Alpe d'Huez: 21 Hairpins, 21 Names

01The 21 Hairpins: A Countdown on the Mountainside

You would expect to count the bends from the bottom up. Not here: number 21 is at the foot of the climb, number 1 right at the top. “You don't climb, you count down.” Like the end of a rocket launch, with fatigue thrown in.

The idea comes from Georges Rajon, a hotelier in the resort and president of its sports club. He had ridden the numbered switchbacks of the Vršič Pass in Slovenia and borrowed the principle, in reverse. Isère Tourisme dates that spark to 1964; according to Le Dauphiné Libéré, the first signs went up for the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, then were modernized in the 1990s: a marmot, the altitude, and the name and year of a stage winner.

02Hairpin 21 Is Coppi

The first name, right at the bottom: Fausto Coppi, winner in 1952 of the Tour's very first finish at the top of the Alpe. Also according to Le Dauphiné, hairpin 11 honors Bernard Hinault (1986) and hairpin 2 Marco Pantani (1997).

03More Winners Than Hairpins

31 summit finishes before 2026, 33 since that year's double, and only 21 signs: the math doesn't work. The fix: some bends carry two names. No draw, no duel at the summit, just squeeze in.

In summer 2025, Le Dauphiné Libéré reported that the communes of Huez and La Garde wanted to replace the signs and add the names of women winners. The Tour de France Femmes was decided here in 2024, too: Katarzyna Niewiadoma won it by 4 seconds, the day Demi Vollering won the stage.

04Hairpin 7 Is Holland

Hairpin 7 is the “Dutch Corner.” Tens of thousands of Dutch fans pitch tents and park camper vans there: music, orange as far as the eye can see, a few decibels above the rest of the climb. There is even a church, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, inaugurated in 1969 at the initiative of a Dutch priest, Jaap Reuten, the resort's parish priest from 1964 to 1992. According to the dpa news agency and TOUR magazine, he rang the bells for Dutch victories, starting with Joop Zoetemelk's in 1976. And there were plenty: eight between 1976 and 1989.

05The Climb by the Numbers

• Length: 13.8 km from Bourg-d'Oisans.
• Elevation gain: about 1,130 m.
• Average gradient: 8.1%, with stretches at 12-13%.
• Finish at about 1,850 m above sea level.

The climbing record changed hands on July 24, 2026: Tadej Pogačar took it in 35 min 26 sec, against 36 min 50 sec for Marco Pantani in 1995, a mark that had stood for more than thirty years. If yours took a bit longer, don't worry: it still counts.