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#1
06-24-2016, 04:54 AM
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Les Deux Alpes and the new road to Lautaret
Ignoring the climb to Les Deux Alpes for years and years was a no-brainer. It’s not high, 1652 meters, the resort’s, in my opinion, ugly, the road to it a highway. By necessity, the ski area’s super popular so lots of cars, buses, and supply trucks. So why anyone would want to ride it was beyond me. Then again that’s my feeling towards just about all the ski resort access roads that don’t go anywhere else.
I knew there was a back door route up the mountain, a small road zigging up through a thick forest before finally joining the road to Deux Alpes, and I was sure it was my kind of road. But it’s not that long before joining the ski area road 5 K short of the top. So I ignored that road too. Thanks to Maxn that slight has been righted. We’d had a month, actually I think more than that but could be memory lapses exaggerating things, of lousy weather. Cold and wet. I’ve never ridden in the rain so often in my life. Not by choice, just kept getting caught out. The weather would break, I’d think I can get a ride in without coming back dripping. I go, rolling along, feeling good, and here comes the rain! Again. Maxn and I had tentative plans for a ride on Sunday with the where part of the planning up in the air (no pun intended). Weather forecast was looking a little better but things change. Told him I’d e-mail him in the morning after looking at forecasts, looking out the window, checking how the arthritis in my hands and wrists is doing. Sunday morning, I’m on the net, looking at the weather. Savoie, not looking good. South of Grenoble, possibly better but not by much. In other words getting wet highly likely. On a weird hunch I check the forecast for Bourg d’Oisans. I’ll be go to hell, the forecast is looking pretty good up there! I mail Maxn. He likes it, says we can check out the new road past the reservoir on the way to La Grave and Lautaret. He’s driven it, said it could be good. We’re driving up the canyon, getting close to Rochetaillée, Maxn asks what I think of checking out the back road to Deux Alpes. I look at him and say, why not. Ride that, drop down to Chambon, ride the new road. Sounds like a plan. I park in my usual place along the river just off the road to Glandon/Croix de Fer. Bikes come out of my truck and again I shake my head in wonder. I mean what was Maxn thinking! Must have been spending too much time with his head buried in research, brain cells burned out obviously. My friend Maxn has gone to the dark side! Never thought it could happen to someone like him, but… there it is, in his hands right in front of me. Even worse, he’s holding his new bike and grinning like a kid sharing a beer with Santa Claus! The frame is aluminum. You know, like the stuff beer cans are made out of. It’s also got Shimano hanging all over it! Ultegra compact, 36/52 rings and a ridiculous 11-32 cassette! And disc brakes of all things! And he loves it, or at least for the moment is what I can’t help but think. It’s a Canyon, one of those order on-line and hope-for-the-best ghetto bikes people are going all gaga over. I mean he’s got an Eriksen, full Campy Record, a wonderful bike, a true bike, a bike built by a master, a rider’s bike already, and he went and ordered a Canyon gravel bike! Gone totally to the dark side, what can I say. But I’m an open-minded kind of guy, at least some of the time, and when I like what I’m supposed to be open-minded about of course, so it’s okay, we’ll ride together anyway. Me on my Eriksen, Maxn on his ghetto cruiser. I’ll even show him my private line up the valley to Bourg d’Oisans, a wonderful dirt and gravelly road along the river, a delight of a ride. No traffic, no lines of lycra’d riders jamming pell-mell for glory in races with no finish, just us in big gears, spinning fast, spitting stones. We’re both running Vittoria Corsa Graphene tires, 700x28 version, and cruising like we’re on a boulevard of easy dreams. His tires look kind of small given the space around them since his bike can run some major fatness but he’s still contemplating what he wants to put on. Outside of one couple walking their dogs we’ve got the chemin along the river to ourselves. Hop up onto a wood bridge, cross the side creek, more dirt, junction, paved road, turn left, over a bridge across the Romanche river, turn right, narrow, wandering blacktop road tucked in against the base of the cliffs. And there we are, at the base of the climb to Alpe d’Huez where a small crowd of cyclists is standing around. We blow by them, heading away from the climb, a small stream of cyclists going the other way. Maxn says it’s the first time he’s ever arrived at the base of the climb just to ride away from it. Out into the valley and the round-about splitting