Cycling the Alsace Region of France – an alternative to the French Alps?

As challenging as you want to make it

I’ve cycled in the French Alps and the Alsace region and nothing quite beats the shear magnitude of the Alps, the lengthy challenging climbs, the amazing views, the numerous cyclists, Alpe d’Huez, the Galibier… the list goes on. It’s such an iconic cycle destination, famed by the glory claimed by many in the Tour de France. I would advocate for any avid cyclist to explore the famous climbs of this area. However, the Alps can be hard work, and well, sometimes you just want an easy climb.

The Alsace region does offers many challenging and iconic climbs however it has a wide variety of options with less steep gradients that make for some great circular routes. It’s by no means an easy landscape to cycle but you can make it as hard or as difficult as you like. The scenery is also spectacular, it’s steeped in cycling history, plenty of cafes, a variety of climbs and some unique cultural towns to visit on route.

If you’ve read any of our other blog articles you’ll know my partner Lorien and I are traveling across Europe in our van visiting the best cycling destinations and some more lesser known unique spots. So in late summer, before getting to the Alps we spent two – three weeks in the Alsace region and found it to be the perfect playground for road cycling.

Our first ride was in the north of the region, starting from Lutzelbourg looping clockwise round to Dabo and took us up a fantastic lengthy climb, forgiving in gradient through a huge forest area. We also extended the route, with a short out and back up the winding La Rocher De Dabo, to visit the commune de Dabo and take in the views.

Iconic Climbs

As we traveled south our next stop was a ride near the Colmar area to tackle the Col du Petit Balloon, this is a tough climb reaching a peek of 1163m and will feature in the 2023 Tour de France. These are just two of several other climbs we undertook on these rides, so plenty to challenge and entertain you.

Our most iconic ride was in the very south of this mountainous region. Having watched the battle between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard in the 2022 Tour de France, we were keen to tackle the famous La Planche des Belles Filles, so planned a loop including the Ballon d’Alsace, Col des Croix and finishing with the Planche.

The Ballon d’Alsace is a wonderful climb, it took me around 40 minutes, the surface is smooth with plenty of switchback, the gradient is forgiving and there’s a real summit style finish, with great views. It’s a must do and I believe is the first col ever featured in the Tour de France. We approached it from the south but it can be climbed also from the north. We descended to the start of the alternate side and stopped at Au Chalet de la Gourmandise Patisserie to reflect on just how lovely the climb was.

Our next climb was up the Col des Croix, somewhat more ‘rough and ready’ a real climbers climb, again taking around 40minutes it was less memorable but provided a good challenge. It was predominantly enclosed by trees but you get the odd glimpse of the top as you gradually ascend. When I reached the top I met a group of cyclist from Germany, I supported them with the obligatory group photo and said I was waiting for my wife to ascend before the Planche. Ah, happy life happy wife’ they joyfully replied, I explained she’s a strong cyclist and if they didn’t descend quickly she’ll likely catch them on the Planche… tbc

We descended down through the trees and along a shallow river bed, still very dry from the hot summer and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves at the base of La Planche des Belles Filles. I was instantly filled with a great sense of awe, whether is was the tour writing still littering the road, the shear scale of the climb, groups of cyclist at the base or the memory of the 2022 race, I’m not sure but this invigorated me and I jumped straight in. I really wanted to give this a good crack, however soon realised I only had one speed going up. The climb is difficult, it rarely lets up below 8% but the surface is pristine and being an out and back, there was little traffic. At about halfway you’re treated to a 10/20 second descent, a chance to briefly rest the legs before it ramps up once more.

When arriving near the summit, if you’re planning to tackle the ‘Super Planche’ keep left along the large ski car park then sweep round right at the end, past the café and mini dry slope up the next steep section.

The Super Planche is famed for its penultimate gravel section, somewhat of a running theme in today’s pro cycle tour planning (if it wasn’t tough enough). It’s more than doable on a road bike as the gravel is fine, however be warned, the % elevation is steep and largely relies on you being seated as the rear wheel will slip dependent on your speed. The final 100meters or so is tarmacked and as I snaked this part of the ascent, I reminisced on just how easy Pogačar and Vingegaard danced up this final section with speed. The top was sprawled with ‘damaged’ cyclists, many choosing to walk down the initial descent for fear of slipping. As Lorien ascended she had indeed caught a number of the German group I met on the previous climb.

We headed back down to the safety of the ski café and in true ‘post effort’ style had the cyclist buffet of 5 ‘Cs’, coffee, coke, crisps, cake and chocolate and we waffled on in our euphoric state about what we’d just accomplished.

In summary, if you fancy a variety of climbs and terrain, ideally have a vehicle to best position yourself for different locations in the region, then the Alsace makes for an ideal road cycling destination. If visiting the north region, to say where we started our first climb from Lutzelbourg, it’s only approximately a 5-6 hours drive from Calais, compared to say 9 hours to Le Bourg-d’Oisans for Alpe d’Huez. I guess, what I’m trying to say is, you shouldn’t feel like you have to go to the Alps, just enjoy cycling in the Alsace region!

If you enjoyed this article why not read about our time cycling around Mont Ventoux.

For further information on the route we took for our last big day, you’ll find my Strava activity here – https://www.strava.com/activities/7743074817