French Alps: Le Bourg-d'Oisans & Cormet de Roseland

France · Savoie · Isère · French Alps

Two genuine Alpine climbs from a 2012 trip, plus a gentler return to the same valley a decade later.

Two separate big days in the French Alps, both from August 2012: up to Le Bourg-d'Oisans, at the foot of Alpe d'Huez, and over the Cormet de Roseland in the Beaufortain — "unbelievably hot," in my own words. A decade later, a much gentler visit to the same Beaufortain valley turned up real photos.

Le Bourg-d'Oisans

Ridden 21 August 2012. Le Bourg-d'Oisans sits at the base of the Alpe d'Huez climb — one of the most famous 21-hairpin ascents in cycling, part of the Tour de France's regular rotation.

Route data (from Strava): 44.0km, 1,256m of climbing — the max-grade field on this ride's file is corrupted (an impossible value), so it's left out rather than guessed.

Real GPS route map of the ride from Le Bourg-d'Oisans, French Alps — The actual recorded route, plotted from my own 2012 GPS track onto a real OpenStreetMap base.

Cormet de Roseland

Ridden 19 August 2012, two days earlier — a proper Alpine pass in the Beaufortain, between Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Beaufort. My own note says everything: "Unbelievably hot ride..."

Route data (from Strava): 113km, 2,436m of climbing in the day — again, the max-grade field is corrupted on this file and excluded.

Real GPS route map of the Cormet de Roseland ride, French Alps — The route from the same trip — out from Albertville, round through the Beaufortain, and back.

A gentler return, ten years later

Real photos exist from a visit to the same Beaufortain valley in April 2022 — but this looks like a flat valley cycle path near Beaufort, not a repeat of the 2012 climb, and my wife is riding, not me on a road-racing effort. Worth confirming rather than assuming it's the same trip revisited.

My wife cycling a flat valley path near Beaufort in the French Alps — A much gentler ride in the same valley, April 2022 — a flat cycle path, not the pass itself.

Two Pelforth beers on a café table in the French Alps — Two Pelforth beers at the end of it — a French Alpine café stop.

A horse sculpture in a town square in the Beaufortain, French Alps — A horse sculpture in the town square, mountains behind — somewhere in or near Beaufort or Albertville.