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Today’s stage in the Tour de France is the legendary L’Alpe d’Huez.

It is a favorite of tour fans for the sheer statistics. 15.5k (~10miles), 21 turns, and an average gradient of 10%. This entire stage (which happens to be an individual time trial this year) is all hill.

This year the official fan count lining the road to cheer these guys on is 900,000. That is 90,000 people per mile, 17 people per foot. Even falsely assuming that they’re split evenly on each side of the road makes it ~8 people per foot. Insane.

The top riders are going to be finishing this stage at or under 40 minutes, which if you do the math is about 15mph. To put this into perspective, most mornings it takes me about 35-40 minutes to do my normal commute which is about 10.5 miles. When I have a good day it’s 30min. This remind you, is on the flat Burke Gilman Trail (I console myself in the fact that going in in the morning is ever so slightly “uphill”). Insane.