A new way to the Col des Ayes for me, Via les Hurtieres (pretty climb with almost no cars) then in the village via the Col de la Croix de Theys and a 2km gravel section to rejoin les Berts and the col

The number of times I've ridden past this little dead end climb I finally decided to see where it goes. In fact the hamlet of le Frènet is quite extensive with some cute chalets etc.

Rebooting my cycling career with another climb across the valley, apart from the danger of being squashed by a speeding driver crossing over the valley it is much closer than the right bank for climbs

I've got the summer road bike fixed and working so decided to take it out for a spin. first real climbing this year and a return to an old favourite.

A return to the Marie. I managed to screw up the entrance and do a loop and land on my head which left me a bit dazed for a minute or two.

From St Ismier, climbed to the Tour d'Arces than past the Pierre Grosse (large rock), continue 500 meters.

Quite a good ride today. 47 minutes for the climb (VAM of 940 m/h) which is not too bad. Nice to be feeling on better form due to cycling a bit more.

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.

We'd not been through the rock garden on the single du Champ Bertin since it rained a couple of weeks back (too greasy) but today the approaches were dry which was a good sign.

With the end of the lockdown we decided to push out a little bit to this classic switchback descent. Unfortunately it started to rain, hard just as we were arriving.