BHPian praful recently shared this with other enthusiasts:Day 3: 10th NovemberRight! So, I’ve fallen prey to my usual habit of not following through and completing threads that I start! Lol. So much so that I’ve given up on starting threads altogether. The evening before, after I wrapped up the EICMA visit, I had planned to see my friend from university days, who was admitted in a local hospital but was on the road to recovery. Mentioning him here as he is a silent TBhp reader-a bit of a shoutout to him for battling health issues alone in a foreign country and coming out on top. The plan for the day was quite clear: I had booked a hotel in the town of Chambry, just south of the beautiful Lac du Bourget. The idea now was to find the least boring route to get there from Milan. If I just put the destination as Chambry, it would be 320 km, retracing my way back along the same route I had taken two days ago. But I wanted to see the mountains! A quick review of the status of the open roads in the morning showed that a couple of the mountain passes were still open. This was necessary, as a lot of the higher mountain passes start shutting down from late October/early November, as they become impassable during winter. Also, this late in the season, sometimes the status pages are not updated on time, so we sometimes just have to take a chance. So, the plan was set: I’d leave from Milan and retrace my way back to Turin, where I’d catch up over coffee with an old biking friend with whom I hadn’t ridden in over 12-13 years. We would then ride together till Mont-Cenis (if open!), from where I’d continue into France. As was the trend of this trip so far, I was taking it easy-not trying to rush to leave before the crack of dawn, etc. After a relaxed breakfast, I repacked all my stuff and was ready to leave by a comfortable 8:30 or so in the morning. First order of the day was to locate a fuel station, as I was almost running on fumes. After a failed attempt at finding a fuel station marked as open on Waze but actually closed, I finally found one along the highway. After fueling up, I hit the highways with cruise control set to the limit, which was around 130 km/h. I kept changing speeds between 110 and 130 to avoid being at a constant RPM throughout. I could already see some snow-capped mountains far away on the horizon, but I wasn’t sure if that was the direction I was heading.Taking a break outside Turin to meetup with an old friend After a little over an hour of cruising, I finally reached the highway stop where my friend had been patiently waiting. The coffee was long over, but the conversation about motorcycles, rides, our group rides in India, and life in Europe continued for well over an hour. It was nearly noon by the time the “gup-shup” ended, and we decided to start riding. Since he had just had an engine rebuild, his bike was still running in, so he had to keep it below 90 km/h. We began our slow progress towards the town of Susa, after which we would see if the road up to Mont-Cenis was still open. Within about 30 minutes of riding, we were at the base of the mountain and the roads were open. The views were incredible as soon as we started the climb, and we continued our discussion about everything under the sun about motorcycles, as we were connected with our BT intercoms. This banter was something I’d greatly missed after moving here.Finally, Atop Mount Cenis We decided to stop at a parking spot with a great view. We stood there admiring the scenery for a long time. As it was around 1 p.m., we were also quite hungry and decided to check if any of the small restaurants on Google Maps were open. After discovering that all three nearby were closed (probably because they had already shut down for the season), we realized it was an attempt in futility. We decided to split ways here, as I had a long ride in the direction of Chambry and my friend decided to turn around, as the extremely involved riding position of the R1 was pretty hard for him. Like me, he too was getting back to biking after a long gap. And as soon as we split-him back toward Turin, Italy, and me towards the Vanoise valley-I spotted a small restaurant that was open. I hesitated for probably five seconds about whether to stop and call my friend or continue riding. I chose riding The stunning valley in Val-CenisThe descent toward Val-Cenis is something that is, to this day, etched in my memory-the early winter colors with snow-capped mountains were just something out of a dream. My plan was to see whichever high mountain passes I could cover on the way to Chambry, as today was the only day where I could make this ride interesting. Onwards from Chambry would be a very boring highway ride with cruise control engaged most of the time. I am sharing a few “Instagrammy” videos I made of this ride down into