My company is sponsoring a ride for our employees from Vienna to Prague, July 14th - 16th. As such, I’ve decided that this is the perfect opportunity to extend my trip and head to the French Alps the week of July 17th - 21st. I’ve booked a hotel in the town of Alpe d’Huez and have hired a bike for the week.
Tentative plan is to fly into Lyon on morning of the 17th, rent a car and drive up to Alpe d’Huez. On Weds, the TDF is coming through the area and doing the Croix de Fer, Telegraphe, and Galibier. So this leaves me with a few days of riding and exploring and wanted to get any advice from those on here on what is a must do, what to skip, and any general advice on a trip like this.
From what I’ve found thus far, the climbs that I’m really interested in are: Alpe d’Huez, Col de Sarenne, Col du Glandon, Col de la Croix de Fer, Telegraphe, Galibier, Lautaret and possibly the Col de Madeleine and d’Izoard (last two are a bit far and the TDF is doing the d’Izoard on Thursday). Any others I should be considering? Am I biting off too much trying to fit all of these in?
My plan for Weds was to drive up (very early morning) near the town at the top of the Col du Lautaret, ride up the south side of the Galibier and down the north side to the base of the Telegraphe. Turn around and ride up the Telegraphe and halfway up the North side of the Galibier to watch the TDF stage. After the tour passes, finish the ride up the Galibier and down to the top of the Col du Lautaret. This seems like it is plausible, but I am hoping others with more experience in the region can advise.
Sounds like you’re biting off an awful lot, but it’s definitely doable if you plan on riding all day every day. I’d skip the Sarenne and Glandon if you have to cross any off that list. Never done Izoard but I’m sure it’s epic.
One bit of advice would be to take a day off from road riding and rent a mountain bike. The shop in town will rent you one and anything else you might need to hit the trails. There are some crazy long runs if you take the lift up to the glacier (Pic Blanc).
As for food, definitely eat at La Cremaillere once. Expensive, but worth it.
you could do the original Marmotte route from Bourg d’Oisans, so you’d cross off Glandon, Telegraphe, Galibier and descend Lauteret, then up Alpe d’Huez, but, you could nip off before you drop into the Romanche valley to do the Sarenne (wild and quiet climb, especially when compared to A d’H), then drop off Alpe d’Huez into Bourg.
Don’t discount exploring the balcony roads around the valley, beautiful!
if you’d like a bit of unspoilt Alps, then up to Ornon and off to Villard Reymond, you can get around to Villard Notre Dame too and drop back into Bourg. there is a little fire road and some pitch black tunnels on the Notre Dame road.
Izoard from the North is a very much easier beast than from the south
Do the Marmotte fondo route.
You get Glandon, Telegraphe, Galibier, and AdH in one day.
Just start with the descent from your hotel in AdH (instead of Bourg D’Oisans) down through Villard-Reculas and head north to Glandon.
With the TdF around I wouldn’t want to do ANY driving, or looking for parking spots. Traffic will be insane.
Have fun. I did many of those climbs during a TDF trip in 2013. Tough but enlightening for a flatlander in the mountains for the first time.
We did Telegraph, Galibier, Croix de Fer, Glandon, Col de Sarrene, Alp d’Huez although I had to skip the Galibier due to some back issues that day. I’ve been bummed about that ever since.
I was in the area of the Alpe just last September and found it quite busy with cyclists at that time, as others have said it will be a bit insane mid summer and with the tour in the area. If that isn’t an issue for you then you’ll be just fine and able to enjoy the incredible routes available to you. I did lots of internet based research before I left and had a chance to ride all of the cols you’ve mentioned . Here is a link to what I think is the most informative site available regarding cycling in this area .Also consider the Vercors region as you’ll be right on the doorstep.
Enjoy. http://www.cycling-challenge.com/the-best-cycling-climbs-from-bourg-doisans/
P.S.also check out the trip reports for the Bourg d’oisans area at http://www.steephill.tv/2006/col-de-sarenne/
I would stay in the town of Bourg d’Oisans vs Alpe d’Huez unless of course you WANT to do that climb after EVERY ride to get back to hotel. Also you will recover from daily riding better sleeping closer to 2000 ft vs up at 6600 ft.Like others said, do the Marmotte route on the Galibier dayPlan a lot of time on the day you watch the TdF…the road closures and caravans go on for daysIf you have a chance do the climb up to Villard Reclusaz off the Col d’Ornon climb. It’s basically a 1 lane wide Alpe d’Huez equivalent ride that takes you up to a village on t he south side of Bourg d’Oisans where literally only 5 farm houses are. Just spectacularAlso after you climb Alpe d’Huez there is a ski service road (paved) that goes through the resort up high towards the top of one of the lifts. From there you can look over to Vaujany and also over to the top of Croix de Fer. You’re basically at the top of the range between the Oisans and Maurienne valleysIf you are in Vienna-Prague area, it’s a shame if you don’t pop over the Dolomites to Bormio and do Stelvio-Gavia-Mortirolo.
Now having typed all that, I feel like booking my own tickets in either June during Dauphine week or July around the TdF. Dauphine week is less crazy since itis before European vacation season.
You mean Villard Reymond off the Ornon, Villard reculas is on the balcony road from Huez village (off A d’H) which eventually drops down to the Lac du Verney at Allemont (the A d’H swim).
