Altitude Record - for the moment!

Today was a day of 'three halves'. The plan was to cycle up the Col de l'Iseran from Bourg St-Maurice. The total distance to the top is around 50 km. It's also pretty steep for a climb of that length. There is also a flattish section between the barrage at Tignes and Val d'Isere that goes through a number of longish tunnels. The recommendation is to avoid this section, drive to Val d'Isere and continue the climb from there. Finally, from the col, the plan was to descend into the Maurienne valley, to the first village with a decent sized car park.

On that basis, I set off from Bourg St-Maurice with the intention of riding to the Tignes barrage, meeting up with Angela and driving to Val d'Isere for the final assault on the summit.

The route leaves Bourt St-Maurice on the same road as the Col du Petit St-Bernard, separating from it in Seez. The route is pretty flat from there, and actually heads down for a few kilometres, Climbing proper begins at a set of hairpins just before the village of Sainte-Foy-Tarantaise. The gradient kicks up past 7% and while it varies, it ever really relents. There are sections beyond 8%.

It was very hot today, so the shaded sections in woodland were welcome, but out of the shade, the sun was scorching. While there are no tunnels on this section, there are avalanche protectors, whose sturdy concrete construction is testament to the power of water in liquid and solid form. They also provided some blissful relief from the sun.

To be honest, there is not much to see on the way up, other than the occasional waterfall, and it's not until reaching the barrage itself that the views really open up. Aside from getting some additional miles in my legs, there wasn't much to recommend this particular climb. The next section, however, is a very different matter.

The route from Bourg St-Maurice to the barrage at Tignes is available on Garmin Connect.

The view towards Val d'Isere from the barrage at Tignes.

The ride from Val d'Isere to the top of the Iseran is quite simply epic. In some ways, it resembles the top of the Galibier, though there is much more evidence of man near the top. There are ski lifts everywhere. Once clear of Val d'Isere, the road heads up. Again the gradients are in the 5-9% range and vary quite frequently. Heading east for the first 5 km or so was into a block headwind. The road crosses a river at Pont St-Charles and soon heads back west on the far slope. The tail wind was very welcome. The views from this section are simply stunning. The traffic was quite light today, and during periods when it was quiet, I could almost believe I was alone with this awe inspiring landscape.

Val d'Isere and the Isere valley from the climb up the Iseran

The air is noticeably thinner up here. The gradients steepen just before the summit, becoming 9 and even 10% in places. Even once the buildings at the top can be seen, there are still 3 km to go. The combination of gradient and altitude definitely make this the hardest part. At 2770 metres, the Iseran is comfortably the highest point I've been to by bike. It will also be the highest point on this year's trip, unless I make it up the Cime de la Bonette next week.

The route from Val d'Isere to the Col de l'Iseran is available on Garmin Connect.

Angela managed to capture this image of a rather knackered granddad, at the top of the Iseran.

Leaving the top of the climb, and heading for the Maurienne valley, the slopes are about the same as on the Isere side. However, this side is unspoiled, with no evidence of ski lifts or other winter paraphernalia. I quickly built up speed and was enjoying the descent when a bout of uncontrollable shivering set in. After last years experiences coming down the Galibier, I found the next available patch of sunshine and stopped to warm up before continuing down at a more reasonable pace.

The view towards the Maurienne valley from near the top of the Iseran

Further down the mountain, as the temperature rose, I increased the pace again and ended up flying down the last few ramps to Bonneval-Sur-Arc. I even had a camper van pull over to let me through!
I finished the ride in le Villeron, a village a few flat kilometres beyond Bonneval-sur-Arc which has the benefit of a large car park.

The route down from the Col de l'Iseran is available on Garmin Connect.

The climb from Bonneval-Sur-Arc looks to be steeper and more difficult than from Val d'Isere. Either way, this is a fabulous ride. Just do yourself a favour and ignore the part from Bourg-St-Maurice to Val d'Isere.

We drove the rest of the way to St-Jean-de-Maurienne, our base for the next few days. This region is now promoting itself as the premier cycling location in the Alps. I suspect Bourg-d'Oisans might feel a bit miffed at that, but with the Lautaret currently closed due to a rock fall in one of the tunnels, St-Jean-de-Maurienne certainly has a good claim.

