Base for Alps cycling

[OlavEH]

I'm looking for a base town/village in the Alps (alternatively two close-by towns) for road cycling. Dolomites with villages like Selva di Gardena, Corvara in Badia and Canazei seems like a very obvious option, but are there any other possibilities, for example in the French Alps?

It's preferable to avoid the too many roads with heavy traffic. There isn't at must to ride the highest climbs/passes. Don't need to pass 2000m on most climbs to be satisfied. I was looking at La Clusaz as an option, but many of the roads in the area seems to be main roads? Vercors actually looks interesting. More options on lesser trafficated roads perhaps. Any other ideas?

 

[King Boonen]

Annecy. There are some fantastic routes around there and it's a beautiful place to stay.

 

[Sestriere]

I was in the Alpes maritimes for a week in september. If you're looking for empty roads you're certainly going to find them there. We stayed in Entrevaux and most of the time went by car to the starting points of our rides. That certainly helps to avoid riding the same roads over and over again and also to keep the the rides within managable distance. South of the Var valley there are plenty of quite roads with medium sized climbs. To the north the high Alps start with Col des Champs, Allos, Cayolle, Bonette. Plenty of spectacular gorges and hidden gems like Col de la Sinne. During 2h+ on the that road (asend+descend#break at the top) we saw two cars.
So yeah, the area is prety remote, maybe not something for everyone. Other options for accomodation in the area would be Barcelonette or Guillaume or aome other town in the Var valley.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yikes... where to start? In French Alps: as Sestrieres mentions there are some good routes around the Mercantour region and Alpes-Maritimes, Die is a good base for southern Vercors, Annecy, Chambéry or Aix-les-Bains for the Chartreuse and Massif des Bauges, which offer quite a few less well-trodden climbs. In Italy, I'm a big fan of the Valle d'Aosta as is well known, and there are lots of towns you can stay in there offering different options, including many very little-known climbs which are on pretty good roads and incredibly scenic but as they're one-way to ski towns, dams or similar, very scant traffic, such as Bionaz, Le Magdeleine, Dondenaz and Champillon. Obviously most of the best Italian base towns are covered in your OP, but Tarvisio and Cividale del Friuli are also useful possibilities for less crowded areas, or you could hop the border into Slovenia, where Bled or Bohinjska Bistrica are possibilities with some great cycling roads and scenery. Austria is a veritable treasure trove, Wolfsberg is a great option, as is Lienz (lots of one-way super-steep climbs to ski resorts), Kitzbühel, Innsbruck, Imst and Feldkirch all have a lot of options. Even from Salzburg you have the Berchtesgadener Land close at hand, which is perhaps the one really major area for German climbing in the Alps. If you're willing to push the boat out financially and do Switzerland, then Davos, Lenzerheide, Andermatt, Sion, Sierre, Martigny, Andermatt and Lugano are all strong possibilities - Lugano and the Valais cities all have the similar possibilities of little-known and quiet dead end roads that Aosta has too.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Cortina d'Ampezzo is always a good option, but there's a lot of traffic on some of the climbs.
In South Tyrol Brixen/Bressanone would be a good option, a few really good climbs with less traffic right around the city and you can use the cycle ways to reach climbs like the Pennser Joch or Ritten, just to name a few.

 

[Oldermanish]

I'm looking for a base town/village in the Alps (alternatively two close-by towns) for road cycling. Dolomites with villages like Selva di Gardena, Corvara in Badia and Canazei seems like a very obvious option, but are there any other possibilities, for example in the French Alps?

It's preferable to avoid the too many roads with heavy traffic. There isn't at must to ride the highest climbs/passes. Don't need to pass 2000m on most climbs to be satisfied. I was looking at La Clusaz as an option, but many of the roads in the area seems to be main roads? Vercors actually looks interesting. More options on lesser trafficated roads perhaps. Any other ideas?

La Clusaz is a great base with excellent food. If you get there 2-3 weeks before the Tour the whole area is just waking up from the Winter town shutdown. The Aravis, Col De Fry, Columbier are all right there and the Saisse loop is on the other side of the Aravis. Most was lightly trafficked during the week and most of the pavement was like new or actually a few days old. Amazing surfaces....The little valley track with the short gravel section where Alaphillipe attacked in last year's Tour is also just down the road. Combined that is an ambition week's riding. Annecy is a reasonable car ride away to access that riding as well.

 

[red_flanders]

Annecy. There are some fantastic routes around there and it's a beautiful place to stay.

Good one. I have only one experience riding in Europe, but Annecy and the rides around there were the highlight. Good routes into Chambery, etc. Amazing town. Nice lake to jump in with full kit in summer heat.

 

[Oldermanish]

Good one. I have only one experience riding in Europe, but Annecy and the rides around there were the highlight. Good routes into Chambery, etc. Amazing town. Nice lake to jump in with full kit in summer heat.

Le Grand Bournand is just down the hill from La Clusaz. It's bigger but the hillsides around it are laced with small lanes that access the Columbier. You can go just uphill to St Jean De Sixt and go downhill to last year's epic stage, too.

 

[Oldermanish]

Le Grand Bournand is just down the hill from La Clusaz. It's bigger but the hillsides around it are laced with small lanes that access the Columbier. You can go just uphill to St Jean De Sixt and go downhill to last year's epic stage, too.

Looks like you'd need to go earlier this year to avoid the Tour crowds as all of these beautiful climbs are in the 2020 Tour. The roads will be nicer than anything in Europe, for sure.