Do all twenty-one bends show?

At 50×70, yes. The bends are numbered from 21 at the bottom and each is a distinct switchback in the drawing — this is one of the few routes where you can count them on the paper.

Is the elevation profile worth including?

Yes. Roughly 1 100 m of climbing in 13.8 km produces a profile that is almost a diagonal, and it is one of the few profiles that reads as difficulty at a glance.

Should I print the climb alone or the whole ride?

The climb. A 120 km day with Alpe d'Huez in it draws as a large route with a small scribble on it; the climb alone is the object.

50×70. At 30×40 the tighter upper bends start to merge.

Field notes 4 MIN READ

Twenty-one hairpins

The most recognisable climb in cycling, and one of the few routes that is a better drawing than it is a photograph.

Words: Epic Efforts · August 2026

Alpe d'Huez is 13.8 km at an average around 8%, and 21 numbered hairpins. It is the most recognisable climb in cycling, and it draws better than almost anything else we print.

Why it works as a shape

Most routes are drawings of where you went. This one is a drawing of a solution to a problem: how to get a road up a mountain face that is too steep to climb directly.

The answer is switchbacks, and switchbacks make a pattern. Zigzags stacked one above the other, tightening towards the top as the face steepens. Nothing else in cycling produces that geometry, and nobody who rides needs a label to recognise it.

You can count the bends on a 50×70 print. That is unusual — most routes lose their detail at poster scale.

Print the climb, not the day

The instinct is to print the whole ride. Resist it.

A 120 km Alpine day with the climb in it draws as a large sprawling route with one small dense section. Everything the day was about is compressed into a corner.

Cropped to the climb, the same file produces an object where the shape *is* the achievement. Export the activity and use the section that starts at Bourg-d'Oisans.

The profile earns its place here

Around 1 100 m of climbing over 13.8 km produces a profile that is close to a straight diagonal.

That is rare and it is legible. Most elevation profiles are lumpy and require study; this one communicates difficulty in the first half second, because a line that goes from bottom-left to top-right at that angle is obviously not a normal road.

What to put on it

Distance, elevation and time. This is one of the few routes where time belongs, because everybody who has ridden it knows what a good one is.

The date matters too — conditions on the Alpe vary enormously, and July at 35 degrees is a different climb from October in cloud.

Questions people actually ask

Do all twenty-one bends show?: At 50×70, yes. The bends are numbered from 21 at the bottom and each is a distinct switchback in the drawing — this is one of the few routes where you can count them on the paper.
Is the elevation profile worth including?: Yes. Roughly 1 100 m of climbing in 13.8 km produces a profile that is almost a diagonal, and it is one of the few profiles that reads as difficulty at a glance.
Should I print the climb alone or the whole ride?: The climb. A 120 km day with Alpe d'Huez in it draws as a large route with a small scribble on it; the climb alone is the object.
What size?: 50×70. At 30×40 the tighter upper bends start to merge.

YOURS, FROM A FILE, IN 90 SECONDS

One effort. One sheet of paper.

Bring the file and every choice is yours: treatment, colour, which numbers come along. Museum-grade 250 gsm matte, printed in Denmark, shipped in a tube with a nail taped inside.

Print it. FROM 349 kr

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