Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Best roads in Alps?

[JH]

Dear All,

Riding my bike (999) down to Italy this August via France & Switzerland. I wonder whether any DSC members have any first hand knowledge of:

A) The best biking roads through the Alps. You know the sort of thing; scenic, nice & twisty, well surfaced, devoid of caravans etc.

B) Hotel availability in August. I know the French take their annual holidays in July & August and hotels are often either full or closed. Are Switzerland and Italy the same?

Be grateful for any info.

JH.

[pguenet]

Dunno much about the roads in the Alps as I essentially go there over winter and this is the last place you would want to take a bike.

However I think that you can go through the Tarantaise Valley that will take you through AlbertVille, Moutiers, Bourg St Maurice and then you can carry on to Val D'Isere and take the mountain pass Col de L'Iseran that connect you to Italy. It is closed most of the year (and I have a funny story of some plonkers trying to take it from Italy to Val D'Isere at new year...) but it should be open in July / August. Scenery is something quite special as it is running real high. Roads are kept in reasonably good condition as this is a very popular holiday destination, but on the other hand winter abuse and trucks don't spare them. Also tight bends can be spread with diesel spills so watchout.

Val D'isere is a center for anything 4x4, moutain bike, dirt bikes, etc... over summer, there is even an MX track up there. I don't know if they rent bikes for the day but could be a fun stop.

As for France, you'll find that all main cities (especially Paris) switch off in August (actually street parking is even free in Paris in August!!). All the action moves to the holiday destinations.

As for Italy it is even worse... ever wondered why you cannot get special Ducati, marchesini, brembo, etc. parts over summer?? Companies just close down in August there.

Cheers
philippe

[Athelstan]

JH
As I live in Switzerland I'd be happy to put some suggestions your way, but before I do can you give me an indication of the following:

a) do you want different routes over the alps there and back??

b) is time of the essence, or, ie fast and furious sections or slow twisty mind and bike bending??

c) how many overnights do you want to do actually in the alps??

[pguenet]

Oh and I forgot to mention, overtaking and speeding like a loony is not a good idea in tunnels... they have cameras all over the place. I know of some guys that were giving it plenty and had the Police waiting for them at the other end!

[Mike Davis]

Agree with Phillipe on the Moutiers to Val D`isere excellent stretch of road, if you have time try and take in the Canyon D`verdon, it`s abit further South but well worth the effort.

[the phantom pieman]

Originally posted by Athelstan
JH
As I live in Switzerland I'd be happy to put some suggestions your way, but before I do can you give me an indication of the following:

a) do you want different routes over the alps there and back??

b) is time of the essence, or, ie fast and furious sections or slow twisty mind and bike bending??

c) how many overnights do you want to do actually in the alps??

As Athelstan says, you need a plan. There are a huge number of great roads .... The great St bernard Pass ? the smaller one , round Mont Blanc, Bourg St M, and all the other stuff. The Ticino region is stunning. And the Furka, Gemsal and ? passes via Andermatt are supposed to be the Dogs ....

[chillo]

yeah Furka and Andermat passes are awesome, we did Furka originally just cos of the name

But if you can do Gorge De Verdon (south of france) then that is an excellent road. Loads of 270oC sweepers that go on forever (D957 i think)
Also Try looking up Colmar-Saint Die-Nancy, we did that route down, year before last and it was awesome, about 80 miles of non stop 100-140mph smooth radius sweepers! perfect road surface, fooking brilliant.

We will be invading them all again 1st week of June!! cant wait! Gonna tear it up in 04!


Gorge De Verdon


up to Andermatt

[JH]

Dear Philippe, Athelstan, Mike, Pieman & Chillo,

Many thanks for your replies. To put my Alps question in context: Each year I and 3 or 4 mates do a biking trip - usually to Spain & ending in a couple of trackdays at Jerez or Catalunya etc.

These past trips have always been later in the year (October), and we have generally found the roads (France, Pyrenees, Spain) to be free of heavy traffic, and hotels en route to have plenty of vacancies.

Due to unpredictable work commitments and departure dates we have never normally pre-booked anything other than the trackdays themselves, prefering instead to 'wing it'; picking the more interesting roads (the twisty ones) with no fixed itinerary, but always managing to find a decent hotel at the end of each day.

This year, just for a change, we are planning to do two Monza trackdays on 21st & 22nd August, and in effect swopping the Pyrenees for the Alps ... which brings me back to the original question.

I've noted all the various roads you suggest and hopefully we'll have time to explore them all en route to Monza. One idea I had was to base ourselves at some Swiss resort or other for 2 or 3 nights and explore much of the Alps from there. It all sounds great fun unless ...... in August the alpine twisties are so jammed with holiday traffic or marshalled by over zealous policemen with radar guns that all meaningful motorbike fun becomes impossible. This was my concern.

The second concern was again related to the August holiday season - the difficultly in finding vacancies at any good hotels on spec (ie without pre-booking rooms well in advance).

Athelstan: I believe you mentioned you were Swiss or Switzerland based: what Swiss resort (picturesque, lively, good access to great roads etc) would you recommend for a 3 day stay? Looking at the map places like Cran Montana or Verbier seem obvious.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

JH.

[Athelstan]

JH - I've sent you a U2U re my suggestions and the best way to communicate them to you i.e. email attachment file as it will be a little too big for the BB.

[JH]

Athelstan: I've sent you a U2U with my email address.

Chillo: great photo on Andermatt. What time of year was it taken? Looks a bit cold.

JH.