The Iserane 2026

Good news: the race is free 🐀. Bad news: your legs will still pay the full price. 😅

In June, the D902 road between Val-d'Isère and Bonneval-sur-Arc closes to cars and opens to bikes, exclusively to bikes 🚴. This is the Iserane, the highest cycling gathering in Europe, organized by the Val d'Isère Sports Club. The program is disarmingly simple: 16 km of climbing, 1,000 meters of positive elevation, to the summit of the Col de l'Iseran at 2,770 meters ⛰️. No timing ⏱️, no ranking 🏅, just you, your machine, and this road that keeps climbing 📈. With the weather ☀️, it's the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, which is convenient because the climb seems endless. Temperatures at Val-d'Isère at this time of year range between 5°C and 15°C in the valley, but at the summit at 2,770 meters, the thermometer can drop below 0°C with wind 🌬️. In 1996, a Tour de France stage was neutralized on the Iseran in the middle of July due to a storm with gusts up to 100 km/h. Better to be prepared: a small jacket in the bag 🎒 doesn’t take much space and can make all the difference. For those who love extensions, the descent towards Bonneval-sur-Arc is possible, but no return shuttle is planned, so plan your logistics, or brace yourself for the climb back up 😁.

The road you will ascend has a history that far surpasses a Sunday outing 🏛️. Built between 1929 and 1937 by 600 workers during the only summer periods (the snow prohibiting any work the rest of the year ❄️) it was inaugurated by President Albert Lebrun on July 10, 1937. Less than a year later, the Tour de France ventured there for the first time: a stage of 311 km, on an unpaved road, in rain and snow, at 0°C at the summit 🌨️. Nice, right? 🥲 In 1959, the career of the legendary Louison Bobet, triple consecutive winner of the Grande Boucle from 1953 to 1955, ended on these slopes, where he dismounted and never returned 🚲. In 1992, Italian Claudio Chiappucci escaped alone over 140 km and 7 passes before leading at the summit, leaving the yellow jersey Indurain more than 3 minutes behind 🙈. And in 2019, Egan Bernal crossed the Iseran in the lead before the stage was stopped due to landslides on the descent 🏔️.

The route itself is an experience in its own right 🗺️. From Val-d'Isère, the road gradually rises above the treeline 🌲, winding through anti-avalanche galleries and tunnels carved into solid rock. You will pass near the Lac de l'Ouillette, before the scenery shifts to total mineral: no tree, no house, just rock, snow patches, and sky 🌌. The last kilometer before the summit is the steepest at 7.7% average gradient, the kind of gift you’d rather not unwrap. At the summit, the 360° panorama encompasses the Vanoise glaciers and the Tsanteleina Franco-Italian in the foreground 🏔️. The Chapel of Our Lady of All Prudence, built between 1937 and 1939 with its statue of the Virgin carved from a single 5-ton block, has been watching over travelers for nearly 90 years 🙏. And if you're lucky, a few ibex will observe your arrival from the nearby rocks with that slightly condescending air that only animals living at 2,700 meters know how to have 🐐. After all, they are the first inhabitants of the mountain!

Once back down in the valley, legs jingling, Val d'Isère and its surroundings take care of the rest 😋. The Vanoise National Park, the first national park created in France in 1963, surrounds the pass and its alpine meadows ⛰️. The local fauna is not hiding: marmots, chamois, and bearded vultures populate these slopes as if they paid for their spot 🦅. For food, Savoie practices generosity in its natural state. The tartiflette with its potatoes, bacon, onions, and whole Reblochon melted in the oven, is all the more deserved after 1,000 meters of elevation 🫕. The Beaufort, nicknamed the "Prince of Gruyères," develops its strongest alpine aromas in June, a good reason to come precisely this month 🧀. And for the must-sees nearby: the Grande Motte and its glaciers visible from the pass, the village of Bonneval-sur-Arc at the descent's end 🏘️, and the Vanoise pastures where the herds ascend after six months in the valley: the timing is perfect 🐄.

We'll see if you're at the top of your game or exhausted at the top of the Col de l'Iseran! 😉