Val-Cenis. Climbing up Col d’IseranVideo 1: Link Video 2: Link Video 3: Link From Val-Cenis, I had chosen the famous Col d’Iseran, which at 2770 meters is the second highest in France and among the top five highest in Europe. From Val-Cenis till Bonneval-sur-Arc, the road is pretty much through a valley and quite flat; the vistas of the Alps are incredible. I did pass a mountain pass, Col de la Madeleine, in this valley, but I didn’t realize it until almost eight months later. From Bonneval-sur-Arc, the road was luckily open to Col d’Iseran, and the ascent began quite rapidly, with the scenery changing just as quickly. As soon as I started the ascent, I breached the snow line and there was barely any vegetation around me. The roads were quite narrow, without guard rails, and with very steep cliffs-I was literally in motorcycling heaven. Col d’Iseran It was almost 3 p.m., and I could not stay longer to admire the beauty of the high Alps as I still had a long ride ahead of me, and it was getting pretty chilly on the high pass. The descent on the other side of Col d’Iseran is into yet another beautiful valley with the ski towns of Val d’Isere and Tignes. I was making quick work on the twisties (while staying within legal limits), as I was riding with a fairly light load. However, with the sun starting to slowly fade behind the mountains, I had to be quick-if roads closed or it became too dark, I would have to change tracks and take the highway route to Chambry. As I got into the town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice, I stopped to fill fuel, as I wanted to be sure I didn’t have to cut the ride short anywhere due to running low on fuel. Till date, I hadn’t really tested the real range of the Tuareg; around 250-300 km is where I usually start looking for a fuel station. While filling up, I noticed there was yet another mountain pass nearby and straight away put that into Waze. Val d’Isere The ride from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Cormet de Roselend is something different-you quickly ascend from one valley to another higher valley, where the roads are fairly flat with gentle sweeping curves. It was an immense delight riding up to Cormet de Roselend with the sunlight fast fading behind me. At one of the photo stops while climbing Cormet de Roselend, I realized I had no cellular network, which also meant that once I got up to the pass, I had no way of setting my route forward. This was slightly important, as it’s wintertime, daylight fades quickly, and the temperatures start plummeting rapidly. I didn’t want to be in a situation where, because of a stupid routing choice, I ended up riding 100-200 extra kilometers in the evening. But hey! That’s the cost of adventure, ain’t it? Cormet de RoselandBarrage de Roseland It was around 4:45 p.m. when I reached the top of Cormet de Roselend. While it isn’t one of the highest at 1968 meters, it is breathtaking nonetheless. I took a call between going back towards Bourg-Saint-Maurice or continuing forward, without my GPS navigation to tell me which would have been the more sensible pick. I decided I’d move forward-worst case scenario, I’d lose the money on the Chambry hotel. Good decision in hindsight! Because the views continued to be impressive right after Cormet de Roselend. The dam of the Roselend lake (Barrage du Roselend) was quite a sight under the quickly vanishing sun. On the other side of the Barrage du Roselend, I found myself atop a steep set of twisties, where I stopped for my last photo stop for the evening. My GoPro had long died during the ascent of Col d’Iseran, so I have no photos or videos after this moment. I found signal again, and I had around 80 km to get to the hotel; first, I had to negotiate steep twisties down to the town of Beaufort, and from there I had sweeping valley roads till Albertville, after which I found myself on a fast highway all the way to Chambry. Before getting down to BeaufortThe day had been fairly long-almost 400 km since the start of the day and about 10-11 hours of being on the road, with around 7 hours of riding time. I’d say it was a super rewarding day in the ending, instead of taking the straight 320 Kms and 4 hours boring highway ride, this was just 80 Kms more but a whole lot more interesting. And, after days of eating highway sandwiches, I was craving a bit of flavor, and thanks to the fact that I was in a relatively bigger town, I could order some takeaway right to my hotel without needing to step out. After a long warm shower and a sumptuous Indian (or something that resembled it) dinner, I was ready to crash for the night. I was looking forward to it, as I was trying to avoid continuing on the highways straight away-I had already planned a few detours for the next day.Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
