This is an even better idea! Go to the Eagle AXS 10-52, and get a 32 front chainring. Will give you the most room at the low end.
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It’s been a wild journey for me - the first time I did Zoo Hill, I was terrified and convinced I’d fall off my bike and have to walk up - and now I do repeats on it for fun… Because I have to focus so hard on breathing and staying calm in order to be able to do repeats, it ends up being almost meditative, and I feel refreshed (though tired!) when the ride is over.
Even though you probably won’t have anything as sustained steep as Zoo, I have found that in addition to the practice of the slower cadence, balance, body positioning, etc, it also gives me a psychological boost. After I’ve been on a 10% climb for an hour+ and it’s starting to feel way steeper than 10% (hello Passo Giau), I remind myself that I can manage the 20% kickers on Zoo Hill, so I can do this.
I also love the longer sustained climbs we have, like the road up to Sunrise, but they are all at milder grades than most of the big European climbs. Having some steep work and also some endurance work on the long climbs has been a good mix for me in my trip preparation.
And yes, the lower gearing you can fit on your bike, the better! One trip to the Dolomites, a bunch of us on the trip were rethinking our life choices while trying to relearn how to breathe at the top of the Passo Giau, when one of the riders - who had lower gears than us - rolled up, hopped perkily off her bike, and to our disbelief cheerfully declared “I didn’t think it was that hard!” 
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Had to google that pass, turns out I’ll be doing it in 119 days (as part of the maratona dles dolomites). The photos look absolutely stunning, hopefully my 33 front- 36 rear will be low enough to let me enjoy it.
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Presuming you mean the Col de la Loze via the Meribel route, then I think the climbs are very different and require very different things from you. I have ridden both last year. I think Ventoux is similar to a long alpine style climbs, perhaps a bit steeper in places. Generally a case of good gearing, pacing and eating. Appreciate weight, FTPs and pace might be different, but there were loads of people climbing it on the day I did it and I did not see anyone in a tangle - faster or slower. I had no probs on a mix of a LV masters plan with a club chain gang each week - I dont really do long rides due to family commitments (for ref I am 46, 75kg with 310ish FTP).
The Col de la Loze on the other hand is a rediculous climb and I will not be doing it again. Nice and smooth up to Meribel, and then is narrow path section the rest of the way. It never really dips below 11-12% but it has loads of 15%-20% ramps. You are literally crawling. I did it with a 36/52 and 28 on the back and was in a spot of bother - as were the rest of the group. A true brute force effort - but unfortunately that section is a good 45mins long… The last ramps up to the top (where you then drop into Courchevel) are the nail in the coffin. Tellingly there was no one else on the climb.
From a training perspective, unless you truely have MTB gears, the Loze is a test of strength in a way most Alpine climbs are not.
For what it is worth, my view is there are much nicer and enjoyable (still challenging) climbs very close to that area. For example the start of the Madeleine Nord is a few KM from there. A lovely lovely climb with superb scenery. Or just up the road in Bourg St Maurice you have the start of the Cormet de Roseland - I challenge anyone to find a more beautiful climb.
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Granted I only drove not cycled Cormet de Roseland (from Albertville to Bourg st Maurice) but I can highly recommend Col de la Cayolle from Barcelonette. Though for OP he’s on a guided tour doing parts of the Tour de France on the closed roads before pros arrive…
The Cayolle is on my list! 
I have heard it is pretty amazing - although a fair bit further south than the Moutiers area the OP’s post suggests they will be in.
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I think the tour route climbs Loze via Courchevel this year, which I understand is a little less arduous than from Meribel - though all things are relative. A big plus one from me for Cormet de Roselend, that’s a fantastic climb. If you have the time/legs, once you get to the top you can drop 5k or so down the other side for lunch by Le Lac - a beautiful spot.
I’d also recommend Petit St Bernard from Bourg as an ‘opener’ if the schedule allows, a long steady climb up through La Rosiere to the Italian border, never really getting over 5%.
LIttle late on this thread, but FWIW, I live in a very flat area - Chicago suburbrs - and two years ago I trianed for the Haute Route race using a plan built around the Climbing Stage Race plan, and I felt it got me ready.
The only adjustment I really made was doing long endurance rides on the weekends. I avoided my typical weekend group rides (except for a couple in the weeks leading up just to sharpen my pack skills), and saved my intensity work for the prescribed workouts in TR.
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Following this as some one else doing the alps (well, zurich to Milan) in 2025 with no comparable experience. Right now I’m focusing on combining sweet spot TTE with as much z2 volume as i can find time for.
Currently at 1x60 @ 265W, 75kgs (ftp set at 285 fwiw). Hoping i can get comfortable enough that i can stay in the saddle for the most of the time. Stelvio will be over 90 mins so ideally I’d like to be able to do that at this sort of power. All tips and help gratefully received.
