Col de la Loze, FRA

The Col de la Loze is the youngest myth in cycling. A bike path to 2,301 metres, only paved in 2019, car-free between Méribel and Courchevel, and already the stage for three Tour de France showdowns. Not a historic pass, but a climb built directly for cyclists. With ramps that take even the pros apart.

The Col de la Loze at a glance

From Brides-les-Bains via Méribel it is 21.6 kilometres and 1,653 metres of climbing, 7.7 percent on average, 17 percent at the steepest. At 2,301 metres the Loze is the seventh-highest pass in France. The numbers sound like a classic HC climb, but they hide the essential part: the last seven kilometres are a narrow bike path with constantly changing, at times brutal gradient shifts.

The route

Up to Méribel the Loze is a normal alpine climb: 13 kilometres of ski station road at six to nine percent, easy to pace, plenty of forest. If you are already at your limit here, the bill arrives further up.

Above Méribel, at around 1,700 metres, the climb shows its real character: the car-free bike path. Narrow, twisting, and without any regularity. Kilometres 17 to 20 work out at nine to twelve percent, but that average is made of short kicks, brief flat spots and ever new ramps. Exactly this change of rhythm is what makes the Loze so hard. The final stretch to the pass then relents almost graciously.

History and racing

The bike path was built in 2018 and opened in May 2019 as a car-free link between Méribel and Courchevel. The first professional race arrived the same summer: at the Tour de l’Avenir 2019 the Australian Alexander Evans won the stage. The Tour de France followed in 2020, with Miguel Ángel López winning the summit finish ahead of Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar.

In 2023 the Loze wrote its big chapter. On the queen stage to Courchevel, Tadej Pogačar cracked on the climb, and his “I’m gone, I’m dead” over the radio became the sentence of the Tour. Jonas Vingegaard rode away and settled the general classification, while Felix Gall took the stage from the breakaway. In 2025 the Tour returned, this time via the Courchevel side, and Ben O’Connor won. Three Tour visits in six years: the Loze is here to stay.

Practical tips

The bike path above Méribel is car-free, which exists nowhere else in this league. It is also narrow and busy on fine days, so take it easy on the descent. Gearing: better too small than too big, the ramps in the final section punish heavy gears. The season runs roughly June to October, and Méribel is the place to refill bottles. If you like loops: up the Courchevel side, down the Méribel side, that is the 2023 Tour route.

How does the Loze compare?

Against Alpe d’Huez the Loze is the counter-proposal: there, 21 hairpins of history and stadium atmosphere, here a quiet, modern bike path without cars. And against the Galibier the Loze lacks 100 years of patina, but none of the hardness. The unrhythmic ramps above Méribel are the hardest thing the Tour has ridden regularly in recent years.

First-hand experience

I rode the Loze in July 2024 from the Méribel side, one year after Felix Gall won the Tour stage up here. That was exactly why we came. The bike path is a mental trap: you think the hardest part is behind you once the tarmac goes car-free. The opposite is true. Right at the end, on the final metres, it gets seriously steep again, and that is where I hit my limit. The weather played along, and the big bicycle monument at the summit felt well earned. Would I ride it again? Probably not. Once is enough, the Loze is an incredible ordeal.

The Loze ranks among the top 50 of our 100 climbs, on the 100 Climbs posters and on the compact 50 Climbs edition.

Can you ride the Col de la Loze on a road bike?

Yes, the climb is fully paved. The upper part above Méribel is a car-free bike path, built in 2018 and opened in 2019. That section is exactly what makes the Loze unique: a Tour de France mountain without traffic.

How steep is the Col de la Loze?

7.7 percent on average over 21.6 kilometres, 17 percent at the steepest. The difficulty is the rhythm: above Méribel steep kicks and short flat spots alternate constantly, and climbing at a steady pace is impossible.

Since when has the Tour de France climbed the Col de la Loze?

Since 2020. Miguel Ángel López won the first summit finish, in 2023 Jonas Vingegaard decided the Tour against Tadej Pogačar on the Loze, and in 2025 Ben O’Connor won in Courchevel. The Loze had already hosted the under-23 race Tour de l’Avenir in 2019.