Terry Arnold
The morning started with Will and Colin kindly heading out to bring in supplies for breakfast. Supposedly a few hundred metres away, they hadn’t realised that that was the altitude differential not the distance! Anyway a fine breakfast was delivered, John cooked everyone a lovely omlette and we we ready for the next trial.
We had discussed which of the 4 ride-out route options to use and it was agreed that we would first use the shortest (a mere 116 miles) but which also included 30 miles of dirt tracks plus a whole load more of curves and hairpins ascending and descending to 2400m. A walk in the park – almost a rest-day.
Key:
Blue = Tarmac out
Green = Off-Road
Orange = Tarmac home
The intial climb started at Fenestrelle (15) and rose via hairpins to point 19, where the road turned to fairly good loose gravel until point 22, where tarmac restarted.
At one point Clappo spotted some useful guys on KTMs speeding towards us in clouds of dust. “Terry they are all standing on the pegs! We’ve got to be doing the same!” he shouted – Up we stood. We stopped at an old military fort to admire the views and have a stretch.
The road then rose up to and ended at the Colle de Finestre (2500m). Here we paused and considered our options. At that point we could look down at the road descending rapidly with tight hairpins and deep large gravel. We watched a Husqvarna 250 go down and he was struggling so we concluded that way was too treacherous for us. Instead we opted to go back to the side road that led to the Strada Dell’Assietta as that was said to be easier – by the the Land Rover Defender Expedition driver we spoke to!
We descended and took an immediate coffee break at an enterprising mountain farmer’s cafe, before setting out again. The Assietta peeled off from the tarmac quite soon and was seen to be deeper gravel than the first ascent but OK and nowhere near as bad as the Finestre. We needed to space out a fair way so the the bike-ahead’s dust would clear and we could see the way forward and to limit the filth that was covering every part of us.
Well – if we had known then that it would be 30 miles before we saw tarmac again we might have had second thoughts and turned back. Clappo’s oil light would now only go off over 3000rpm and he considered baling, but bravely (foolishly?) pressed on.
It quickly became apparent that Paul was demon-quick on the KTM and was much faster than us, so we waived him forward to go enjoy himself. Being a kind and considerate soul, he frequently stopped to let us catch up and then would speed off creating a huge cloud of dust for us to penetrate. FFS.
We passed many mountain bike cyclists, and multi vehicle Land Rover expeditions, most of whom moved over to give room to pass. However, one lady driver in particular believed that just driving slowly by the rock-wall and leaving us 4-5 feet of road to overtake with a sheer drop and no barriers – was perfectly acceptable!!
On and on the road/track went winding round rock outcrops, 8 feet width of track and then nothing but a sheer drop, no visibility of oncoming traffic around the tighter headlands, it was all pretty testing/scary.
“Wow – look at that view Clappo! – “I’m not looking mate, just watching the track, I hate heights!”
After a while we realised that Colin and Will were no longer with us. We paused for a while, but it really was a difficult task to turn a bikes round with the gravel, the slopes, passing vehicles and the limited width, so we reasoned that they were together and we would wait for them as soon as we could stop safely.
Yet still – on and on the road/track went on winding. Up and down some pretty steep rises, some with hairpins and deep gravel and faster way more competent riders overtaking. At one point a guy came past two-up, the pillion sitting passively as he stood controlling his GSA round the bends. Clappo announced he needed fuel and took to asking bemused cyclists if they knew of any petrol stations.
Late on, the gravel started to include some pretty sizeable rocks (at least one of which made a loud bang as it kicked up and hit my sump guard) and we rode over a bare jagged rock outcrop – and then, miracle of miracles, a grass field appeared with a ski lift and a hotel and bars. “I’ve been here!” exclaimed John “I’ve drank in that bar!”. And so did WE!
Amazingly, after about 10 minutes the very welcome sight of Will’s snow plough (RT) plus Colin greeted us as they rolled down the road towards us.
“!! I really could have done with your muscle and toolkits back there!! ” – Will not unreasonably assertively addressed us – Fair-point, sorry, have a beer.
It transpired that Will had unfortunately dropped his bike (2-1) on the gravel and had broken off his top box. A Land Rover driver came to his rescue and they raised the bike, lashed the top box on with straps and they gamely pressed on.
Will said that riders standing beside the track at view points were looking on aghast as an RT purred past them, some even clapped and saluted. Respect.
After a fine sandwich lunch and refreshments, we set off again only to find that the tarmac disappeared and there was another 3 miles of dirt road! With zero miles of range left on Clappo’s dashboard we pulled into a petrol station and normal service was resumed. We had a relatively gentle ride back down via fast hairpins to Briancon, but now the task was to buy supplies for dinner as we had elected to eat-in.
Food and drink was purchased at the same Carrefour that Colin and will had been to and then we battled the busy traffic uphill caused by roadworks, in 28deg, before collapsing into chairs with a beer at the Chalet.
Dinner that night was a subdued affair, we were all extremely tired. Paul, John, Will & Colin did find the energy to make use of the pool and bar-football tables. but an early night was taken.
