Day 11: Barcelonette to Briancon

The plan for today was to climb Col du Vars, but Arjan told us the day before that if he had to choose, he'd rather ride Vallouise Valley. Between our worn out state from yesterday and the need to get to Briancon today since I had unfinished business with the Gallibier, we decided to try his suggestion.

The day was warm as we got started. I set a cut off time so we'd make it to Briancon with enough time to enjoy the day. By the time the cut off happened we were in a shaded climb and it was such a pity to stop, but stop we did for lunch and then drove on to Briancon, which was in such a crowded state that we parked illegally in the free parking lot. It turned out that we arrived in Briancon during its medieval weekend!

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

"In the US, all the Renaissance fairs look fake because the context is wrong. But here in the castle town, it's actually appropriate and looks right!" said Phil. Indeed, the streets were strewn with hay, horses and fire breathers walking around didn't feel wrong, and the general mood was festival. There were even pretend street beggars, so you didn't just get the sanitized view of the middle ages. And yes, with horses around, the streets stank!

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The question became could we find lodging? This being a Sunday, that turned out to be no problem. We ended up with a 3 person room at the Auberg De La Paix, the same place Mike & I stayed at in 2005.

Since we had the entire afternoon free, we enjoyed walking around gawking at the medieval fair, and also scouted all the restaurants in town before finding Duck Confit at Le Gavroche. The restaurant was decorated with bicycles, and the food was the best of the trip.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

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Day 10: Col du Parpaillon

One of the highlights of the 2005 Tour was Col du Parpaillon, a gorgeous off-road pass that was isolated and pretty --- perfect for a Saturday ride when the asphalt would be full of weekend warriors. Since we had a car, we could drive all the way to near Embrun, get dropped off, and then ride back to Barcelonette without a load. The last time we did this, I had 25mm tires, and I expected the ride to be a snap with 28mm tires.

Well, the drive to Embrun took much longer than expected, so despite an 8am start we only got started around 10:00am. We started riding, took a wrong turn, and then came back and met a mountain biker on the road going up to Col du Parpaillon as well. His name was Arjan, and he worked at CERN as a physicist, and was traveling to see a friend elsewhere in France, stopping here and there to ride his mountain bike. He seemed a little disappointed to see that the trail was expected to be so non-technical that roadies on touring bikes were going to climb it.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The road eventually turned into dirt as expected and we found ourselves climbing in the shade for a kilometer or so before getting up into the sun with the expected clear views. "I was cursing your name for a bit down there," said Phil, "but the road is now a lot easier to ride."

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In a little bit, we encountered another cyclist coming down the road on a cycle cross bike. Unlike American cross bikes his bike had long-reach caliper brakes, a superior design. He warned us that the tunnel had ice that was a foot tall, and while he could normally ride it on his cross bike, this time he had to walk. I was pretty happy about that, since that meant there would be no cars on this ride.

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As we got higher, the views got prettier and we stopped for lunch at an empty hut. We felt blessed by the weather and the scenery.

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Towards the top, almost all vegetation was gone as we approached the stream crossing. On 28mm tires we could just ride it without any concern whatsoever. The views took on characteristics of very high mountains, though unfortunately my happiness about traffic proved futile. Despite the tunnel being closed there were a lot of SUVs on the road, though many were forced to turn around at the tunnel.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

At the tunnel were a pair of 70-year-old cyclists who had climbed it on their mountain bikes and were about to ride through. Arjan and I waited until Phil caught up, and then we proceeded into the tunnel.

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With powerful battery lights, this time I felt competent to tackle the tunnel. I rode the first 500 meters until I could barely see, and then I tried walking for a bit but at one point ran into water that just ran across the width of the tunnel, terminating in some ice. Since getting feet soaked was a guarantee with further walking, I got on the bike and rode to the ice, managing to hop onto the ice on foot without getting my feet more than just a bit splashed on by wheels. What was in front of me, however, was hilarious.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

A car driven two people had ignored the tunnel closed sign and driven in anyway. This car had gotten stuck inside the tunnel on the ice. This was no problem for a cyclist, since a cyclist could just walk past the car. However, the drivers had enlisted a bunch of motorcyclists who were wearing rubber riding boots to push their car along. With a lot of shouting, cursing, and screaming they finally pushed the car through. The two drivers were lucky, since as a cyclist wearing cleated shoes rather than rubber boots, I would not have been able to help even if I wanted to. To prove that stupidity belonged to all genders and nationalities, on the other side of the tunnel I noticed that the drivers looked French and were women.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Poor Phil got his socks wet inside the tunnel, and so had to wring out his socks. I spied saw that the motorcycles were about to get going, and I did not want to be stuck behind the two idiot drivers, so I followed the motorcyclists down. A bunch of ATVs were coming up the road as well, but fortunately for me, they slowed the car down far more than they slowed me down. Near the bottom I waited at the hut which was closed today and had no food, but Phil didn't show up for 10 minutes. I let the car past and then rode down to the intersection with asphalt and waited there.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

