Alpe d’Huez & Colle delle Finestre
Bike
11 July 2018
This trip was ultimately about heading to the legendary Alpe d’Huez to watch the Tour de France ride up the mountain and finish in the resort, known as the ultimate theatre to watch cycling and isn’t included in the Tour’s lineup too often. On the way there we would stop several times and ride a variety of mountain passes, making this into a two-week trip and racking up a lot of miles driven and also metres climbed. Alpe d’Huez and Colle delle Finestre were the highlights, but there were several other big climbs covered.
From Bristol I drove across England to Harwich and jumped on the overnight ferry to Hook of Holland, moving on to Utrecht to pick up my friend, Ian. We then headed down through the Netherlands, into Germany and down the west of the country to Freiburg, where we spent three days riding the Black Forest. Then we stayed in Switzerland for a few nights, in the Interlaken area, before moving on to Bardonecchia in Italy. Finally, we made our way to France and the Alpe for the trip finale to watch the Tour circus roll through and see firsthand how the pros do it. It turned out to be a momentous day for Geraint Thomas and put him well on his way to securing Yellow that year.
Here’s the route I drove, creating a loop around western Europe. I drove around 3000km across the two weeks.
Our few days in Switzerland were long and hard. We combined the big Swiss passes of Furkapass, Grimselpass and Sustenpass into one ride making it a long one with 5000m of climbing.
We rode Grosse Schreidegg the following day which is a car-free mountain road. Only really used by cyclists and local buses, so it was relaxing to ride. The road tracks a river and passes many quaint, picturesque chalets, many of which sell their garden produce roadside. I highly recommend this one.
The highlight of these rides for me was the next day around Sestrierre, climbing Colle delle Finestre. Following the use of this road in the 2015 Giro d’Italia, it’s since become hugely popular and iconic. Chris Frome here put down a historic ride (linked below).
The Colle delle Finestre is half tarmac, half gravel. You can then continue off on the Assietta ridge taking you over into Sestriere. The Sestriere ridge road is an old unsurfaced, military road. Also know as the Strada dell’Assietta, not all of it is rideable, and it tops out at 2540m. It was an eventful ride, with lots of hike-a-bike and pretty appalling weather for the descent back into town. We arrived into Sestriere soaked through and covered in mud. We rolled past a bike hire shop where a man was hosing down returned hire bikes. We were so dirty I asked him if we could quickly spray our bikes down, and thankfully he did it for us. This saved us a big clean-up operation back at camp with a bucket!
We packed up the following morning and headed over to France, the small town of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne which would be our new base for a few days.
Arriving at our campsite, we had two day rides before we’d head to see the Tour. The campsite turned out to be cycling themed, with each pitch being named after a famous French climb. The two days were of a decent size - rides 4 and 5.
Having clocked up a lot of driving over the last week or so, I slept later the following morning, and we made it out for a ride in the afternoon. We headed west, for a shorter day riding around the Les Sybelles mountain, still tackling the Col du Mollard then Col de la Croix de Fer. The second ride from this camp was an out-and-back ride heading north, ascending Lacets de Montvernier, a set of very tight switchbacks set deep into the road. This is a stunning climb that rises quickly, and as the turns are so tight it’s hard to get a good photo of them from the road. We continued north to summit Col de la Madeleine, where temperatures were crazily hot, which we were out in due to the late morning start of the ride. After shade and water, we had a huge descent back down to camp.
The following day was the big one, the Alpe stage day. We set off from the camp just before 6am, making our way over via the Colle de la Croix de Fer, which took a few hours. The ride to Alpe d’Huez wasn’t too far at 85km away, but that had 3300m of climbing packed in, plus we were carrying spare clothes, lunch and a bottle of wine. Once at the bottom of the Alpe d’Huez resort hill, we rode through the crowds and up the climb, with hundreds of people on either side getting settled and in position for the pros to come past. I passed a photographer who took the photo below, who then handed me a card as I swept around him standing in the middle of one of the hairpin corners. It was a hot day!
