The Bourg d’Oisan valley is surrounded by huge mountains and steep cliffs. The Alps are amazingly steep and dramatic mountains, shaped like the Grand Tetons in Wyoming but on a much much bigger scale. The valley is surrounded by small towns, villages and hamlets that are accessed by impossible roads. They are well paved but narrow and winding and steep, cut from the cliffs, passing through tunnels, switchbacking up the mountainsides to the little collection of buildings complete with a church and town hall.
Friday’s ride was a tour of many of these roads which encircle the town of BdO. We did our usual morning descent of the Ornon road. It was clear and dry but quite chilly. Riding through BdO we headed up the valley towards the Col du Lauteret on the main road. It is a busy road and very narrow in places. We were riding uphill and had to go through a tunnel which was extremely scary. It was well lit and pretty wide but one lane each way with no shoulders about 300 meters long uphill and curving. The noise of trucks and cars approaching ahead and behind was awful. but we got through it unscathed. Soon we came to our turn off to the shelf road to Les Deux Alpes (LDA). LDA is a modern ski resort high above the valley and this road was quiet, steep and bucolic. There were dramatic views down to the valley below and across to the other side where we could see the shelf road we would be riding later in the day.
shelf road overlooking BdO Valley
Eventually the old narrow road passed through some hamlets and met up with the main road to LDA. We climbed up the busier road to the ski resort where we lunched on bread, candy and chocolate.
Then a screaming descent back to the valley where we started. We turned left – still downhill – on the Lauteret road for 2 km to the village of Le Freney d’Oisans. The climb resumed with a wicked steep road towards the “ski station” of Auris.
on the La Garde shelf road
After about 3 miles of 10-12% road we turned onto the narrow shelf road on the north side of the BdO valley. This is a bucolic road with some ups and downs and very little traffic. It passes through 3 avalanche sheds – concrete structures which protect the road from snow avalanches.
avalanche shed on the La Garde shelf road
The road continued on with great views of the Col d’Ornon valley and ended at La Garde near the bottom of the classic route up the Alpe d’Huez.
Col d’Ornon Valley from the La Garde shelf road
This was our agreed upon meeting place, since Larry was off the front we expected to find him casually sipping an espresso in the genial cafe at the intersection when we arrived. Alas, no Monsieur LongGone. We sat at the cafe and had some cokes and waited and worried. It is unlike Larry to be behind us. Perhaps he had a mechanical or got lost. We decided to wait until 3:45 pm before proceeding. He promptly showed up as we were about to depart. He had gotten lost and also had a flat tire and he had waited for us, who knows where. Now we sat and had an espresso before heading up the classic Alpe d’Huez route from La Garde to the village of Huez, doing about 1/2 of the total climb.
Alpe d’Huez climb
Then we set off on another shelf road to Villard Reculas. At this point I was pretty tired but the grandeur and beauty soon made me forget the fatigue. A candy bar helped, too. We had done this road in the opposite direction a few days earlier. From Villard Reculas we had a screaming downhill to Allemont on an excellent road. A short stop in Allemont for the requisite chocolate and cokes and then we rode back to the Col d’Ornon road for our last climb of the day – 5 miles up to the King of the Mountains Lodge. Total we rode 56.5 miles, 8286 vertical feet and at least one very tired rider.