French – Alps: Among giants

Cycling trhough the passes of the French Alps has been a biug desire of mine. This mountain is far from Hungary in every respect. First, Austria, the Dolomites, the Italian Alps, Slovenia and many more mountains. Austria and Slovenia is more closer, than the Dolomites more beautiful, Italian Alps more famous.

Of course, the French Alps are famous too, as the Tour is there every year, and of course they are beautiful, you can see that in the pictures, but they are so far away from Hungary. On the other hand, they are not only far away, but also difficult to get to. There is a motorway to Turin, and then there is expressway for a while, but as you get into the mountains, you come across 1×1 lane roads and passes. Plus, the area is quite large, it doesn’t matter which town you go to.

We only had one week in mid-September due to coordination difficulties, so we decided on “only” two accommodations. If you stay in one accommodation, you either won’t be able to ride all the worthwhile passes, or you’ll have to drive 100 km a day, which requires a minimum average speed due to the passes.

The “southern” part of the accommodation became Barcelonnette, and the one further north became the “center”, Briançon.
Barcelonnette a nice little town at the junction of several famous passes, Bonette, Vars, Cayolle, Allos, it’s hard to choose. When I say “nice little town” that’s exactly what I mean: a few thousand inhabitants, a typical French atmosphere, beautiful buildings, is very livable. Compared to this
Briançon is a big city with all the accessory, McDonalds, shops, relatively lot of people. By the way, it is the second highest city in Europe.

So, even though the French Alps were in the plans more times, I haven’t gotten there yet. It was delaying but I had to get ahead. Then at the beginning of September, I realized that my planned tours would be canceled due to cancellations, but Balázs could take time off, two more friends joined us, so the trip for the four of us started to take shape. There was no need to plan anymore, because I’ve been planning on paper for years, we booked the accommodation the day before the trip, threw our stuff into the minibus and off we went.

The plan was 5 days of cycling without a break. We couldn’t afford the luxury of a rest day, which is also a significant commitment, more on that later. 5 days there is obviously very little, we knew in advance, which turned out to be the case. At idle, you can spend 10-14 days there at the 2 accommodations, cycling somewhere different every day.
Iconic passes everywhere. You can’t get from one city to another without crossing a pass. But even the lesser-known ones here are beautiful. In fact.

The plan was: Bonette, Agnello, Izoard, Huez, Galibier, Iserian. But that would have been rough for five days, so many passes would have been hard to fit in the tours without rest, the area is huge, it’s difficult to travel.

The way out was uneventful, we left at 5 am, arrived at 7 pm with three short stops. We booked accommodation in Barcelonnette (a good apartment at a good price), had dinner and concentrated heavily on the weather! 🙂 Which we were incredibly lucky with. During the 5 days, not a drop of rain fell and the sun shone all day, 18-20 degrees. One day there was quite an icy wind and 13 degrees, but beyond that we were very lucky.

Bonette Pass (Col de la Bonette), 2802 m

On the first day we started with the Bonette Pass (Col de la Bonette) because of the fresh, rested legs. The Bonette, with its 2802 meters of altitude, immediately made us all want to summit, since none of us had been so high before, the Stelvio
was the highest so far. The French advertise the col as the highest asphalt road in Europe, and maybe even as the highest mountain pass, but neither is true. The mountain pass is only 2715 m high, so they built a loop that takes you to 2802 m. So it is not the highest mountain pass (that is Iserian), and it is not true that it is the highest bikeable asphalt road in Europe, because that is Veleta in Andalusia. And there are several asphalt roads higher than that.

But it doesn’t matter anyway the end is very high, I’ve never been so high on a bike (either). We started from Barcelonette, the northern, official route of the pass is calculated from Jausiers in the documents, 23km, 1600m level. I didn’t think it would be a difficult hike, I was in good shape, I rested before, I can handle long, less difficult, but monotonous climbs, and the average didn’t promise any serious effort.

Despite this it was not an easy climb. Long passes are difficult in themselves, but Bonette is constantly 7-8%, there is no rest section. However, what was very good was that despite all this, there is no major change in slope, there are no 10-12% or 2-3% rest section, so the constant steepness gives a sense of security. However, you have to endure this throughout. The climb is very varied, the landscape is beautiful and wildly romantic, the serpentines in the middle – upper part are great, photogenic. I have probably never been on a pass with such a beautiful and classy layout.

