I wanted to do the Cormet d'Arêches again, but this time to complete the circuit with the Cormet de Roselend. Last time, I didn't do the second pass. It was going to be difficult.

Last gasp to do some vertical, I wanted to reach 10,000 meters but miscalculated and fell 600m short for August. 1h19 for the Col, not too bad but still below the magic VAM of 800.

DescriptionA long loop with a lot of vertical covering 4 cols. Starting at Ugine take the cycle path toward Annecy. After about 9km of false flat you cross a bridge over "la Chaise".

Legs felt really tired but got better going up the hill. I thought about stopping at le Baure and should have listened to myself.

The Cormet d'Arêches are how Grand Tour cols used to be: nasty, long and brutish and the cherry on the cake, the top 6 to 7km are unsurfaced.

I'd not road cycled since before the lockdown and it was hard. Far too many kilos to carry and no real zip up the hills. Had to use my x32 far too often on the climb.

History has to start somewhere.

A serious tour along the cycle path to St Gervais then up and over the Rencurel pass before dropping down to take the Gorges de Bourne but as you can see from the GPS map they were closed.

50km loop linking the lakes Orta and Maggiore via the summit of the Mottarone mountain. The Orta lake road is u quite busy as is the road from Lake Maggiore to Gravellone Toce.

A very pleasant loop just over the mythic 100km barrier for Stravassholes! :-) First big alpine col loop for me a long time for me. The Madeleine is a hors category category climb.