Oliver & Lasswell Travel Blog: Cormet de Roselend 09/06/2015

After a day off on Saturday to get over the Grand Colombier, it was time to get back to riding on Sunday. In 2006 on the trip to France (where I met my wife :-) ) with the Sacramento Wheelmen one of the rides we were going to do was the Cormet de Roselend. The ride had to be canceled in favor of another route and, ever since then, I have wanted to go back and ride it. That was one of the reasons for coming back to France to begin with. So 9/6 was that day.

We left the hotel in St. Jorioz for Albertville later than planned, which became a recurring theme throughout the trip. Still, we did leave early enough to catch some other activities. This balloon was as close to the road as the photos show.

This was the intended loop, 77 miles and about 9800 feet of climbing, according to RidewithGPS.com:

It was a beautiful loop. In Albertville I got ready while Linda took pictures of me getting ready. It was almost 10 before I hit the road, the goal had been 9--more of that recurring theme mentioned earlier.

Linda drove in France, she wouldn't drive in Italy--more on that in a later post. After a few minutes thinking I was headed the wrong way, including a call to Linda back in the car (she was still in Albertville) to ask her to check the map for me, all was good and I could finally relax and just ride.

I stopped at a bakery in Beaufort looking for what had become an elusive quarry: apple strudel. Being in France it shouldn't have been a surprise that I couldn't find it--too far from Germany and Austria. I bought something that looked kind of like strudel, and it had apples in it, so I was game. Judgement rendered, below.

Cormet de Roselend was purported to be one of the prettiest climbs in the Alps. From Beaufort, it was a nice climb, not too hard. There isn't a climb in the Alps that could be called anything but beautiful--just degree of beauty varies. Cormet de Roselend from the direction I rode up would be classified as average Alps beauty. After descending to Bourg St Maurice and seeing the other side, the ascent from Bourg St. Maurice would be classified as superior, in my opinion. I should have, in hindsight, turned around after lunch in Bourg St. Maurice, and rode back up the way I came. It would have ended up about 75 miles, about the same as the loop, plus I would have seen both sides of the climb, including the prettiest side.

My advice to anyone considering a ride on Cormet de Roselend is to either to do an out and back from Albertville to Bourg St. Maurice or, if a loop is necessary, make the loop to take in the Cormet de Roselend from Bourg St. Maurice. It is a much more beautiful approach, something I hoped the GoPro video would show, but due to the positioning of the GoPro near the handlebars limited the angle of view too much to get a true appreciation for how beautiful that side of the mountain is.

So. . . I made it to the top of Cormet de Roselend feeling pretty good. Linda was waiting for me at the top and I put on some warmer clothing for the descent to Bourg St. Maurice. Here's the obligatory photo op in front of the summit signage.

In Bourg St. Maurice we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. I took it maybe a little too easy all day, and that ended up forcing my hand later in the day. We ended up spending a total of 2 hours downtime. Not all at once there in Bourg St. Maurice, but that was the bulk of it, the rest of the time was spent checking and re-checking maps to make sure I wasn't lost.

After leaving Bourg St. Maurice, one option was to head back to Albertville via N90 from Bourg St. Maurice to Moutiers before turning north. I had heard that N90 was a nightmare with heavy traffic and to avoid it if possible. I planned a route that paralleled the N90, but unlike N90 that followed the valley floor, the options taking you off the N90 meant climbing up the side of the valley. The climb seemed a lot longer than it was--fatigue no doubt the reason--and ended up in a little town called Longefoy on D88, with a true summit near Notre-Dame-Du-Pre.

After a twisty descent to Les Plaines, just a few miles from Moutiers, and only about 18 miles from Albertville and closing the loop, I climbed off. Just too tired in the head to want to keep going. Even so, the ride was 58 miles and 8,278 feet of climbing. Pretty impressive climbing is possible in a very short distance in the Alps. Yeah, in hindsight, again, I wish I'd kept going and could have kept going. It was getting late, though, and the two hours of non-moving time made the decision for me.

Following are a bunch of other photos Linda took. I would add some of the GoPro video but, after looking at it, it's not very interesting (due mostly to the angle of view, as discussed above. After having seen the video I wished I had purchased the helmet mount, but I have heard since that the helmet mount is unsteady and makes for poor video, too. With that said, what good is a GoPro for a cyclist if the bike mount is boring and the helmet mount is shaky?).