High-Alps MTB
Tour 2002
A Mountain-Bike Week in the
Swiss, French and Italian
Day 2, Sunday,
July 21, 2002: Aosta – Val Savarenche
The
morning dawns overcast. As we start riding, light rain develops. Not good!
Originally we had planned today to cross over the next pass near the Gran
Paradiso further to the SouthWest towards
First
we stop after a short ride just outside of Aosta for brunch – might as well eat
while we are waiting for the rain to subside. We are thinking about what to do
while the rain dampens our spirits a little bit.
Then
we decide to continue riding to the end of the valley ‘Val Savarenche’ just
SouthWest of Aosta in the
The
ride up is somewhat boring, especially compared to the highlight yesterday.
Just following a regular road, hoping the rain would wait just a little longer
and not soak us completely.
We
engage in a little friendly competition and ride up hard, which keeps us warm
even though the rain continues. Finally we reach the end of the road at Alb.
Gran Paradiso (1960m). There are a few houses, a camping ground, a hotel and a
restaurant or two. We check into the hotel, take a shower to clean up and warm
up, and wait in the hope of the weather to improve. This is really the only
time during the entire trip here we are slowed down by weather conditions.
After
dinner we stroll around outside to watch the moon come out between the clouds.
Finally the weather is improving again, just like the forecast had stated. We
take a few pictures in the moonlight before we go to bed early and hope for the
best to come tomorrow.
