Col des Prés

Distance: 39.9 miles. Elevation: 5340 ft.

Col de Saint-Saturnin | Col de Plainpalais | Col des Prés

I planned this Col des Prés ride with the intention of meeting up with another rider who lives in the area. In the end they couldn’t make it due to my having made a snap decision to do it sooner rather than later, based on the weather forecast. So this was my first experience in the Bauges mountain massif, which is situated to the north-east of the Chartreuse.

My original design for this route featured an initial climb to Col des Prés and then returning via Col de Plainpalais, but I re-jigged it to include Col de Saint-Saturnin at the start (just to claim another col while I’m in the area!), and then reversed the order of the other two cols which cut out the steeper southern climb of Col des Prés.

I left at 11:45 wearing short-sleeved jersey/base layer, arm warmers, cap under my helmet, with my rain jacket wrapped around top tube. Two minutes later I returned to my van because I had forgotten my goggles! (As has happened before, anything that isn’t on the passenger seat of my van before I leave is likely to be forgotten!).

The air was quite cool, so I put my rain jacket on for the three-mile descent to Saint-Alban-Leysse.

The unmistakable shape of Mont Granier over in the Chartreuse, with the snow-capped peaks of la Chaîne de Belledonne to the left

Then the brief climb to Col de Saint-Saturnin. There was no col sign

For some reason I was feeling quite lethargic and wondered whether I had not recovered sufficiently from Sunday’s hilly ride.

I rode back down to Saint-Alban-Leysse to begin the 8½ mile climb to Col de Plainpalais. It’s 6.6% average over the whole climb, but steeper at first, around 7.5 – 8%. I took my rain jacket off and crammed it in my jersey pocket.

A couple of miles of climbing got me back to Saint-Jean-d’Arvey where the road forked; Col des Près to the right (my original route) and Col de Plainpalais to the left. I went left.

The road climbed predominantly through forest at first, with occasional glimpses of mountains and valleys.

Despite my earlier concerns of tiredness, I had now got into the rhythm of it and was feeling fine. The bornes kilométriques (milestones) seemed to come up quickly, one after the other, with the remaining distance reducing steadily. There had been some 8%’s earlier but the last few were 6% and less.

The approach to the col was marred by an increasing headwind. And the temperature had dropped from 20°C earlier on the ride to 15. At the col I put my rain jacket back on and sat on the final borne kilométrique to eat (half) my HDM sandwich. I was going to do a voice report but the wind was too strong for the phone to pick up my voice so I just made some notes.

There had been quite a bit of traffic earlier on the climb, with cars frequently passing, but it had petered out towards the top. So I sat there in the breeze and sunshine with just the sound of crickets and BEF.

The road surface on the descent was not brilliant and the coolish headwind combined to make a less-than-perfect experience. However, the views of the valleys ahead made up for it.

At the northernmost and lowest point of the ride, at Lescheraines, the road turned to head back south towards Col des Prés.

The Col des Prés climb from this side is quite gentle for the first seven miles and only really takes any effort on the final couple of miles at 7%. It had warmed up somewhat, so I took my rain jacket off and rolled my arm warmers down. Now I had changed direction there was a gentle tailwind for the climb.

After having the second half of my sandwich, I rolled my arm warmers back up and donned my rain jacket for the descent.

Whereas the descent from Col de la Plainpalais had been too cool for comfort and had that uneven surface, the ride, and my mood, changed completely on the descent from Col des Prés. The air had warmed up and the wind was still behind me. The surface was beautiful with sweeping bends and glorious lacets, with astonishing views appearing around nearly every bend. Needless to say I stopped for photos a lot.

Mont Granier dominating the horizon again

At the foot of the descent the road crosses the Pont sur la Leysse and then there’s half a mile of 9.3% up to Saint-Jean-d’Arvey followed by one last little 9% ramp back to my van.

So the ride had improved as the day progressed. It wasn’t as action-packed as Sunday’s ride to Col de la Charmette, but it had nevertheless been another wonderful day’s cycling in the Alps.

Ride Notes

Route reversal I felt a bit guilty having changed the route to do the easy ascent of Col des Prés. The other way round would have meant several miles at over 8%. But I have no regrets now because that descent was amazing, and also I got the full-value 8.5 mile complete climb to Col de Plainpalais
Arm warmers Today I used my ultra-cheap, three-pairs-for-£11, arm warmers. They worked well and stayed up better than my ‘proper’ ones. What’s not to like!
Energy drink For perhaps the third time ever I decided to fill my bidons with HIGH5 Energy Hydration Drink (powder mixed with water). I get on alright with this and it seems to work, and maybe better than gels because you get a regular intake. Anyway, for the second time, I ended up with splashes of it on my frame, etc and whereas normal water + electrolyte tablet mixture maybe just evaporates, this stuff leaves a sticky mess everywhere it goes. Entails an extra clean-up at the end of the ride. Not impressed.
Col des Prés “Prés” means “meadows”, so it definitely lived up to its name.