When we reached high 2715 m, we stood there on the pass and saw that steep loop, it was really tough, from there it was another 1 km and 10-12% all the way. We went up and came down, because at almost 3000 meters it was no longer warm 🙂

We arrived in Barcelonnette and since we considered this trip not long enough, and so as not to miss many sights, in the afternoon we took a tour to the Serre-Ponçon reservoir, which is an incredibly beautiful environment! The way there (from Barcelonnette) is rather downhill, we got there quickly, and the way back is rather uphill.

Strava:

Bonette
https://www.strava.com/activities/7812159282

Serre-Ponçon Reservoir

https://www.strava.com/activities/7813033512

The three pass loop: Col de la Cayolle (2326m), Col des Champs (2087m), Col’d Allos (2250m)

On the second day we found ourselves at a “crossroads”. The plan had two alternatives: either drive down to a canyon and ride it or go on the famous local loop (with 3 passes), which we had no idea about. None of us had heard much about the Cayolle, Champs and Allos passes. I’m not kidding, but it can be said that it was one of the most beautiful trips of the 5 days. So much for the fact that the most famous places are always the best…

The circuit has impressive data, 120 km, 3200m elevation. Simple cycling: three thousand meters up and down. Each pass had its own beauty. The Cayolle is a beautiful road, the first half takes you through a gorge, as you leave the town, it starts right away, the first kilometers of the road runs along a narrowing, zero-traffic road next to the river. The high rock walls are incredibly beautiful, while the river runs in the depths. The valley widens at the end, the waterfalls come, then the road leading up the mountainside, and then at the end the sloping plateau.

An atypical pass, but that makes it beautiful. It’s not too difficult, it goes up to 2326 in 23 km, so the average percentage is not terrible and it didn’t feel like it either, but the environment is brilliant. The descent on the south side is magnificent. You have to go down a lot, around 1100 m, while you constantly see black rocks. It’s very typical for this region that the rocks are not gray, but pitch black. After the long descent, there’s a right turn and the second pass follows.

Based on the numbers, Champs is the hardest on the loop, only 13 km long, but with 1000 m of elevation gain. The beginning is quite boring, almost nothing until 1600 meters, technical climbing, as we usually say, but the end is a fantastic sight, the serpentines of the last 5 km are breathtaking, but also difficult. The average of Champs is not terrible, but that terrible average can be very deceiving. Last time on
I experienced on Timmelsjoch how liar the average is. In the middle of the Champs, there is not only a horizontal part, but the road also goes down… At such times, I always feel as if I have unnecessarily accelerated, since we are wasting the climb… For this reason, the last kilometers of the Champs brought in the slack: there are 8-10% average km there. But as I wrote, looking back at the serpentine with the beautiful rocks is a majestic sight.

When we got to the top, we were surprised that there was serious sign, but then we started going down because we were pressed for time. The uniqueness of the way down lies in the fact that you descend almost the entire way through a magically beautiful forest, where you feel like the trees really reach the sky. At the end, you reach Colmars, I was sorry we didn’t have time, because it seemed like a beautiful town.

The last pass was Allos. It was quite late, so we had to go. The first 10 km are boring and soul-killer 5-6%, with straights, relatively busy road. If there is one thing I don’t like (apart from the wind) it’s the intersection of this range and the straight road. We stopped in the town of Allos to get an ice cream.

But then in the ski center, at the last 5 km, we turn onto the serpentines and from there everything was adorable. The road goes up to 2250 meters, overall it is not difficult, but after 2500 m of total elevation, no one missed it. Then came the surprise: The north side of the Allos to Barcelonnette was the highlight of the day. I would not have thought it would be so beautiful. There are monumental, large spaces, an excellent route. Over the 5 days, it was almost unbeatable in terms of views, but as a slope it was also a grand prize. Despite the fact that my fingers froze on the way down, because we arrived at dusk, and at 2200 it was probably 6-7 degrees (in a short set of course).

Overall: The circuit is simply phenomenal, it’s in my TOP3 of my life. So, if you’re going this way, don’t miss it! Strava measured 3400 meters of elevation, Garmin only 3200), let’s say neither is small, in terms of difficulty it’s far beyond the TOP1 Sellaronda, as every pass here is a 1000m+ level climb, of which there are three, but it was still well worth it.

