After the first “Tornanti” ride in ’07 there wasn’t much left of the Alps to cover, right?
(Ride Report HERE)
Tornanti 1 (short “T1”) had stretched over 6 weeks and we’d covered a LOT of ground ….T2 was going to be a little different then....and we only had half the time.
While not such a big area if plotted on a flat sheet of paper, the Alps span Austria/Italy/ Slovenia/ and part of Switzerland in the eastern half…with France/ Italy/ the other half of Switzerland and a little bit of southern Germany making up the western half.
All up around 800km east-to-southwest ….and between ~25km and 300km north-to-south... as the crow flies.
Chuck in all those mountains, and things multiply at least four-fold…. at least as the roads go.
As T2 started looming, I didn’t have any firm ideas of what to tackle this time around, but the all-too-short T1-stint in Slovenia had left its mark.
There was a hell of a lot more there….and we’d missed out on the far north-eastern corner of Italy, the Friuli region as well…due to bad weather.
Friuli…reportedly one of the poorer, non-“Golden-Arched”, areas of northern Italy….little tourism, little flimflam….and downright Italian to the core.
Lots of hours researching the net yielded some interesting conclusions.
The Isonzo-Line was one of the most hotly-contested battle-fronts of WW1 and stretched from the Carinthian Alps (Austrian-Italian border….stretching juuust into Slovenia) .... across the Dolomites about 200km further west.... and south-west to the Val Sugana/ Asiago Plateau, just west of Feltre in today’s Northern Italy.
http://www.worldwar1.com/itafront/virtualsoca.htm
http://tinyurl.com/yk8w88b
Map : http://tinyurl.com/yfvqnox
Borders marked in blue, Isonzo battle-areas marked pink
In short…the eastern ascent of the main ridge of the Alps is fairly narrow (~30k’s at its foot) and climbs to ~3000
The land to the north (Austria) and the south (Italy… with the Adriatic coast and it’s ports and trade) are fertile low-lands, which for 1000s of years have been extensively farmed (and vino’ed
)….both sides then are valuable ground, divided by a fairly narrow, but steep and rugged mountain range.
That natural border brought along its own set of considerations. Each side was keen to somehow cross the mountains and grab the spoils on the other side. A feuding King’s (or Pope's) dream: cross the mountains, rape and pillage to your heart’s content, then establish a firm “bridge-head” on the other side to guarantee trade and taxes for generations to come.
In the meantime, get rid of that inbred yokel, the black sheep of the family, and place him/ her far enough out of the way with hard-to work-soil, limited resources and a little castle here and there to keep ‘em under-resourced and unlikely to start some revolution….but in-line to be used when the big push across the mountains looked good for the next ego-expansion.
No shortage of skirmishes and biffs of all sizes along those mountains then….and WW1 proved the most recent one.
What’s THAT all got to do with motorcycling??
Weeellll….with that sort of background, and the most expansive military action a mere 100 years ago, there just HAS to be a lot of infrastructure left, which supported action of that kind.
Considering the terrain, it means that the valleys were the supply routes, with the ridges being hardest fought over (to control the valleys!).
That in return, makes for a myriad of “leftover”-roads and tracks, (to supply the military action along the ridges) which have either been
1) re-developed as main roads by now
2) became small local roads/ farming roads
3) have been left to deteriorate and fall into disrepair
4) have been re-developed to some extent for some local purpose
Whatever their fate…there just HAD to be a lot of interesting stuff around after a lousy hundred years (which is NOTHING, when compared to the local church or public building with their cornerstone markings of 1200 or 1500AD).
What a place to kick off T2 then….
A smorgasboard of tiny single-laners….a little dirt…remote areas with awe-inspiring scenery, sticking our noses into some historical stuff along the way.
The Slovenian Border Ridge Road….The Panoramica…the Mangart…Mt.Zoncolan….the Stol…the backroads around Northern Slovenia…Casson di Lanza…Torri de Fraele….and endless other tiny stuff.
Stringing it together via some more well-known stuff, still single-laners though….the Gavia, Vivione, Kaiserjagerstrasse,….the Tremalzo and Croce Domini….not to miss the Mortirolo/ Foppa….then throw in a few of the Classics and “Must-Do’s” like the Timmelsjoch, Grossglockner and Stelvio….pad it out with the Umbrail, Spluga, Albula and OfenPass…just to throw a few names around…..and finish off with the Grimsel/ Furka/ Susten/ St.Gotthard rollercoaster.
And that’s only the riding!!!!
Red circle= approx T2-area….green= approx. Eastern Alps Main ridge
Ideas came together… and if the order to the "weather-gods” had been processed correctly, we’d make a major dash east from Zurich to Slovenia, then spreading our time moving west towards Zurich again in an extended North-South ZigZag.
