From Alsace to the olympic slopes

Planning has started for a trip this summer. The general
idea is to go up the Mosel, then south, spend a few days
on the French - Italian border and then over to Milan
and north-east over Splügenpass and Stilfserjoch.

Now, to the point. I looked at some roads and would like
your comments or suggestions.

St Die des Vosges - Gérardmer - le Thilot - Ballon d'Alsace -
Ronchamp - Belfort (we'll do the route des crétes as well).

D437 from Montbéliard to St Laurent-en-Grandvaux.

D12 / D 909 , Bonneville (yes, really), Col des Aravis,
Flumet (Southeast of Genève).

D218 / D902 Flumet, Beaufort, Col de Pré, Cormet de
Roselend, Bourg-St Maurice (Northeast of Albertville).

And finally - has anyone here been up to P Sommeiller
(Stella Alpina rally) or Mont Jafferau near Bardonecchia?
How tough are the roads if tackled on a road bike?

 

Done the second half. Recommended. There's a brief mention here.
http://www.colinandpat.co.uk/France02/France02.htm

Did most of this, but avoided Col de Pre. I assume you're not on a
tourer!

As wessie says, the the whole area is fun. We're doing the Bernese
Oberland, Dolomites, Bled and the Tirol this summer.

 

Oh yes, superb roads. I'll often go up that way for a Sunday ride-out.
TBH there's a dozen possible combinations, any of which will be as
rewarding. The route des crêtes is a must, as is the area around
Markstein and the Grand Ballon. Aim to drop down to Cernay to maximist
the fun roads.

Then it's just a half hour to our house... much better than Belfort
;-) Do feel free to pop in.

I've done bits of that, around and South from St Hippolyte. The road
down along the River Doubs is nice, both in scenery (some lovely
gorges) and the road itself, which is winding but wide, with a good
surface most of the time. I sometimes tend to turn off at Pontarlier
and head East from there into the Swiss Jura around Vallorbe, but if
you continue South the N5 from St Laurent to Gex has some lovely fast
sweeping sections, as well as some tighter, twistier stuff as well.

<not done the others, so no comment>

--
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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
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Contact GiorgioXT from it.hobby.motociclismo, a nice guy based in
Padova and with huge experience touring/skiing the Dolomites. If he
says something like eating at Capana Tonda in Cortina d'Ampezzo, just
do it!

 

Will do.

The plan at present is to stay some nights in the Susa / Bardonecchia
area, just over the Italian border.

Thanks for the input!

 

OK, that seems a bit of going the wrong way for us but noted
and might fit in as planning progresses.

Thanks for the offer!

Exactly the plan.

Thanks for the input! By the way, as my French is non-existant,
how do you pronounce Gex?

 

So that one stays on the list.

More like sports tourers and cruisers. But what should be wrong
with Col de Pré? Seems to be asphalted but a bit narrow, did I
miss something?

Nice! Thanks for the input!

 

I've done it a couple of times on my Ducati, no problems if you go up early
before the looney locals start ploughing everything up with cars and MX
bikes.
There's some crap I wrote about it a few years back at
http://www.fredstacey.co.uk/stella.htm

do it
Fred

 

No - we just didn't fancy the detour.

I was making a general point, all to do with turning circles. You want
to be able to get round steep downhill hairpins in one go, or you're
fucked. Our Thunderace needed all of the road occasionally, and I
suspect the Col de Pre will have corners like that.

 

Will do. Actually, we're planning on skiing the Dolomites next winter,
so we could pick his brains [1] about that as well.

[1] I know your English is near perfect, but don't translate that
literally!

 

There is something in that. I have compared turning circle for
different bikes and found that tourers, cruisers and trailies have
similar turning radius. We were a bit surprised that a Honda
Shadow 1100 turned sharper than a Suzuki DR800. Pure sports
bikes have markedly larger turning radius.
Different sport tourers might end up somewhere in the middle.

The worst turning ability I ever saw was some choppers with
extremely long forks. Even with a good rider, those would be a
handful around a sharp narrow hairpin bend.

 

Jecks.
--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`