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CyclistBig Ride: A climb and a half on Alpe dHuezI thought there was only one way off this mountain: via its famous 21 hairpins. But rather than turning left out of our hotel to descend past the ski lifts and building sites of Alpe dHuez, we head upwards. Within moments the road has narrowed to a single lane and all around us are green pastures, colourful Alpine flowers and distant mountaintops. Were here to celebrate perhaps the most famous climb ever to feature in the Tour de France Alpe dHuez but our first port of call is the Col de Sarenne, the Alpes lesser-known B-side. Related Posts Big Ride: Everything but the Alpe Classic climb: Alpe dHuez, the most famous climb in pro cycling? Gravel Big Ride: Off the beaten track on Alpe dHuez The col itself, which we reach just 15 minutes later, is a broad green saddle a shade under 2,000m in height, overlooked by peaks that still bear traces of last winters snow. We have it to ourselves aside from an oblivious marmot and a few skylarks. A tiny roadside hut is hung with hand-painted signs promising us cheese and cake, but seems uninhabited. Clment, my ride companion for the day, laughs kindly when I point out just how different this is from the bustling resort weve only just left.The gritty descent from the Col de Sarenne has been roughed up by recent storms.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistThis road has been here much longer than the main climb, but is less often used these days. During winter its covered in snow but it is a technical challenge in any conditions, especially today because no one has bothered to clear the drifts of gravel that collected on its hairpins during storms a week ago. We descend mindfully southwards into the valley, and eventually Lac du Chambon comes into view, glittering in the morning sunshine.Overlooking Huez village from Pas de la Confession.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistWe cross its hydroelectric dam and peer into the lakes water, under the surface of which lie three villages and a lavender distillery that were submerged when the dam was built a century ago. In 1935 the Tour de France paid a visit to the site, long before its love affair with a certain set of hairpins along the valley. Back then the main road up to Alpe dHuez, which well see a lot of later on, was still being renovated from a gravel track into the highway it is today. But were not there yet. Clment signals right and we start our first real ascent of the day, on a quiet road that wriggles its way through deciduous woodland and past chalets whose gardens brim with poppies and lupins. Weve started early, hoping to avoid the forecasted mid-afternoon showers, and the tarmac is already warm. Tiny lizards scuttle across it and butterflies dance before us as we gain height, our gaze drawn to the tidy green valley below.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistWhats that grey section? I ask, pointing to where fields meet what appears to be desert. Last weeks storms caused a landslide, Clment tells me, sweeping away a road and flooding the small village of La Brarde. Everyone who lived there had to be evacuated, and its not yet clear when or even if theyll be able to return to their homes.I become suddenly aware of our fragility within this magnificent landscape. Facing us across the valley is a huge whorl of striped rock, laminated like a croissant, showing as clearly as any textbook how layers of ocean sediment are twisted into peaks. The mountains are constantly changing, sometimes so slowly we cant see it happening, sometimes so suddenly that there is no time to get out of the way.If the Alpe doesnt have enough hairpins for you, there are even more of them to kick off the descent from the Col de Sarenne.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistWe watch a tiny swallow dancing in the thermals where rock meets sky, performing the kind of aerial acrobatics that it could only possibly be doing for fun. All at once, the tarmac tilts sharply downhill and Clment becomes a swallow himself, swooping in and out of the folds of the cliff with the joy of one who is completely in his element.I follow at a more cautious pace, and we pop out in the village of La Garde, which sits on Alpe dHuezs fifth hairpin (the corners count down from 21 to zero as you climb). This seems as good a place as any for a coffee stop, so we sip espressos on a shady terrace, watching a stream of Lycra-clad bodies making their way up the mountain, and knowing that eventually we will have to join them. It will be the first of two ascents well be making of this infamous road, although this time its really only half the climb, as weve skipped the first brutal kilometres, where the gradient averages over 10%.Alpe dHuez: part one (the half climb)The balcony road that leads to La Garde, overlooking the upper Romanche Valley. Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistThe main road to Alpe dHuez couldnt be more different from the gritty Col de Sarenne or the undulating balcony route to La Garde, and I can see why the Tour keeps coming back here. Although it was built to service a ski resort, this road could have been purposely designed as the cycling arena it has undeniably become. The surface is immaculate, the gradients are unrelenting and theres space for the thousands of fans who have lined the route to watch the likes of Pantani, Pinot and Pidcock soar to victory.Each of the signposts that count down the hairpins includes the names of riders whove won stages here, and its impossible not to wonder whose name will be added to hairpin 11 (alongside Bernard Hinaults) after the Tour de France Femmes pays a visit this year.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistAlpe dHuez made its first appearance at the mens Tour in 1952 when Fausto Coppis race-winning ascent was broadcast live by motorcycle film crews. Im convinced this is what led to the climb becoming so famous, as its not particularly photogenic. But the broad, reliable road up to the Alpe allowed cameras to get much closer to riders than most other climbs of the time, capturing every grimace and broadcasting them around the world.It has always been the most voyeuristic of climbs. Its where Armstrong gave Ullrich The Look; where LeMond and Hinault struck their 1986 truce. And as the final climb of the final stage of this years Tour de France Femmes, another dramatic chapter looks set to be written here.Hairpin 10, and pretty much halfway up Alpe dHuez.