Classic Climbs - All in (half) a days work

The Colle San Carlo, in the Alps, just over the border from France into Italy, proved a tough challenge for Ellis Bacon. A key climb in this year's Giro d'Italia, a manic descent from its summit by Leonardo Piepoli bagged him the stage victory, but wasn't enough to unhinge pink jersey Ivan Basso. The rain-soaked mountain provided a spectacular stage, but, luckily for us, the weather was smiling for our Classic Climb.

Words: Ellis Bacon
Photography: Richard Lundberg

"Sometimes, just sometimes, it's good to get out on your bike for a blast up the nearest mountain, with a mad descent to bring you home again. Nothing wrong with that at all – and if it's up and down one of the climbs used in this year's Giro d'Italia, then all the better. We went to the French Alpine town of Chamonix to check out the local riding with cycling holiday/training company GPM10. One day we found ourselves with a free morning and some raring-to-go legs, so a jaunt through the nearby Mont Blanc tunnel and across the border into Italy was suggested on this hot summer's day. ‘Jaunt' perhaps wasn't the best word, as a close to two-hour climb of the 1,971-metre-high Colle San Carlo with a minimal warm-up (and starting early in the morning, too!) kind of equates to a hard day's riding in our book...

Mont Blanc , or Monte Bianco as it's called if you're on the other side of it, towers over Chamonix , providing an unmissable point with which you can find your bearings in the French ski town. Even in summer, when procycling was visiting, and Chamonix itself is on the less busy side, western Europe's highest peak is still busy doing its thing, covered in snow at its summit, just like in the winter. The Mont Blanc tunnel starts from just south of Chamonix and heads south-east for 11.6km through the base of the 4,810-metre Mont Blanc to emerge just north of Courmayeur in Italy . We came back out to the bright sunshine of the Aosta Valley , spoiled only by roadworks around the tunnels of the parallel A5 motorway, which heads up from Turin , providing the route for Italian lorry drivers taking almost a third of the country's exported products to northern Europe . Following the S26 south through Cormayeur, we stopped in the pretty, and equally un-Italian-sounding town of Pré Saint Didier to saddle up.

As a warm-up, the gently downhill section of the S26 into Morgex was great, although a little on the short side, as, coming out of the town, our climb for the day, the Colle San Carlo, reared up in front of us, and had us dropping down through the gears to the lowest. Climbing the San Carlo from the east, the sun was mercilessly beating down for the whole of the ascent, but, luckily, the forest trees intermittently provided some welcome shade. It seems increasingly popular for local councils to erect signs at each kilometre of European climbs detailing the gradient for the next kilometre, your current altitude and the distance remaining to the summit. These may be entertaining when driving, but they're a bit of a @~#%*&!^ on a tough climb like this if you're on a bike, serving to remind you of the horror that lies ahead.

At 10.5km long, and with an average gradient of 9.8 per cent, the San Carlo is no pedal in the park. Its steepest section reaches 15 per cent, a few kilometres in, giving photographer Richard plenty of time to walk around and find the best ‘pained-face' angle. That face never really went away during those supposedly easier kilometres still to come, mind you. Its saving grace, however, is the fantastic views you're rewarded with as those pesky signs indicate your ever-increasing altitude – across the peaks and troughs, the mountains and valleys, of the French and Italian Alps. Richard, walking, of all things, next to me, back up to where he'd parked the procycling -mobile, shouted some words of encouragement, before it was up with the jersey zip and on to the descent. No more mucking about; we had lunch to get to.

