I think I will have to call this the Queen Stage. Although it was "only" one pass, it was a mother! Kilometers 0-28 were along Lake Como and quite intoxicating. I will pass on a hint though, if there is a tunnel, DON.T go through it. The old road is next to it and will get you by without a problem, although not always 100% paved. KM 29-55 were mostly flat to Chiavanne (spelling?), but busy. I was hoping that today wouldn.t be as bad as the weekend traffic, but it wasn.t great. Along the lake was more 1.5 lane roads, and afterwards the roads weren.t wide enough to have a shoulder either..... I don.t think this is cycling country, but that.s just me (sorry Foti). KM 56-90 was climb, climb, climb. Kind of like Neal.s Gap because it wasn.t too hard and their are "flat" spots, but basically it was the longest climb I.ve ever been on! The last 3k were the best, or worst, depending on how you look at it. I hope the pics will do the climb justice, but there were 13 switchbacks over this short distance and at least 1000' of elevation gain, but my guesstimate. The top is called Malojapass and the sign says it is 1815 meters above sea level (5955 feet). I started the day at 200 meters, so there was over 5000 feet gained today! KM 91-106 were along a couple of Alpine lakes with a flat to downhill grade, thank goodness, and the tailwind didn.t hurt either! I booked it to the hostel here in St. Moritz and as I type this it has started raining. Dad gave me the weather forecast via email this morning, and it doesn.t look good for the next few days... I still have 2 days of train to use, so tomorrow may be one of them. Fine by me, this was the last hard day in the mountains, as far as I can see that is! The gang from last night told me about a bath/spa in Scuol that is inexpensive and worth checking out, so I think I will go soak my bones there! Happy Labor Day to all of you back in the States. Keep laboring, and send money!
One of my last views of Lake Como.
Not Lake Como, but the lake just before Chiavenna.
In America we would put a red line / through it saying, NO BIKES ALLOWED. Beware, they don.t do that over here.... And this one says don.t go through the tunnel. Or so I was told....
What.s up Doc?
A view of the 13 switchbacks and final 3k climb up to Malojapass.
Sorry, have to edit later.... But this is at switchback number 5.
It.s an ok town, I don.t have to come back, unless the skiing is really good. But I doubt it.s better than West coast baby!
This was the following moring and the small amount of snow that had accumulated above St. Moritz.
2 comments:
Glad you are having fun. The weather is great here, but no lake to go out on and enjoy. You are not missing ANYTHING here. Enjoy the sights and cannot wait to see all your pics when you get home. Alex has 2 teeth in sight and possibly 2 more coming in. He waited until 10 months to get his first one and then all are coming in at once. When it rains.... We love you!!!
In case you're wondering, I got a new Dell laptop that will display all of your blog pages. I'm not sure why my desktop would freeze EVERY time I opened up your blog, but this one is freeze-free.....so far. At least I could read the first page of your blog, but I had to check it every day and couldn't comment. Miss you!!
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