A beautiful April day – there may still be skiing at Alpe d’Huez – but the cycling wasn’t bad either.
Not fast, but my personal best climbing Alpe d’Huez. I beat my last Marmotte
ascension by more than 20 minutes – more a sign of how much I was bonking that day than any speed today. 🙂
The perfectly surfaced and very wide road was very quiet. A few cyclists – as usual at least half of them Dutch.
The early hairpins are the toughest:
After descending the Alpe, I went to see if the little road to Oulles was open. It was, and what a treat! This little known gem-of-a-climb starts just few couple of kilometres from Bourg d’Oisans.
Oulles is the commune with the lowest population (12!) in the Isère Department. 8 kilometres cut into the edge of a steep gorge up to a little perched village. It’s a well surfaced road, with hairpins galore. And quiet: I saw no cars on the ascent or the descent.
It’s quite steep, and I was slow and April-tired, but thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Lower Hairpins:
Upper section:
Village at snow line:
Hairpins galore:
Finally, after descending Oulles, I turned up to (slowly) visit Col d’Ornon. It’s a nice easyish climb … good testing ground for cyclostourists a little imtimidated by Alpe d’Huez.
A great route — and if you take one thing from this post: Go and cycle Oulles!
10 Comments
Bonjour,
super images comme toujours,
j’ai fait la montée d’oulles et du col d’ornon le 13 avril, (it’s funny to have the same idea) !
par contre je n’ai pas rajouté l’alpe d’huez, ca aurait fait trop pour moi !
Merci Guillaume,
Bien joué.
Il faut dire que j’avais la fringale en Oulles 🙂
Bravo, une première à Oulles ! Manque quand même la montée à Oz en Oisans … 😉
Bastien,
Oui 🙂
Je pense que – dans le coin – je manque Les Deux Alpes, Col de Solude, et Oz. A faire cet été?
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Liens pour préparer vos sorties.
http://www.oisimages.com
http://ete.oisimages.com
http://hiver.oisimages.com
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Hello,
question. Can i climb the ALp D Huez and Les2Alpes in March? of is the wetter and teh road to bad?
Michel
It depends on the recent weather. Both roads are kept open all year because of the skiing. If it hasn’t snowed recently, a sunny day in March can be great. (bring warm clothes for descent).
Thanks for another great tip Will! I can’t understand why the climb to Oulles is so little ridden. It’s beautiful, challenging and practically traffic-free. The nice people in the cafe at the top deserve more visitors!