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Alpe d�Huez is the most glamourous mountain in French cycling, featuring in nearly every Tour de France since 1976. It draws cycling fans like no other. Half-a-million people cram its slopes and the twenty-one hairpin bends during the race, many of them Dutch, whose riders have a knack of being first up the hill. The winner of the Alpe climb is nearly always a contender for the yellow jersey or the King of the Mountain.  Aware of this symbolism, the authorities have named each of the twenty-one bends after a mountain victor, starting with number twenty-one at the bottom. It�s a tad cheesy, but who am I to disagree with millions of cycling fans who count off the bends and the names. The morning is bright and sunny and Anita, the owner of the Bed & Breakfast, offers me a huge breakfast. Nervously, I check my gear three times before leaving the B&B a few kilometres south of Le Bourg d�Oisans. I try to relax into the warm-up ride along the valley. Alpe d�Huez looms to my left. ...

The Col de la Croix de Fer is unlike any other climb in the French Alps. It goes up and down, the road winds through forest then open high meadows, the gradient changes from steep to relatively easy back to steep in the space of a few kilometres... in other words, it�s a temperamental bastard. The Croix de Fer is a 'hors category' climb, thirty-one kilometres of trying to find a rhythm when the road varies so dramatically.  All this is good enough reason to indulge over breakfast. Anita is a willing host, loading the table with croissants and baguettes, home-made jams and local honey, all washed down with as much coffee as any tight fitting lycra-clad bladder can hold. It�ll be my excuse for frequent stops today while climbing. Jean-Louis wishes me �bonne chance� as I cycle down the gravel driveway. The sky is cold blue as I cruise along the valley road, a quick wave to the folk at La Cascade. I�ll be reporting in there tonight for a few recurperative glasses and perhaps some e...

  It's been a year in which I've hardly been out of the saddle. I've clocked up over 10,000 kilometres of cycling in Australia, Asia and Europe, so it seems appropriate I nominate my Top Ten rides of 2012, in no particular order. For a more detailed blog on each of the rides, click on the link. Some of the blogs featured include videos of the ride. 10.   Col du Galibier, France :  Let's start at the top shall we? The top of the French Alps, that is. Of all the mountain climbs, Col du Galibier was my favourite. For an Australian, the thrill of cycling in-between two-metre-high snow drifts was thrilling and, given it was summer, refreshingly cool. This climb is an icon of the Tour de France, for good reason - sumptuous views, excellent road surface and all that history. 9.   Hua Hin to Ban Krut, Thailand :  Three days of riding along quiet backroads through beachside villages on the Gulf of Thailand. No hills, a strong wind at our back and fantastic food for lunch...

�I will not fail in my work in proclaiming that beside Galibier you are but pale and vulgar beers. There is nothing more to do but tip your hat and salute from well below.�  So said the legendary Tour de France director, Henri Desgranges in 1911, about Col du Galibier. Allowing for the poor translation, I can but only agree with Monsieur Henri, who has a monument in his honour one kilometre from the summit.  The Galibier is an icon of cycling, used by the Tour more times than any other mountain in the Alps. Climbed twice in 2011 to celebrate its one hundredth anniversary of Tour involvement, I�m pleased I�ve left the �Giant of the Alps� until last. The summit is a whopping 2,642 metres elevation, and today I�m climbing it from Valloire, an alpine ski village eighteen kilometres down the valley. I should mention, many riders first climb Col de Telegraphe before dropping down to Valloire and taking on Galibier. One Hors Category mountain is enough for me today. The 1911 Tour win...