Lacets de Montvernier
Climb · French Alps
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part of: Hairpin heaven: the most switchbacks on one climb
Lacets de Montvernier is a 3.8 km cycling climb averaging 7.5% (+283 m), rising from 498 m to 781 m in French Alps.
Eighteen hairpins hand-built into a cliff face by 36 men between 1931 and 1933, and since 2015 the Tour's favourite photograph: the race keeps returning for the sight of the peloton stacked up the wall, always early in a stage, never for the selection the climb makes.
3.8 km · +283 m · 7.5% avg · ~10.5% max · 498 → 781 m · 18 hairpins
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
Download GPX ↓Navigate to the foot ↗
Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 500 m: 10.3% (km 1.1–1.6).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 561 m | 6.4% |
| 2 | 655 m | 9.5% |
| 3 | 734 m | 8.2% |
What it’s like to ride
Eighteen hairpins, counted off the road itself, are stacked up the cliff above Pontamafrey, roughly one every 130 metres, and the whole knot is packed into about 1.9 km at around 8.7%, so the road never hands you a straight long enough to settle into a rhythm. It is narrow, carved into the rock and closed to large vehicles, though you still check your line where a car is coming down. The wall faces south, so in summer the rock radiates the heat straight back at you. Above the last bend the gradient eases and the road runs out onto open pasture into Montvernier, which after all those corners feels plain by comparison, and there is a fountain at the D77/D77B junction in the village to top up bottles. From there the D77 carries on toward the Col du Chaussy, of which the Lacets are only the first fifth.
History
The D77b was cut into the cliff face above the Maurienne valley to end the isolation of Montvernier, Montpascal and Montbrunal, the three villages sitting some 300 metres above the valley floor. Work began in 1931 under the engineer Boniface Bochet, stalled when the first contractor abandoned the job after the opening switchbacks, and was taken over in May 1932 by a firm from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne that finished the road in April 1933 after eleven months; 36 men built it by hand, with a single truck to haul the cement. Racing came to it only in 2015, when the Critérium du Dauphiné used it on stage 8 in June, and the Tour de France followed a month later on stage 18 from Gap to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, where Romain Bardet crossed the top alone and soloed to the stage win. The Tour has returned twice since: stage 12 in 2018 on the road to Alpe d'Huez, with Pierre Rolland first over, and stage 11 in 2022 out of Albertville towards the Col du Granon, with Pierre Latour leading. It is rated only category 2 and has always been placed early in a stage, so the organisers come for the sight of the peloton stacked up the hairpins rather than for any selection the climb makes.
More climbs in French Alps
Common questions
- How long and steep is Lacets de Montvernier?
- Lacets de Montvernier is a 3.8 km cycling climb averaging 7.5% (+283 m), rising from 498 m to 781 m in French Alps.
- Where is Lacets de Montvernier steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 10.3%, between km 1.1 and km 1.6 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Lacets de Montvernier have?
- Lacets de Montvernier has 18 hairpin bends, counted from the road's map geometry (a hairpin here means at least 150 degrees of turning completed within 150 metres of road). Painted corner numbers on some climbs count gentler bends too, so the two figures can differ.