the roads. From the base of the Alpe d’Huez climb and the round-about isn’t far, not even a K, and we must have seen 20 cyclists, maybe more, heading towards the climb. And I’d been thinking that since it’s still early in the season plus it’s been wet, there wouldn’t be any around. Wrong big time on that. Couldn’t believe how many we saw by the end of the day. Now the long straight up the valley, me tucked in tight behind Maxn. He’d rather nicely glance back from time to time to see if I was still in the pocket and adjust his speed accordingly. Kept meeting groups of cyclists going the other way, each group almost invariably wearing the same colors. Start thinking there must be some sort of cycling event going on that all these club riders have come for. None going our direction. It’s early afternoon so maybe all these people did the Alpe d’Huez – Sarenne loop and are on the final leg back to town. Or maybe they rode Lautaret – Galibier. Or maybe La Berarde. Lots of choices. Whatever they rode, they’re all fully lycra’d and jamming hard in strung-out pace lines. At last the end of that interminable straight. To the right the road to La Berarde, a fine road, a cyclist’s road, an out-and-back. To the left the road to Lautaret. We go left, and up. Steady climb, nothing rude but not easy either. Traffic but a wide bike shoulder lessens the impact. Into the tunnel and now I remember I left my light in the car. No problem, the tunnel is well lit. Deafening riding up through it. Stunning how much noise cars and trucks in a tunnel generate. I ask Maxn if he’s ever seen the Roman bridge down in the canyon below the road. He hasn’t. We stop, look down, there it is. Even more impressive is the road they carved out of the mountain side, a line zigging up through small cliffs and crazy steep slopes. Impressive. We’ve arrived, the back door road to Les Deux Alpes, a reversing turn to the right onto a lane-and-a-half strip of pavement disappearing into the forest. And instant steepness. My kind of road. Not sure on the weather though. Temps cool enough that I’m wearing light tights and multiple layers up top. Looks like it wants to rain. Already has because the road is wet or maybe just intense dew. Wonderful road, good place to be on a hot day since the slopes are north facing and trees thick and tall. Heat isn’t a problem today though. Approaching a switchback to the right and we look up and see the road high above slicing across a cliff. Cool, another cliff road! The Vercors seems to be famous for roads carved out of cliff faces but having ridden them and the cliff roads above the Romanche valley, have to say the Vercors roads pale in comparison. Not far from the balcony road now and the grades are slacking way off. The first 3 K were pretty steep (double-digit average apparently) but weren’t as bad as I had feared. Not that I flew up them or anything like that but did manage to keep a good pace, for me. Maxn would have been way up the road if I hadn’t been there but seemed content with the speed. We’d met one group of riders coming down but saw none going up. The balcony, nothing but pure pleasure. Easy rolling on a crazy road carved out of a vertical cliff, tight one-laner. So tight that one butt head coming down instead of stopping where the road was slightly wider kept coming and forced me up against the cliff face with one hand keeping me upright. To add insult to injury, the jerk had a mountain bike inside his car in the back. So much for the brotherhood of cyclists! Views impossible to not stop for. Which I do several times. Just about when the road starts leaving the cliff face, the rain arrives. Real rain, not stuttering drops like we had earlier in the climb. Damn! Just when I was thinking we’d get through the day dry. Lasts maybe ten minutes, if that. Hit the junction with the road to the ski station. I’m tempted to ride to the top just because we’re there but instead we head down to do the new road. Fast descent, long, open curves, road super wide, an easy glide path. And onto the new road! This thing is totally crazy. Road’s a snake on the hillside supported by these huge metal braces that are bolted into presumably rock but visually look a bit fragile. Most of the time tight enough that cars have to maneuver or wait for one another. There’s one section that’s so narrow and clinging to a cliff that traffic is controlled by stop lights. Doesn’t strike me as all that much fun to drive but on a bike, whoa, we’re talking fun city big time. Plus the blacktop is buff, not far off new. It’s only temporary (to the tune of 6.8 million euros!) until the old road is made operational again and I’m thinking sure would be sweet if they keep it for cyclists when the normal road is open. Spectacular waterfall across the way that before was only visible by craning the neck to look up but from this side it’s standing proud. Could have