Follow that Elephant! Bourg St. Maurice to Aosta

September 3, 2023

Today was going to be a simple day, in a way: straight up one hill, and straight down the other side. The only small complication lay in the nature of the hill: the Little St. Bernard Pass. Still, I told myself: this is one of the ways that Hannibal and his elephants are alleged (not wholly plausibly, if I'm honest...) to have got to Italy. And if an oldey-timey Carthaginian and a bunch of pachyderms can make it, surely I can too? Let's find out...

I managed to faff around quite a lot getting out of my hotel -- a highly functional but rather sprawling outfit, very much focussed on catering for outdoors types -- so the day was already heating up by the time I got on the road. And then I lost a bit more time when my Garmin made one of its periodic bids for autonomy, and decided to ignore my perfectly sensible route out of town and replace it with a mystery tour of the municipal dumps of the Bourg St Maurice periphery. I bet Hannibal never had to put up with this sort of thing.

Finally, though, I got back on track, and, after a bit of wiggling around through the steep roads of Séez, onto the main road to the Col: all I had to do now was keep plugging away for the next 28km, and try not to think about how far away the top was, or how much my legs hurt.

Bourg St Maurice is down at the bottom somewhere.

There was a more scenic/less busy/more steep option available today too, but I decided to give it a miss, partly because I was already running a bit late, but mostly because I was feeling a bit weary. The main road wasn't the most scenic -- mostly it ran through woodland -- but the gradients were pretty mild, and it was spacious and fairly calm.

The (minor) road not taken, coming back up to join the main road I was on. Even the pink paint can't hide how much steeper it is.

As I approached La Rosière, the road came out into the open, which was good in that the views got much better, but bad in that I was now in the full blast of the midday sun: even at 1800m it was really very hot. I pulled into a cafe for some very welcome drinks, but I couldn't manage more than a couple of mouthfuls of their (objectively excellent) cheese and ham sandwich: I was just too hot to eat.

Still, the sit-down and the fluids helped give me a boost, and I continued my steady progress towards the pass -- further boosted by now quite impressive views all around.

The top: tantalisingly in view/out of reach for a few km before you get there.

Eventually I wobbled to the summit, feeling really quite woozy: a combination of the heat and having not really eaten enough en route, I think. Fortunately, the last cafe on the French side of the border sold exactly the thing for this situation - a crepe with strawberry jam. That, plus their largest helping of fizzy water, made everything seem ok again.

'Keep calm, you're at the top of the pass': good advice!

I'd of course have had to try some 'Liqueur d'Hannibal' for Research Purposes, if only they still sold it

I also liked their Tartiflette Propaganda. (Not in this heat, though!)

Feeling very much better, I rolled over the border -- enjoying the sight of the defunct customs post -- restrained myself from stopping at the gelato stand on the Italian side, and set off down the hill.

Especially for a UK person these days, this sort of border crossing is a delight.

The descent was much easier than yesterday's: there were a couple of short stretches of hairpins, but generally it was much more open and less steep. I stayed mostly on the main road until about 20km out of Aosta: it wasn't particularly busy and had a wide shoulder, and because it was steadily downhill I was making fairly good speed too.

Looking back up the valley from Morgex, about half-way down the descent. The concrete bridge upstream is carrying the A5 motorway (and most of the traffic).

At Villeneuve, I left the state road and continued on smaller roads on the other side of the river: more peaceful, but also more hilly. But this way did come with some nice views of vineyards and castles and other Scenic Italian Things.

Just on the edge of town, I picked up the Aosta cycle network, which deposited me very effectively into the old town; a quick scoot round the corner took me to my hotel, where I gratefully collapsed.

I'd very successfully arrived in Aosta too late to go to any of the (apparently very good...) museums of Roman things, but did -- as a small concession to Professional Obligations -- walk past an arch or two on my way to find a drink and some dinner (into Polenta Country now!). Aosta seems a very nice place indeed: I can see why Hannibal wanted to visit.

A well-sited Roman theatre: if the play was boring (and they often were...) you could just enjoy the views.

Roman Gate, thoughtfully placed right on the main street of restaurants and bars.

[+ another 3.5 km at the start, in my magical mystery tour of the Bourg St Maurice rubbish dumps]

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Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 239 km (148 miles)

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Rich FrasierLooking forward to more pictures of Scenic Italian Things. Good ride today - you're amazing!
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1 year ago

Rachael AndersonGlad you made it to Italy! Another challenging ride in the heat. Take care of yourself!
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1 year ago