Can A Cycling Novice Climb Alpe D’Huez? | Make Your World Bigger 

All the training and cycling in this video is 100% real - Fred put in a lot of hard work for this challenge! For those interested in his level of fitness prior to training, he had a general level of fitness which included gym and football once a week, but is a complete cycling novice, having never even ridden a road bike before! He was lucky enough to have a bike loaned to him by Canyon to help with the challenge, and we hope that this video has inspired some of you to try out something new which you might not have done otherwise. Let us know what you’d like to see him try next?

Proof that Zwift, no matter how brilliant, is nothing like the real thing. Wind, heat, bike handling, the fact that you can't just lock into a constant rhythm on real switchback routes... etc. Great effort though.

I did the climb to Alpe D'Huez ( see the video on my youtube channel Leon Echeverri) in 2017 when I was 65 years old. The feeling and the sense of accomplishment at the top, compensates all the suffering of the whole climb. Great video and keep on cycling is a great sport. Long Live cycling!

Kudos. 4 weeks of training is just a drop in the bucket, so you should be proud of yourself for finishing. Well done.

Kudos to him. He’s built more like a rugby player

I’m 70 on 9th September 2020 and along with my younger brother 62 we aim to cycle 6 mountains in the Alps in 6 days the last day is Alpe D’Huez starting on the 5th of September at Lake Annecy Geneva No I have never done anything like this but I am training for it. Your video inspired me to believe I will not fail. Tony

I raced for over 20 years. I know how hard this is. Good on you! I really believe you have potential to be a really good cyclist.

I love they found a guy called Fred

Hell yeah you absolute legend ! Job well done for reaching the finish line no matter how long it takes. I was cheering for you as I was watching this video in Texas. In the early and mid 1970s here in Texas my friends had NFL heroes but my number one hero was Eddy Merckx though I had great respect for other pro cyclists. I'd tell my friends about the Tour de France, Giro d' Italia, spring classics and the legendary cyclists who competed in them. I would get my friends together and we would have our own Tour de France. I would let them go out hard, ride tempo at a nice pace and decent effort. Then I would go Eddy Merckx on them, hammer hard, fly right by them, start riding harder and faster toward the finish line we created and raised my arms in victory as I crossed the line. They stopped when they finished but I kept riding on an on because cycling was my passion then, still is and always will be. I moved from Texas to Colorado in 1984 after I graduated from high school in 1983 and got to do some world class cycling. I moved back to Texas in 2012 and miss Colorado. I've always dreamed of one day getting to ride my bike on the same roads ridden on by pro cycling heroes in both the padt and present. I'm still dreaming because it hasn't happened and likely won't because I don't have a US passport, can't afford to take a nice long trip to Europe so I can do all the things I'd want to do and not enough vacation hours.

thank you for posting this... and congrats on the ride. Accomplishing this climb is still one of my top ten things in my life. And , at 53 y/o , I did it after, over 11 years of training and hundreds of long rides across US states..... and , it is very , very hard. Almost quit at that first 14% upgrade. I was training on 9 % hills at home , of which the longest was about 1/2 mile... up and down. One of the guys in our group , lived in Florida , and he trained on interstate entrance ramps. The only uphills he could find. Of course, he was 26 y/o. I contend age makes a difference. And , now after 30 years on a bike, I have never heard any negative comments .... from anyone... about me and my two wheels.

I cant believe the negative commentary on this video. The cyclists I've been exposed to in my several years of training and racing have been nothing but supportive and inclusive. Everyone from a broke student on a 3rd hand used bike with downtube shifters to the $100MM business owner riding one of his 10 top of the line bikes is treated the same. Because of this, I assumed the stereotype of cyclists being condescending, exclusive, snooty, etc, were false accusations. Unfortunately I have been proven wrong by many of those in the comment section. I hope you can all realize how deprecating your behavior is to cycling, and change it for the better.

At (almost!) 57, I’ve just taken up cycling as my running days are coming to an end. I stumbled across this video whilst researching how to climb hills (I live on top of one, so no alternative for me!). I found your journey very inspirational but all I could hear myself say was “How the f*** has he done that!” - Brilliant dude ... I’m just off to ride my bike and make my world a little bigger! 😊

Great video, very inspiring! Well done to Fred and the team. My story is a cycling charity challenge. In February I signed up for a sponsored cycle ride from London to Paris, in support of the Alzheimer’s Society. I had done some cycling but wasn’t very fit and certainly hadn’t done anything close to 500km in 4 days. So I joined the local cycling club and got a gym trainer. I got fit, got the miles in my legs, and by July I was ready. My wife led the fund raising and we raised £1850. Sadly my mum, who suffered from dementia, died two weeks before the ride, which became a real tribute. The ride was very tough but brilliant and I arrived in Paris in the first group of four. Between us the 150 people who took on the challenge raised £250k. All of us felt a real sense of achievement and for 2019 I am planning two more charity cycling challenges.

