Minimum altitude: 225 meters
Distance: 86.1 km
Slope Aspect: South-East
Vertical Climbed: 1,305 meters (4,282 feet)
Vertical Descended: 1,302 meters
Rating: 5
Today’s objective was the Col Luitel, a 1,265 metre pass above Séchilienne in the Romanche valley. It is not one of the most famous climbs in Isère, but it has a proper cycling pedigree. The Tour de France has used it several times, and the road is also known for the Lac Luitel nature reserve at the summit, one of the oldest protected natural sites in France.
The start of the climb is quite a long way from home: around 40 km by the route via Uriage. With the days feeling compressed by the canicule, and the heat becoming really intense after midday, I was not sure whether I could get over the col and back in reasonable time. I set off at 7.30 am and quickly rode down the valley towards Gières, where the road begins to climb towards Uriage.
This section now has a newly modernised cycle path alongside the road. The day before, we had seen a car crashed onto it, which says something about the design. There is a large kerb separating the cycle lane from the carriageway, which gives less room for cars and clearly annoys some drivers. As a driver, you have to pay attention to the road, which you should be doing anyway in a one-tonne metal cage, but if you drift even slightly you can hit the kerb. Personally, I was happy enough with a white line on the road, but for less experienced cyclists the physical separation probably does offer some reassurance.
I reached Uriage in about an hour, then descended towards Vizille on the quieter back road signposted for cyclists. It is rough and bumpy in places, but the main road is fast and not especially relaxing on a bike. I am always wary of drivers who cannot quite drive in a straight line, or who overtake without leaving the recommended 1.5 metre gap.
From Vizille, the road up the Romanche valley towards Séchilienne is busy and not that wide, with no real cycle path. Fortunately, the 7 km section only took about fifteen minutes, and most drivers were leaving a decent gap. From Séchilienne, though, the col looked a very long way up: a steep, south-facing valley disappearing into the mountains. Standing at the bottom, in the heat, I did briefly wonder whether this was such a good idea.
The Col du Luitel is a serious climb. From Séchilienne it is around 10 km long, with roughly 900 m of elevation gain and an average gradient close to 9%. That already sounds hard enough, but the number does not quite capture the feel of the road. There are very few easy sections, and the steepest ramps are much steeper than the average suggests. Add the extra climb to Chamrousse beyond the col, and the whole thing becomes one of the really tough ascents in the area. I have only done that full version once back in 2020 and not from home.
I had climbed the Luitel twice before, both times by the main road from Séchilienne. That road is a series of very long, straight ramps, which are mentally quite challenging even if much of the climb is shaded once you are out of the village. This time I decided to vary the route by taking the small side road via La Bathie, about 3 km into the climb. There is a tap there, which is worth knowing on a hot day.
I switched my GPS screen to map mode because I did not really want to be confronted with the numbers. That was probably wise. The side road is almost Italian in steepness: narrow, direct, and brutally pitched at the start. The first section felt around 15%, but once La Bathie came into view, sitting in a wide, sunny side bowl, the gradient became a little more reasonable, somewhere closer to 10%. You gain about 190 m on this detour before rejoining the main road. I say “main road”, but in places it is barely a car-width wide, although it seems to have been largely resurfaced over the last year or so.
After rejoining, the climb becomes a long traverse at around 10% towards the hamlet of Les Clots. By then there were only around 200 m of vertical left to the col, but that did not make it easy. The road was still very steep, and my climbing rate had dropped to about 600 m per hour. There was no water by the roadside, despite one of the hamlets being called Les Trois Fontaines, which felt a little unfair.
Finger boards announced Lac Luitel as 2 km away, but that was on foot. By road, it seemed to take much longer. Eventually I reached the junction with the main Chamrousse road, which I had ridden a couple of weeks earlier and had no desire to repeat today. At the top there was a nasty cold wind. The temperature was only 18°C, and if I had brought a jacket, I would definitely have put it on.
The descent was cold enough that I had to stop at Belmont to warm up in the sun before continuing down towards Uriage. From there, a well-deserved Coke helped bring me back to life.
Back in the valley, the contrast was almost absurd. It was now around 30°C, but the ride home along the river cycle path was straightforward. I managed to hold a reasonable 30 km/h for the final dozen kilometres, and somehow still had enough energy left to wash the bike afterwards.
In the end, it was a proper Belledonne ride: a long approach, a hard and slightly obscure climb, a summit that felt more alpine than its altitude suggests, and the usual reminder that in a heatwave the valley and the mountain can feel like two completely different seasons.
I managed an average speed of around 20 km/h. The first 40km/h were nicely in my <VT1 range. My 30m VAM was about 730m/h. In 2015 the climb had taken me 1h06, 1h10 in 2020 and today 1h29.
30C in the valley at 11am, 18C on the col with a cold wind. Road surface to the col Luitel seems to have been redone.
