s just as fun on a bike going up as it is coming down Fantastic well well yet another brilliant day little bit shorter today thankfully because as you know yesterday I was pretty tired I’ve still been on the bike just over 5 hours and we’ve covered 320 K which is uh exactly 200 mil just rolling into the hotel not too far from

Geneva I’ve learned a lot of about the bike I’ve learned a lot about my riding I’ve learned a lot about me and that’s what these Adventures do they teach you a lot about yourself sure next year I’d love to do a similar trip but with a group of other

Riders I think it’ll be a completely different um experience and not that I’ve haven’t enjoyed every single minute of this trip um but there has been times where I wish I was with other people especially when I’m feeling fatigued and tired like I was yesterday

And I was grateful to tag onto the back of those Italians not that they knew that they’d helped me out but they had and once again the weather’s been amazing if not a little bit too hot the last couple of hours or the last hour and a half on the motorway between 36

And 38 and trust me once it gets above 28 29 it gets uncomfortable it’s still 30 but it actually feels mild now in comparison to how it was I think I’m just a bit exhausted the next two days I just want to go my own pace do my own

Thing and not have to turn the cameras on I’ll put this camera on the helmet and I’ll capture any nice shots and when I get home I’ll do a summary how about that so I’ll bult that onto the back of this video and MPG for today has been 58.8 so 59 once again

Thrashing up and down mountain passes it was actually at 62 or 63 when I left Al Duz it’s dropped to 58 uh because I’ve been on the to route you now join me at home and it’s actually two weeks after that fantastic Alps STP I’ve had some time to reflect

On what a brilliant time I had out there I really enjoy road trip Journeys and road trip videos like my Petro head tours videos from many years ago back in the day they’re really handy and good for the mind to watch through the winter months when perhaps we can’t go to the

Alps or during times like lockdowns Etc I’d look back on those videos and they’d put a smile on my face because I could relive at least a fraction of what I had done and hopefully I managed to share this trip in a similar sort of way after

I’ switched the cameras off and on my way back up through France I managed to avoid any toll roads and toll routes until I got up to St Quinton which is just over an hour and a half away from Cal so the majority of France I did on back roads and I tell

You what it was the best decision I ever made not just financially because I avoid all the tolls and I don’t have to play over inflated prices for the petrol um but because of the scenery and the roads some of these ridiculously straight Roman roads were just unreal

And there was no traffic around whatsoever going through the villages and towns just kept my mind busy and meant that my seven8 hour days suddenly became a lot easier and more bearable than sitting on the motorway out of the wind like this which does wear off very very quickly my

Last morning checking out my final Hotel well weather conditions had changed quite dramatically there was torrential rain and thunderstorms but thankfully I had a couple of hours to play with in terms of the time I needed to get to the tunnel it soon cleared up and I was back

To lovely riding conditions and I was able to enjoy those glorious roads um all the way up to the top of France I stopped at re or Raz as the French pronounce it which is uh the old historical racing circuit which unfortunately is being closed um to the

Public in stages I think we haven’t really been allowed to visit there for a while now but they are starting to clamp down more and more you see it in various new news articles and stuff which is a real shame because it’s such an iconic place and it’s a really good stopover

Point for the Brits when we get off the ferry or off the train about two and a half hours into our journey into France such a great place to stop and visit and that was a really nice way to finish my trip before heading back up to the

Tunnel and uh and getting off in the UK then I had my final two and a half hours from folon back to here and thankfully most of that was in daylight the last half hour it was getting a bit dark uh but it was lovely to get home to Lou and

My own bed and uh as I said a bit earlier on um yeah it took me a couple of days to recover mentally and physically from so much time on this wonderful bike Talk of the bike well it was pretty much faultless I mean I don’t have many any bikes to

Compare it to but there’s nothing else out there that I would have preferred to be on um it was just fantastic it did everything I asked uh in fact my luggage system that I had and everything just all worked out perfectly I don’t think I forgot anything which was my biggest

Worry when I left and I just felt really self-sufficient on this bike I even had my own pillow which was quite impressive um did everything at 8 at up all those Motorway miles it ate up all those Alpine passes all the country roads just brilliant and in fact I cleaned it a

Couple of days ago and I wish now that I’d kept it dirty cuz it was absolutely covered in flies and Grub it done just under 19900 miles over those six days it looked like it had done uh the Leong 24-hour race you know it was just scattered with stuff um but it is

Cleaned up really well and it looks pretty much brand new again which it is it’s only done just over 3,000 miles I was given it when it was pretty much brand new the only thing I’m not a big fan of is the motorad satinav um I think

It’s a Garmin unit that to me just isn’t that great it’s nothing as good as something you’ll find in a modernday BMW car um but the rest of it just fabulous and fantastic and I really really enjoyed my time in it so massive thanks to BMW motor ad UK Neil for organizing

It all making me get my bike license in the first place not making me but offering um to make that happen it’s just been wonderful it’s the best thing I’ve ever done and uh yeah really really enjoyed that trip and I can’t wait to do a similar trip next year or maybe the

Year later with some friends because I think next time I want to do it with like-minded friends on bikes all of us on intercom talking of intercoms big shout out and thanks to cardo for their fantastic Pack Light big shout out to quadlock for This brilliant handlebar

Mount um I I don’t know what I would have done without my phone here for nav Etc especially after saying yeah the BMW 1’s not the best um having ways running there was just fantastic so if you haven’t got a quad loock get one make sure you get the anti vibration mount

Because the phone is steady as you like and final huge Thanks goes to um rst for their fantastic Leathers gloves boots Bell Helmets and of course to my good friend Chris Baron von gramble for motivating me not just to get my license motivating me to do my Euro trip he did

A fantastic one last year I think I might have talked about it um but make sure you check it out on his channel the baron on Grumble channel uh this is going back in the next couple of weeks I’m hoping to do uh one more sort of

Farewell video on it um and yeah I’m going to miss it maybe not through the severe winter months but I’m definitely going to miss having it in the garage and just taking it out for um for a ride whether it’s a 10-minute ride down the

Road or a 2,000 mile ride um to the Alps and back so yeah hopefully you’ve enjoyed this uh couple of videos uh let me know in the comments below and uh yeah thanks a lot for your support and uh time investment watching all of this I’ll see you at another

Video very very soon cheers okay