Strava:

Three passes loop from Barcelonnette (Cayolle, Champs, Allos)

https://www.strava.com/activities/7818511531

Col du Galibier (2642m)

What would the other, “classic” side (N-S) of this pass look like if it’s this beautiful, we asked each other, stopping every hundred meters to take pictures. From this sentence you can already sense what the opinion is about this climb. In short: wonderful.

On the third day we moved from Barcelonnette to Briançon, so a rest day was planned, but there’s really no way to relax there. You simply regret the time spent lazing around.

We packed up our stuff and drove 80 km (about two hours), then upon arrival we unpacked and set off for the “nearby” Galibier pass from Briançon. Since Briançon is quite high (1200 m), you don’t have to climb very much to get to the Galibier, but just enough. We climbed to 2645 on the 35 km road. This is not the “classic” side of the pass, but the one towards the Col du Telegraph, which is supposedly very beautiful, but since Briançon is our headquarters, that’s what the situation was.

We made the most of it, because a cold front came in at night, which caused an icy wind of about 40 km/h, obviously from the direction of the wind. Up until then, the weather had been fine, 18-20 degrees, and 12-14 above 2000, but that day it was only 12 degrees at 1200 meters, and six at 2600. It was a cold day, we got the icy wind in our faces there, and on the way back it hit our backs. The autumn-winter stuff came out!

The first 20 km up is not very nice, as I wrote before, it’s a real technical ride, a continuous breathtaking 2-4%, on a relatively busy road as you go up the valley. The climb of the Galibier looks like the Lauteret pass (2084m) is at the end of the valley towards Briançon, and then you have to “turn right” from the pass to the Galibier. A few km before Lauteret, the valley widens and you see the mountains, glaciers, and from there the whole view is absolutely beautiful. The mountains play with all kinds of colors, and the nearly 4000-meter peaks, on which the glaciers flow down, provide a beautiful backdrop. And the line of the road is eye-catching. I’m not kidding here either when I say that the view of Lauteret and the Galibier was the highlight of our trip.

The Galibier from Lauteret is not that difficult, if it hadn’t been for the wind, this road would have seemed really easy, but it’s over, the switchbacks are quite tough. The icy wind didn’t help either, but the view made up for it! We reached the top, took a photo and came down, because the wind was so strong that it was impossible to stay up. We froze down to Lauteret, and from there we could race at 40-60 for 30 km on 4-6%!

Overall: I think, even with the experience settling in, the last 8 km was that one of the most beautiful passes and climbs of my life. It was characterized by wide, winding valleys, colorful rocks, masses of glaciers and excellent serpentines. I have never seen such a perfect overall picture! And not even the icy wind could spoil it.

Strava:

Col du Galibier (2642m)
https://www.strava.com/activities/7823527120

Col d’Izoard (2360m)

There are average passes, beautiful passes, difficult passes, easy passes, there are all kinds of passes. The target of our fourth day, the Izoard, is one of the special passes. And also one of the difficult passes.

Its uniqueness is the environment, the rock towers that rise in the mountainside and which are mainly found in the last kilometers of the southern ramp. The whole landscape is like walking on some alien planet. We just stood and stared open-mouthed as we fell from the north to the south side. It’s hard to describe, the pictures don’t do it justice. But let’s start at the beginning!

After the “rest day”, we only have two days left, but there are still many passes. We made the unfortunate decision to skip Iserian and Agnello, because from Briançon the Izoard and Huez are better destinations. The other two are very far from there. I was sorry because both are very high, but at least there will be something to come back to.

The Izoard pass from Briançon is a clear loop: up the Izoard, down Guillestre, then back to Briançon on the side of the mountains. The average of the Izoard pass didn’t seem difficult, but as we know, averages can cheating. We went up from the north, in the classic direction, because that’s what the circuit said, the Tour comes up from the south, which is supposedly harder, but it was good anyway, it was hard, it was beautiful. You start from Briançon, you immediately go quite steeply at 7-8%, then it eases off in the valley, you reach Cerviéres (a really nice authentic mountain village), then you turn right and it starts. The last 8 km (from Cerviéres) are 8-10% all the way, sometimes 11-12%. It was seriously very tough. The road is strange anyway because it goes through the forest for about 2200 meters, you almost get out of the trees at the last moments, and after a few km you are already at the top. And beyond the pass to the south is a landscape that is difficult to describe.

