Col de la Croix de Fer og Col du Glandon

I'd been circling this loop for years before I finally rode it. Two TdF summits on the same mountain, linked by that famous high-alpine shoulder — the same Col du Glandon the peloton crossed in 2022 on the way to Alpe d'Huez. Rolling out of Bourg-d'Oisans early, the Romanche valley is still cool and quiet. You can see the 21 bends of l'Alpe stacked up on the opposite wall — a useful reminder of what you're not doing today.

The Glandon starts properly after Rivier d'Allemond. It's not one of those clean, metronome climbs; it pitches, eases, then pitches again through forested switchbacks. I stopped at the little village café in Rivier d'Allemond to top up bidons. The trees thin out near the top, the gradient kicks one last time, and suddenly you're on open pasture at the Col du Glandon marker with cowbells clanking somewhere below.

The link across to the Col de la Croix de Fer is only a couple of kilometres but it's the bit I'll remember longest. Emerald grass, grazing cows, and the serrated Aiguilles d'Arves stacked on the horizon like broken teeth. The stone signpost at the Croix de Fer summit (2,067 m) points toward Saint-Colomban-des-Villards and Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, and the iron cross itself sits a few metres away, looking exactly like it does on TV. The buvette was doing brisk trade: coffee, Coke, and a slice of tarte aux myrtilles.

The descent back is the reward. You retrace over the Glandon shoulder, then drop hard past Lac de Grand Maison — that unreal turquoise you only get from glacier-fed reservoirs, waterfalls streaking the opposite walls. I put a windproof on at the top; even in August the wind chill on a long alpine descent will hollow you out if you don't.

Back on the valley floor the tailwind did most of the work into Bourg-d'Oisans. Two legendary cols on one loop — it doesn't need embellishing. Just go and ride it.