June 20th: Lenzerheide to Zernez

 The morning’s breakfast was excellent, and the staff present made me realize that the restaurant we’d eaten at the night before shared the same staff as the hotel breakfast, so the two places were affiliated. After breakfast, we quickly descended down towards the main road, where we linked up with signs to Davos and Albula. The road actually climbs quite a bit before dropping down towards Filisur and the Albula pass. The climb up to Bergun (another town I’d always wanted to stay at but never did for one reason or another) was steep but in the morning cool with fresh legs it was more than doable. Past the lip into the valley we dropped into the center of town with its fountain. There was a Vogl supermarket but also a bakery. Boen had learned that supermarkets provided much faster service for ice cream, so opted for the supermarket, where I bought bananas and chocolate. I couldn’t resist the bakery, however, so we went in as well and bought some pastries to eat outside. It was clearly too early to stop here for the night. We did another weather check and decided we could at least make Zernez that day given how early we were. 

Riding up the pass road, the grade was a manageable 10%. We felt a few rain drops here and there but after the sweltering heat of yesterday it was actually welcome and made me feel like we would make a better pace than expected. The views improved and we even passed the place where Bowen and I stopped for a view of the lake but Boen did not feel like stopping. 

As we turned the corner and started to see the power line pylons leading over the pass (despite the area being a National Park!) the rain started coming down harder. We stopped to put on rain gear, being too committed to stop now. The good news was that with the rain, traffic dwindled to a trickle and by the time we reached the hospiz summit there was no traffic to speak of. Despite signs warning us that the summit hospize was closed there were clearly people inside and services were being rendered. But the rain showed no signs of stopping and I didn’t want to be stuck there, so after a brief stop for a summit picture Boen and I mounted the tandem and rode down the pass. 

I have no pictures of the descent since with rain gear on there was no chance I could reach my phone and nor was I inclined to stop for photos. Many electrons have been spilled and wasted on the virtues of disc brakes for wet mountain descents. In reality, however, sidepull caliper rim brakes work far better in the rain than most relatively new cyclists give them credit for. With Kool-stop salmon brake pads, all you need to do is pulse the brakes once in a while in the rain and the brakes will quickly clear the water on the rim and start grabbing. You won’t stop as quickly as when it’s dry but with good judgement I’ve frequently over-taken disc-brake equipped cyclists in the rain. 

Of course, traffic on the Albula today was non-existent since rain was coming down in excess of 15mm, so I had no one in front of me to overtake. We zipped down the 12% grade, a little too cold and traveling a bit too fast to enjoy the views. The sensation of speed was definitely present, but the rain drops were also striking my face fast enough for me to feel them. 

At the bottom of the pass I went straight into the town of La Punt and stopped at the first hotel on the right. We parked the bike outside, heedless of the rain pouring down on it and walked into the hotel. The hotel inside was nice and warm --- it was clearly a high end hotel, and despite our dripping all over their nice hardwood floor, the hostess immediately asked to take our jackets and seat us down in their drawing room and asked if she could bring us something warm to drink. We ordered tea. I asked if the hotel had any vacancy, and the response was that “There’s an event in town so all the hotels are fully booked.”  It looked like Zernez was our only choice. 

Arturo arrived and looked at the weather radar. It looked like the storm would dissipate after an hour. There was no question that we would stop in Zernez. Wet shoes and socks  meant that a climb up Ova Spin to Il Fourn would be unpleasant even if the rain stopped. Arturo was skeptical even about Zernez, since Google maps claimed there was significant climbing between La Punta and Zernez. I pointed out that Google Maps assumed you wouold take the bike route. “The bike route does dummy lamb things. Just take the main road. It’ll be a very fast descent.” 

Indeed, when the rain turned into drizzle and a light sprinkle an hour later, we got back on the road after paying for tea and headed straight for Zernez along the main road. There was a little bit of climbing, but it was relatively minor. At a construction traffic control light we had a postbus behind us but I wasn’t going to be stuck behind a bus if I could help it. As soon as the light changed Boen and I sprinted and stayed in front of the bus for at least 3 kilometers before there was a stretch straight enough for it to over take us. But the spell of the storm had been broken. We were now warm and flying like the wind, the tribulations of the past behind us. We made Zernez is short order, stopping at the hotel we’d picked out earlier but had made no reservations at. When they quoted us a higher price we showed them the booking.com offer and they immediately revised their price to match. 

Their restaurant was closed for the evening so we walked out to a nearby pizza place and had a pretty large meal to make up for the non-existent lunch we had that day because of the rain. We debated what to do about the next day. The weather forecast had called for increasingly poor weather but it kept being revised on what seemed like an hourly basis. If the weather was going to be bad then going to Bormio would isolate us from the train network that’s the last refuge of a touring cyclist. But I was loathe to give up on Bormio because there were two rides I wanted to do: the Motirolo pass and the Cancano Lakes rough stuff traverse that Sean Kendall had told me about. We agreed that there was no need to make a decision there and then, we would ride up over Ova Spin and Ofenpass and we could make the decision in Santa Maria. If we were worn out we could even stay the night in Santa Maria and make the decision the next morning. I did notice however that the Hotel Alpina had a triple room at a good price in Santa Maria with an unlimited cancellation policy, so we booked it.