I waited for half an hour but Phil finally showed up looking no worse for wear, though he said that I had reset his calibration for what a lot of off-road riding was. The ride back was uneventful, but I was more tired than expected given the lack of a load. The problem with getting older is that my days of daily riding 2000m and 100km seem to be over.
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Day 9: Cime de la Bonnette

We left the hotel bright and early, grabbing a couple of croissants at the local bakery which was open as early as 6:30am. We then filled up at the fountain in town, and then rode out into what appeared to be a rush hour of cyclists going in various directions: Barcelonette was at the hub of many of the climbs including Col de Vars, Col de la Cayolle, Col du Parpaillon, and of course, Col de la Bonette. Every one quickly parted ways, and we wound up cycling up Col de la Bonette with a bunch of cyclists that looked like they were in the same club.

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The road starts gently enough, with a bar/restaurant that wasn't open yet, because we were up so early.

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It was a long road though, and pretty soon the road turned steeply uphill and we were in our low gears as it snaked along the hill sides, with an occasional pause at a plateau or valley.

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At 2715m, Col de la Bonette's pretty high, but hardly the highest pass in the Alps. However, to garner the title "highest through road in the Alps," the builders added a little loop around the top going to 2860m, making it taller than anything else regularly climbed in the Tour de France. The surrounding peaks are bare, but the hint and promise of other mountains in the area does give it a look unlike other areas.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

At the top, there's a hiking trail to the top, where we took pictures of ourselves.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

From Tour of the Alps 2011

The descent was fast, and we made it back to Barcelonette by 2:00pm, where we had time to eat ice cream, do laundry at the laundromat (the hotel had signs prohibiting doing laundry in the room, but it was also nice to get away from handwashing), shopping at the supermarket, and dinner. XiaoQin said, "In the morning I saw the hotel staff wash the streets 3 times in front of the hotel! No wonder the place is so clean!"

From Tour of the Alps 2011

I walked past the shop that sold SIM card and was surprised to find it open! I immediately bought a French SIM card for 15 EUR, but when Phil and XiaoQin came by to buy one he had run out! "Come back tomorrow!" he declared with confidence.

We had dinner in town that night, but I failed to find any Duck Confit. I promised XiaoQin that we would have some Duck Confit before we left France.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

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Day 8: Vinadio to Barcelonnette

A short ride from Vinadio led us to an intersection. Here, we had a choice between Col de la Maddelena or Col de la Lombarde to get into France. While Col de la Maddelena looked like a main road, I remember Michael Khaw of Agile Compass Tours telling me that Col de la Lombarde was isolated and pretty. Looking at the map, it would drop us off in Isola, which would necessitate a hard ride over to Barcelonette. On an unsupported tour this would be a problem, but since we had a car, we made the snap decision to ride over and use the car to get us over Col de la Bonnette.

The road turned off gently but after just a kilometer turned into a winding road with lots of hairpins climbing steeply along the mountains. The views were as spectacular as promised and the lack of traffic even better. As a bonus, the climb was shaded for the first 700m of climbing, which made it a very cool climb. As soon as we climbed out of the shade it became obvious how much the shade had helped us as it was quite baking in the sun.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

As we got above the tree line what's left of the shade disappeared as the road became a one lane road. The climb wound around scree-covered slopes giving me a feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, despite the occasional car and road-side lakes. The asphalt was hot and radiated heat in pulsing waves making me zip down my jersey.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

At the top where XiaoQin was waiting for us we had lunch and took summit pictures. There were many hiking trails radiating away from the summit. Entering France, we found the road conditions largely unchanged, but the road descended steeply and quickly into Isola 2000, a ski resort that looked abandoned in the summer. Past that I saw a few galleries and then the road descended right along a river before entering the village of Isola.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

It was warm in Isola but there was a group of touring cyclists about to climb Col de la Lambarde anyway. I waited until Phil and XiaoQin showed up, and then we drove together to Col de la Bonette.

