Belfort and loving it up the Ballon
2008 Part 3: After the catastrophic failure of Cat’s Tuono on the Galibier yesterday, this morning saw him waiting for a man with a van to take him and his bike to Grenoble. It wasn’t exactly clear what was going to happen after that but if the problem was terminal – which was looking likely […]
Two days in the high Alps
2008 Part 2: Suffering the effects of sleep deprivation compounded by too much wine Gaz, Taj and Pete decided not to ride today. Instead they spent their day exploring Briancon’s rich history – that’s what they told the rest of us anyway. On 8th July 2008 – next week – several buildings including the city […]
Letting the train take the strain
2008 Part 1: Over a few pre-tour beers last night it was agreed we needed an early start this morning. We settled on a 7am meet at Kyle’s house. We had a midday ferry crossing booked and it’s 220 miles and an easy 4 hours from Bewdley down to the docks. The weather this morning […]
Return to Santander and the ferry back home
2007 Part 4: Today saw us heading west across the Pyrenees to Esterencuby, about 5 miles from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. However we were split on how to get there. While Gaz and Pete preferred the most direct route, the rest of us decided to go the scenic way. Before we left Saint-Lary this morning though Madame presented […]
Urdos to Saint-Lary and a ride out to Andorra
2007 Part 3: We had quite a big ride planned today with our proposed route taking us over 6 passes. After our second pass of the day, the Pourtalet, we would be leaving France and spending pretty much the rest of the day in Spain. Once on the Spanish side we were going to head […]
A plan comes together in Urdos
2007 Part 2: Today was the day that Phil, Chris, Gaz, Taj and Mark kicked off their tour and saw them riding down to Plymouth to catch the overnight ferry to Santander. It was also Cat’s birthday – the big one. Aside from a short 14 mile round trip to the supermarket so Pete could […]
The long, wrong way down to Millau
2007 Part 1: Late yesterday afternoon we – that’s Cat, Pete and Kyle – set off from Bewdley and travelled the 150 miles – most of them wet – down to Portsmouth to catch the 10.45pm overnight ferry to Caen. At 6am this morning soft music was piped through to our cabin and all of […]
800 miles with a stopover in Etreaupont
2006 Part 5: The stormy weather that we’d encountered in Switzerland yesterday arrived in Chamonix early this morning and it was wet until lunchtime. No a problem though because there wasn’t a ride planned for today anyway. We were all too aware of the long haul up the autoroute that lay ahead of us. Instead […]
Two days in the Swiss Alps and a night in Andermatt
2006 Part 4: The next couple of days were going to be spent in Switzerland and we’d pre-booked a hotel in Andermatt for tonight. Our ride out there was going to be a fairly straightforward affair. Beginning with our by now usual route out of Chamonix we’d drop over the Forclaz and head north-east towards […]
A ride out to the highest pass in the Alps
2006 Part 3: The plan today was for a longer ride than our short blast up the Grand St. Bernard yesterday. Phil had planned a route that would explore some magnificent Alpine roads and gain a lot of altitude, and before days end would have us riding to the top of the highest pass in […]
Three countries, two mountains and a tunnel
2006 Part 2: There was no particular plan today and we’d always intended on taking it easy after all the riding we’d done over the weekend. After a late breakfast we gave the bikes a bit of a wash down and checked oil levels and for those that had chains, they were also checked and […]
The run down to Chalet Le Bois Rond in Chamonix
2006 Part 1: This trip has been months in the making, our first overseas biking trip. A 9 day motorcycle trip over to France to ride Alpine passes. Phil organised it, planned all the rides out, and the rest of us – Chris, Gaz, Taj and Kyle are just along for the ride, so to […]