Note: this road is closed in the winter months. It is also poorly surfaced before the main Allevard road.This used to be a departmental road but has been abandoned to the elements for a dozen years.

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.

The Croix de Chamrousse is the summit of the Chamrousse ski pistes at 2250 meters. It can be reached from the Recoin, la Roche Berenger or Casserousse at 1400 meters.

I'd spotted the Alpe Loccia while searching for new routes around lake Orta in Italy. According to the mountain bikers it is an uber steep climb with sections over 20%.

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.

I decided to enter the Toppidrettsveka - Virtual rollerski challenge.

Seriously, I'd vowed not to come back after last year but here I was, struggling up the first killer wall out of Monte Buglio cheered on by the usual assortment of deranged Italian cani.

I'd never cycled up to Scareno before and to be honest, there isn't much reason to. It is a long way up a big of a rough road.

Classic style, double polling down, kick double pole up finishing with a bit of diagonal stride.25m56 down. 4m47 pace. Looking quite slow compared to skating now where I'm in the 3m05 range.

A variation on the route today. Decided to try and skate the Chronovélo from Meylan to Grenoble city hall. The Chronovélo are high speed cycle routes where bikes generally have priority over cars.