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistAs a small stone church comes into view and we continue to gain altitude, I cant help but wonder who will be left wearing the yellow jersey at the top. The first two editions of the race were decided by breakaways on iconic climbs by Annemiek van Vleuten in the Vosges in 2022, and Demi Vollering on the Tourmalet last year and this years route has been designed to continue the tradition. It also pays homage to the Dutch domination of womens pro cycling, as many of the fans who witness the Grand Dpart in Rotterdam will almost certainly end up here, on hairpin seven the one known as Dutch Corner.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistI try to imagine the roaring crowds but all I can hear is my own panting, which I am trying to conceal from Clment. Eventually we reach the village of Huez about halfway up the climb, where we leave the main drag and follow a small lane between wooden chalets. Soon were on another luscious balcony road with another view of the green Romanche Valley and the twisted rocks that overlook it.Alpe dHuez: part two (the full monty)The reason the valleys so flat, Clment explains, is that it was once a lake. Back in the 12th century an enormous landslide blocked the river, flooding the low-lying villages. Some years later, Lac Saint-Laurent, as it had come to be known, burst through the dam created by the landslide and destroyed much of Grenoble. Alpe dHuezs switchbacks as seen from the Route de la Confession.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistRoads such as this one, which traverse the steep sides of the valley rather than zigzagging from bottom to top, date from those times, when higher ground would have been judged as safer. That said, its called Route de la Confession because it was considered prudent to confess your sins before travelling along it.We glance back at Alpe dHuezs famous hairpins before embarking on a blissful 14km of descent. First we drift along a precarious pine-scented road that clings to the ribs of the mountain, before it broadens into a tumble of switchbacks that take us down to the valley floor, where a newly paved cycle path follows the Romanche back to the base of the Alpe for our second ascent.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistI doubt anyone has ever started riding up Alpe dHuez without some misgivings. The opening section is mercilessly steep and the first hairpin is visible for a cruelly long time before you reach it. The sky has clouded over and the day has cooled, and we give thanks for small mercies as we battle our way upwards.The cyclists are just as numerous as this morning, but are mostly slower than the ones we saw on our first ascent; either theyre less athletic than the morning crowd or like ourselves theyve ridden a lot further by this point.The descents in this case from Pas de la Confession are as exhilarating as the climbs are challenging.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistWere both tiring by the time we approach Viele-Alpe, the lowest quartier of the resort, and when Clment warns me that we still have 200m to climb, we pause on hairpin three (Pantani) to catch our breath and gaze at the hotels stacked on the horizon above us.Do you know why its called Alpe dHuez? Clment asks, before explaining that alpe refers to the mountain pastures where Huez villagers would take their animals to graze in the summer months.Hairpin 8, just before Dutch Corner, promises plenty of action for spectators at the Tour de France Femmes.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistWe ride on, with me musing over the shepherds who worked on these slopes long before there was a road, or a race, or even such thing as a bicycle. Another couple of hairpins takes us into the town, and all of a sudden the finish line arches across the road. Without a word we both begin sprinting up the hill, like so many have before us and as the next Tour de France Femmes winner will too, just a few weeks from now.Where legends including your own are made.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistWhat they saidA view of Alpe dHuez from pros and authorsNot in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would win up here. Geraint Thomas, winner, Alpe dHuez 2018It is a climb in the style of Hollywood. Jacques Augendre, journalistIts the Glastonbury Festival for cycling fans. Tim Moore, authorIt looked better than it really was on TV. Tom Pidcock, winner, Alpe dHuez 2022One thing I remember about Alpe dHuez was that it knows how to welcome cyclists I think that if the womens Tour de France were to happen today, there would be the same fanfare as the mens race on that climb. Marion Clignet, cyclist, Tour Cycliste Fminin 1995It was the first mountain I thought I wanted to ride, but it actually never happened. Now I can finally do it, and even in the Tour de France. Demi Vollering, winner, Tour de France Femmes 2023Just as winning on the Alpe has become the Holy Grail for any racer, in this most democratic of sports, riding up it has taken on the same status for every rider. It is undoubtedly cyclings greatest climb. Peter Cossins, authorI think its a pretty dull climb. Sure, theres the history of it, but in my mind its more of a cycling stadium than a beautiful road. Andy Hampsten, pro cyclistJuan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistHow we did itTravelCyclist travelled to Alpe dHuez by train from London, taking the Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord. Its an hours walk (or a 20-minute Metro journey) from there to Gare de Lyon, where there are five direct TGV trains per day to Grenoble, a journey of just under three hours. From there its an hours drive to Alpe dHuez (taxis cost between 150 and 200), and around two hours by bus, changing at Le Bourg dOisans.AccommodationWe stayed at Club Med Alpe dHuez, a modern and luxurious hotel perfectly located near the start of Route du Col de Sarenne. Its all-inclusive and cyclist-friendly, with a lavish buffet, a full workshop for bikes, a pool and reassuringly competent staff. Doubles start at around 1,962 for a week in July. Visit clubmed.co.uk/r/alpe-d-huez/s for info.ThanksCyclists ride was greatly enhanced by the company of Clment, our charming guide, and Eric of Bike Experience 21 (be21.store), who was a wealth of local history and kept us going with ptes de fruit. Particular thanks to Markus and Sara from Canyon for getting a bike to the top of Alpe dHuez in plenty of time, and the reception staff of Club Med for looking after it. Related Posts Big Ride: Everything but the Alpe Classic climb: Alpe dHuez, the most famous climb in pro cycling? Gravel Big Ride: Off the beaten track on Alpe dHuez The post Big Ride: A climb and a half on Alpe dHuez appeared first on Cyclist.

In the press conference following the Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard confirmed that he will not race the Vuelta a Espaa but may race soon in the World Tour (at the Clsica San Sebastin and Tour de Pologne); and that he is considering ending his season early after nine months of focused work on h...