Côte d'Héry-sur-Ugine & Col des Saisies

Arly valley into Héry

Ugine opens with nine near-flat kilometres beside the Arly, limestone walls closing the Val d'Arly and Savoyard villages flicking past. Then Côte d'Héry-sur-Ugine refuses to ease anyone in: narrow departmental road, hardwood canopy, irregular ramps through hamlets above Héry. Every so often the forest opens onto the Combe de Savoie dropping away behind. Eleven kilometres at roughly 5.2% to 1,004 m — shaded, quiet, technical in character if not always in percentage. The forest keeps the noise out; the only rhythm is the one on the bike.

A short drop to the valley floor below Crest-Voland resets the legs before the second climb begins through pasture and wooden chalets with views across to the Aravis. In Crest-Voland a mural for Gino Mäder waits in a village that prepared for a Tour passage Stage 19 of 2025 never completed — the race was cut short the night before after livestock disease closed the intended route. The mural was unveiled anyway.

Héry is narrow, shaded and irregular; the Saisies is long, open and steady. Same loop, two languages of climbing.

Col des Saisies and the Beaufortain

From Crest-Voland the D218B climbs eight more kilometres through spruce that opens into alpine meadow. Ski-lift cables appear overhead; eastward Mont Blanc shows itself, which is always a moment. The col at 1,662 m is the high point; Les Saisies sits just below in summer Tour theatre — yellow, polka-dot and green jersey cutouts in flowerbeds, plaza cafés, tarte aux myrtilles or a Beaufort sandwich in Beaufortain country.

The descent through Hauteluce and Villard-sur-Doron is fast and flowing, stone-and-timber farmhouses flashing past, good sightlines through the sweepers. A short ramp near km 45 at nearly 7% interrupts the drop; another kick around km 65 keeps attention honest until the last four kilometres fall nearly two hundred metres back into Ugine.

A Tour stage that still rides

The peloton skipped these climbs in 2025. The roads did not. For riders chasing Savoie theatre without the Oisans crowds, Héry and the Saisies remain a complete day — two characters, one valley return, and Mont Blanc as punctuation on the upper kilometres.