Riding the Cayolle, Champ and Allos passes in the French Alps

A classic, beautiful and relentless 120km / 3200m elevation epic
Barcelonnette is the last real town before the long way up and over the Col de la Madeleine to Italy. And coming from there we based ourselves close to Barcelonnette, which sits right by the river Ubaye. From here long passes on small roads connect the neighboring valleys - a Mecca for cyclists like myself.

Right from the town the Cols of Cayolle and Allos make their way south, while a bit up the road the Col de Vars leads north towards Briancon. Above all the Col de la Bonette towers at more than 2.800 meters above sea level. With all that in mind the climbs up to the many ski resorts that are also on offer here are dwarfed both by height, length and beauty of the real passes (even though for example Pra Loup does have some Tour de France history).

One loop in the area is simply known as „The three Cols“ and makes its way over three passes (Cayolle, Champs and Allos) raking up 3.200 meters of climbing in 120km - sweat inducing statistics indeed. I decided to ride the loop clockwise: Starting with the 25km climb up to Cayolle, then the 16km of the Champs and finally the more than 20km of the Allos, before rolling back down to Barcelonnette.

The climb up to Col de Cayolle is long and gradual before kicking up in gradient for the last few kilometers. Both sides are stunning, however I would not want to ride down towards Barcelonnette, as the road surface is not great on the north side.

After the winding but fast descent a sharp right hander directly leads into Col de Champs: "Shorter" at 16km but steeper. The average slope is a bit deceiving as there are a few short downhills along the way and especially the last 4km are hard given the incline and altitude. The ride down to Colmar is on a very small but well surfaced road many through woods.

In Colmar another right turn leads onto the large road towards the town of Allos and the ski resort of La Foux Allos. Until the resort the road climbs gradually and then suddenly becomes very narrow and much steeper - and with Cayolle and Champ already in the legs the last kilometers to the final pass just won’t end. However the last descent from the Col de Allos to Barcelonnette is a dream of curves, views and a deep feeling of satisfaction.

In total the ride took me about five hours of pure riding time (plus a few photo stops). Of course I would recommend this loop to any rider who likes their roads steep and their Cols high - however this one is quite the challenge that should not be underestimated.