One of my best friends used to live on the Ornon, and now lives in Allemont
I agree, stay in Bourg d’Oisans. Saturday farmer’s market is amazing. What ever you do, ride Galibier. I rode all that you mentioned.
Bourg d’Oisans up the Col du Lautaret and a left turn onto Galibier. Humid and cloudy on the way up. Heavy rain, cold, teeth chattering descent that flamed out my taillight, (you’ll want a headlight and taillight for tunnels). Most epic ride I have ever had.
As long as you have a car, I’d stay in Alpe d’Huez instead of Bourg d’Oisans. It’s a much cooler town and you can’t beat the mountain air. But definitely drive down the mountain and park in
Bourg d’Oisans to start some of those rides. I didn’t have a car and ended up climbing Alpe d’Huez six times in one week. I was pretty f’n sick of it after the second time.
Look into cabin rentals instead of a hotel on sites like Air Bnb. Cabins are usually pretty cheap when it’s not ski season, although that might not be the case while the Tour is in the area.
I’ve stayed in Bourg and also just below the final hairpin before the approach to the village at the top, both times in July for the Marmotte.
In Bourg it was infernally hot at night - like trying to sleep in hell itself. You think I’m exaggerating. I’m not.
At the top it was just plain very very hot at night. And uncomfortable for it.
Both sets of accommodation were typically French, which means built of cheap pine so that you can hear any movement anywhere in the building, no AC, plastic covered mattresses to help you sweat, tiny rooms where you had to stand on the bed to open a wardrobe or bathroom door, and even tinier bathrooms where you could sit on the loo and turn the shower on or the sink taps.
I’m not a fan.
And as Dev says, if you stay at the top you have a delightful ride at the end of each day.
The Glandon is long. About 20k if I remember rightly. And yet the Galibier from the north side seems longer. The Alpe is no walk in the park either! You’re planning to do an awful lot of climbing - the only thing I’d say is that if you’re a climber and ride/train a lot in the mountains that’s fine, but if not you might find it a bit gruelling. YOLO though.
This is a great plan and really can’t go wrong around this area. I can’t remember, but I want to say one of the nights (maybe Thursday) you can do the AdH climb timed.
If you can add a day or two, you might want to look at flying into Geneva (longer drive to AdH than from Lyon) and on the way back to Geneva you could stop in Annecy. The Semnoz is on one side of the lake and the Forclaz is on the other. There is a bike path pretty much all the way around. It is one of the most beautiful places around but I would only do this if you have extra time as the climbs around AdH are epic for the TdF experience.
I stayed 10 days in Annecy this past summer.
Beautiful place, but way too busy in the summer.
Forget driving anywhere unless you like to be stuck in traffic for at least an hour.
Getting a table at a restaurant was an exercise in patience.
Semnoz was a pleasant climb. Forclaz good too.
My favourite was the Col de Grande Colombier though.
As the southern tip of the Jura’s, it had almost no traffic and the most stunning views.
I could see Mont Blanc off in the distance (150km?) and the mountain lakes below.
Did any of you do the Lacets de Montverneir? I didn’t realize it was as close as it was. I remember them from the Tour a few years ago and thought that they looked really cool. But I didn’t know if was just a cool looking climb from overhead pictures or if it really was a good one?
Did any of you do the Lacets de Montverneir? I didn’t realize it was as close as it was. I remember them from the Tour a few years ago and thought that they looked really cool. But I didn’t know if was just a cool looking climb from overhead pictures or if it really was a good one?
Thanks again to all that have commented.
You got me thinking about heading over on the exact same week you will be there. I was just checking out the airfares and I am leaning 90% towards doing it. I also have this stupid desire to run Alpe d"huez. If can run at 9 kph speed at that covers the climb in 90 minutes. I think that might be doable.
I much prefer Galibier from South side from Bourg d’Oisans via Lauteret. On the way back you can take the detour via Freney en Oisans to Auris and then via the Balcony route to La Garde (which is at the 4th switch back of Alpe d’Huez)…last year on the way back when I hit La Garde, I got this stupid idea to do Alpe d’Huez just for the hell of it. Well that was not a great idea since I was out of food and water, but figured I had enough in the tank to get to the top. Bonked violently at around switchback 18 and crawled into the village and ate a burger and something like 4 cokes. Well after that, there are still 2 switchbacks after the village to the top so I decided that if I came that far , I may as well get it done. That day ended up being 3900m of climbing:
The main issue is lack of hotels in Bourg d’Oisans on TdF race week. Dauphine week is a lot easier. I have stayed at Hotel Milan and Hotel des Alpes the last 2 years when I went over around Dauphine week. Nothing special but both places are pretty packed with cyclists constantly.
And to answer one of the other guys, yes, Villard Reymond off Ornon! I had the names all confused. Villard Reculas off the west side balacony that kind of overlooks the dam and lake is the other one.
We did an ADH TT (I had zero legs after the previous day’s 3900m 6 hour riding day…goal was 60 min fell apart and went 65) , then up over to the top of resort, back down across the balcony to Villard Reculas and then down to the Lac de Vernay (at this point we were bonking AGAIN due to lack of food and water and everything being closed) and after finally finding the grocer store did Villard Reymond via Ornon.
It’s very short, basically an elevator to get you up a rock face, but you can roll along the top and drop down in time to either go up Croix de fer from St Jean de Maurienne, or continue along the valley to St Michel for the Telegraphe/Galibier
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