OVERSEAS HEADINGTOURING IN HERE names on the tablet are stuck on rather than engraved. There seems to be a faint shadow where an American's star fell off! After our brief visit to the UCI we set off onto the first serious col of the tour—the Col de Mosses at 1445m with 1028m ascent in 18.8km. The pecking order of the group soon established itself as Dave P and David M gracefully fell off the back of the front group (the split was roughly 30mins per 1000m ascent, but we are the genuine pensioners!) whilst ultra fit and strong Gav kept in touch with all of us. The weather was cold and unpleasant at the summit, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and enjoyed a long descent to our first hotel at Zweisimmen. The hotel was right next to the railway station and after my painful efforts on the col it was tempting to book a one way ticket home to Chester, but insanity prevailed as I checked in to our hotel for the evening routine of shower, kit-wash, rehydrate, eat and sleep.
• Day 2 • Zweisimmen to Meiringen • • 86km and mostly downhill • In spite of the damp, cloudy weather, the day started comfortably with lots more downhill toward Lakes Thun and Brienz, which flank Interlaken. There is a lot of traffic in this area on major roads, forced by geography alongside the lakes. This congestion could be tricky for bikes, but fortunately the Swiss have engineered a superb cycleway that follows the lakeside for several kilometres before twisting and turning under the main road to avoid the cars. Whilst riding around the lakes, every now and then the mists would clear a little to give us tantalising glimpses of impressive waterfalls and huge rock walls up above. We were now entering the land of the seriously lumpy stuff. More cycleways beyond the lakes led us to Meiringen where we spent time wandering around the excellent Sherlock Holmes Museum. (His supposedly fatal duel with Moriarty took place at the impressive Reichenbach waterfalls above the town.)
• Day 3 • Meiringen to Andermatt • • 71km • 2800m ascent • Dave P and David M set off 30 minutes early on the long approach to the Grimsel Pass (2165m, with 1540m ascent in 26km from Innertkirchen) to gain useful distance on the fast team. The weather was still cloudy and cool which at the lower levels was ideal for climbing. The ascent proved to be a car spotter’s delight as we were overtaken by exotica ranging from 1930s Le Mans Bentleys to very sleek looking V8 Mercedes sports cars. The noise they made was fantastic and amplified as they changed down a gear to accelerate through the tunnels. Somehow these cars seemed a lot less intrusive than the plague of noisy, rasping motorbikes that now ruin the peace of so many of the big cols in Europe. The Grimsel Pass is surrounded by superb rock walls and mountain scenery, but all this gradually disappeared into the mist as we ascended. There is a huge dam and artificial lake a few hundred metres below the summit
that would be a spectacular sight in good conditions. Unfortunately the weather had really closed in by now and we pressed on through an ever colder, ever thicker mist to the summit cafe where we could enjoy our summer holidays in snowfall at a temperature of 1°C. Fortunately Cheryl was waiting at the cafe with our grab bags to allow us to change into full winter gear and thick gloves for the descent to the Furka pass. After a large, hot sausage roll and 2 cups of coffee in the hotel (too cold to care about the exorbitant cost), we descended through the mist and snow to break out into a fantastic view of the huge, high level valley (1368m) between the Grimsel and Furka passes (2431m, with 1063m ascent in 16.5km). The Furka Pass is beautifully constructed with many smooth hairpin bends providing a nice, even gradient. We were soon climbing back into the mist but by some freak of the weather it was a relatively balmy 5°C at the summit, in spite of being 300m higher than the Grimsel Pass. The descent to Andermatt was rather exciting through the rain, cold and whiteout, but eventually we all arrived safely in Andermatt after one of the hardest days of the trip.
• Day 4 • Andermatt to Morcote (Lugano) • • 130km • 1300m ascent • Once again the two Daves set off early for the climb to the summit of the San Gottardo pass (2091m, with 932m ascent in 12.7km). The weather was cloudy at first but blue patches starting peeping through the cloud cover, which cheered us up greatly after yesterday’s snow and rain. The San Gottardo pass is known for its cobbled surface, which might have been fine for a coach and horses to get a grip on the steep ascents but gives a rather
uncomfortable ride on a pushbike. All of the cobbles are now bypassed by a modern road, passing through numerous galleries built into the hillside. During the ascent David M opted for the gallery route for the last few km whilst the hardier, more traditional types rode the cobbles. Ironically, there seemed to be more motor traffic on the cobbles as a collection of motoring exotica took in the full col experience. Once gathered on the summit, leader Gav insisted that we descend the pass down the cobbles of the legendary Via Tremola (known to some of us irreverent types as Via Trembolo), as the new road galleries were wet, dark, horrible and car-infested. Well if you want to shake wrists, neck, shoulders, backside and bike to bits, this is the way to go. The descent was an especially memorable experience for Dave R who was using a pair of very expensive, very stiff carbon fibre wheels on his very expensive, very stiff carbon fibre bike which combination attempted to shake its rider and cassette to bits on the descent. Some of us were forced to protest at this treatment by inverting our happy biscuits to become misery biscuits at the coffee stop beyond the descent. Fortunately the roads improved as we sped down a very long gradual descent through an industrial valley to Bellinzona at the foot of Mount Ceneri. The weather was warming up at last as we climbed a hot, exposed and busy main road to the summit of Mount Ceneri (554m, with 344m ascent in 6.5km). Beyond the summit we descended into the hell of Lugano at the rush hour and it took us some time to traverse this city before we emerged to ride alongside the beautiful Lake to our hotel at Morcote.
www.aukweb.net Arrivée Autumn 2013 No. 122
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