I remember the day in 2015 when our RiDE designer Austin came in with his copy of Cyclist magazine, waving the cover at me: “Look at this amazing road from the Tour de France,” he said. “Bet you haven’t done that one.”

 

It was an almost aerial shot showing a dense forest of switchbacks – an infamous road called Les Lacets de Montvernier. The hairpins of Montvernier. Sorry, Austin… I first did it in 2004 on the Centopassi, the 100 Passes Rally. That didn’t stop me going back to get a photo of it, though – just to please him.

 

I’ve ridden Les Lacets several times now and I love them, for all that they’re so narrow and steep – 17 of them crammed into just over a mile-and-a-half, which is roughly one every 150m, as the road climbs (or descends) almost 300m. It’s an amazingly challenging ride – basically riding up a cliff. It’s even more demanding as a descent, but I think it’s better that way for the insane views (if you can take your eyes off the road for long enough to take them in).

 

This full day’s ride from lovely lakeside Annecy heads out on some of the most-scenic roads in the Alps to tackle this demanding descent – packing in epic passes along the way. There are some short stretches of bigger N and D roads in the valleys, but the roads you’ll remember are the epic climbs and descents. Especially Les Lacets.