Cycling in the high mountains. Alps, Dolomites, Pyrenees etc

We got lucky and someone local informed us about newish sections, including the dedicated cycle tunnel. For the benefit of anyone heading that way..
https://www.komoot.com/tour/1283393065

From the East you have the tunnel that starts near the base of Notre-Dame-du-Pré that then follows the valley for ~20 miles before joining onto the main road heading toward the Iseran.

I'm pretty sure I took a similar route heading west to moutiers in 2014. After 3 cols I was desperate to follow the river but not die in the tunnel. I see ended up on what was the old cliff road but certainly not a legal route at the time 😂

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Anyone cycled around the German-Austrian border south of Munich? Gonna be based in Oberammergau with a gravel bike for a week. I'm really looking for good 5-10km road climbs & cols but I'd take a gravel climb too. Lack of streetview in Germany is making it quite hard to understand what a climb will be like.

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Lack of streetview in Germany

Google have just added tons of new streetview imagery, might cover some of what you need

You must have heard about Fernpass?

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Which I rode as the cycle path (via Augusta) two years ago had a problem. So what you want to do, ride to Ehrwald, there might be a quietish lane from Oberammergau to Reutte, Reutte Ehrwald should be quiet side roads, and enjoy the descend home.

Alternatively https://www.quaeldich.de/touren/bayern-tirol-tagestour/

https://www.komoot.de/tour/1216602522

Or you ride to Murnau where’s lots of breweries.

Nice. I didn't @ you but knew you'd have the goods! Had a swim in the lake at Murnau last time we were there.

Cycled today from Landeck (Tyrol in Austria) to Prad am Stilfser Joch: unfortunately the Umbrail pass is closed until end of September due to a rockslide – now I go up to Stelvio and then down again, no (average/medium length and climbing) other routes back to Prad I guess. Maybe I’ll do another round later tomorrow and do the Stelvio super early.

Has anyone done the Port d'Envalira and continued down to Andorra lately? I did it twice ages ago. I really liked the road up from Ax les Thermes, but the contrast with Andorra was shocking. Really dirty and trafficky with boy racers everywhere. It's like someone has transplanted Southend to the Pyrenees. Is the rest of Andorra like that?

I drank from a mountain stream near the top on the French side but just over the Andorra border. The taste was indescribable. After the next hairpin there was a filling station with a pile of refuse, including a dead sheep, thrown right on the stream. That night I threw up both lungs and my liver.

I did the Stelvio today from Prad, got up early and started at 05:15 and all the way up not one motorcycle, maybe 15 cars and two trucks, only two road bikes. Since the Umbrail is closed, I went up as far as possible for me and met the Swedish ski racing team on their training camp =) Going later down the horror: traffic jam, old car meetings, new car meetings, Porsche club Munich, so many motorcycles. I really felt sorry for the pour souls on their bikes going up.

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That sound like a great story, oh my

Cool! Fond memories

Anyone got recommendations for which mountains out of Grenoble? As car free as possible would be great.

How many days do you have?

The Chartreuse north of Grenoble are all good. And pretty steep in places.

Otherwise the Vercors to the south are also amazing. Just search the thread or head to cycling-challenge.com for pre made routes in the area, or make your own. It's hard to go wrong!

The Côte de Laffrey was nice driving to Barcelonette.

Thanks for this - here for a week so plenty of time to take both in. Doing it fixed as well for the spirit of the forum.

Touring disasters can make for the best memories. There's a theory that you should court chaos by never looking at a map.

I really enjoy these.

Time to get the skis and boots out of storage by the look of it.

Windy

Is there anything else worth riding (other than just rolling around and enjoying the countryside) around the Ventoux? Going down there in late spring/early summer and will have a couple of days, one for a couple of sides of the mountain and a warm-up day. Doesn't need to be a mountain, but maybe more interesting than a D-road along a valley.

what @pastry_bot said about the Vercors... fantastic riding