Usual mix of steep Italian ramps and bad roads. The surfaced road ends just after Cassano so this is just a little tour of the foothills. The Orta backcountry is not overly interesting.

I don't usually road bike until the spring but as the weather has been spring like I thought, why not? The Murianette is a shaded climb so not ideal at this time of year but it is relatively easy comp

No ski this weekend so I decided to use a spare hour and a half on Saturday afternoon to ride up and look at the snow conditions on the road to the Col du Coq.

I hadn't been out on the bike for some time so took the opportunity of a dry day to ride into work then up the Venon climb.

I crossed Jean Marc Mora on the climb to Lancey, I'd last seen him about 5 years ago.

Climb via the Lancey road then the Mont short cut with a descent. Hard work up to the cross roads with St Mury but able to maintain a better pace afterwards.

Decided to take a long way home via the climb from Lancey to St Mury. The little road via les Chappes is quite busy in the evening, obviously well used by commuters.

I took a detour on the way home. It was very chilly with a north wind. The road works up to Revel seem to be over and I continued through St Jean le Vieux.

For some reason the road was much busier than expected. Arriving at the col du Lauteret there was some kind of event and cars everywhere.

After a lot of roller skiing over previous weeks it was nice to sit on the bike again. It was pretty hot on the climb and quite a few cars. I found out on the descent as the Revel road was closed.