Incredible episode. Absolutely loved it. Great work guys.

Top man. Well done mate. Inspiring stuff and a great theme and message 👍

Great challenge. Thanks for sharing. At 58 I road up Alpe D'Huez for the first time 3 days after you did... the day after the tour went through. I did have to stop and take in the beautiful vistas and catch my breath. Thank you for the great inspirational videos! Alpe D'Huez should be on everyone's list, especially if you are a cyclist or not.

Congratualations!!! See a goal, believe in it, achieve it, no matter how much difficult it appears. Great inspirational video!!

well done, a tough climb and minimal training... proves that attitude is everything in the first place. Kudos to you.

Absolutely fantastic job, the most iconic climb! Love the Tour, and that climb. Cool interviews with star riders. Way to Suffer!! God bless

This was so brilliant, deep respect for the man. I’ve ridden up this mountain and loved it, I hope you did too.

It's always great to see more people taking up cycling! Congratulations on making it up Alpe D'Huez Fred, that's one hell of an achievement. I hope you have managed to keep on cycling since, it's a sport which becomes even more fun the more you do it! P.S. one tip, use smaller gears next time, it will take the strain out of your quadriceps if you can spin a lower gear :)

Amazing! Going from never being on a road bike to 4 weeks later cresting Alpe D'Heuz that's is simply incredible, CONGRATULATIONS!

Great vid Fred, good effort and a fantastic achievement. It may take me a couple of years but I will ride that Alpe. One of the reasons to work to live....

Well done young man. 90 kilograms up that climb is hats off in my book.

Enjoyed this video I doubt I will ever get to do a ride like this but watching someone new to cycling do it is very inspiring

Nice one. I climbed it for the 1st time this year too and it's no joke. Great vid and ride.

Congrats. As someone who has come into doing cycling events just recently, that was amazing. I watch the Tour and think Wow that would be an awesome goal to meet. Very inspiring. Thank you.

Great job and great video. Thanks, enjoyed that!

Well done, my friend! I’m heading to L’Alpe and then La Plagne in August. I climbed these cols in 1989 (I retraced Stephen Roche’s ’87 Tour for charity in June that year). I’ll be 60 years old in September and this is top of my bucket list… just one more time… just once more!

Inspiring! New experiences make for a better life. My goal is to climb Cho Oyu (8201m), Tibet in Sept 2019. Never been anywhere near that before but have done a lot of cycling.

Outstanding. Keep this great work coming.

Chapeau!! Amazing effort! You should be incredibly proud of yourself!

Thank you for doing this. It was very well done. I am presently training for a ride up Mt. St. Helens in the US. I too am not built like a cyclist. I have many pounds to shed and miles to train. I will be using Zwift as my carrot. I will be turning 60 before the ride, incentive to complete it is high. I attempted the same climb 5 years ago. I live in the midwest so in June the thought of dealing with hypothermia never entered my mind. The day I took off was 42F and a lite rain. I can't wear rain gear or I over heat so I wore a cycling jersey and the lightest UA turtleneck I could find. At mile marker 30 I wanted to sleep. Not fatigued, I just wanted to sleep. I made it 3 more miles, my son got to me in the car, I was in trouble. 4.5 hours later I quit shuddering. I have proper gear this time and I plan to be physically prepared. This is how I will make my world bigger!!

I well and truly take my cycling cap off to you! Fantastic effort! Certainly got me thinking for this summer...

The Zwift finish is the village finish. you finished the tour de france finish.. well done, but to compare times, take your time trough the village :)

Inspirational video, and fabulous interviews with the stars of cycling

chapeau sir! a great effort. Having done this climb I know how hard it is, it's worth all the effort just to experience the descent. Inspirational stuff. 👏

*I really like the **Latest.Bike** . It is just amazing... very light weight so it is easy to take it upstairs in the apartment where I live. It looks great and it feels great while riding. I definitely recommend this bike. You won’t be disappointed 🙂*

Well done you . I love cycling and take. Up road biking since May 2018 . Love pushing and pushing up the mountain. Cycling a place called Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. From the UK 🇬🇧 and luckily always having most of the time brilliant cycling congratulations here . Seeing you accomplish this challenge was so exciting and well done 👍

What a experience! Great that you could achieve this goal and pushed yourself to the limits!

