My old friend Emmanuel is vacationing in Annecy with his family. I hadn’t seen him in 2 years, and he knows the Cols of the region very well. My challenge was to find a climb from Annecy that he hadn’t cycled that would make him go “wow!” Success.
The challenge for Emmanuel was much tougher: Cycle up the steep Arpettaz and listen to me speak French for several hours —– yikes. 🙂
This is a great loop, with much of the riding on the Annecy Bike Path. It’s a perfect place to ride side-by-side and chat without worrying about cars.
Approaching Ugine, there are several turns off the bike path to join the “route des montagnes” up to Col de l’Arpettaz. I love this climb – look at the map above – hairpins galore on a quiet road that is partly pasture land and partly light forest.
For a truly superb mountain bike adventure, there is a gravel road that links Col de l’Arpettaz with Col des Aravis. Details here.
Nearing the Col the tree line disappears – great views of the Aravis Alps:
Plenty of cows watching Manu suffer:
There is a nice little restaurant at the Col and we stopped to rehydrate. The route we descended is fabulous. First beautiful views of Mont Blanc for several kilometres:
Then some unbelievable stretches of hairpins:
Finally just a fast, quiet descent on beautiful roads back to Ugine where we rejoined the Annecy bike path to head home. Even the tunnels are fun (car-free) here:
Merci mille fois to the family of Manu for entertaining and feeding me afterwards — and for the great swim. Wonderful day.
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Thank you my friend ! It was my pleasure too. The food was for the Coke… See you soon !
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Did this loop from Annecy yesterday after reading about it here. Probably my favourite climb around this area so far, and that includes Forclaz, Semnoz & Colombiere. Even though it is summer I was glad to have warm gear for the descent – and the fire was lit in the refuge thankfully. Descend the Eastern side for endless hairpins all the way to Ugine – climb the western side ( as described in the post) as the road surface is crappy in spots – fine going up, but would make for a slow less enjoyable descent. Road bike with 23mm tyres was fine going this way. About 100km from Annecy return. Great website – best resource out there for first time visitors like me.
thanks for the note Paul.
Yes, this is a great climb that gets ignored. And yes, coldest August I can remember.
Thank you for creating this wonderful website. We spent a couple of weeks in Doussard last summer and used your guides for Semnoz, Forclaz, Leschaux and my personal favorite, this one. I completed the first three alone but enjoyed this one in a group of 6. Great coffee at the cafe at the top too!
Great info! Going to Lathuile for 2 weeks this Saturday and will be riding this one for sure!
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i did this climb in July ’16 and found it a real tough one. plenty of lonely climbing through the trees (the road had cracked at one point leaving a gap right across the road) and a real biting wind at the top. savage view 2km from the top of the valley below and a quiet descent made it worthwhile, especially as i wouldn’t have heard of the climb only for Will. Passed 2 elderly gentlemen coming up the opposite way so any complaints are nul in void;)
Had a week in Annecy in September and had 6 days of almost perfect weather. Rode this climb on Day 3. Perfect. http://www.southendwheelers.org/News/2017/20170905Alps.htm
Heading to Annecy for a week or so this summer off the back of a great stopover last year on our way back from Provence. Just been perusing segments on Strava and this stood out; hairpin central!!! Looking forward to doing this, looks like it could be a nice quick out-and-back before the kids wake up and the missus gives me a talking to 🙂
Your site is a goldmine of info 🙂