The Col du Petit St Bernard stands at 2188 m and the climbing starts right in town. I started the ride early as I was to meet a local Italian cyclist in Pre Saint Didier at noon, a small town in the valley at the far side of the col.
This col was to be my favourite climb of the trip so far. Not because of the views, as all the climbs done so far have been beautiful; but by how consistent the climb was over the 30 km of ascent. For the most part the climb was a pleasant and consistent 5%, with a few kilometres at 6% and a few at 4% and lastly one or two kilometres at 3% near the top. The first 20 kilometres took numerous switchbacks as it climbed to La Roseire at 1850 m, before continuing up straight to the col with many views of Bourg St Maurice and the surrounding mountains as I ascended.
Bourg St Maurice
The saddle itself has a lot of history attributed to it. There are the remains of a 72 metre diameter stone circle dating back to the Iron Age that the road now runs through the middle of. Some historians claim that Hannibal and his army crossed the Alps by this path col. And in the middle ages Saint Bernard of Menthon built a hospice in the pass for weary pilgrims on the way to Rome. His statue stands prominently over the road on the approach.
Saint Bernard
It was still cool at the pass as I made my first visit to Italy and down the many switchbacks to the town La Thuile. Here I planned to turn off the main road and go over a smaller Colle (Italy now) to Pre Saint Didier where I was to meet Fausto with whom I’d been in touch with when planning this trip.
First time to Italy
A couple of issues looked like foiling my attempt to get to the organised rendezvous point on time. The sign post I found in La Thuile pointing the direction I knew I needed to go didn’t display the road number as in France. Plus I’d written down the colle name incorrectly and this combined with my useless Italian only made matters more confusing when I asked an elderly Italian gentleman where this colle I was looking for was! After only succeeding in sharing my confusion, I thanked him in Italian (one of the few words I know) and after I rolled once around the town decided to take the road anyway.
La Thuile from the descent of Col du Petit St Bernard
Sure enough it was the right road and the colle he was directing me to was as he said. The Colle San Carlo from the west involved only a climb of 7km and an average gradient of 7.3%. The climb which I would like to try another time would be the approach from Morgex which I descended. Not a great descent, but would be a brutal climb from that side at 10.5 km long and an average gradient of 10%!
In Morgex, it looked like I could still make the noon meeting point till I got caught behind a boom gate for over ten minutes without a train in sight! Finally a single carriage train rolled through and the boom gate finally went up. I followed the driver of the car waiting next to me as whilst waiting I asked where the road to Pre Saint Didier was and they offered to guide me to it.
The long wait
Even with the delays I did make it with a couple minutes to spare in the end. After I rolled up and down a couple of streets with no sign of another cyclist, I stopped at a local restaurant on the main street and went in to order and Espresso and an ice cream. When the waitress told me the cost I had no idea as she said it in Italian, so I pulled out a € 10 note and a couple of € coins. She took a couple of the coins and then asked me if I wanted to sit outside, once again in Italian. With my confused expression she tried the same question in French with my expression unchanged, so another waitress finally asked in English…
With that out of the way, almost as soon as I sat down outside under the awning Fausto rolled up. Another Espresso each later we started the ride out of town. The main road back up to La Thuile was interesting enough with glimpses of some of the bigger peaks, some prerequisite hairpins and a couple of tunnels thrown in for good measure.
The road out of Pre Saint Didier
From La Thuile the road got steeper and combined with a strong headwind made the going tough for me, so Fausto kindly towed me up much of this stretch. Once we made the Col du Petit Bernard all that was left was the final 30 km descent back into Bourg St Maurice. As the road wasn’t particularly steep the descent wasn’t the fastest but still provided an enjoyable ride.
Back in Bourg St Maurice we enjoyed one more coffee before I rode the short distance back to my accommodation and Fausto started the long climb back across into Italy and home.
It was good to have company on the ride as all my riding is usually solo and definitely appreciated his help into the wind on this ride today.
Ride details:
Distance 122.08km
3321m elevation
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