Tr: Col de la Croix de Fer

davidof

I was in St Jean de Maurienne yesterday so I took my bike and decided to cycle home in the afternoon by the Croix de Fer which opened a couple of weeks ago.

There are quite a lot of road works and diversions on the north side of the Croix de Fer which added vertical and made route finding problematic. I've only ever done the route once so had no idea if the detour by some hamlet half way up the mountain was really going to bring me back to the main road. The road works between St Jean and St Sorlin are really impassable by bike. The best bet, until the road works are cleared, is to take the "panoramic route" via le Chal but the road is quite steep but this is not the classic climb.



There is little snow on the N side either on or off road.



Vallee d'Oule is still quite snow covered though



Lots of rocks on the road lower down after Grand Maison, meltwater too. Mad marmottes below the Col du Glandon. Saw about a dozen cyclists on the day including a guy with a Sky kit in Vizille - surely not a local fan?

Glandon is still snow covered for the last couple of km so not really practical even with portage



Strong headwind from the SW which was really blowing up the Romanche. Unfortunately I was going into it (poor planning).

sheffsimon

Thanks for posting the info, I will be in St Jean at the end of June, hoping to ride Croix de Fer, and hopefully Glandon, Galibier et al.

Did your detourvia le Chal take you via Mollard..I cant find le Chal on google maps

crescent

davidof wrote:

I
Lots of rocks on the road lower down after Grand Maison, meltwater too. Mad marmottes below the Col du Glandon. Saw about a dozen cyclists on the day including a guy with a Sky kit in Vizille - surely not a local fan?

Glandon is still snow covered for the last couple of km so not really practical even with portage

I cycled Croix de Fer last week, conditions look very similar to your pics. I noticed a lot of minor rockfalls and snow on the roads on the way down that were definitely not there on the way up so care is required - risk of puncturing on the sharp shale and gravel or worse.

The bulldozers were heading towards Glandon when I was there, thought it would have been cleared by now but apparently not.

I was considering La Berarde as one of my rides but my B&B host advised me against it due to rockfalls and avalanche potential. He said that although they are minor the quite often drive coyotes from the mountains into the lower areas that I would be cycling through - :shock: . Didn't see that coming, gave it a wide berth anyway.

davidof

SheffSimon wrote:

Thanks for posting the info, I will be in St Jean at the end of June, hoping to ride Croix de Fer, and hopefully Glandon, Galibier et al.

Did your detourvia le Chal take you via Mollard..I cant find le Chal on google maps

I took the D926 climbing to St Jean d'Arves the D110 was closed (which I think goes over the col du Mollard). I'm not sure which roads people would normally use. Then at St Jean I had to climb via l'Eglise and le Chal as the usual road was blocked. A bit of a faff really. I loaded the route into Strava and there was no-one who has logged this segment before so the detour is not popular.

Because I just set off without really checking where I was going, I just assumed I could set out from St Jean and all would be very clearly signposted.

Some thoughts:

The 3km coming out of St Jean are quite steep, around 8%, there is a another viscous section up to the Grand Tunnel (Combe Genin) of around 9% then a rolling ride up the valley to St Jean d'Arves. The main road through St Sorlin is also around 9% before flattening at the first right hairpin just out of town, there are a couple of restaurant here. It gets steeper again but not anywhere near like the road in St Sorlin, more 8% as opposed to around 10%.

It is quite a long climb with just the 3 sections mentioned presenting any difficulties. I used a 34x27 on the steep sections, 34x28 would be better for the Sorlin Steep KM.

davidof

Hi Crescent, just read you TR, did you take any photos?

There is not much open yet and seriously before June it is touch and go for any 2000m cols. The season really starts mid-June. The cafe at the Croix de Fer was still closed last Monday but a few cafes were open in St Sorlin and Allemond.

The weather may finally be clearing from Monday. We've had snow at 1500 meters this week and 2200m today. From Monday it is getting warmer and sunnier.

If you get over again the back road to les Deux Alpes via Mont des Lans is excellent.

crescent

I did indeed takes some photos, about a hundred all told, I felt like I was stopping avery 100yds as each view was better than the last. I've included a few below.

Took this one from the balcony road to Villard Reculas on the way down from Alpe d'Huez


This is looking up to the top of the Croix de Fer from the Bourg d'Oisans side


Croix de Fer again, this is the road leading up to the Grand Maison reservoir about 11km from the top of CdF.


I was pretty fortunate with the weather for the three days I was there.