They say to find your maximum heart rate you need to ride hard then go as hard as you can. Well nothing better than Mont Thou and the ramp in the village to do that.

Quite a long afternoon in the saddle with a ride from the lac du Bourget / Aix les Bains to Crolles in the Isere. I took a detour via the Curienne climb.

A quick spin after too much walking in Italy to turn my legs.

Felt ok riding out, made it to St Romain, at the base of the climb, around 12h50 (30 minutes into the ride) and thought I'd try a bit of climbing on the Route de Mont Thou despite not having recovered

A ride after the flooding this week. I decided to take the direct route over the top of Calluire et Cuire then descend down to Fontaines sur Saone.

Lunch tour over Mont Cindre with a Fourviere as a bonus. Fourviere and the city center had a very heavy police presence for the funeral of the former mayor Gerard Columb.

After yesterday's run a gentle tour out to the Mountains of Mont d'Or and the Mont Thou climb from St Romain. This is a very quiet hairpinned road that is never too steep.

It has been raining all week, on and off, so this was a last gasp to get out and do a bit of cycling. Didn't go far from home as I had to be back by 11am.

I wanted to try a longer tour of the Mont d'Or above Lyon returning to the Chemin du Tignot which I haven't ridden for a decade. It is as poorly surfaced as ever, well worse than that.

The heat wave finally broke with a return to cooler temperatures, so much so I had to wear an undervest and a cycling jacket in the morning.