RouteNice little ride along the foothills of lake Orta to a monastry on top of a hill with lake views. The route passes through a few traditional Italian villages. There is a bar in Miasino.

Afternoon trip to recover my sunglasses left in a cafe in Orta. This gave me the opportunity to cycle around the headland of Orta then ride up to Armeno in the route I normally ride down.

Passo della Colma is 8.9 kilometers long for an elevation gain of 490 meters giving an average gradient of 5.1%. The climb starts near the historic town of Varallo, which is worth a detour.

Main climb was pleasant but still finding the very steep ramps hard. Little shake down of the bike after the trip.

1h25 for the loop but a bit tight as I only had 1h30 for lunch so had to push it after the climb.

A trip to Orta isn't complete without a Coiromonte. Well that is not really true but it is quite an interesting climb and only takes just over an hour.

Back to the Narbonne to do the climb from the bottom this time. It is really steep for the first km or two which doesn't seem to show up in the stats. The ramps are really over 10%.

A little lunch ride as the weather was pleasant. The road from the Dog and Cat home to le Paradis really is steep with lots of little ramps, thankfully short but with quite a bit of traffic.

The Narbonne climb is a new one to me. Much nicer than the usual ride to the col de Clémencières. Not a car and pretty. The climb is 10% over 300 meters vertical which I managed with a VAM of 1000.

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.