Region: French Alps
Climbing effort: 861 cep
Elevation meters: 1038
Steepest kilometer: 11.1%

Steepest 250 m: 13%
Foot: 1353 m    Top: 2360 m
Mean slope: 7.1%
Length: 14.1 km

From: Chateau Queyras
Road conditions (2013): good
Other race bikers: 5-10 per hour
Motor vehicles: 30-60 per hour
Scenery and road: (4/5)
Restaurant or bar near top: no

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Other climbs French Alps

The southern side of the Col d'Izoard is an exciting climb, mainly because it crosses the fascinating Casse Déserte (in English: the broken desert). The grey and yellow-coloured Casse Déserte consists of gigantic debris slopes, here and there broken by steep rock formations with heights up to 50-100 meters. Here, on the side of the road, a small monument in honour of Tour de France heroes Louison Bobet and Fausto Coppi can be found. The Casse Déserte forms the third and final part of the climb, which starts in the valley of the river Guil where the D902 splits from the D947. The first part of the ascent (450 elevation meters) takes place in a wide cultivated valley. Here the road is hideously steepening with the steepest part (12% for an interval of 500 meters) after the village of Brunissard and at the transition to the second part. The middle part is an ascent using a number of hair pin turns through a forest. Here the slope is a steadily around 9%. The Casse Déserte completes the climb. The tour can be extended with a warming up from the bifurcation of the D902A and the N94 near Guillestre (difficulty 207 cep, climbing 511 m, length 20 km).