Most of RDGA and a bit more

[Rasher]

Other point of interest might be to include the Colle San Carlo in your route when riding up the Col die P'tit St. Bernard....

Also, when riding the Gorge de Verdon, try to include the D23 detour, it's gonna offer the best views on the Gorge you'll ever see

Ridden Col San Carlo twice, it is tight and twisty heading up the south ramp, slightly more open on the way down, very enjoyable and mostly traffic free. Nice little Refuge near the top, last time we went past they had a great deal on Evening Meal & B&B, I really wished we were not already booked in at a Hotel the other side of PSB, would loved to have just parked up for the night there and then.

We stopped for the D23 views in 2011, they were so good the following morning we bought breakfast from the village bakery and rode up to eat it whilst looking across the Gorge - just watch out near the edges of the cliff, a lot of it is just overhanging and held together by plant roots - and it is a long way down!

 

[leedude03]

phluppe was intending doing the col d'izoard as a day out on the route below, but now have also included it on the route back up aswell, my thoughts were why not do it twice.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msi...=0&ll=44.60709,6.874695&spn=0.587592,1.344452 ride out

Rasher my aim was to do the d23 detour on the first ride out from castellane going around from the south side after going around the lac de sainte croix although it would mean doing a bit of the north side twice.

with ref to the col san carlo would that be the road that branches off at la thuille on the road from bourg saint maurice and goes over the river at morgex


many thanks for the input

 

[Rasher]

with ref to the col san carlo would that be the road that branches off at la thuille on the road from bourg saint maurice and goes over the river at morgex

Yes, I have always been going the other way having come of the GSB and turning left over the River at Morgex, heading that way the village of Arpy is signposted, I assume it would be in the other direction.

The La Thuile side is quite nice, smooth tarmac and fairly open, the Morgex side is very tight and mainly in woods, with a few first gear / full lock type hairpins - although I prefer these riding downhill.

Much better than the main road unless the weather is crap

 

[leedude03]

well it doesnt seem like nearly 4 months since i started this thread, how time flies, now just 12 more sleeps before the off, everything sorted no last minute faffing to do, bike serviced new pr3s fitted and scrubbed in, all hotels booked, trains booked, all thats left is to just do it. Will probably start a ride report as and when.

 

[Rasher]

Will probably start a ride report as and when.

After you set off would probably be good

 

[franco]

Nice

Well, you've hit the sweet spot weather wise, and 'most' of the Cols should be open by next week at this rate (I hope). Sorry I didn't see this thread until this morning, probably too late for suggestions now, and looks like you've got a decent enough route there.
Enjoy, ride on the right, and take it easy. They're getting ferocious on speeders round here with regular air (yes aeroplane) speed checkers on the Route Napoleon among others.

Rob

 

[Rasher]

They're getting ferocious on speeders round here with regular air (yes aeroplane) speed checkers on the Route Napoleon among others.

I assume on the twisting Cols where you struggle to average 35mph your pretty safe

 

[franco]

I assume on the twisting Cols where you struggle to average 35mph your pretty safe

Nope, if you 'average' 35mph in a 50kph limit, yer nicked Anybody who speeds on the Cols is kinda missing the point, I was talking about the roads between the Cols, such as the aforementioned Route Napoleon. Just cruise along and enjoy the views. Err, whilst keeping your eyes on the road at all times

 

[buellzebub]

Lee, excellent idea about the train. We're heading down to Millau and the Tarn in late July and to be honest I'm not looking forward to 11+ hours in the saddle (doing it all in one go!)
Can you tell me where you booked the train, I guess there must be a website?
Cheers,
Mick

livin' the dream

 

[leedude03]

Buellzebub if you look at post number 18 there is a link to the french site that i booked the train on, it is in french but with a little bit of google translate its really easy, you can also book it from the uk site http://www.raileurope.co.uk/default.aspx?tabid=1568
but it will work out more costly as they charge commission and postage of the tickets, you save about £25-£30 using the french site. you also book the passenger tickets from http://www.sncf.com/en/trains/tgv, franco thanks for the heads up for the speeding advice,
another thing to get the best prices for the train you need to either book early like 3 months before or sign up for the news letters and get the deals they offer closer to your depart date.

 

[franco]

Hurrah!

Well, the Col de la Bonette is officially open as from today, so I'm going up there tomorrow to take some photies of the snow.

Rob

 

[leedude03]

well it looks like i may have timed it just right fingers crossed all will be open.

 

[adventuredon]

Rasher: I came across your post today and have downloaded the alpine passes file. Great stuff. Have now started to use it in basecamp, BUT my question is: is it only used for planning in basecamp , or do / can you transfer these points as POI or into the GPX folder on the device as well? I have tried both and i don't find them. Love to be able to have them on the go with me..

Answer: OK tried a few CSv and ITN converts etc...no luck:
BUT you do
1) Open the gdb file in mapsource (nuvi does not support this file type).
2) save waypoints as a new file
3) use POI loader and do the manual setting
4) it loads them under custom POI

Just so others may know too!

 

[Rasher]

I am still using Mapsource which works well for "Holding" all of the Waypoints.

When planning a route I tend to just dump all the passes I will cross on the route into it, then save the route as a GPX for further editing in Tyre which I find much easier to work with.

 

[adventuredon]

Yes, thanks. I have Map source but my maps don't show in them and according to Garmin,. won't until I upgrade so I am using Basecamp. I too used tyre but found it slow and then they changed it to a pay per version. So I use a combo of ITN (downside is you have to have a data connection), basecamp and google. Seems to be working so far, just that base camp is a new programme and actually pretty powerful - or so it seems at the moment. Still a steep learning curve as already had the transferred route not show up etc. Realised that you have to export the file and place it in the GPX directory rather than using send to...Anyhow, all good

 

[Rasher]

Tyre is still free, but covered in Spam, for about £15 you get the Pro version which is getting better all the time and does away with the adverts.

 

[adventuredon]

not last time i tried to download to a laptop. Maybe the existing install is free and covered but any new install want spaying.... Also too slow when importing others routes as waypoints hangs machine...ITN for me..anyways..cheers