La Marmotte Route - 2012

Unlike say the Etape where would be riders and bloggers spend July through to October scouring online forum's for rumours about the route, La Marmotte affords no such guessing.

Year in year out it's the same. 174kms. No changes. No alterations. Ever.


Above: The Route in Full

It offers the rider and this blogger the comfort of conformity. It's journey over the familiar Hores Categorie ascents of the Glandon, the Telegraphe, the Galibier and of course finishing upon the Alpe d'Huez remain forever unchanging.

With it taking in somewhere of the region of 5k meters of vertical ascent it's clearly a day out in the mountains that requires perhaps a fair amount of preparation. It's certainly not a little pootle to the shops of say (and in no way is this a disparaging remark) the annual jaunt between London and Brighton.

I'm sure there are other tougher and no doubt more fulfilling events to do, but for a cyclist to ride these Cols, the ones where legends were and continue to be made, will certainly take some beating.