The Italian Job, Part 1

Today's goal was to ride to the top of the Col du Petit St-Bernard, a point on the border between France and Italy. This is another climb that starts in Bourg St-Maurice. So, I started from La Cote d'Aime, following the same route as yesterday. Early in the ride I had some problems with one of my power meters, so there is some data missing. I didn't really ride up there on one leg!

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.

Bourg St-Maurice and the lower Isere valley from the route up the Col du Petit St-Bernard.

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.

Mont Blanc from the summit of the Col du Petit St-Bernard.

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.

First Day in the Saddle

The place were staying at, in La Cote d'Aime, is around 13 km from the foot of the climb to the Cormet de Roseland. It starts inBourg-Saint-Maurice. La Cote d'Aime is high above Aime, which itself is in the floor of the Isere valley, to the west of Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

The best cycling route, to the start of the climb, remains above high above the valley for most of its length. Angela decide to ride to Bourg-Saint-Maurice and back, while I tackled the Cormet de Roseland itself.

View west along the Isere valley from the route to Bourg-Saint-Maurice

Climbing out of La Cote d'Aime, the first 3 km are the hardest, with gradients regularly above 7%. After that they ease and eventually the route becomes flat for a while before plunging down into Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The route goes through the busy centre of the town, but soon, the route up to the Roseland beckons. As with all famous apline climbs, there are markers every kilometre to let you know how much, or in my case how little, you have achieved. Also, as on other climbs, the gradients for each kilometer are a bit misleading.

Heading away from Bourg-Saint-Maurice the initial gradients, on the D902, are in the 6-8% range and the route is relatively straight until it reaches an impressive set of hairpins just above les Glinettes. On the way you pass the sad remains of what must have been an epic water park, at Bonneval-les-Bains. The crumbling concrete and graffiti still can't hide the outline of the swimming pool and a large water slide.

Once past the hairpins, the route straightens once more, following the Torrent des Glaciers, which brings melt water down from the glaciers around Mont Blanc.

The glaciers that provide the water for the Torrent des Glaciers, together with people camping in what can only be described as the flood plain!

After this straighter section a final set of hairpins delivers you onto another relatively straight section that leads to the summit. By this time, the showers that had been forecast for today had started, so I remained there only long enough to eat part of an energy bar, to let Angela know I'd made it and to take the now obligatory summit photograph.

There were a number of bikes at the summit today. Mine's the one on the right. Irritatingly, it looks as though there was an insect on the lens when I took it!

The route from La Cote d'Aime to the Cormet de Roseland is available on Garmin Connect.

The light was not good for general photography today. Here is a picture taken yesterday when conditions were much nicer.

View east from the Cormet de Roseland.

Getting back down was remarkably easy. Most of the way down gravity did the work. The hairpins require a lot of breaking and at one point I did stop to make sure my rims were not overheating.

The route back down from the Cormet de Roseland is available on Garmin Connect.

The final leg of the ride was the return to La Cote d'Aime. There were two choices. Either I could retrace my steps taking the route above the valley that I'd used earlier, or I could ride along the other side of the valley, and then climb up to La Cote d'Aime from Aime. In the event I chose the latter.

The ride along the valley is easy. It does climb, but the gradients are modest at around 3%. However, the climb out of Aime is a brute. It's mostly an unrelenting 8% and when it varies from this it's only to go steeper!

The return route from Bourg-Saint-Maurice is available on Garmin Connect.

So after around 70 km of riding and lots of climbing, the kit seems to be holding up as do my climbing legs. So far so good.

The Alps at Last

It was all going so well. We'd had an easy journey across the channel, and cruised our way to our first overnight stop. We were almost past Lyon on the second day when we hit the queues. It seems as though there were several accidents in the area today, and we ended up queuing in the remnants of one of them. Still, it could have been worse and by early afternoon we made it to Albertville and bade a fond farewell to the peage.

We were definitely in the mountains. With time to spare, we headed up to take a look at the Col des Saises, which I won't be riding this year. Actually, having now seen it, I'm in no hurry to add it to my bucket list. As a climb its fine, but it's very busy, as the bustling resort of Saises is at the top.

The view north from the top of the Col des Saises.

On the way up we caught our first sight of Mont Blanc. There are few places to stop to photograph the views on this climb. We did the best we could.

Mont Blanc from the col des Saises

After returning from Saises, we drove to the Barrage de Roseland, yet another impressive hydro electric scheme in the Alps. Oddly, there was a film crew there, complete with drone, filming a member of the ladies Frances de Jeux team, presumably for some promotional material.

