World's Best Climber + 3kg Bike = Alpe d’Huez KOM?

We're going to use a 3.6-kilogram bike to attempt to take the KOM on the most famous Tour de France climb, Alpe d'Huez. When I say we, I actually mean Andrew Feather, the best amateur climber in the world. How will he stack up against the world's best riders in the Tour de France? Can he beat them? Let's find out. Previously on GCN Plus, assisted by a crack team of amateur hill climb champions, Andrew Feather attempted to get the KOM of Alpe d'Huez with a horrific headwind. The weather was against him and his domestique struggled. He fell agonizingly short of this prestigious KOM. The KOM currently stands at 39 minutes 54 seconds and was set by the American cyclist Sepp Kuss during the last time the Tour de France came up here. Now, the official fastest time is said to be Marco Pantani, who did it in 37.35, which is absolutely rapid, but it's not on Strava, so did it really happen? Anyway, there's something we need to clear out. It did happen. There's something we need to clear up though about Alpe d'Huez and that is there's a lot of confusion as to the length of the climb. Some people have gone up Alpe d'Huez and posted rides on Strava and said that they've gone quicker than Marco Pantani and Sepp Kuss, right? But the thing is they haven't because they finish there in Ville Alpe, which is 12 kilometers long. That's also the segment that Alpe du Zwift is modeled on, but the real finish is two kilometers further up the mountain and two more hairpin bends of the famous 21 hairpin bends. So you can't compare if you're riding against Tour de France riders that have had to go an extra two kilometers. So that is the section. That is the official section. It's 14 kilometers long. That's what we're going to do. No one wants to finish too soon. So we're back. And this time I think Feather has an excellent chance because I will be his domestique. And yes, while I have got considerably fitter, I'm in decent shape for me at the moment. I could only last about four minutes at Andrew Feather pace, which is why I will be riding this, an e-bike. Although this is no ordinary e-bike. It's the new Canyon Endurace OnFly. It features a TQ HPR40 motor that can give me 200 watts of assistance. And crucially for a climb like this, it's pretty light for an e-bike, which looks rather nice as well. Anyway, I think armed with this, I should be able to give him a decent draft up the mountain. Now, before you say, wait, that's cheating. In the Tour de France, a lot of the other riders riding up will have domestiques. The ones setting the fastest times up there will be doing that with domestiques. And on the lower portions of the climb, there will be a bunch that they're riding in. And there's the convoy with all the motos and everything giving a significant draft boost when you're riding at the speeds that Andrew Feather rides at. So that's my bike with the extra assistance I'll need for the task. But I expect you also want to know about the bike that Andrew Feather will be riding. Well, it's been built by Jason Wozniak and his team over at Fairwheel Bikes, which is an amazing bike shop over in Tucson in Arizona that sells lots of very nice bikes. But one of the things they do is custom bespoke builds and lightweight builds like this. So definitely check them out if you're interested in that sort of thing. But we've got a full video breakdown on GCN Tech of all the details and all the mods on this bike in all the details. So if you want to find out more about it, because it is absolutely nuts. I mean, the bearings in it are like fully ceramic. The tires are for indoor velodromes, but they're super light and super fast. Go check that out after you've watched this. Here you go, mate. Thank you. What do you make of that? Wow, that is incredible. How much is it? I love how enthusiastic you sound. You're just cold, like a killer. You're just like, it's like a hitman that comes after climbs. Just like, wow, that is incredible. It's pretty light, yeah. It's insane, right? It's way lighter than anything you've ridden before, right? Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, definitely lighter than anything I've ridden before. Do you reckon it's on? I think it's on, certainly with a bike. It's light as that, yeah. Let's go. And so we were set. We had a heat-adapted world-class hill climber in peak form, a bike three kilograms lighter than what he'd previously used, and good weather conditions. What could possibly go wrong? We have a problem. That is Alpe d'Huez behind us there. However, this is Andrew Feather's original chainring. It's made from carbon fiber. During his test ride, his openers ride last night, it's delaminated. We fitted our second spare chainring, which is a combination of carbon fiber and alloy. However, on his warm-up before about to do the attempt just now, that too has delaminated. Now it's bent and the chain just isn't staying on at all and just keeps dropping, meaning that the bike is unrideable, which devastatingly means, I think we've answered the question, can a bike be too light? Before that happened, how did it feel? I mean, it felt incredible to ride. I mean, 3.6 kilos, I think it's absolutely amazing, but obviously the gears were slipping, which was pretty frustrating. And then this morning, Jane kept on shipping, and then I knew that we had some problems, really. But really disappointed because it is an amazing bike, fantastically put together, but yeah, I think it's just too light. This could spell the end of our record attempt, but I've got a cunning plan. I'm so gutted. It feels like this is just a massive anti-climax now, because the guys at Fairweal have done an amazing job and I feel bad for them. We're pushing the boundaries of how light a bicycle can be, and it feels like in some ways we've found that boundary. But got a plan B, as I said, so let me show you this. I also brought with me my bike, which is this beautiful Orbea Orca, which I've actually been trying to make as light as possible so that I could have a go on Alpe d'Huez. And it's about 6.1 kilos. Now, Feather rides a smaller bike than me. This is a 55. He normally rides like a 52 or 51. But I've lowered the saddle and I've put him on it. It's got the same crank length he uses. He's had a go on it and he actually loves it. He feels really comfortable on this. And that's mainly because although it is a little bit too big for him, we've managed to slam the saddle all