I glanced at this profile scrolling through and immediately recognized it, even though it’s been over 20 years since I did it. That was an epic day - 129 miles with 16,000 feet elevation gain, most of the peaks at about 8500 feet.
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I have not had the opportunity to climb in the Alps, so apologies if I did not understand the assignment ;-), but if you are primarily looking for extended climbs in a beautiful setting, I’ll mention a few that I didn’t see in the prior responses.
Pikes Peak (CO) – this is an epic climb; very challenging due to elevation
Haleakala (HI) – I haven’t done it yet, but it’s one of the biggest climbs in the world
and in the East, smaller scale but still challenging:
Skyline Drive, Front Royal gate to Hogback summit (VA)
Reddish Knob (WV) – there are road routes and a challenging gravel route, which have been featured in the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo
Spruce Knob (WV – Climbing Spruce Knob , WV by bike - cycling data and info is one route, and there’s a fun gravel race called GRUSK that incorporates this mountain)
I’ll second Mount Mitchell in NC as well. Great climb, and there is a ton of world class cycling around Asheville.
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Whiteface mountain in upstate NY is similar to the alpe d’huez in length and elevation gain. There’s a nice building at the top too. Lake Placid region has a lot of nice riding too.
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You can explore all sorts of climbs with this site.
I never did any climbing in the US, but I am familiar with the alps and pre-alps (as I have lived in Bavaria for many years). I have also lived in Japan near the “Japanese alps”.
That being said, “the alps” have quite varied terrain and it isn’t clear to me what that would mean. I know what I like when it comes to climbing, and that can be found in the alps for sure. But that’s usually a combination of scenery, lack of traffic and roads that are nice to ride.
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As a Brit, specifically a Southern Brit; these elevation figures blow my mind. The highest point we have around here is about 230m above sea-level 
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Last summer in interior BC, I did 6 different rides that had single climbs of at least 1100m, all within about a 2.5 hour drive of where I was staying. Most aren’t averaging Alps gradients, but serious gains.
Hedley → Apex (21km, ~1420m) This is gravel, and not smooth packed gravel either!
Penticton → Apex (30km, ~1400m)
Revelstoke → Mt. Revelstoke (26km, ~1380m)
Peachland → Pennask (35km, ~1370m)
Oliver → Mt Baldy (37km, ~1365m) Largely gravel.
Vernon → SilverStar (20km, ~1150m)
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I suggest Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, particularly areas like Aspen, Independence Pass, or Mount Evans, as they offer long climbs with gradients similar to the Alps.
Another thing I recommend is making sure you have internet access and not relying on roaming – I made that mistake, and a few hundred dollars flew out of my pocket.
I recommend an eSIM, I’ve used this USA eSIM for a few trips, and it works very well. The cheapest plan starts at just $5.
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California has so much climbing, and you can enjoy it all year round.
I had about 700,000’ of climbing last year WITHOUT a climbing goal.
Never been myself but I met the then senior MTB champion about 15 years ago and he’s from there. The pics he posts on Strava look amazing 
I’ve never been to the US but on Rouvy Mt Lemmon came pretty close, no hairpins (not all Alpe climbs have hairpins either) but still a very long steady and quite steep climb.(a few months ago Rouvy had a US climb challenge, I forgot the other climbs but I still remember Lemmon, it was tough)
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It’s nuts. Never considered moving to SLC until I rode a bike there.
I came across this site,
And someone set it up so it will notify you when it’s known when Tioga Pass will open.
I linked it above, but it’s a huge climb and often opens to bikes for a day or two before it opens to cars.
If the stars align this year, I’ll go ride it.
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beat me to it! Sept/Oct in the blue ridge mountains is about as good as it gets. Roads and dirt are delightful!
Unless the climb ends at over 10000 feet with at least 10 hair pins Im not sure I would say its like the alps.
Highest alpine road is only 2802m (but it’s a bonus loop, you can bypass the summit if you would want to though I highly recommend the bonus loop to the top, nothing like 15-16% grades at 2800m)
Oh yes you are right. You will want a climb that peaks in the 1500-2800m range.
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Glad you mentioned Mt Lemmon. It is an awesome climb. Not sure the average gradient but the climb is around 26 miles (42km) long from the bottom to the Cookie Cabin in Summerhaven…great, very large cookies. I may be wrong on the 26 miles part but its close. The descent is great too. And elevation wise, you are over 9,000ft (2750m) when you get to the top. So, you can start in the desert and possibly end at a snow covered landscape
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