The Barrage de Roseland and the lake that it holds back.

We drove back over to Bourg-St-Maurice via the Cormet de Roseland, a high mountain pass. I'm planning on cycling up this tomorrow. It looks a bit of a beast!

We found our stop for the next few days with little difficulty and spent a pleasant evening at dinner with the other guests and the proprietors, only one of whom spoke any English. We seemed to get by with some simultaneous translation and a helping of school French. 

We ended the evening watching stars and planets starting to appear over the mountains, and helping Marie, the lady of the house, use her iPad to identify them. When she asked about the fast moving icon that had appeared on her screen, we realised that it was the International Space Station passing over. It's the first time we've seen it. It's very bright and moves very fast.

Sous La Manche!

So in the end, it was worth getting up at 4am and being on the road not long after 5. There were delays of up to an hour at the Folkestone end of the Channel Tunnel, due to migrant activity overnight. Being relatively early we were able to get on an earlier train which, when the delay was added, left at almost the same time as the service we should have been on. And when we left the train in Calais, it was as if someone had turned the summer on. Result!

As expected, the French motorway system on a Sunday is a delight. Aside from stopping for lunch, an afternoon break, and the occasional peage toll booth, we simply cruised down at 130 kph, arriving at our overnight stop at a very civilized hour.

Epernay-sous-Gevrey is a small village slap bang in the middle of a major wine growing region of France. A couple of weeks ago, we cycled past one of the vineyards on the Isle of Wight. It has a small field with vines planted in it. Here, in contrast, it's vines as far as the eye can see! The most imposing is Chateau du Clos de Vougeot, which, as the name suggests, is a huge Chateau surrounded by enormous vineyards. The terroire must be something special! It is on the Route de Grand Cru, after all.

The back garden of our overnight stop. Beats Premier Inn!

Final Plans

Trouble around Calais at the moment means we may have some problems getting to France this weekend.

Assuming we do make it, the plan has changed a bit since January. It now looks like this:

From Aime, near Bourg St Maurice:

• Cormet-de-Roseland (68: 7/10)
• Col du Petit St Bernard
• Col de l'Iseran (78: 10/10)

From St Jean du Maurienne

• Lacets de Montvernier and Col de la Madeleine (75: 9/10)
• Col de Glandon to Col de la Croix de Fer to Col du Mollard
• Col du Galibier via the Col du Lautaret (87&88: 10/10&4/10)
• Alpe d'Huez (83: 8/10)

From Guillestre:

• Col d'Agnel (92: 9/10)
• Col de Vars (95: 8/10)
• Cime de la Bonette (98: 10/10)
• Col d'Allos (97: 9/10)

From Bedoin;

• Mont Ventoux (100: 10/10)

New Year - New Plans

So here we are in 2015, on what is without doubt the best day of the year so far. But as it's January 2nd, that's not saying much! Training, for next summer's foray into the Alps, is well under way.Today's 35 mile loop, with 5 decent climbs and a succession of short ramps, flew by under clear blue skies. It's amazing to think that most of the high cols I rode over just a few months ago are now closed by snow.

The outline plan for this summer is complete. It involves 9 new climbs, culminating with Mont Ventoux. Before that, I also want to reacquaint myself with the Col du Galibier, but this time, going up via the Col de Lautaret. You can't go to Bourg d'Oisans without riding up Alpe d'Huez, of course. And the Col d'Ornon is a fitting apéritif to the whole enterprise.

Here is the full list. The text in parentheses are the ride number in 100 Greatest Climbs of the Tour de France, and the climb's star rating.

From Bourg d'Oisans:

• Col d'Ornon (84: 5/10)
• Alpe d'Huez (83: 8/10)
• Col de la Madeleine via the Col du Glandon (75&81: 9/10&8/10)
• Col du Galibier via the Col du Lautaret (87&88: 10/10&4/10)

From Bourg St Maurice:

• Cormet-de-Roseland (68: 7/10)
• La Plagne (77: 7/10)
• Col de l'Iseran (78: 10/10)

From Guillestre:

• Col d'Agnel (92: 9/10)
• Col de Vars (95: 8/10)
• Col d'Allos (97: 9/10)
• Cime de la Bonette (98: 10/10)

From Bedoin;

• Mont Ventoux (100: 10/10)

This all depends on being able to book accommodation and travel, of course. We'll be trying for early August again, just after the Tour de France has passed through. It's a lot to pack into two weeks.