Not the best of days, not the worst of days

Umm, looks like a slight detour may be in order

Well today I was rained on, my front wheel slid out (twice!), was almost blown off by strong winds, had to make a bit off a detour because of a blocked road. I guess sometimes the universe is trying to hint a bit huh, so I cut things short today. But, the top of the Cormet de Roselend was just awesome even if there were no crepes up there!

So off I went this morning in spitting rain. I don't mind the rain so much riding, but I do mind steep downhills on wet roads. I took it very gingerly downhill to Beaufort where I was to pick up the Roselend. As I went the rain picked up more and more, and I continued to take it slow. Unfortunately, it was not enough and going around a corner I felt my front wheel start to slide out from under me. I wasn't leaning into the corner very much if at all so managed to quickly save it before I ended up on the tarmac but yeah, first time thats happened. It then happened again but the second time I think there was a bit of diesel on the road.

Anyway, on that descent I also took a road less traveled. No signs or anything but turns out the road has had a bit of a slip and is unpassable. It was only a few kilometres that I had to backtrack but it was all uphill.

Once I hit the flat the rain started to stop a bit and the roads dry out a little which was nice. As I reached the climb though it started to go between rain and spitting. This always creates a quandary for me; do I take off the rain jacket or keep it on. Obviously going uphill you get wet from sweat but if you keep the jacket on it will protect you from getting too cold, but you get very wet from sweat. If you take it off you get wet from rain but soaking wet and there is a high chance of getting cold as well. So after stopping and starting for the first 5kms taking jacket off and on trying to decide which option is better the rain stopped and made the decision easy for me.

The bottom half of this climb was a little dull to be honest. You wind yourself up a hill in forest but there is little to see except the road in front of you and the signs counting down the kilometres to the top. It is only at the half way point of 10kms that you actually start to see above the trees.

If you zoom in you can see a grey strip in the valley to the left of my hand which is the road I started on way at the bottom

Then at 8kms to go you pop up off the side of the hill an the switchbacks and there is a lovely lake/dam that you cycle around for a kilometre, I was also greeted with intense winds as well which was no so lovely. It is all downhill as you go around the lake so that takes some bite out of the wind but I am sure on other days it would give a welcome breather. At 7kms to go you say goodbye to the lake and start heading up to another series of switchbacks.

This is where the wind really started howling. There were moments were, going up a 7% hill I needed to stand out of the saddle to make headway. It was tough. This is where a gust at the wrong time almost blew me off the bike. It didn't I was certainly on my toes! As you get to the top of the switchbacks with about 3kms to go you can understand the wind, there is this tiny gap in a saddle you go over that must just funnel the wind through.

Looking down on the saddle the wind funnels and the road comes through

Once through the saddle the area opens up into this very large bowl and although the wind abates slightly, it is gusty and hard to get a rhythm going. It is only 3kms and you can see the top though so i is easy to keep going. When the top arrives, it is very uncharacteristically quiet. There is no tourists, no restaurant or bar, no fan fare, nothing; the road just continues straight down the other side.

It is very rugged though and looks really incredible to be closed in by these huge peaks.

From there it was back down the hill to Bourg St Maurice. The roads were mainly dry now, but I still took it a bit slow just in case. I believe the side from Bourg St Maurice is the more famous side, and although there were some nice switchbacks, I think if you climbed that side you have to also put up with worse roads and miss the lake and the awesome last 3kms of the side I did.

Once in Bourg St Maurice I had a bit to eat and the rain started again. at that moment it was an easy decision to remain seated and not worry about Petit St Bernard until tomorrow. It was a day of challenges but the top of Roselend was really quite awesome. I didn't go as far as I wanted either but this is suppose to be enjoyable after all and I think I would have lost the love a bit if I continued on.

So the plan will be to ditch the bags tomorrow and just go up and down Petit St Bernard, stay here in Bourg St Maurice again tomorrow night, then carry on to I'Iseran and Cenis. Looking forward to those two!

Highlight: The last 3kms up Roselend. Awesome!
Lowlight: Having climbed up a big hill part of the reward is screaming down the other side. Today I had two downhills and both I went very slowly. Better safe than sorry but still, feel a little cheated.
Lesson Learned: Although I already knew it, it was reiterated to me today - thin tyres plus lots of water and steepness requires a lot of attention!