Annecy gives you a route for every kind of day. A flat lap of the lake when your legs are shot. A first col loop when you want to go up. A hundred-kilometre day over three Tour de France passes when you’re flying.
Here are six of the best, the ones we ride and the ones we coach on. We’ve put them in the order we’d build them, gentlest to hardest, with what each one asks of you and how to ride it well. Each one has a GPX to download.
One thing about those files. A GPX tells your computer where to go. It doesn’t tell you how to ride the day, where the road bites, or when to ease off so you’re not cooked by the last climb. That second part is the bit that matters, and it’s what we’ve written under each route. Read it before you ride. And one promise: these are routes we ride for real, not lines drawn on a map.
A note on the numbers. The distances and climbing below are approximate. The GPX files carry the exact figures.
Which route are you ready for?
Be honest about where your riding is. If you’ve never ridden a col, the lake loop and the Forclaz loop are your first two. If you can climb for an hour without falling apart, the Semnoz and the Glieres are next. The Three Cols and the big Forclaz-Aravis day are what you build towards, not what you open with. Every one of these is a good ride. The trick is riding the right one for today’s legs.
The routes at a glance
| Route | Distance | Climbing | Who it’s for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The lake loop | ~40 km | ~250 m | Any day, or a rest day |
| 2. The Forclaz loop | ~60 km | ~900 m | Your first col loop |
| 3. The Semnoz loop | ~60 km | ~1,200 m | The big single climb |
| 4. The Plateau des Glieres loop | ~75 km | ~1,500 m | The steep test |
| 5. The Three Cols of the Aravis | ~85 km | ~1,950 m | The classic big day |
| 6. The Forclaz and Aravis grand day | ~113 km | ~1,830 m | Your hardest day from the lake |
1. The lake loop
Distance ~40 km · Climbing ~250 m · Surface: greenway and some road · Who it’s for: any day, or a recovery spin
The flat lap of the lake, mostly on the car-free Voie Verte. It’s the warm-up, the recovery ride and the family day all in one. We’ve given it a full guide of its own, including which way round to ride it and the one stretch that isn’t traffic-free: Cycling around Lake Annecy: the lake loop.
How to ride it: easy, and spin. If you’re using it for recovery, keep it gentle the whole way. The temptation to press on a flat, smooth greenway is real, and it isn’t recovery if you race it.
2. The Forclaz loop
Distance ~60 km · Climbing ~900 m · Key climb: Col de la Forclaz de Montmin · Who it’s for: your first proper col loop
The ride that turns a lake holiday into a cycling one. You take the east shore, climb the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin with its postcard view back over the water, descend, and roll home on the greenway. One real climb, beautiful the whole way, and short enough to finish smiling. Our best cycling climbs around Lake Annecy guide has the Forclaz in close-up, including the gentler Menthon side and the steeper south side.
How to ride it: this is a pacing lesson. The Forclaz is steep enough to punish a fast start. Settle into a rhythm you could hold for an hour, and you’ll reach the top with something left instead of nothing.
3. The Semnoz loop
Distance ~60 km · Climbing ~1,200 m · Key climb: Le Semnoz, around 1,650 m · Who it’s for: your first big single climb
Le Semnoz is the highest climb close to Annecy, and this loop is built around it. Most riders go up the direct side from Sevrier through the woods and come back round the lake, though there’s a longer, gentler way up by the Col de Leschaux if the direct slope looks like too much. Either way you finish at a little ski station with the whole lake laid out below. A genuine mountain day without ever leaving the lake behind.
How to ride it: this is where fuelling starts to count. It’s only one climb, but it’s a long one, and the riders who haven’t eaten by halfway are the ones who fade near the top. Drink and eat on the lower slopes, before you think you need to.
4. The Plateau des Glieres loop
Distance ~75 km · Climbing ~1,500 m · Key climb: Plateau des Glieres · Surface: road, with an optional gravel sector on top · Who it’s for: the steep test
The Glieres is the steep one, and this loop is how you earn it. Out through Thones, up to the plateau on a climb steep enough to demand a low gear and a cool head, across the top, and home. The plateau itself carries real weight. It was a centre of the French Resistance, and there’s a monument up there. If you ride the unpaved sector across the top that the Tour de France made famous, take wider tyres and pick your line.
How to ride it: short, steep climbs are ridden differently from long ones. Don’t fight the gradient. Drop to your easiest gear early, keep the effort steady, and let the climb come to you rather than attacking it.
5. The Three Cols of the Aravis
Distance ~85 km · Climbing ~1,950 m · Cols: Marais, Croix Fry, Aravis · Who it’s for: the classic big day
The best big loop from Annecy, and one of the finest day’s riding in the region. Three cols in a rising order: the Col du Marais to warm the legs, the Col de la Croix Fry to find your rhythm, and the Col des Aravis with Mont Blanc filling the sky, before the long run home down the Gorges de l’Arly. Ride it in this order on purpose. The last stretch back runs along a busier road, fine to descend but grim to grind up, so you want it as a fast finish and not a slow climb. Lunch at the top of the Aravis is the reward, if you time it right.
How to ride it: this is a repeatability day. The Aravis isn’t the hardest climb here, but it’s the third one, and it’s where a day that started too fast comes apart. Hold something back on the Marais and the Croix Fry. You’ll want it for the Aravis.
6. The Forclaz and Aravis grand day
Distance ~113 km · Climbing ~1,830 m · Cols: Forclaz de Montmin, Aravis · Who it’s for: your hardest day from the lake
The big one. A full day linking the Forclaz and the Aravis into a single loop, over a hundred kilometres with the climbing to match. This is Expedition-week territory: long hours, real climbs, and a body that has to keep going when it would rather stop. If you can ride this one well and still enjoy the last hour, you’re ready for the Tarentaise.
How to ride it: a day this long is won in the first hour, by going easy. Almost every rider who blows up on a big day did the damage early, chasing a pace that felt fine at the time. Start slower than feels right and you’ll finish faster.
How we ride them
These six are the menu for a week at Lake Annecy. We don’t hand you a GPX and wave you off. Each morning we pick the right route for the legs in the room, plan the climbs and the fuelling, ride it with you in small pods so nobody gets dropped, and review it over dinner. The file gets you round. The coaching gets you round well, and a little stronger each day.
For the climbs in close-up, see best cycling climbs around Lake Annecy. To get the planning right before you arrive, start with how to pace a long Alpine climb and how to fuel a big day in the mountains.
Keep reading
Cycling around Lake Annecy: the lake loop, best cycling climbs around Lake Annecy, and when to cycle in Annecy. For the bigger picture, and how to choose the right Alpine base for your level, see our pillar guide, Cycling in the French Alps.
Plan your trip
Want these routes ridden with coaches who know every turn, in a pod that rides at your pace? That’s our coach-led Lake Annecy week. Get in touch and we’ll point you at the right routes for where your riding is now.