I’m mostly an indoor rider currently so there’s the complication of transitioning to outdoor at these sorts of powers too.
I once did a time trial up the Col de la Loze, I still have nightmares
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What an amazing trip! The Stelvio is a stunner, and it sounds like you’re going to be plenty strong for it. If you haven’t done these sorts of climbs before, it would be worth supplementing your indoor training with some descending work. If you can find some tight switchbacks to practice on, your future self will thank you.
Funnily enough, my plan has 3 elements and fitness is the least critical. Bike handling is the most important then getting a bit better at maintenance just in case something goes wrong.
Its a bit weird doing so much fitness work on a trainer. Outside i pass people on hills and then they often pass me on the way down!
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Well jealous 
I live in the UK which has short sharp climbs but nothing sustained, especially in this part. I found my sessions on the turbore trainer set me up well for my trip to Tenerife a few years back and cycled the 6 days in a row including 3 times up Teide. I was following a TT plan and got comfortable with holding a set power for a long time. I am a bit of a light weight though, 150w got me up the the 2h 21min climb (Bardet went up in 1h7mins); and I averaged 165w for the last 1h and 6mins when it was an average of 6.6%. Enjoy 
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If you’re going to be in Bormio you ought to throw in the Mortirolo-Gavia combo as well. The Mortirolo is quite an experience and the Gavia is stunning like the Stelvio, but with much less traffic.
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I did Loze via Courchevel last year. Prepare yourself for a mentally and physically gruelling couple hours. Depending on where you start from, it ranges from really long to really really long. 
Here is what the last bit looks like, for reference I was 64-65kg with probably no more than one full bottle at that point:
From Carrey it took 1:40 at 208W (about 3.2wkg). There’s a few brief sections where it flattens as you pass the ski resorts, use that as a 30s recovery to catch your breath.
As you get close to the top it gets steep and then it gets real steep. The average gradient doesn’t do the climb justice - you’ll hit several short (couple hundred meter) sections that go between 15-20%. Given they’re at the end of a long and challenging climb, it’ll be extra painful.
I’d do it again though, what do you have to lose? Good views all the way to the top, and gorgeous on top. Plus you’re sheltered from traffic for the last bit as it turns to a wide pedestrian path.
Edit: how do you train for it? Long days in the saddle putting out Z3+ efforts for 45-75min at a time. 3x30m, 2x45, 2x60, etc. Tack on a long 45-60m tempo effort after riding for 2-3 hours. Etc.
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This is really helpful. I don’t have much time for long outdoor rides (maybe once a fortnight for ~3hrs) but i can build to 1x90s at 90% in my regular indoor rides. And maybe 2hrs at 85% which is probablt the sort of power i would like to do up the stelvio to be able to enjoy it and not be totally done at the top
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Same here - surrey hills. Good to hear that doing multi day with long climbs was fine even with v limited exposure at home.
I’m thinking that if I’m used to having a TTE of say 2hrs at 88% of ftp, then i can target around 85% on the climbs and be confident I’m not going to fall apart. Although that will be lower cadence than I’m used to, which i need to factor in…
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You’re probably overthinking this. Train long sustained efforts. Show up to the climb and put out whatever amount of power feels sustainable. There’s many mental and physical aspects to a long climb that can cause you to fall apart - elevation, grinding for an hour and a half, the short recoveries, lack of recoveries, gradients that result in moving at 10kmh, people passing you like you’re standing still and barely breathing hard, etc. Just show up and enjoy the climb, it’ll be fun and terrible at the same time.
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I’m sure you’re right. But once you’ve opened the pandoras box of power meters, zones, structured training etc its pretty hard to go back to blithely turning up and pedalling up a giant hill.
I know that I’ll enjoy it more if I’ve prepared well and can look at my bike computer and see I’m within the bounds of my ability.
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Good luck you climbers, those trips sound fantastic…
Personally, as someone in southern England who went and did Croix de Fer and AdH in a weekend as my first trip to the alps, I would suggest you need to get some hills in before you go. You just won’t get a sense of incline on a trainer. You need to know what 10+% feels like on your current set up. You need to do reps on a hill and see what that feels like. I did reps on Ditchling Beacon and decided I needed better gearing than the trainer hack. I went super compact absoluteblack ovals and didn’t regret it. When I got there, the mental challenge of seeing what I was hoping to do was mind blowing, but knowing I had done almost the same # of meters in an afternoon on the beacon made it just a bit less daunting. If you’re in Surrey, go find a proper hill (not Box Hill, too easy) and spend your 3 hours on that one a few times before you go. Saying that, I’m mid fifties and built for comfort, and you might be a 60kg racing snake, which would be a different proposition.
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