the way forwards. He rides mainly out the saddle. The size is not super critical for him in terms of getting the power out. Now, I'm just going to tweak it, lower the saddle for him now, and just check everything's okay. Bonus, taking the bottle cages off, because these Topeak bottle cages, with the titanium bolts, they are 11 grams each. So that'll be 22 grams saved for him. He loves that. I've also taken the top cap off here as well, because you don't need that. It's just for cosmetics. So, yes, he saved another gram there. Right, this is on. I'm excited. He feels good. He loves the bike. It's really stiff. Oh, I took the bar tape off as well. 100 grams saved. Let's go. It may not have been perfect, but we were here now, and Feather was still keen to give it a crack. He felt confident and decided, let's do it. All right, mate, you good? I'm good. Right, we'll set off, steady running from here, and then we'll hit it when we get to the base. Okay. Try and build up some speed behind me. Yes. Let's do it. Right, on you go. This is good, mate. I've got your power on. Because Andrew's riding my bike, it's connected to my power meter on my Wahoo, so I can see the power he's doing. He's actually helping me pace him, because I know what he's trying to do. And the trick is on this first section, not to go too hard, because it's the steepest bit of the climb. You can get it back. This is mega, this. All right, I'm just easing off just a touch for you here. I'm going to try and get you around. Get that power there that you're on. Get into a nice rhythm. Kick out the corner. Ah, this is amazing, mate. It's actually amazing that I can ride at this world-class pace using an e-bike, and it's giving me an idea of what it must be like to be one of the best in the world. Because the speed that we were going at was around 20 kilometers an hour, and seeing in real time the power that Feather was putting out was incredible. It was like having a front row seat. Little squeeze here, because you'll get a rest on the hairpin. A little micro rest. Yeah, that's good though. You feel good right now. That's good, mate, because that's what it's supposed to be like right now. Power's amazing, mate. We are six kilometers in. Feather is absolutely killing it. Currently averaging 395 watts. He is absolutely smashing it. This is world-class. It's incredible to see. I'm just doing my best to not go too hard and put him in the red and just keep the pacing nice and consistent. You're doing a good job. Do you want some ice water? How can you talk? You absolute freak. Do you want some ice water? I'm all right, thank you. All right, shout when. Start hurrying in a minute. The ice water will help. I had ice water in my bottles to cool Feather down mid-effort. He is heat-adapted, having done some heat training with a core sensor in prep for this event, something that is absolutely crucial when doing an effort in heat like today. It was 28 degrees. Well over halfway now. This is where legends are born, mate. Average pace is going up very nicely. A little bit more. Breathe a little bit more. Looking back at the footage, it dawned on me that I could have removed further weight by taking the saddle and seat post out. I can't believe anyone can spend so long out of the saddle. It is ridiculous. Yes, keep at that. This hairpin is the big one. Nice, nice, nice. At this point, it was going well. We were up on Feather's previous pace and had paced this effort to perfection. Ready to do a negative split in the final three kilometers. But then, disaster struck. Turns out the French love cheese so much they decided to block the road with a market selling it. Meaning we had to do a froom and get off and run. Following a quick remount, we then had two kilometers left to race to the finish and make up as much time as possible. Keep going, keep digging. Just dig in now. I'll TT you in now. That was a phenomenal ride. That's a f****** market. You just don't expect there to be a market, do you? Well, you have to actually get off the bike and walk up steps. Mate, that was unbelievable. Irrespective, I don't know what the time was, but like- Way down the last time, like two minutes. Really? Even though more power, 390. It's just like that market screwed us. Once the dust had settled, analysis of the ride suggested Andrew was on par with his previous best coming into the market, averaging an eye-watering 397 watts and 19 kilometers an hour. At 66 kilograms, that puts him at six watts per kilo, which is world-class. All the more impressive when you consider he was on a bike that wasn't even his and was too big for him. Chapeau. I was trying to push you, yes. I was trying to lift it. I could tell you were a bit ropey, so I backed off a bit. Yes, it's really hard. You did such a great effort because it made such a difference for you to be so consistent in the pacing as well. When I did it last time, when we're riding as a four or as a group, it was more jumpy with people coming off, people coming on kind of thing. When you were riding, it was just so fluid, so consistent. That made it felt so controlled virtually all the way except for the last few k, where it started hurting really. The thing is though, is I think as well, your power was massively dented by that market section. I think your power would have been even higher. I think you would have been really close to pushing 400, which is just by itself. It was neutralized power, 395, but obviously the bottom bit, it was a run in, so you're just going very gently there. It'd be interesting to look at segments when we get back kind of thing, but I certainly did more power than I did last time. A lot of it is probably thanks to yourself with that really consistent pacing kind of thing throughout. It really, really did help. I felt I could speak. I felt the control wasn't really hurting. Then the last bit was just suddenly bites you. I suppose I'm not used to the longer climbs kind of thing. That's where it starts really counting, but it's interesting. I hope you've enjoyed this video. If you've been impressed by Andrew's effort, then please give this video a thumbs up. Your support means everything and allows us to come and do crazy stuff like this. A massive thanks to Fairwheel as well. Sorry that we couldn't use the bike. I'm so gutted about that. It's an amazing bike nonetheless and really, really cool. Yes, I hope you've enjoyed it. Right, should we go get a croissant? Let's go get a croissant, yes.