This exhilarating downhill starts with some major hairpins, which snake off into the distance so you can see all the way down to La Thuile, where stage 13 of the Tour of Italy finished this year ( see Race focus ). It's easy to see why race leader Ivan Basso took things easy on the way down, especially in the wet, as it was that day. Constant braking and accelerating means you have to pay attention – even on the dry day we had. It's less easy to see how stage winner Leonardo Piepoli tore down the descent to distance his breakaway companion Basso and take victory. Nor is it easy to see why super-climber José Rujano climbed off his bike and quit the race, three kilometres down the seven-kilometre descent. I was enjoying it so much, I wouldn't have got off if you'd paid me. Through La Thuile, we took a right back onto the S26 and followed the road back to Pré Saint Didier, coming back into the town via a short, sharp, twisting descent – nothing like the San Carlo, although the ‘sharp' and ‘twisting' elements of it were pretty similar.

A relatively short and no-nonsense kind of a Classic Climb, then, following in the pedal strokes of the pros, just as it should be. A spot of lunch, and we should have been ready for the day – except the afternoon turned into a bit of a siesta. ‘Jaunt' really wasn't the right word for our ride at all.

Race focus: Basso shows who's boss on the San Carlo

Stage 13 of this year's Giro d'Italia took the field 218km between Alessandria and La Thuile, with the day's final rain-soaked climb of the Colle San Carlo proving to be the deciding factor – in race leader Ivan Basso's favour.

CSC's Basso attacked the leading group three kilometres into the climb, with only Leonardo Piepoli able to hold his wheel as his Saunier Duval captain, Gilberto Simoni, went backwards. Up through the trees and the rain, Piepoli was first to crest the summit, and proceeded to belt down the other side, with Basso, content with having increased his advantage over his main rivals, taking the hairpin bends very gingerly indeed in the wet. Piepoli had put 44 seconds into Basso by the finish in La Thuile, and celebrated by dedicating the stage to his friend, 21-year-old Diego Pellegrini, who died in the Tour of the Aosta Valley amateur race in 1993 after crashing while descending the San Carlo.

Behind, trying to limit his losses, another of the race favourites, Discovery Channel's Paolo Savoldelli, displayed his descending skills – showing just why they call him ‘The Falcon' – to record what must have been the fastest descent of the day off the San Carlo, though still losing 1-52 to Basso. Simoni had lost just 35 seconds by the end, but Basso had used the San Carlo to show just who was boss – and held the pink jersey all the way to Milan .

Way to go

Getting there

We flew to Geneva , Switzerland , in the heart of the Alps , which is served by easyJet (easyjet.com) from London , Bristol , Newcastle , Nottingham , Liverpool , Edinburgh and Belfast from the UK . British Airways (ba.com) also offers flights to Geneva from London , Birmingham and Manchester . Alternative options are Grenoble from Bristol , Luton and London Gatwick with easyJet, while, in Italy , Turin is served by London Luton. Turin is also served by Ryanair, who fly from London Stansted (ryanair.com).

Where to stay

The procycling team was based in Chamonix with cycling training trips specialists GPM10 (gpm10.com), at the Hotel Eden (hoteleden-chamonix.com), which provided the ideal base for trips out to the French and Italian Alps. Finding hotels, bed and breakfasts and guesthouses around the area is easy in the summer months, with a far bigger influx of people to the area for skiing in the winter. But for the Colle San Carlo in particular, there are a number of hotels in the town of Morgex , right at the base of the climb. See comune.morgex.ao.it for where to stay, although the site is only available in Italian and French. Click on Dove dormire or Où séjourner respectively.

Cycling-specific info

This really is some of the best cycling country around, which is why we made Chamonix our base for various rides in the area this summer. This particular ride could easily be added to: take a left out of La Thuile, rather than our right, and you find yourself climbing the Col du Petit Saint Bernard back into France , which, at 2,188m isn't very petit at all. Its never-ending hairpin descent takes you down into Bourg Saint Maurice, which lies in the shadow of famous ski resort Les Arcs, with Tignes and Val d'Isère the other way off the Petit Saint Bernard, and as worth a look in the summer as they are a ski in the winter. Head further south, and back across the Italian border, and find Sestriere – battleground of Tour stars past and present. Nearly all of the big Alpine climbs are within a 200km radius, and a week in the French and Italian Alps will not disappoint fans of riding the big pro races' roads.