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The morning-sun tickled the face....as did some of the rain run-off poluted water out of the taps. Dietmar also started a major drying-session of his tent, Werner and Lothar deciding to pitch their own tents from now.
After breaking camp it’s off via Castellane to another highlight of the tour....the spectacular gorges of Grand Canyon du Verdon.
To me the Grand Canyon du Verdon and the Combe Laval turned out the absolute highlights of the whole trip.
There are 3 passes along the way... Col d’Ayen (1032m), Col de l’Olivier (711m) and the Col d’Illoire (964m).
Despite frequent traffic, the lap around the Canyon is without incidents and riding is a pleasure.Sospel is the day’s target. So... it’s through Comps-s-Artuby and the Col de Clavel (1060m) onto the D2 towards Vence. Then via Grègolieres to the Col de Vence (963m) – a bikeroad par excellence. Good enough to make one turn back and do it again.
While easy to find the way from Vence to Carros (as we decided to bypass Nice) things got trickier along those tiny and tiniest roads to the Col de Braus. But well worth it, the roads are gems.
Via Aspremont, Tourrette-Levens and Contes it’s across the Col de Nice (412m) to l’Escarène at the bottom of hairpin-heaven, Col de Braus (1002m).
Final pass of the day is the Col St. Jean (612m) into Sospel....with 10 Marks per bend today, we’d all be multi-millionaires tonight.
The Col du Pérus (654m) was followed by the Col de Brouis (879m), Then Saorge, the Gorges de Bergue and Gorges de Paganis and towards the Col de Tende (1871m).
Rather than the „new“ way through the tunnel, we decided on the old Tende-passroad with its 48 hairpins....and despite the gravel section on the south-ramp it’s an absolute MUST for any rider.
Down the north-ramp into Italy (sealed) and a left turn just short of Borgo San Dalmazzo to Valdieri. Here a tiny road turns right to Festiona. As iused by this year’s Giro D’Italia, the route speaks for itself, the tar painted like a graffiti-orgy.
After lunch in Demonte it’s across the Col de Larche (or Col de la Maddalena) (1948m) back into France. 17km down the hill is a cut-across to the Col de Vars (2109m) .
Returning through Guillestre to Briancon Briancon, it’s at warp speed across the Col du Lauteret (2058m), Col du Galibier (2646m) and Col du Télégraphe (1566m) to St. Michel-de-Maurianne, looking for a camp site for the night.
Which proved a little difficult, as the first attempt finished with a place that was „on the nose“ due to broken plumbing, the 2. attempt revealed a beautiful, new installation which wasn’t quite completed and therefore still closed....
The final attempt saw us at Modane at the Tunnel du Frejus (dthe first ever railway-tunnel of the Alps). A nice spot, but too close to the railways and roads (speaker announcements and traffic-noise all through the night), not too loud, but persistent.
It also turned into a wet night, only the 2. time we’ve had rain (the 3. and last wet night was to be at Reit im Winkel ). Next morning Werner and Lothardiscover, that they’d put up tents a little hastily, resulting in small puddles. This time around I was lucky...
The „Dreamroads of the Alps’ continues...
Via Lanslebourg across the Col de l’Iseran, at 2764 m (the sign at the top proclaims 2770 m) the highest Pass of the Alps.. (The Col de la Bonette shows 2802 m, but the actual pass, Col de Restefond is a lot lower.) Down into the Val d’Isère with it’s same-name Ski-resort and via Tignes onto the Petit Sankt-Bernhard (2188m) the border to Italy, l;eaving France after the last 6 days.
Down the Aosta valley to Aosta and up the Grand Sankt-Bernhard (2469 m) back into Switzerland. Towards Martigny, it’s a right turn across the Col des Planches (1411m) and Pas du Lein (1656m) to Saxon....despite some missing asphalt it’s a route well worth riding. The following stretch into Saxon is one of my favourites and I let rip, getting ahead a little, separating from the group, which pissed off Lothar somewhat.
(To vent his frustration, he made the Buell stand on it’s rear, nearly flipping it.)
Instead of turning up-river to Sion and Sierre to Brig, we turned left in town, crossed the main valley to Leytron and Ovronnaz to Grugnay.
Just short of town the day ended at a quiet camp site, which, above all, also turned out to be one of the cheapest @ 10 SFr/ head incl. Bike. Even the tent-pegs slipped into the soft ground easily and the restaurant nearby didn’t look too shabby either.
The evening revealed a significant loss of rubber on Lothar’s Buell and Dietmar’s BMW, so the search for fresh hoops started by Handy with a call to the ADAC/ Germany referring us to the Italian AutoClub in Milano...resulting in the info that only brand-dealers were applicable. No hope then to get things done in Tirano (see day11) We finally manged to find a tyre-dealer in Klagenfurt, expecting to be there on day14 , Monday 31.07.00.
Somewhat later than planned, but hopefully the tyres would last until then.
First up the Rhone valley to Sion, where Dietmar swallowed hard at the prices for a new camping stove.
Steadily uphill to Anzère, but from here the road was closed, in spite of what the maps told us. No problems....a shortaround got us via Crans to Montana, the views into the Rhone Valley and across into the ice-capped 4000m+ mountains are stunning.
Montana is a posh place and accordingly busy, time for the downhiller into Sierre and up-valley via Susten to Visp.
There’s another little gem lurking here, turning south into the Matter Valley.
Just past the long tunnel at the start there was only 2 of us....turned out, that Dietmar had received a call on the Handy.
On to Stalden then, where a tiny road turns right, signed to Törbel and Embd.
A steep uphiller with glorious views follows and past Törbel it’s still uphill, the road seemingly leading no-where, baffling for a first-timer. Above 2000m, the Moosalm makes a fantastic lunch-stop location, the views are gorgeous.
Back via Zeneggen to Visp and Brig and the start of the old Simplon-Pass-Road.
It’s steep uphill, the road turns off in Ried and isn’t all that long but still a way-better ride than the new Simplonpass (2005m)....with which it eventually merges.
Here we called the tyre-dealer in Klagenfurt, to confirm all arrangements made for the tyre-change a few days ahead.
Through the Gondo Gorge to Domodossola, then towards Locarno and the Lago Maggiore. East via Malesco into the Centovalli, honouring it’s name of the „Hundred Valleys“.
Locarno greets us at Rushhour and we’re gladly tacking south-west, around the head of the lake to Magadino and Vira, turning left here across the Alpe di Néggia (1395m).
The road, which returns to the shore at Maccagno, is an absolut delight !!
Along the shore to Luino , then left to Ponte Tresa at Lake Lugano, the day’s getting long. Around 8pm we hit the camp grounds along the shore at Agno ....which is NOT a good recommendation anymore (there’s another one only a few hundred meters away).
The spot turned out very pricey (around 20 DM/ head) and things were very crammed (partially due to high water-levels of the lake)
Get out on page 4 of the report
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