The climb from the South of Col de la Bonette had a tailwind assist (and a pretty strong one on the day we were there), but it looked like any cyclists going that direction would need it (we didn't see a single cyclist in this direction): road construction was in full force on the road, and on more than one occasion there would be giant asphalt trucks or steam rollers operating, leaving the road only one car wide.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Phil managed to get a few good pictures of the Col, but we agreed that we wouldn't have wanted to climb it from this direction.
The descent into the Ubaye valley, however, looked very pretty, and the road was clearly newly repaved. Phil asked if we would do the climb and I said, "Well, we're on vacation, so we do whatever we want!" Hence we got to Barcelonette deciding that we would spend 3 nights there. This would allow us to do Col de la Bonette and Col du Parpaillon, and let XiaoQin get a day off from driving.

Compared to trying to park in town, finding the tourist information center was no problem. They gave us a list of available lodging, and surprisingly enough the first place we found wasn't just available, they were cheap, at 20 euro/person/night, not including breakfast. It was right downtown, the room looked old but the bed checked out free of bed bugs, and we got an entire suite to ourselves, with 2 rooms and a bathroom, and plenty of room to park the bicycles.

After moving everything into our home for the next three days, we tried to find a place to buy French SIM cards, but had no luck whatsoever, the only place in town being closed for an unknown amount of time, and the next place being 60 miles away. We ate ice cream, took showers, and had dinner.

That night was some anniversary of the hotel/bar we stayed at, so things were noisy downstairs, but with the windows closed we found it easy to get to sleep. We were going to do a long climb the next day and planned to start early to beat the heat.

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Day 7: Brig Reid to Vinadio

Eager to escape the heat, we departed Brig Reid as early as possible, climbing out on the old Simplon highway to avoid the traffic on the main road. The road was surprisingly pretty, but before too long rejoined the main highway just before the bridge.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Past the bridge, the road goes pass several towns, and while the scenery was OK, it was nothing to write home about. As we neared the summit with a series of galleries, I spied a ramp leading on top of the gallery and decided to chance it in case it led somewhere fun or bypassed riding through the gallery altogether. On top of the gallery (which was kind of cool because I could barely hear the traffic below me), I hopped a fence and then rode it until it peter'd out along a cliff as the gallery turned into a tunnel. That forced me to turn around and re-enter the gallery.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

There was a ton of construction inside the gallery and tunnels, so the riding wasn't much fun, though there were a few escapes available only to cyclists, when in the tunnel itself, any traffic would echo off the walls and make the place loud. I somehow bypassed the traffic lights constraining the uni-directional traffic and had to take shelter behind some walls when I saw giant trucks coming my way.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Once out of the tunnel we were just a stone's throw from the summit with its eagle statue as a monument to a brigade that served during World War 2. The views were pretty, but I was rather disappointed. "I don't think I'd recommend climbing Simplon pass again." I said to Phil.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Well, the climb might be no great shakes but the descent on Simplon was nothing short of fantastic. The road swooped and zipped along, diving into tunnels and galleries where we were as fast as traffic or faster (a truck had ran out of gas or had an engine failure in one of the galleries causing traffic to be backed up behind it) while all around us the mountains of the alps rose up and then dropped off next to the road in sheer cliffs. The road went along the river along most of the way, granting us good views.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

I thought that we should meet near Domodossola, but the road flattened out and then split into two, one clearly marked not allowable for cyclists. I would learn later that there's a bypass for that road that went over the tunnel, but I wasn't going to chance either XiaoQin or Phil getting lost, so I waited until everyone got there and we pulled off, stuck the bikes into the car, and headed off for lunch.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Serious storm clouds gathered and I could see rain as we ate lunch, but we were driving all the way to Southern Italy today anyway, so felt quite smug about being in a car. The drive took well over 4 hours, and by the time we got to Vinadio with a few stops for gas, tolls, groceries, and Euros, it was near 6pm.

Vinadio looked like a nice town, and the first hotel we picked was reasonably priced at 40EUR for a half pension, so we took the rooms. XiaoQin was impressed by the price and the furnishings. "Why do you complain about Italy so much? This is pretty nice!" After the tasty dinner, however, she tried to take a shower and discovered that there was no hot water. I went down to the manager and complained, to which the reply was, "The boiler is broken. Give us 10 minutes to fix it." Of course, the boiler was broken all night and XiaoQin never got to take a shower. She settled for a sponge bath instead. "We'll be in France tomorrow, where this sort of thing doesn't happen," I said to her.

