Alpe d'Huez & Col de Sarenne

Twenty-one bends

A kilometre and a half of flat along the Romanche past the campsites is all the politeness on offer. The Écrins walls stand behind the hillside; the hairpins are already visible stacked above. Then the road kicks with no ramp-in — the hardest kilometre of the loop sits between km 2 and 3 at over 10%, and bend 21 arrives before rhythm does. Through La Garde-en-Oisans the hairpins count down in reverse, each carrying a stage winner’s name — Coppi, Zoetemelk, Hinault — while the gradient holds 7–9.5% in the trees with little view. Heart rate climbs with the altimeter; reading the plaques becomes a game that keeps the mind busy.

Higher up, Bourg-d'Oisans shrinks to a grid of rooftops and the stacked lacets lie below like a diagram. Past the church of Saint-Ferréol at 1,392 m the grade eases into Huez, then the resort itself at 1,781 m: Tour finish banner, bakeries, espresso near the church. Legs half-cooked, bottles refilled. Most riders turn around here. They should not.

Up at the Alpe there are bakeries and a finish line; twelve kilometres on at the Sarenne there are sheep on the road and no barriers.

Sarenne and the Romanche return

East past the Altiport Henri Giraud (1,871 m), a short drop lands at the foot of Col de Sarenne: three kilometres at 7.2%, cracked narrow tarmac, sheep, no barriers, high pasture with the Grandes Rousses to the left. The scruffy summit sign at 1,999 m looks south to the Écrins glaciers and La Meije. It feels remote in a way Alpe d'Huez never does. The descent demands attention — loose gravel in corners, broken surface, sharp drops through Clavans-le-Bas toward the gorge. Lac du Chambon appears turquoise below Mizoën; a late kick between km 40 and 42 still finds fifty metres of climbing before the old road along the Romanche avoids the N91 tunnels home.

Pilgrimage, then wilderness

Alpe d'Huez alone is a postcard. Paired with Sarenne it becomes a proper high-mountain loop — television hairpins first, empty pasture second, and a descent that asks for more skill than the climb did. Fifty-one kilometres, seventeen hundred metres, and a day that refuses to end at the finish banner.