Second big col of the spring campaign. This time we drove to Beaufortain as Mike finds the Albertville road uninteresting and very busy. He's not wrong. We too the back road to Arêches.

I decided to do the whole tour today. After the lac du Taillet the trail improves back to compact gravel. It is about 6.

I decided to start early 7h20 but could easily have started an hour earlier with the temperatures.

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.

Second test on cross skis. This is an extension of the cycle path towards Grenoble but unsurfaced. It is not too bad to start with but the gravel gets a bit rough on the south side of the lake.

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

Felt ok climbing but 58 minutes compared to my PR of 49 ! Losing time all along the climb, a bit disappointing really but I guess I'm not prepared to bury myself as before for a PR.

I don't know why I was so slow today. 29 minutes each way. Out of practice and tired arms I guess. First rollerski of the year anyway.

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%.

Little tour with tot. I didn't feel like too much climbing today so we just did the Manival trail to the cross track.