Best route for crossing the Alps (France > Italy)

rodgers73

I'm planning a ride that will take me over the Alps from France into Italy. Once in Italy I will be heading towards the Italian Riviera and on into Pisa, Siena and ultimately Rome.

I want the ride to incorporate a proper Alpine col crossing rather than just riding down to Nice and following the coastline. I'm aware of many iconic cols that are a big draw for cyclists and it would be great to build one or two of these into the route, however, my main goal is to cover ground and get into Italy rather than doing an Alpine "tour" of any kind.

So, I guess what I'm looking for is a practical Alpine col route into Italy but if there is one with some decent scenery etc then that's an excellent bonus.

I'll be riding in August so no need to worry about snow blocking the route etc.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

briantrumpet

I did the Col de Mont Cenis a couple of years ago, doing Paris to Rome - we'd planned to do Telegraphe & Galibier, but it was still under 15ft of snow at the beginning of June. Mont Cenis was truly wonderful, and a beautiful descent into the Susa valley. One or two photos here: http://p2r2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a ... armth.html

andymiller

It depends a bit on your route through France, but probably the lead options are probably going via Montgenèvre, Mont Cenis, or the col du Grand Saint Bernard. There are others though.

You might be interested in this route through Piemonte:

http://italy-cycling-guide.info/piemont ... n-valleys/

It might sound a bit whacky but a good option might be to cross back into France using the Colle della Lombarda to Isola 2000 and then Isola and from there south to the coast.

You might also want to check out this excellent article:

http://www.cycling-challenge.com/100-cy ... lpe-dhuez/

EDIT: one thing I would say though is that riding the Italian riviera in August could be a nightmare - both because of the amount of traffic and finding places to stay (it was pretty busy in June/July). The week including August 15 is the absolute peak of the Italian holiday season so you really don't want to hit the coast then. If you have a choice I'd aim to cross the Alps in the second half of August. If you don't have a choice I'd suggest following the Moncenisio variant of the Ciclovia Francigena which heads south east through Gavi and then Voltaggio and then reaches the Ligurian coast south of Genova.

rodgers73

Thanks for the tips. The Montgenevre route seems to be taking me up from Genoble via Briancon and I was in that area for 3 or 4 days last summer. Lovely place, but I might just leave that in favour of some new scenery.

The Col du Mont Cenis route seems to be approached via the E70. Is that right? Is that not too fast a road for enjoyable cycling? How did you get to the base of it on your trip?

briantrumpet

rodgers73 wrote:

The Col du Mont Cenis route seems to be approached via the E70. Is that right? Is that not too fast a road for enjoyable cycling? How did you get to the base of it on your trip?

D1006 from St Jean de Maurienne. Like many French roads, it's a nice road that runs alongside a fast main road. That's where we drafted the AG2R team. We lost them when the bolted through some red traffic lights. Obviously we'd have kept up with them otherwise. Actually, they were off on a training run up Mont Cenis - we next saw them as they were belting back down it to return to base.

andymiller

You need to zoom in some more.

I don't know those particular roads, but I'd imaging that most through traffic will be heading along the E70 and then for the Fréjus tunnel leaving the parallel road to local traffic (or people avoiding tolls - it's a motorway on the Italian side).

BTW - excuse me if this is telling you stuff you already know, but Google have moved the switch for turning on terrain view - it is still there:

rodgers73

Thanks to both - yes, wasn't zooming in far enough. That looks much better!