Alps Extreme 4AE1702, Welcome to (motorcycles) Heaven!
25 Jun 2017
Riding day 6, Dobbiaco - Mieming
The last ride of this beautiful tour has unfortunately arrived, and I think nobody was really willing to go because already for the briefing there were some delays! :)
Also today's route was quite challenging, we did the Passo Erbe, Jaufenpass and Timmelsjoch... and on the last two passes we found ourselves riding middle of the "Oetztaler Moped Marathon", a kind of rally for little scooters 50cc, what a traffic!!! More than 1000 scooters really congestioned the road, but we made it!
Penny, Phaich, Tony, Doug, Kevin, Pedro, Donald, James, thank you! It was a real pleasure riding with you during this fantastic week!
Riding Day 5, Levico - Dobbiaco
Words can not describe today's ride, and also pictures don't do justice to the wonderful sceneries of the Dolomites, definitely one of the most beautiful places on Earth, especially for us motorcyclists! This riding route was quite challenging, 7 pass roads with hundreds of hairpins and thousands of curves, but at the end of the day everybody had a big smile on the face! What a great day!
Riding day 4, Garda Lake
This rest day loop took us south to Lake Garda, where sometimes we had the impression to be somewhere by the coast, not in the Alps! After reaching the lake, we stayed by its shore until Limone and then a ride through a very narrow canyon took us to Tremosine where we could sip a cappuccino with a fantastic view! After many many many curves, we left lake Garda and headed to lake Idro for lunch, and then stopped for another picture by lake Ledro... it was basically a day dedicated to the lakes! (and to the curves, of course!)
Riding day 3, Penegal - Levico
Another beautiful ride today! Leaving the hotel, we rode on the passo Palade and then the Ultental before entering the "Val di Non" area, famous for the production of apples, including iphones and macbooks... I'm joking, I was speaking about real apples, red and juicy! Lunch in Molveno, surrounded by very high mountains and a peaceful lake, and then of course a strong italian coffee. The food was too much and very tasty! Before reaching Levico we also had to face the "racetrack" of Monte Bondone, lots of twisties and switchbacks right above Trento. How lucky are motorcyclists here!
Riding day 2, Fiss - Penegal
Today we endered Italy and, after many twisties to warm up and a pleasant coffee break in Glorenza, we were ready to climb the king of the passes, the famous Stelvio! Fourtyeight switchbacks took us up to the top at 2767 metres, where we tasted the famous sausages of Bruno before going down to Bormio and then up again the Gavia pass, another very high mountain pass, famous especially for some legendary cycling races during the "Giro d'Italia". But the day was not over, because when we reached the valley again we had to climb the Tonale pass and also suddenly face some quite heavy rain. As soon as we had our rain grar on, rain stopped of course! :)
Riding day 1, Mieming - Fiss
Welcome to Mieming, the centre of the Universe for us (Edelweiss is based here!), where another fantastic tour through the Alps has just started! Today we rode through some beautiful spots of Tirol, in Austria. Our first stop in the morning was Kühtai, a ski resort and a passroad with the same name, and reaching an altitude of 2000 metres gave us a first introduction to what alpine riding is about. Back in the valley, in Imst, we stopped for lunch and for a good break, because after that the riding highlight of the day was awaiting us, the amazing road through the Kauner valley with a perfect mixture of great curves and breathtaking scenery. Add some perfect weather to all that... what a beautiful day!