North to South, or South to North? That is the question and it is not entirely simple to resolve.

It had rained all day but the weather said sun from 4pm, it started drying out at 3pm so I gave it an hour or so for the roads to be good.

DescriptionIt is a fairly logical loop.

I'd not ridden on the road much of late, bad back in July and lack of time in August.

Very hard climb due to bad back and a top gear that didn't engage properly. The road to the power station has been resurfaced for some reason, very smooth now.

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.

Back to see if I could get a bit further up the road. In the end I made it to the top section although didn't have time to ride over to the village, next time. There is a segment of 17% over 0.5km.

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.

The idea was to take the road above Luzzogno towards Alpe Busca as far as it is surfaced. But I was unsure of the route above Luzzogno so took the Inuggio road instead.

Relaxing the legs after the drive over from France. Managed not to miss the short cut turn back to Orta this time.