Day Five

I had never heard of the Col d'Agnel (Colle d'Agnello) before pondering this year's trip. It is one of border colles between France and Italy and the highest at 2760m. If tackled from Guillestre it is a whopping 42 km and from where we were camped it was still 25km. This distance puts it up there with la Bonnette, yet it is not well known among cyclists even though it has featured twice in the TDF in 2008 and 2011. It is truly a monster, possessing both length and nasty gradients - and that's just from the western side; try it from Italy and it is a wall. Other than all that it is a magnificent ride.

There are several villages along the route - more or less a straight ride up the valley, which makes it quite an unusual ride, though there is the usual intestinal stuff in the the final kms. Most cyclists we'd met on the Izoard were heading for Vars so the day was quiet but for the motorcades of Italian bikers.

 

 

 

   Agnel is 84th on climbbybike's league of France's hardest climbs - perhaps because it has been ridden by fewer riders. There is a good reason for that. Unless you're going to turn around and come straight back down, you will have committed yourself to a very long downhill out of the Alps and out on to the plains of Piemonte - which is exactly what we did.
The east side is steep and the road narrow so the brakes did a lot of squealing on the descent. Plenty of cheeky drivers trying to steel and inch didn't help. One feature were the very neat table-and-chairs Sunday picnics set up on bends; the Piemontese had escaped the heat of the plains below for the relative cool of the mountains.



Casteldelfino

Down in Casteldefino we stopped off for very good and cheap pizza before busting a gut to get to Cuneo.
With the broadening of the valley the scenery got drearier and distant. We were treated to eight miles of dead straight road that took us into the impressive town.
We took a train up to Limone Piemonte for the neat and tidy Luis Matlas campsite. Limone is a bustling upmarket ski-resort that provides another retreat from the heat.
More pizza.