A serious tour along the cycle path to St Gervais then up and over the Rencurel pass before dropping down to take the Gorges de Bourne but as you can see from the GPS map they were closed.

Climb from Brignoud to Laval. The first part of the climb to the hairpin is quite steep then it flattens a bit up to Laval and there is some tree cover in places in the summer.

Direct climb to the Superga from Turin in 25m53, a long way from Thibot Pinot's race winning time of 13m38 and he'd ridden from Milan! The climb is 450 meters at 9% with a couple of ramps en-route.

DescriptionSouth east facing but quite a bit of shade as you climb through the woods. The climb to Alpe Ompio is 7km at 8% giving 550meters total from the village of Bieno.

DescriptionClimb from Baveno to Levo and then to the end of the surfaced section of the Via Mottarone.

50km loop linking the lakes Orta and Maggiore via the summit of the Mottarone mountain. The Orta lake road is u quite busy as is the road from Lake Maggiore to Gravellone Toce.

I took this climb by error. From Lesa it is a hard 5.75km at 9% covering around 550 vertical meters. The road ends at a monastery and there is a very good trattoria with lake views.

The Relais du Mont du Chat is 1266 meters of climbing at just under 10%. There are a few ramps of 12% and sections of 11%. It is consistently hard, without ever being too extreme but it is long.

We spent the first half of the ride dodging showers then decided to turn around where we met Colin, a Scots guy who'd punctured and had some issues with his tires.

Lacets de MontvernierThis hairpin road connects the mountain villages of Montvernier, Montpascal and Montbruna.