I had to go into Grenoble early today, so it seemed like the ideal opportunity to ride the north side of the Col de la Charmette, a rather secret route hidden away on the western side of the Chartreus

After yesterday's run a gentle tour out to the Mountains of Mont d'Or and the Mont Thou climb from St Romain. This is a very quiet hairpinned road that is never too steep.

Probably my last Grand Col this year. Well I'd not been that active either. The Glandon in freezing conditions at the end of May and then an abortive attempt at the Madeleine in August.

I'd never done the climb to the Granier via la Petite Montagne before and neither had Mike who lives near the foot of the climb.

A "before work" but more importantly a "before it gets too hot" tour, Almost exactly the same date as last year and same time and power, more or less.

Well not really storming but more grovelling with a time of around 16 minutes to the top. It is a very very steep climb for the first 1km.

The route stars in Bellagio on the classic Ghisallo climb. The first few km are around 14% gradient. As the road flattens a bit (everything is relative) take a right turn to San Primo.

Stresa to Alpino is around 10km with 600 meters of climbing. The section out of Stresa is somewhat steeper than the final ride along to Alpino with some hard ramps on the way.

My orginal plan had been to try and cycle up the quarry road from Candoglia but the road is guarded by a gate with security cameras.

Hot, damn Hot. It wasn't too bad to Plan Lachat but at 4k from the summit I didn't feel great. Very shakey on reaching the col and had to lie down.