The descent was a real cool ride, and then came the first surprise: the Guil canyon leading to Guillestre. Cycling along the hundreds of meters of depth was scary, but it was crazy spectacular. It’s like when you don’t expect something, but it comes to you. We had a good meal in Guillestre, the French people were surprisingly nice (we didn’t expect this), and then we headed back to Briançon.

And here came the other surprise, the mountain road from Guillestre to Briançon, with beautiful views. It was not easy at all, although it seemed so. In the 40 km we gained about 900 of the total 2000 m of altitude that day… It was a good thing we didn’t go on the main road, because it was a wonderful loop, it seems there is always room for improvement.

Strava:

Col d’Izoard (2360m)
https://strava.app.link/uG0QBhWPqtb

Alpe d’Huez (1850m), Col du Sarenne (1999m)

On our last day, we tarteg to the most iconic pass in the area, and perhaps in all of France. There was no question that this had to be it. We couldn’t miss it and obviously when else would we have to do the hardest climb of the five days than on the last day, when we were already quite tired 🙂

I don’t think Alpe d’Huez needs to be introduced to anyone traveling around the country, it is a permanent pass for the Tour, next to the Tourmalet and Mount Ventoux, it is the most iconic climb in the country, 21 hairpins, where even the curves have names, 1100m elevation in 13 km (8.1%). It is almost unbeatable in terms of fame. But what is it like to climb it?

Since we live in Briançon and we had already done the Lauteret Pass from Briançon, we drove to the pass and started from there. We planned a loop around Huez, from the car going down from 2000 to 750, then up to Huez, then a smaller (2000 m) pass, then down to 1050, then climb back to Lauteret. It was 95 km with 2600 m of elevation gain.

I had a completely different image of Alpe d’Huez and its surroundings in my head. I thought that the area around the town of Le Bourg-d’Oisans was not as steeply mountainous and that the slope itself was more symbolic than real. Well, I was very surprised!

The environment on the way there was quite beautiful. As I wrote before, Lauteret is not a difficult or high pass, but the environment is frenetic. Starting from here, you can immediately see the peak of Meije (3984m) with the glaciers, it towers almost completely above the village of La Greve, it is beautiful. From there we continued in a gorge, then we reached the Chambon reservoir, and from there the road itself is a miracle: canyons, very high and pointed mountains. Then, with a 5 km straight road, you reach the bottom of the Huez ascent. You don’t even have to go into Le Bourg-d’Oisans. But what is interesting is that you can’t see the ascent at all from below. I looked and looked to see where we were going to wind up, but it wasn’t visible.

Huez is famous. The first 2 km with 10-12% is not much fun, it starts off quite rough. Then the middle lets it go “a little”, to about 8-9%, then almost the entire way 8-10%. The end, in the ski center, doesn’t let it go either. It’s not an easy climb. But luckily the weather was good, we met a lot of cyclists, even though it was Monday.

Alpe d’Huez is a ski paradise, not a pass, there is nothing interesting up there, just a million construction sites for the winter, the only thing I really liked was the bikes and podium set up at the Tour finish line. Then we continued on our way. Because here you either roll back down the slope or go towards the Sarenne pass (1999m). We didn’t want to come back from Huez on the same road, so we headed towards the pass. Then came the surprise.

I didn’t hear anything about this either, but we reached it with a pretty tough 12-13% uphill gradient (plus there was a significant wind blowing). Then after the pass we turned in and the valley opened up, with such a wonderful view of the distant mountains and glaciers on them that there are no words for it. The road is unusually steep for French roads, but it’s worth it. The descent to the Chambon reservoir was a real joy ride, and from there we also went over the Lauteret pass on the way back to the car, just in case it wasn’t from that side too.

It was a beautiful circuit, with some tough climbs, gorgeous views, and on the last day, with 10,000 meters of elevation gain in our legs, it wasn’t easy, but we had a great time.

Strava:

Alpe d’Huez
https://strava.app.link/XAB3U4ksstb

Summary

In five days, we covered a total of 515 km and 12,000+ m of elevation (without a rest day). It was a bit of a tough ride, really though. We expected that, of course, but this area offers much more than it promises.
That’s quite a lot though Much better than we expected. Quite Dolomite-level, in fact.
But it’s completely different, unique.

