Alpe d’Huez
Oisans, French Alps · Bourg-d’Oisans → Alpe d’Huez
Twenty-one numbered hairpins from Bourg-d’Oisans to the most famous summit finish in cycling.
- Distance
- 15.7 km
- Climbing
- +1,131 m
- Est. time
- 1 h 45 min
- Avg gradient
- 7.1 %
Free to ride with a free account. It rides in your browser with any smart trainer or power meter, and your result goes on the leaderboard below.
Ride it in stages
Few riders hold 16 km on a trainer. Ride it a stage at a time: the cuts avoid the middle of the big climbs — a stage ends at a summit, in a valley or on the flat — and this page remembers what you have ridden and what comes next.
2 stages of about 7.9 km — none over 50 minutes at 165 W.
- Stage 1 (next)km 0–7.8Next7.8 km+538 m~45 minMountain
- Stage 2km 7.8–15.88 km+593 m~48 minMountain · Cat HC · summit finish
Times are at a steady 165 W — no stage takes more than 50 minutes. Cross a stage's finish line and it is ticked — feeling good? Keep pedalling and the ride carries on into the next stage. Progress is kept in this browser, and in your account when you are signed in.
Elevation profile
715–1,842 m · 1 categorised climb · Hard · RoadAbout Alpe d’Huez
The road leaves the valley floor at Bourg-d’Oisans and starts climbing at once: the first ramps are the steepest of the whole ascent, and they arrive before your legs have agreed to anything. From there it is a staircase of twenty-one hairpins, counted down from the bottom, each one carrying the name of a rider who won here.
The Tour de France first finished at the ski station in 1952 and has kept coming back, which is why a climb that is neither the longest nor the highest in the Alps is the one every cyclist can picture. Halfway up the gradient eases through the villages of La Garde and Huez, and the last kilometres open into the resort with the valley far below.
Why ride this route indoors?
- It is a pure, uninterrupted effort: no descent, no traffic, no junctions — about as close to a lab test as a real mountain gets.
- The hairpins give you a flat metre to breathe every few hundred metres, which makes pacing by feel easier to learn here than on a steady drag.
- Your trainer holds the real gradient all the way up, so your time is comparable from one attempt to the next.
Good to know
+Is this the official route of Alpe d’Huez?
The track is based on the GPX published by Oisans Tourisme, normalised by Cycloscape for indoor riding. Cycloscape is not affiliated with the publisher.
+What do I need to ride Alpe d’Huez indoors?
A smart trainer or a power meter, and a browser. Cycloscape connects over Bluetooth or ANT+ from the browser, sets the resistance of a smart trainer to the real gradient, and turns the route’s GPX into a 3D world. There is nothing to install.
+Can I ride Alpe d’Huez in stages?
Yes. Few riders want more than 50 minutes on a trainer in one go, so Cycloscape offers its 16 km in 2 stages of about 8 km, none longer than 50 minutes at 165 W. The cuts avoid the middle of the big climbs — a stage ends at a summit, in a valley or on the flat. Start from any stage and, if your legs are good at its finish line, keep pedalling: the ride carries on into the next stage and every stage you finish is ticked. The page remembers which stages you have ridden and which one is next.
+Is it free?
Yes. Riding it needs a free account — sign up in seconds with Google or a code by email, no card. Your result is saved and goes on the route’s leaderboard.
Leaderboard
Best effort per rider — a free account puts your ride on it.