From Bourg St-Maurice, the route for this climb and the Col de l'Iseran run together for a few kilometers, to the town of Seez. There, the route to the Petit St-Bernard turns left away from the valley and starts up a seemingly never ending set of hairpins which continue right up in the village of la Rossiere. The first set of ramps is very regular as it criss-crosses an Alpine meadow to the village of Villard dessus. After that, the road design is a little more freehand, as it follows the contours. The average gradient is a very reasonable 5% or so. There are steeper sections, but they are rare. Much of the climb is shaded by the trees that line the road. There are also spectacular views back down the Isere valley, past Bourg St-Maurice.
Higher up the climb, there are also views towards Val d'Isere and the Col de l'Iseran.
The upper Isere valley, looking towards the Col de l'Iseran. The road in the center of the picture is the one I should be riding tomorrow.
Above la Rossiere, the road straightens markedly, as it makes the final assault on the summit. The gradient remains an unrelenting 5-7%, but kicks up further near the top. But by this stage, the huge Hospice building, just a kilometre or so below the top, is in sight. Although the gradients are moderate, the total length of the climb is a little over 30km, so it does take a while to get to the top. My total riding time from La Cote d'Aime was a little over 3 hours, but I did stop to take pictures and fix a couple of gear selection problems on the way.
There is a lot of history on this pass. It's been a border area since Roman times. There are many remains, including a prehistoric stone circle, though it's not on the same scale as Stonehenge! There are even world war 2 tank traps. There are cafe's and restaurants up here too, including a really good Italian one just over the border. We'll have to take that on trust, as we didn't try it.
I met Angela at the summit, so the obligatory picture from the top includes me today.
The route up the Col du Petit St-Bernard from Cote d'Aime is available on Garmin Connect.
The descent back to Bourg St-Maurice is one of the nicest I've done. The moderate gradients and good visibility mean that breaking is not nearly as fierce as coming down from the Cormet de Roseland, for example. The road surface is a bit sketchy in places, but overall, the 45 minutes of swooping descents and tight hairpins was definitely worth the climb!
The route down the Col du Petit St-Bernard to Bourg St-Maurice is available on Garmin Connect.
Conscious that I need to make it over the Col de l'Iseran tomorrow, I met up with Angela in Bourg St-Maurice, and we drove back to Cote d'Aime.
No comments:
Post a Comment