This being Italy, I triple-checked for bed-bugs instead of the usual double-check, but having found none, we slept quite well.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

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Day 6: All'Acqua to Brig-Reid

We woke up to another day of beautiful weather. It was in the 70s as we left the hotel, and we climbed at exactly the right pace so that the temperature didn't rise or drop as we approached the summit. This was my first climb of Nufenen pass from the East, and it's definitely the easier direction.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

While not a spectacular road, the view from the pass was pretty, with white peaks all around us. The descent was also characteristic of Swiss roads: smooth grades, easy corners, and polite traffic.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Having had trouble the last few times sync'ing up, I decided that we shouldn't risk meeting in the big town (Brig), but opted for Fiesch, which looked small enough that we wouldn't have trouble finding each other.

At Ulrichen, things warmed up as I made the left turn s Brig along the main road. While there were bike paths, I figured that since the road descended towards Brig I could keep up with traffic. I was wrong. The climb out of Ulrichen valley wasn't long, but it was a gentle grade which meant that I was going slow enough to be annoyed by traffic longer than I expected. Once past the first set of rolling hills, however, I could zip along at speed enjoying the views.

I started seeing ads for various sights and things to do in the area, indicating that this was at least tourist/ski resort area, rather than built up towns. At Fiesch, we found each other with no problem, put the bikes on the car, and drove down towards Brig, discovering that the descent from Fiesch to Brig was anything but boring, and indeed quite pretty and worth riding the next time we were in the area.

Brig itself was smoking hot, but fortunately the train station had the tourist information center in it, and was itself quite cool. We arrived too early for the tourist information center, but found the supermarket and bought ourselves a supermarket lunch. Once the tourist information center opened, we found that a suitable place to stay would be Brig Ried. We drove the car to the center of town, got out the bikes, and rode up the hill in 100F temperatures. By the time we got to Brig Ried I was quite ready to stop, provided the hotel rooms were cool.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We found a non-descript hotel and XiaoQin and I spent the afternoon at the swimming pool that I'd spied while riding up the hill while Phil stayed and read. When the weather had cooled down enough to contemplate dinner, we drove down the hill and had dinner in the middle of town. I was very impressed by the A180 at this point: it had taken us until now before we needed to gas it up!

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Day 5: Realp to All'Acqua

We woke up to sunny skies and another clear day. The place we stayed at didn't serve breakfast, but due to my reduced appetite the day before, we had plenty of left over food, so we ate that and then rolled out towards Hospental. Unlike the day before, the road towards Hospental was calm and rolled along smoothly. I felt much better than the day before and the climb on St. Gotthard went easily enough, with no wind or traffic.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

At the summit, I stopped at the museum to see if how much the entry cost, and it wasn't enough given my poor German to be worth going. It had warmed up considerably but the descent from St. Gotthard pass first went through a kilometer long tunnel. Once past the tunnel there were great views where XiaoQin stopped to take a beautiful photo of Airolo and the road below, but being on a bicycle I was having too much fun to slow down. We agreed to meet at the train station in Airolo before hand.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Once past the flying hairpin the road splits into the highway as well as the local road, with the highway presumably off-limits to bikes. Given that the local road is filled with cobbles and extremely unfriendly corners, we took the highway and zipped down to Airolo quickly and with no ado.

At the train station, we spoke to the tourist information folks and were told that we would either climb Nufenen that day or stay at All'Acqua, the last hotel in the valley at about 1600m, giving us a head start on the next day's climb. Given that it was already 80F at the train station, the prospect of climbing in the hot afternoon sun didn't appeal to us, so we had the tourist information center call All'Acqua and make a reservation.

XiaoQin had trouble finding the train station, but after a bit she got herself corrected and found us. The tourist information center provided her with directions and we headed up the road. The climb wasn't very long but amazingly enough, as we gained in altitude the temperature of the road rose! By the time we got to All'Acqua the temperature was 94F and rising. The decision to stop there looked better and better, and by the time I stopped, I had sweat all over my face and bike, and Phil looked a little cooked and maybe even sunburned.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

All'Acqua had a restaurant, so we asked for some ice cream but got some lemon sorbet with some alcohol in it. It was yummy but with a bitter after taste. We later found out what it was called but I'd forgotten it again, having decided not to ever have one again.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

We took showers, rested inside, and then XiaoQin and I went out for a walk in the hiking trails. I didn't know it at that time, but it's actually possible to hike all the way into Italy from All'Acqua, even while carrying a bike. Jobst Brandt and Jeanie Barnett did that in 2003. In the hot weather, even hiking in the shade would caused me to sweat, and after wandering around watching hikers do the hike in various states of undress we went back to the hotel to cool off.