What is different from other mountains is that the passes are not as steeps as in the Italian or Austrian Alps or especially in the Dolomites. There are many passes with an average gradient of 6-8%, but most of them are very long. The roads are perfect, the French are very careful, the traffic on the small roads is minimal, the towns are nice and the weather was really good in September. Obviously it is completely different in summer, but if there were so many cyclists now (a lot), then what can be there in August?

If you can, go there, because the pictures don’t capture the beauty and depth that you’ll find here. I’m sure we’ll be back next year, because we missed out on so many great places.

The passes:

• Col de la Bonette (2802m)
• Col de la Cayolle (2326m)
• Col des Champs (2087m)
• Col’d Allos (2250m)
• Col du Galibier (2642m)
• Col d’Izoard (2360m)
• Alpe d’Huez (1850m)
• Col du Sarenne (1999m)
• Col du Lautaret (2050m) 2x

What was left out of the original plan: Agnello, Vars and Iserian, but there was only so much time in 5 days.

Experiences

• The French Alps are a great place. They can easily compete with the Dolomites. The villages are nice, the people are nice (we didn’t expect that), but they don’t speak any fucking languages, nobody, really nobody. They’re like the Italians, they can see that you don’t speak the language, but they just say it in their own language. You just don’t understand that 🙂
  
• The downside: it’s really hard to get to and it’s really far for us. It’s okay to get to Turin, but from there to Briançon, especially Barcelonette, is really slow and long. 14 hours minimum.
  
• The passes here seem to be less steep, but longer than usual. Of course there are some tougher parts here too, but what we saw wasn’t too bad. They average 6-8%, over 15-20 km. The Dolomites and the Italian passes are much tougher.
  
• There are passes everywhere. It’s not that you have to look for them, but you set off and immediately stumble upon one. And they’re all 2000m, but there are plenty of them above 2500m. They’re real giants, big guns. We always said at 2200-2300m that we would have reached the Dolomites, but there were still 2-400m there 🙂
  
• The roads are damn good, much better than in Italy, like Spain. I guess they’re always being renovated here because of the Tour, but you can really cycle on smooth roads everywhere. Of course you can run into bad roads, but this is more of a very secluded, 28th-class road. Wherever a bike race has been held, the asphalt must be smooth.
  
• There is a lane (for cyclists) on the side of the roads everywhere, next to the boundary line, which was very strange. In Spain, they also make the roads wider and separate them with a boundary line, a quasi-bike lane. But the French also pay attention to cyclists. We saw many examples of this, cyclists have priority everywhere (there are idiots here too). For example: Construction on the road, total closure, but it is written that cyclists can go through. The same goes for construction, a person is directing, he sees us, they immediately stopped the cars in the opposite direction and waved that we could go.
  
• There are many canyons, gorges and many roads leading through them, which greatly increases the experience factor. It was a total surprise, we drove for miles on all roads in such places.
  
• We were very lucky with the weather, but the wind blew a lot, sometimes it was quite strong. In mid-September, it was 5-7 degrees at dawn, 12-13 degrees at 10 am, so it’s not optimal, you have to be prepared. The hardest part is that it’s relatively cold in the morning, but from noon it’s quite warm, even at 1500 – 2000 meters. So, you have to constantly dress and undress.
  
• Costs: The place is not expensive at all. We thought it would be, but it’s not. Italian prices, or sometimes not even that.
  Our accommodations were apartments, typical booking, but high-quality, 2-3-room, renovated apartments, very well equipped. The price of one accommodation was about 70 thousand per person. We brought most of the food from here, eggs for breakfast, vegetables, fruits, muesli, etc. Everything fits in the car 🙂 And in the evening we went to some restaurant, but not an expensive one. So the food wasn’t expensive either.
  Shopping costs are about the same as at home (inflation isn’t that high here 🙂 if you go out for a burger or pizza in the evening, 15-18 euros with a soft drink and sweets. If 4 of you come here in a car, you can easily get by with 170 – 200 HUF per person (everything included) if you live in a high-quality apartment, not in a mass housing, eat normally, even during the day. Of course, you need a relatively larger car for this 🙂
  
• Apart from the fact that the French don’t speak languages ​​(or pretend not to), they are quite normal. They are kind and helpful. They served us perfectly at dinner, we sat down for lunch at noon, there was no food, they quickly made it for us (very cheaply) or, for example, we couldn’t find accommodation, they came immediately and helped us. So you have to put aside your prejudices.