CyclistClassic climb: The majestic hairpins of Les Lacets de MontvernierWhat a fantastic climb that the Tour de France has decided to include this year. Les Montvernier, 17 corners, it took no less than six years to build. They started building it in 1928 and finished it in 1934.Its classic stuff from the late, great Paul Sherwen, part Tour de France Bible, the huge almanac given to teams and commentators that details everything from sign-on times to which order of monks lived in what abbey; part unfiltered and impassioned response to the pictures being beamed from Le Tours helicopter.One of Les Lacets 18 hairpins, which are packed into just 3.8km of road.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistAs Romain Bardet stormed up the early slopes to an eventual stage win, countless viewers wondered why theyd never seen this climb before. The eagle-eyed will have watched a low-key debut at the Critrium du Dauphin a few weeks prior, but for most fans Les Lacets de Montvernier had just been put on their map.Leaving Pontamafrey at the start of the climb.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistHairpin centralLes Lacets de Montvernier happily exists as a standalone in the pantheon of great climbs, but ask local riders and theyll mention the Col du Chaussy in the same breath. One flows so seamlessly into the other that its hard churlish even to separate them, which is why, unlike that Tour de France in 2015, this Classic Climb takes on both.Christ awaits those who conquer the laces.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistEchoing this sentiment is a little brown sign in the village of Pontamafrey that reads col du Chaussy par Les Lacets literally the Chaussy pass via the laces so, taking heed of its arrow, you pedal round a bend, through an open candy-striped barrier and onto the first of 18 hairpins. Hang about, 18 hairpins? Was Sherwen wrong?Les Lacets de Montvernier in all its hairpinned glory.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistWell, it depends how you count, but it seems more fun to say its only three shy of Alpe dHuez, and even more amazing to know the hairpins are packed into a mere 3.8km of road. In that, Les Lacets is one of the shortest categorised climbs to appear in the Tour, and perhaps the shortest Category 2 climb in Tour history. Its hard to think of a road with a higher hairpin-to-metre ratio.A marker for the Col du Chaussy part-way up the Lacets, indicating that these are considered one and the same climb by many here.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistGiven the steepness of the cliffs it climbs, it had to be this way. Each hairpin carefully ratchets up the rider, vertical metre by vertical metre, more like a ladder than a road, to dissect a sheer 277m face into manageable 8% chunks. Its odd looking ahead because, unlike most Alpine climbs where you can see the road stretch up and away, the Lacets disappears; the tightly coiled corners combined with the cliffs vertiginous angle means it blocks itself from view. The only tell there is a road at all is the odd glimpse of the stone buttresses that had to be built to support the apexes of the hairpins.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistThe higher you ascend, the more obvious it becomes as to why the Tour took so long to visit. The Lacets deserves its name not just for sinew but for lace-like narrowness, which proved tricky for Tour organisers. The solution was that it had to appear with no fans there simply wasnt room for them on the roadside.A few more hairpins and high enough now to savour the stillness, its clear not a lot of traffic uses this road. And if there was a car, youd hear its labouring engine a mile off, with plenty of time to find a place to pull in safely.Nearing the top of the Lacets.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistThe lookoutBy hairpin 12 (or possibly 13, youve lost count) it feels like youre nearing the end of the lace. Pontamafrey lies below, a two-dimensional tile of rooftops, while the ratio of rock to tarmac to sky becomes increasingly even. You round the final hairpin to be greeted by a crucifix positioned beneath a small, white stuccoed building. This is the Chappelle de la Balme, which presides over the valley from its heavenly perch.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistThe chapel looks like it must have the best view in the house, but carry on through a second red-white barrier (the Lacets get closed on occasion for rockfall or to allow the odd large vehicle down), and youll see a right hand turning. Ride down this gravel path as far as your tyres will allow, then unclip and walk. Heres the best view of the road youve just climbed, the laces finally in their full, squiggly glory, a monument to the clich of the spaghetti road. Related Posts Classic climb: Col du Glandon, a Tour appetiser that always serves up a feast Classic climb: Col de la Madeleine, an Alpine Tour regular thats not as sweet as it sounds Big Ride: The remarkable Lacets du Montvernier Part deuxLes Lacets dispatched, you wind your way through the village of Montvernier, which on a summer day is a charming mix of pastoral and fandom. Fields roll away into the distance, dotted with bundles of hay ready for baling, intermingling with streets bedecked in relics of the Tour. You know the kind, the old bicycle hoisted up a tree, now rusting through its hasty yellow paintjob; the wind-tattered bunting in all the jersey colours strung between lampposts.Passing through the village of Montpascal, and stopping for a refresh at its fountain.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistYoull have already seen the little roadside markers saying Col du Chaussy part way up Les Lacets, but its only on the outskirts of Montvernier that part two of this Classic Climb starts proper. Village in the rearview, the road stretches out to begin a more rhythmic ascent that is, less steep and without the staccatod apexes of hairpins that will notch up 800m over the remaining nine-ish kilometres.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistIf the entry for this part of the climb seems short, its only because the scenery on the Col du Chaussy is lovely, if unremarkable. For a few kilometres youre blessed with a panoramic road, the perfect gallery to view distant peaks protruding through their personal nimbus, but before long the dial turns down to pleasant bucolic. The far-reaching views are lost to trees and the sensation returns to feeling like youre climbing through hills, not mountains.Several more villages come and go within a handful of houses before the final kilometres make their way through more rolling pastures towards the auberge, which marks the high point of the col. Its a great place to stop, take a drink and savour the view, before pondering the begging question: do you go on?Little more than a kilometre to go until the top, with Montpascal in the background.Juan Trujillo Andrades / CyclistYouve ticked off two climbs in one, but why not add a third? The Col du Madeleine is just yonder, and if you have the stamina and tyres for it, theres a superb back road rarely used by anyone 18km and turning to gravel just after the hamlet of Bonvillard. Now that would be a story.The post Classic climb: The majestic hairpins of Les Lacets de Montvernier appeared first on Cyclist.