The restaurant menu for dinner didn't look especially appealing, but since we had a car, we got into it and drove down to Airolo where there were plenty of restaurants. We picked a pizza place that served good spaghetti and had a good meal. By the time we got back it was plenty cool and we enjoyed the mountain air before going to bed.

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Day 4: Rosenlaui to Realp

We awoke to beautiful clear skies. That made waiting for the train something enjoyable, with glorious views around us, and the sun finally lighting up the valley with sights of the peaks around us!

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We drove back to Rosenlaui eager to get going on the bicycles again, and found to our delight the classic views leading to Rosenlaui waiting for us.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Since XiaoQin had the car today, she could afford to walk around and enjoy the scenery while we got onto our bikes and rode down the mountain and headed towards Grimsel pass, agreeing to meet at Guttannen where the grocery store might be closed by the time we got there. We rode up the pass quickly, and upon reaching Guttannen discovered that the grocery store was open, so we got ice cream and waited. After a bit I called XiaoQin and she had turned off onto Sustens pass instead. I told her not to worry since Phil and I had plenty of food, so we'd see her at the top of Grimsel after she had lunch. She drove back to Lammi and had lunch there instead.

The ride up to Grimsel was great, done under beautiful skies, but at the Grimsel parking lot I didn't quite feel like myself, having lost quite a bit of appetite. I chalked it up to a lack of salt and started downing salt pills, as well as eating the meat that XiaoQin had brought in the car. (She arrived just a couple of minutes after we summit-ted) Only much later did I realize that I probably had altitude sickness, which was strange since the hike up to a higher location the day before, done at high intensity, did not affect me at all.

From Grimsel Pass, you get a nice view of Furka pass, which is 200m taller, but comes with quite a bit of descent! Since I wasn't feeling all that well, I decided to take it easy on the climb.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

At the Hotel Belvedere I started feeling like my deraileur was stuck. Since I was tired I didn't stop to diagnose the problem but after the steep part I tried to shift and the deraileur locked up. A forced stop made me look at the problem and I found that the chain had gone off the pulley wheels. This wasn't hard to fix. All I had to do was to remove the rear derailleur, pull the chain back around the pulley wheels, and then replace the deraileur and ride up to the top.

With that delay, I made it to the summit ten minutes after Phil, and then after that we started the descent into Realp. Our original goal was Hospental. Since a massive headwind was expected, we agreed to all regroup in Realp and then we could put the bikes onto the car and drive into Hospental.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

As we rode through Realp, however, I spied a sign for lodging at 35CHF a night! That was too cheap to pass up, and when we inspected the lodging, we decided that it was more than acceptable and so stayed in Realp. I was really worn out and tired, and felt a strange lack of appetite. I forced myself to eat dinner anyway, and hoped that I would feel better the next morning.

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Day 3: A Hike to Kleine Scheidegg

The plan for the day was for Phil and I to hike up to Mannlichen, where XiaoQin would join us via cable car. Then hopefully, we'd do the mountain view walk together to Kleine Scheidegg and maybe back to Wengen, depending on how much walking we were willing to do. After a short quarter mile walk through Wengen, the trail led steeply up along the hillside. One look up the mountain and it was obvious why---the trail went alongside what was practically a cliff! It didn't take us long before we got to the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy memorial. I suspected but didn't know that he was the Mendelssohn, so I took a picture and moved on.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Going higher up, the views opened up but because of overcast skies, we could not see far. We had been warned that this hike would be harder than usual because of constructions on the avalanche protection near the top, but were not prepared for signs like this:

From Tour of the Alps 2011

In the USA, these signs would be cause for a lawsuit were anyone to be injured by rock fall, and hence the entire trail would be closed, despite the fact that I did not see any possibility of rock fall.

Once we got higher, we saw some wildflowers and the pace slowed a little bit. I wasn't happy about the overcast, though, as it promised that our views of the mountains would be occluded.

From Tour of the Alps 2011

Sure enough, the panorama trail granted us only views of the base of the Eiger, the Jungfrau, and the Monch, and the best view of the mountains we got was further down, past the Kleine Scheidegg train station.

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We finished the hike one station down, got onto the train and then had a pizza dinner, hoping for some nice weather tomorrow before the serious riding began.

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