A nice little classic tour except for some tricky descents which I can't take with my bad ankle but the snow and sun are fantastic. Great to get out from our Grenoble fog for a bit of winter sunshine.

I wasn't sure if le Sappey had been pisted. About 5-10cm had fallen overnight. I saw Christophe Imbert at the start but he'd not been up today, pisting had been perfect yesterday though.

I didn't know if le Sappey had opened so took my classic skis with the idea that I could always go up towards Emeindras and make my own tracks.

I took the back route into the Madeleine via the lacets de Montvernier Col du Chaussy and the lac du Loup. There are some sections of 13% above Montvernier on a balcony road.

DescriptionIt is a fairly logical loop.

Official RouteFrom Bourg d'Oisans to l'Alpe d'Huez. 21 hair pins. 13.2km. Start at 744m, Summit 1815m. Average gradient 8.1%, sections of 12% over 100 meters.

It has been 7 years since I rode up this side of Mount Mottarone. This time I was just doing a return trip from Orta.

This is effectively a rest day. A little ride up to Coiromonte via the hair pins. Riding out of Pettenasco is hard - a series of steep ramps at 15% but by the Coiromonte climb I was warmed up a bit.

I was surprised to see that the main road is the one that goes to the lac St Guerin and the climb to the Col de Pré is just a backroad.

Almost certainly the last ski tour for Tot this season. He climbed on boots to the summit on more or less solid snow.