I'm not a road rider but I have taken my mtb to Austria a number of times and know how hard the mountains can be. What you should have done though is get there a week earlier and ride so you can acclimatise to the altitude rather than going as you did, it makes a big difference. Either way though I take my hat off to you mate, that was an epic effort and you pulled it off, big respect.

great video and kudos to Fred, that's some effort....dont listen to the doubters! As for another challenge what about LEJOG...there's a cycling challenge!

Well done, Fred. Did a similar story for Wheels magazine in Australia a few months back. Horrendous was the word that sprang to mind for me as well. I was also on a borrowed bike - from Peugeot in this instance - that had less than ideal gearing for the climb.

Great video. I did it in June and going again in May and know the suffer. To do it as a novice is impressive

Another great episode. Keep it going Discovery 👍

That was a proper effort. Big thumbs up from Australia!

I am competing in an 3 stage amateur race next July, one of the stages is time trial up Alp D'Huez, cant wait! Excellent video!

Fair play to you! Well done I certainly couldn't do this! Must be proud. I have just came across your videos this evening after looking up wing walking haha. And I'm interested, I have sat here and watching a few of your videos now. Thanks for the inspiration, I am always looking for ways to push myself further, last year I did the Yorkshire 3 peaks in under 12 hours, after being a fairly new beginner to the mountains. After starting my first ever mountain Ben Nevis in September 22. With no mountain experience and no training. Next month I will be attempting Kilimanjaro. Have you ever thought about giving something like this ago? Keep up the inspiration and positivity 💪great work

I'll be making my world bigger by competing in Paris-Brest-Paris in August 2019. "PBP" is a 1200km bike ride across France which has been taking place every 4 years since it began in 1891. It's a ride against the clock over nearly 4 days and nights.. My record distance so far is 600km and with 250 days to go I have heaps of long distance training and hill climbing to prepare myself for what, for me personally, will be a tough, but exciting challenge ahead.

I think you can be proud of yourself. Thanks for sharing your experience. your age and basic physical condition might have helped you (maybe a lot) I do some cycling from time to time. Mostly on paved roads (but on a very basic=quite heavy mountain-bike) I ride 20 - 30 km. I live in a hilly surrounding but I (try to) avoid the steeper slopes as much as possible. I have my age against me (turning 59 in 3 months). I have no idea if I could manage Alpe d Huez and if yes, how long it would take me. Deep respect for your victory.

awesome!! i was there aswell, you should have done it the morning of the race. The experience is even better and the atmosphere makes you feel like you are part of the tour.

Altitude, anticipation, and you did it! Good job!

I agree with a few other comments. Well done but it would be so much more sensible and even easier with the right gearing. Grinding away at a slow cadence is not the way to climb mountains. It's guaranteed to knacker your legs.

I’m currently training for the 2019 Tour De Shore ride. It’s a 65 mile bicycle ride from center city Philadelphia, PA to the New Jersey Shore. It is the last Sunday of July and it raises money for Children.

yeah, Fred! well done and keep cycling!

Great Video!! Congrats Fred!!!!

Inspirational video and great time too!!!

I've been planning to do this for my 60th birthday. I'm very apprehensive, but this helped, thanks.

Well done !! Really good effort to finish!! Did you take any rest/recovery in the days leading up to the challenge ?

Wow, congrats on finishing! Cheers!

This is more like a life lesson :) Big up mate!

Great job! I made my world bigger in 2016 when I ran the London Marathon. I'd never run further than 6 miles before that. I rode the Fred Whitton Challenge a fortnight later too - my first ever ride over 100 miles. =) For my next personal challenge I'm contemplating a vEveresting on Zwift (i.e. climbing up a hill over and over until I have climbed 8848m - the height of Everest). I reckon that'll take me around 18 hours.

I think this was a tremendous achievement. I'd love to see the "background" video with a delve into the details of the equipment he used, the training plan followed, diet and overall changes his body experienced. Also; Did it inspire him to take up road cycling on a regular basis?

I set myself the target of Alpe D'Huez next year after 9 Months training, I am now three months in. My first time on Zwift after a break from cycling of approx. 18 years, I managed to ride 3 mins 34s, got off the bike and felt like I was dying. I aim to lose 9kg during the next 6 months , I have lost 3.5Kg in the first three months while not really trying for weight loss, trying more for fitness, weight loss comes next. I am now up to ride 2 hours without stopping and am working on improving my power and still further endurance. I am very impressed how quickly Fred adapted to the bike doing Alp du Zwift on the first attempt, maybe he should loose some weight and will be a real talent. Anyway great video it is very motivating for me to watch that.

An incredible achievement, Alpe d'Huez really is something else!

