Distance: 17.1 miles. Elevation: 2856 ft.
Col de Plan Bois is a relatively unknown climb in the south-western Aravis. There are three ways up there by road. None of them are exactly easy. I chose the toughest of the three at first.
However, due to a road closure I only got within a mile of the top. So I rode up the second toughest way a couple of days later. Both rides are described below. The route map above relates to the second, successful, ride.
I had originally intended to climb to Col de Plan Bois as a part of my Col de l’Arpettaz col-fest ride, but I very wisely (more so in hindsight) decided it was a col too far, so I cut it out of that day’s shenanigans. But the following day I thought I’d fill in the missing piece and do a quick ride up to Col de Plan Bois, at 1:30 pm on maybe the hottest day of the year so far, with the temperature at 30°C and above! I went out with lightweight kit, no base layer and one bidon of water. No sandwich, backpack or anything else. It was already very warm out.
It started with a 3-mile gentle climb along the road to Col du Marais, same as my previous ride, then I turned left up to the village of Les Clefs and then immediately right into a wall of a road.
It must be high teens % gradient, past some houses and out of the village. That’s when the bad news came. ROUTE BARRÉE.
Damn! Well, never one to be put off by a closed road, I rode up there anyway. The first mile is at 11.5% avg, with plenty of steeper sections in there. The next mile is 8.2% avg. There are no easy bits. The following mile (almost) averages 8.5% but the last bit up until I stopped was over 11%.
It was really hot and I was dripping with sweat in a way I hadn’t experienced for ages. Some sections were shaded by roadside trees. Other parts were under the blazing sun. I eventually reached the road closure.
It seemed to be comprehensively blocked, but I’m sure my judgement was being influenced by the desire to get this ride over and done with and just ride back down. So that’s what I did.
The descent was horribly steep so I took it as slow as I could, being somewhat worried about my rim brakes overheating. So my hands were aching from being on the brakes the whole time and my neck was aching, which is normal for me on steep descents. The temperature increased on the descent as is usual, but moving fast through the air has some cooling effect.
So that was a shame about the road closure.
Two Days Later…..
[The reason it’s two days later, not the next day, is because the following day I went to meet my fellow club members of the Club des Cent Cols for our regional meeting]
Not to let this col be the one that got away, two days later I decided to ride up to it using the easier second route, and descend via the third and last route.
I left reasonably early this time, at 9:50. It was a warm morning but with some hazy cloud above. Certainly it was nowhere near as hot as it had been on my previous attempt. I was travelling light again – I had no base layer, arm warmers or anything, and I also wore my blue helmet which has much better air circulation than my red one. Only one bidon of water and an energy gel just in case. My pre-ride banana fueled the ride.
So it’s the same route as last time up to the turn-off, then it’s the same up to that village (Les Clefs) where you turn right and come face-to-face with the ridiculously steep road. That leads to the turn off for the route I took the other day, where the ROUTE BARRÉE sign was, but today I went left.
There were thundery-looking grey clouds over the mountains. But the hazy sun was on me for most of the way except where I could ride under the trees for shade. There were some steep sections but unlike the other route there were quite long sections of it being easier, maybe 7% or so. Then there was a long stretch where it seemed almost flat. So it’s a much easier route than the other one and I already knew this from reading that guy’s blog online. I also knew that once my route joined the third one from Manigod, I would be facing another steep section.
And it was steep, but again varying wildly. I stopped in some shade for a breather on a bend and when I got going again I realised I was almost at the top and the rest of it wasn’t that difficult.
There were quite a few people up there because there’s some good walking and a well-known restaurant. There had been the odd car going by on the ascent, nothing major though.
When I reached the top and got the col photo I decided to ride down the other side as far as the (other side of the) roadblock from two days ago, and then ride back up so that I could claim that I’ve done the whole of that steeper climb (!).
When I got to the roadblock there was another cyclist there who had just got through from the other side. So it was possible I could have done that the other day, which is quite annoying, especially as there was only about a mile from the roadblock to the top, and it wasn’t even too bad, gradient-wise.
The bit that the roadblock was on is very steep and I could barely get going again to climb back up to the col. It took several attempts.
But the good news I can take from this is that I have now effectively done both sides of this climb to Col de Plan Bois (except for the couple of hundred metres of the closed road !).
When it came to doing the descent, the sun was definitely getting some thin cloud in front of it.
So the day was never as baking hot as it had been the other day and I didn’t sweat like I had done then. On the descent I decided to take the third route back down and was surprised to find there’s quite a climb that way, back up to the Col de la Croix Fry road at Manigod.
I really enjoyed the rest of that descent on the main road. Even though I had changed my rear brake blocks the other day it didn’t seem to have made any difference, so I could have left the others on because they weren’t fully worn out anyway.
I got back at the completely reasonable time of around midday.
A good bit of exercise for the day. And another col claimed while I’m in the vicinity. And thank god I hadn’t included this climb at the end of my massive ride to Col de l’Arpettaz – it would have finished me off!
