Alpe d’Huez Bucket List Climb: Did It Live Up To It?
Every summer I watched riders finish Alpe d’Huez with the same look on their faces: is that it? This post is about why, and I’d like to know what you thought.
Book the Original Alpe d’Huez Tour
The Bucket List Trap
A bucket list is, in Merriam-Webster’s words, a list of “things that one has not done before but wants to do before dying”. The phrase comes from “kick the bucket”, and it was in print by 2006, before the 2007 film made it famous.
Alpe d’Huez sits on a lot of those lists. The trap is riding it as a single tick: up from the valley at 1 in the afternoon, in the heat and the traffic, photo at the top, back down. Then you stand there wondering why it didn’t feel bigger.
There are three reasons it can feel flat.
It isn’t the hardest climb around. Alti Mag, a French mountain magazine, calls it “a hard climb, then, but without insurmountable walls”, with the real effort in the first 2 km at about 10%. Arrive expecting a monster and it can feel like an anticlimax.
The road isn’t the legend. One French rider on cols-cyclisme.com was “rather disappointed” by the heavy car traffic and a road as wide as a Route Nationale. He rated the Iseran, Galibier and Glandon as far more interesting.
The magic is the atmosphere. Tour Magazin’s French edition says it is “the unique atmosphere around the Tour de France” that makes the Alpe exceptional. That atmosphere belongs to Tour day. On an ordinary morning, you don’t get it.
How to ride it so it stays with you
So is the Alpe worth riding? Yes. Just not as a tick on a list. Here is what I’d do.
- Start early, before the heat and the traffic.
- Don’t turn round at the top. Riders on the same French site say the road over the Col de Sarenne is quiet, wild and almost free of cars. That’s the ride you remember, and I agree with them.
- Don’t make the Alpe a single day out. Ride it near the end of a week of climbing, when the Glandon, the Madeleine and the Galibier are already in your legs. The same 21 bends feel different when you’ve earned them.
Now it’s your turn
Did the Alpe live up to it for you?
If you’ve ridden it, I’d like to know what you thought. Was it a tick on the list, or one of the great days? Did you turn round at the top, or carry on over Sarenne? Was it the climb, the crowd or the company that made it?
Just reply to this email and tell me. I read every reply, and the best stories may end up in a future video.
Ride it the way I’d ride it
If you haven’t ridden the Alpe yet, or you rode it as a tick and want to do it properly, that is exactly how I built my Original Alpe d’Huez Tour. It is a 7 night supported tour in the Oisans and Maurienne, and I’ve supported riders on these roads since 2008.
- Sunday: Glandon and Montvernier
- Monday: Madeleine and Chaussy
- Tuesday: Galibier and Télégraphe
- Wednesday: a half day on the Ornon
- Thursday: Alpe d’Huez, then straight over Sarenne
- Friday: Pas de la Confession and the Balcon d’Auris
The big Alpine passes come first, so the Alpe arrives when your legs have earned it, and Sarenne is part of the day.
Book the Original Alpe d’Huez Tour
Watch the Alpe d’Huez Bucket List Trap (and how to avoid it) video here