Salute for you.... Great work..👍👍

Very inspiring video and its great to know that will power has a lot to do with it. I’m in my 4th month of training to ride up mount teide on Tenerife for charity at the end of January on my 50th Birthday training is hard as time is short with work and life gets in the way, but after Christmas it will be full on training. I hope I make my 50 km climb wish me luck !!!!

Great video. I bet I could go downhill on Alpe D'Huez with no training!

awesome episode - would love to see Fred try some firefighting training or even get him on the ski slopes!

Well done, good for you. A v hard task but given the time you gave yourself to train I think you did amazingly well.

The community of road cyclists is huge. From the pros down to the 50 year old going out with his buddies for a 40 mile ride. There seems to be a closer link between the elites and the Sunday rider than in any other sport. We feel like one big family. The top pros are so approachable and accommodating.

Wow, you must be strong as frick riding up Huez with that cadence! Climbing it is no small feat even to seasoned cyclists, so definitely chapeau!

Well done Fred, very inspiring; watched this as ive just been invited on a weeks cycling holiday in the alps based at the foot of alp duez, not much of a cyclist and 55yrs young, but i want to do it so bad! 10 weeks to go so need some advice, particularly on what gearing would be suitable. Not sure what ive got at the minute but defo think ill need some lower gearing than what ive got on my felt z85? (Might need to check that) :-)

bloody good effort old boy, well done xxxx

Having ridden most of the major climbs in the TDF myself [including the Alpe d'Huez, Mont Ventouz, Galibier, Tourmalet etc] I know how tough they are. But at approx 57kg's wringing wet I have always considered myself a 'climber' - and was lucky enough to meet and ride alongside the greatest 'grimpeur' ever, Marco Pantani at the 1998 and 2000 editions of the great race. So chapeau to you Fred for all the hard work - but I think the biggest tip to help you is to LOSE weight!!

Great video!

Great effort. Great work.

@8:51 the defending Paris-Roubaix champion says ‘just don’t think about it, get on the bike and ride bicycle’. Easy

Amazing video!

The lightest bike with the lowest gearing you can get ! Great video.

You could always give the BC Bike Race a go I think that would make a great challenge and exiting footage to watch

Nuff respect son. You’ve inspired me!

Well done fella....Really hope you make cycling you new passion....you'll never look back :)

I wanna do the same thing when this whole pandemic is over and this gave me the believe I could actually make it, thank you and massive respect!

What a truly inspiring gentleman you are :-)! Thank you for the great video

Aww, well done you! I`m doing this in June this year and I love all the wee tips. "Go slow at the start", I really dont think I`ll have trouble with that one! Can I ask what time of day you actually started though, maybe riding in the midday sun isn`t advisable for someone of my skin complexion (I once got sunburnt in the Shetlands................in winter, I kid you not!)

Great effort!

Top job! I've been riding DH for a few years and I still wouldn't be able to make it up any of those hills

Great job!

Well done 👍 riding up the tough climb I love to cycle up alp de huezs

Holy Shiit - you the man! Keep it going brother.

Full respect 🙌, well done mate

Amazing!!! Now, are you still cycling? It grabs you like a bug. I cycle a lot and plan on doing the Alp D'huez in 2020 despite having a reconstructed pelvis and right knee. I won't lay down and love challenging myself.

Magnificent effort. Pure intestinal fortitude.

If you want to try something a little different , go to the Canadian Yukon and get on a dog sled. Crazy nervous feeling hanging on while 6 to 8 dogs are going crazy waiting to be released. It was a very surreal experience, one that I will never forget.

Respect! Great Video! I have one question: you ride a canyon, which frame size is it and what’s your height, please?

Next time you try it use a compact front with an 11-40t cassette in the rear. That should make it a bit more comfortable for your legs and lungs. I hope to one day climb that mountain too. Congrats!

Way to go man!! You are so lucky to be able to put such a great experience under your belt. Also, I’m not surprised it was tough for you: You’re probably carrying an extra 15kgs just in your arms alone! Haha You look massive on a bike! Us cyclists are completely used to tiny chicken arms haha

Well done man. Kudos.

It's easier to fall in the temptation of just wanting to do that big climb, or that big ride. If you really wanna do it, fine. But if you're in for the long-term or if you are serious, you want to ride a lot. To ride a lot and to improve a lot you need to be consistent with training and finish rides with adequate level of exhaustion. That means that even though you could probably do some crazy ride, if that ride is way behind your current level you will not gain much from it and you will also need lots of time to recover. If instead you are consistent you will eventually get to a point where you can do the ride(that used to be so challenging) one day and then again the next day you could also do it without a problem. It took me a while to learn this but if you don't believe it then just try it. Be honest with yourself, listen to your body and you will see it's the proper way to do things.