Prior to our France trip, I googled possible routes and posted them in Karel's Training Peaks account. I had a lot of different route ideas that included specific climbs that we wanted to conquer. One climb that really interested me was the Lacets of Montevernier.
The climb is located in France's Maurienne Valley (Savoie). It features 17 tight hairpins over 2 miles and has an average gradient of 8%. The TdF has climbed this route three times (2015, 2018, 2022).
Since we were staying in Le Bourg-d'Osians, we would need to drive ~90 minutes to start this climb. I did some research and came across this website and discovered that we could bike to the lacets using this route. The only downside was that we would need to climb the Croix de Fer (again) - from both sides! This climb is a grueling climb but we were up for the challenge. With this being our last ride of our epic 3-week France trip, we knew we would be bringing a lot of fatigue to this ride but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to do one more "queen" stage.
The ride started out easy as we made our way to Allemont village and then up to the dam. Bara is much stronger than us so she biked ahead and we each did our own thing and re-grouped on the top of the climbs. We once again climbed the Croix de Fer and it's a really tough climb. The last few miles get a little easier past the lake but it's a lot of work to get there. Rather than going to the summit of Croix de Fer, we turned left and finished on the top of Glandon. We actually did this route as part of the Haute Route Alps in 2022 and I remembered the looooong descend that followed the climb.
Croix de Fer climb to Glandon (from Allemont)
Distance: 18 miles
Elevation gain: 4941 feet
Average grade: 5.2% (although much of the early part of the climb averages ~8-9%)
Elevation at summit: 6774 feet
We had a long 14 mile descend (with a stop at a store to refill bottles) before making our way towards the Lacets. 
Lacets of Montvernier
Distance: 2 miles
Elevation gain: 909 feet
Average gradient: 8.1%
Elevation at summit: 2583 feet
It was a quick descend as we carried on with our route (we didn't descend down the facets) and after a few miles, it was time for our longest climb of the trip (in terms of distance). Although the climb had a few sections where we would get a rest with a little downhill, we were all a bit worried about having to climb for the next 2+ hours. 
Croix de Fer climb from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Distance: 19 miles
Elevation gain: 5400 feet
Average gradient: 5.5% (the last 6 miles averaged 7-8%)
Elevation at summit: 6768 feet
It took me 2 hours and 17 min to reach the top. We went through a few tunnels, had a few short recovery sections of downhills and I really enjoyed the final stretch (although the gradient got a lot steeper through the town) as the scenery changed from forest to village to exposed road. At the top, Bara was waiting for us. We didn't want her to keep having to wait so long for us so we had her go ahead to finish the ride on her own so that she could get more out of the ride. Karel made his way up around 10 minutes behind me and we enjoyed a coke and crepe at the restaurant at the top.
Although the climb was challenging, we had a long descent (with a short steep climb in the middle) to look forward to before our last climb of the day. After 17 miles of mostly descending, we made our way to the back side of Alpe d' Huez. I wanted us to climb all three sides of ADH and the Confession Pass would mean that we would have climbed all three sides during our trip. Pas de la Confession starts by the lake/dam and makes its way up a very quiet road surrounded by trees until the trees part ways and you enter a beautiful balcony road overlooking the towns below. Although we were tired, this was an incredible way to finish our queen stage. The Confession pass meets up with hairpin 6. We decided to take a different route to the AdH village instead of the typical route so that we could officially say that we climbed all sides (and routes) up AdH.
Pas de la Confession (via Villard-Reculas) to Alpe d'Huez Village
Distance: 11.4 miles
Elevation gain: 3501 feet
Average gradient: 5.8%
Elevation at summit: 6035 feet
After feeling very accomplished when we reached the top, we made our way down AdH one last time.
