Preparing for the Marmotte Granfondo Alpes from Albiez

The Marmotte Granfondo Alpes runs on 27 June 2027, from Bourg-d'Oisans to Alpe d'Huez via the Glandon, the Télégraphe and the Galibier. Seven thousand five hundred places, capped, more than 88% of them going to riders from outside France — and they sell out in under a day. If you are reading this before October 2026, you are ahead: that is when entries open.

The dates that matter

Albiez as a base camp — the honest version

Let us say it straight away, because it is what decides the question: on race morning, Albiez is not the right place to be sleeping. Bourg-d'Oisans is on the far side of the Croix de Fer, an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half away by the pass — in summer only, and not at five in the morning on race day.

What Albiez is good for is the week before. Reconnaissance, acclimatising to altitude, building legs without spending a fortune: three of the four difficulties on the course can be reconnoitred from here, and the first two without even dropping into a valley.

Reconnoitring the course from Albiez

The Glandon, Maurienne side

On race day the Glandon is climbed from the Oisans and descended towards the Maurienne. From Albiez, then, what you reconnoitre is the descent — the one neutralised on the clock, and the one where most riders come unstuck. Reaching it does not mean going back down into the valley: you go via Montrond, Entraigues and La Villette to pick up the D926.

The Télégraphe and the Galibier

The two genuinely timed difficulties, and they are in your valley. From Albiez you drop to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne — about twenty minutes — then ride back up to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to start the Télégraphe. The Galibier follows straight on. This is the ride that most closely resembles what you will do on the day.

Alpe d'Huez

The only one you will not reconnoitre from here without making a trip of it. Save it for race day, or for a full day given over to the Oisans.

Sleeping at 1,600 metres while you prepare

Sleeping altitude is not a comfort detail when you are preparing an event that goes above 2,000 metres twice. Albiez-Montrond is at 1,600 m, and that is the altitude you sleep at, not just the one you ride at.

Add the prosaic: a proper kitchen, so you eat what you want when you want rather than waiting for a service; a south-facing balcony that dries a jersey in an hour; and the quiet of a village of 300 people in the week Bourg-d'Oisans fills up.

One thing to plan for, because it is concrete: the ski locker is not sized for a bike. Two options on site: lock it on the landing, which is covered and sheltered, or bring it onto the balcony. Allow about fifty steps up from the car park.

And if you have no entry

The 7,500 places go quickly, and plenty of cyclists come to ride these passes that same week anyway, without a number board. The roads are the same, so are the views, and the Maurienne regularly closes certain passes to cars for a morning. It is all in our article Albiez, base camp for the great passes, with the Col du Mollard which happens to sit at the edge of the hamlet — see the Col du Mollard by bike.

Everything else the resort offers in summer is on our summer page.