easily shot more pics through here but the riding was too sweet for stopping more than once or twice. Got to the old road. Considered riding up to La Grave but both of us were lightless and there’s a long tunnel just before the village so instead we turned down the old road just to see what there was to see. Not much actually. Got to a tunnel, turned around, Maxn was thinking might be a good idea to not be too late getting back. They’re moving into new digs in the chateau so he was feeling ever so slight twinges of guilt that he wasn’t there. Going back the new road was as much fun as before, fast and twisty. Back to the damn and onto the highway back to Bourg d’Oisans. All in all a fast ride with lots of traffic whizzing by. Onto the long straight down the valley only this time the wind is in the face. This is where Maxn was super nice because I was tucked in behind him but have to admit that whenever his pace started slowly increasing, I’d start slowing slipping back out of the pocket. And every time as soon as he noticed he’d slow until I was in the pocket again. Probably needless to say this but I didn’t take a single pull! Hey, age has its benefits. He might have been thinking he needed to get back but when I suggested a stop in Bourg for beers the words were barely out of my mouth before he’d said yes. That was pretty cool. Sun angling in low, sky all blue, temperature just right, and the place is crawling with cyclists. Actually they weren’t crawling, just doing like we were, lounging in the light and downing beers. Felt like the base of a ski area at the end of the day and everyone feeling right and relaxing, drinking, telling tales. The majority seemed to be brits. Lots of carbon frames, in fact just about nothing but carbon. But at least my Eriksen was there to add some class to the scene. Would have been even cooler if Maxn had ridden his instead of his beer can cruiser but, what can I say. Back to my private line down the valley. Past the base of the climb to Alpe d’Huez where there were still cyclists heading up, hammering down the paved track under the cliffs, over the river, onto the dirt, heading downstream, the wind hammering us in the face. We see a wall of rain inching down out of the valley from Glandon/Croix de Fer and pick up the pace thinking we can get to the car before it gets us. We do, barely. Excellent! Feeling good, another fine ride and two roads bagged that neither of us had done. That was good, very good even, despite the incredible noise emanating from Maxn’s Shimano freewheel, maybe magnified by those pressed and rolled beer cans. But hey, got to admit the price for that puppy was impressive, complete bike with Ultegra close to half the price of a bare Eriksen frame! Some shots. And don’t forget, if you haven’t already, go to Velodogs Publishing and check out my book about cycling and riding in the Alps. It’s called Switchbacks, Vol I, a good book. 
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#6
06-24-2016, 09:25 PM
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Loved the story as much as the photos! Thanks for the flashback. A few years ago I had the supreme pleasure of riding there and staying in Le Freney d'Osains for about a week. The area is...heaven. Actually, I never had/have enjoyed riding in the rain as much as then too.
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#7
06-25-2016, 01:02 PM
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Les Deux Alpes and the new road to Lautaret
  A very dramatic descent. When coming down from Les Deux Alpes, take the left toward Les Bons, about 1/3 of the way down. The 2ft tall retaining wall will only stop your bike from going over. The rider will easily clear it.
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#11
06-26-2016, 02:02 PM
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Quote:
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#12
06-26-2016, 02:35 PM
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wow, that road is still closed eh? was pretty bummed to hear about that last summer when I was in the area, impossible to string together a "marmotte" route without that descent down into bourg from lauteret.
does the new road make it possible to do a loop over 2 passes through the 2 valleys or is that still not possible? not a day goes by that i don't miss riding over there...id say you guys don't know how lucky you are but but i know you do 
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#13
06-26-2016, 03:24 PM
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keeping in mind that they can close the escape road at any time, it is indeed now possible to do the classic marmotte parcours. The new road runs parallel to the closed road, but on the other side of the lake and is WAY nicer than the old road because there are no tunnels
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