The Alpe d’Huez climb is famous for its 21 hairpin bends. It reaches 1,860m at the top, is 14.5km long, with an average gradient of 8%, and max gradient of 13%. It’s not known as a particularly spectacular as a climb visually, but it’s a real theatre for racing. The wide road is filled with thousands of people - previously as many as 200,000 but this has been cut back now with increased safety measures, It becomes one big party - the energy is huge from the crowds signing, shouting encouragement and flares being set off. When Alp d’Huez is included in the Tour’s lineup, it is always hotly anticipated as it’s where the overall race is often fought for and decided, so is crucial for the GC contenders.
The last 3km are hard, the road undulates as the crowds thicken and you notice more and more orange on the side of the road. Alp d’Huez is also known as Dutch mountain - as so many Dutch have won on the climb, and also as there are so many Dutch spectators, concentrated around one particular corner. You can see this one a mile off as the orange flares, flags, wigs, fluorescent t-shirts and the general noise erupts around the mountain. The Dutch have a love affair with the Alpe and it’s very much ingrained in their culture. Their party starts a day or two before the Tour rolls through, they park their campervans or tents on any available roadside space. Thankfully, Dutch corner was just warming up when I rode past and there was plenty of space. When the pros come through they have very little road to race on.
Ian and I were split pretty much at the bottom of the climb, there were so many people around it wasn’t possible to keep track of each other. We eventually were reunited in the town. We changed to our casual clothes, got some cold beers and looked for a good spot to hang out. The peloton were still a few hours away, the town had a buzzing atmosphere, everyone eagerly awaiting the finale of the day.
Once the stage had finished, everyone piled off the mountain down the same road - the only option in/out of the resort. There was an ambulance half way down, clearly a bad accident, after an afternoon of drinking and excitement we needed to take it easy. We also have about a five-hour ride back to the campsite, mostly in the dark, back up and over the Colle de la Croix de Fer. The ride home turned out to be pretty fun. The booze wore off quickly and there was plenty of cheers of encouragement from passers-by learning out of car windows.
We made it home in one piece and collapsed in the tent. The following morning the task of packing up and driving home dawned. It was hot and we were knackered. I drove up to Troyes where we pit-stopped for the night, before the ferry from Calais took us back over to home turf.
Over this two-week trip, we moved about a lot and covered a lot of ground, both in the car and on the bike. We didn’t eat out at many restaurants and cooked meals quickly on stoves at the campsites. Due to the heat, it was tricky to keep cold produce, so made some interesting meals, I’ve added a few photos below. We went through a lot of calories over these few weeks and ate big portions. One photo is of a corned beef hash type dish, the other a huge pot of gnocchi with a load of taleggio cheese on top! Not pretty but tasty and much need calories.
Taken by a photographer on my way up Alpe d’Huez, struggling a little!
Overall, these are the passes we rode, accumulating around 20,000m of ascending.
Swiss Alps: Grimselpass, Furkapass, Sustenpass, Grosse Schreidegg.
Italian Alps: Colle delle Finestre.
Northern French Alps: Col du Mollard, Colle de la Croix de Fer (multiple times), Lacets de Montvernier, Col de Chaussy, Col de la Madeleine, Alpe d’Huez.
Ian Thayer’s photo’s
Further info
Useful links: Roads to Ride: Alpe d’Huez, Roads to Ride: Colle delle Finestre, Shimano and Epic Col’s article on Alpe d’Huez, Rouleur article on Alpe d’Huez, Soigneur guide to riding Switzerland, Roads to Ride: Lacets de Montvernier, Soigneur article on Lacets de Montvernier.
Short films: TdF Alpe d’Huez stage report, Rapha Race Radio Alpe d'Huez stage report, GCN’s Colle delle Finestre ride, The Col Collective: Alpe d’Huez, The Col Collective: Giants of Switzerland, The Col Collective: Colle delle Finestre.
Related reading:
- Mountain High, Daniel Friebe & Peter Golding
- Mountain Higher, Daniel Friebe & Peter Golding
- Mountains - Epic Cycling Climbs, Michael Blann
- Tour Climbs, Chris Sidwells
- Rough Stuff Cycling in the Alps, Fred Wright
- Mountains According to G, Geraint Thomas
- Higher Calling: Road Cycling’s Obsession with the Mountains, Max Leonard
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Bike
26 June 2021