The Rhône Alps

These mountains have everything – from miracles to majestic passes

THE ALPS IS a huge range of mountains, running in an arc from the Mediterranean up, along the France/italy border, through Switzerland and into Austria. France’s western Alps hold some of the most memorable riding – especially in this northern corner of the Rhone Alps, in Haut Savoie and Savoie.

This is where you pick up the Route des Grandes Alpes. It’s a series of interconnecting roads from Lake Geneva down to the sea, clambering over the great passes – including the highest in Europe, the 2770m Col de l’iseran. The Route is 430 miles of undiluted, uninterrupted brilliance.

But there’s far more to riding here than just the one route. It can’t take in all the passes and skips some of our favourites – the wildly scenic Col du Petit St Bernard or Col du Mont Cenis that cross to Italy, the challenging Col du Chaussy and Alpe d’huez. It misses out the Vercors, as well as the Chartreuse mountains to the north of Grenoble. There’s so much here that one trip – one route – is never enough.