This route makes up most northern part of the Route des Grandes Alpes (Great Alpine Road), a 684km long senic road trip through the French Alps. This alpine road trip takes you from the Mediterranean to lake Geneva to and includes some of the highest and most beautiful mountain passes in Europe.

This route can be ridden in either direction, for this review we are riding north stating in Cluses. You leave Cluses riding up a winding the side of the ramp of the first little pass. This is a fairly major road at this stage so it does carry a fair bit of traffic, but it is wide enough and has enough strait to provide good passing opportunities. If you happen to be lucky and catch it without traffic, this part of the journey is sublime.

After riding done the north side of the fist pass, you pass through Taninges, a small village sitting at the foot of the second and main ramp. Thankfully much of the traffic thins before Taninges and the road just gets better and better as you ride up the valley.

You run right though the ski area of Les Gets, then by the side of Morzine, and if you are motivated you can even take a detour up to Avoriaz. These areas are part of the Les Portes du Soleil, the largest linked ski area in the world.

From Morzine you are on a downward trajectory towards Lake Geneva. The further down the canyon you go, the better the ride gets. This is Gorges du Pont-du-Diable (Devil’s bridge canyon), a very deep canyon has been cut out by the Drasne River and provides some spectacular views.

I guarantee if you get a clean run on this road, you will want to turn around and ride it again. Yes, it is that good! Some of the best flowing corners I have ever ridden which scenery to die for, figuratively speaking of course.

We rate this a easy route.