As predicted in my first post about “Maurienne Valley Leftovers”, I have enough of those to keep me busy for a few stages.
This third post is again about the northern end out of the valley, as before close to / starting from our apartment in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.
During my previous Tour de France, I cycled Lacets de Montvernier and Col du Chaussy, but there are two more to be had.
These are Col de Sapey (from two different starting points) and Montdenis
I’ve settled on ClimbFinder.com to construct my stages for the rest of my “road book”, adding info from CyclingCols.com as I usually do.
After plotting this stage, I noticed a bomb sign next to the first climb.
Signs like this usually do not mean anything good and in this case, it means
Explosion hazard: at least 500 m in one stretch with an average of 12% or steeper.
Then again, as I have not seen that particular sign so far, all the others I’ve scheduled must be easy 😂
And seriously, stretches like that are bad, but if you’ve been cycling around in the Alps, you have most definitely encountered them before.
Let alone that there are climbs like the Mortirolo and Zoncolan that have 12% as a minimum over the full 10+ kilometers.
My next post will be about two more climbs, starting a bit further out, near La Chambre and Saint-Étienne-de-Cuine.
Although I can actually start those from our doorstep too…
Tour de France 2022 main page here.