Lump in the local tucker, the low-season timing post EU school holidays, glorious autumn colours!! the incredible vistas, the “smells” of the place, riding on the wrong side of the road, extreme landscapes, buildings and history….and it should be an unforgettable time!!!
Those were the plans…and that’s how it went!
T2 had it ALL….AGAIN!!!...incredible riding, unbelievable scenery, delicious single-laners, magic moments, SUPERB tucker …and “liquid bread”
….FANTASTIC people along the way
, roaring laughter and mirth, moments that turned knees and belly to jelly….and places which made you sit down, open-hearted, head in idle… and just let it all FLOOD IN.
Some stats ?
Near enough to 5000k’s, the bikes from Moto Mader near Zurich were EXCELLENT!!!!, no crashes (or rather: free-falls, considering the terrain), all timing and arrangements/bookings worked out perfectly, and a week after the return to Melbourne, the blisters and callousness on the “gas”-hand are slowly starting to come off… it’s been a HOOOOT of a time and the “weather-gods” DID PLAY ALONG!!
3 weeks of near perfect weather with only SOME wet roads on the 2.last day (near Andermatt) and a little drizzle on the last day along the way to Zurich….
The last day’s (Sat) Swiss morning-TV forecast promised something about “…a low-pressure-front coming in, snowfalls down to 1600m”.
By Monday , “Ranger” (from Alpenbiker.eu forum…who lives in the Dolomites) reported the Timmelsjoch closed due to snow, snow-tyres and chains needed for other passes…and the Passo di Gavia closed for the winter period since last Wednesday!!!
“The Aussies are gone!!...close down for winter NOW!!”
It just couldn’t ‘ve been any tighter!!
Hang in for Day1….(could be a day or 3....still sorting 8000+ pics!!)
(Ride Report HERE)
Tornanti 1 (short “T1”) had stretched over 6 weeks and we’d covered a LOT of ground ….T2 was going to be a little different then....and we only had half the time.
While not such a big area if plotted on a flat sheet of paper, the Alps span Austria/Italy/ Slovenia/ and part of Switzerland in the eastern half…with France/ Italy/ the other half of Switzerland and a little bit of southern Germany making up the western half.
All up around 800km east-to-southwest ….and between ~25km and 300km north-to-south... as the crow flies.
Chuck in all those mountains, and things multiply at least four-fold…. at least as the roads go.
As T2 started looming, I didn’t have any firm ideas of what to tackle this time around, but the all-too-short T1-stint in Slovenia had left its mark.
There was a hell of a lot more there….and we’d missed out on the far north-eastern corner of Italy, the Friuli region as well…due to bad weather.
Friuli…reportedly one of the poorer, non-“Golden-Arched”, areas of northern Italy….little tourism, little flimflam….and downright Italian to the core.
Lots of hours researching the net yielded some interesting conclusions.
The Isonzo-Line was one of the most hotly-contested battle-fronts of WW1 and stretched from the Carinthian Alps (Austrian-Italian border….stretching juuust into Slovenia) .... across the Dolomites about 200km further west.... and south-west to the Val Sugana/ Asiago Plateau, just west of Feltre in today’s Northern Italy.
http://www.worldwar1.com/itafront/virtualsoca.htm
http://tinyurl.com/yk8w88b
Map : http://tinyurl.com/yfvqnox
Borders marked in blue, Isonzo battle-areas marked pink
In short…the eastern ascent of the main ridge of the Alps is fairly narrow (~30k’s at its foot) and climbs to ~3000
The land to the north (Austria) and the south (Italy… with the Adriatic coast and it’s ports and trade) are fertile low-lands, which for 1000s of years have been extensively farmed (and vino’ed
That natural border brought along its own set of considerations. Each side was keen to somehow cross the mountains and grab the spoils on the other side. A feuding King’s (or Pope's) dream: cross the mountains, rape and pillage to your heart’s content, then establish a firm “bridge-head” on the other side to guarantee trade and taxes for generations to come.
In the meantime, get rid of that inbred yokel, the black sheep of the family, and place him/ her far enough out of the way with hard-to work-soil, limited resources and a little castle here and there to keep ‘em under-resourced and unlikely to start some revolution….but in-line to be used when the big push across the mountains looked good for the next ego-expansion.
No shortage of skirmishes and biffs of all sizes along those mountains then….and WW1 proved the most recent one.
What’s THAT all got to do with motorcycling??
Weeellll….with that sort of background, and the most expansive military action a mere 100 years ago, there just HAS to be a lot of infrastructure left, which supported action of that kind.
Considering the terrain, it means that the valleys were the supply routes, with the ridges being hardest fought over (to control the valleys!).
That in return, makes for a myriad of “leftover”-roads and tracks, (to supply the military action along the ridges) which have either been
1) re-developed as main roads by now
2) became small local roads/ farming roads
3) have been left to deteriorate and fall into disrepair
4) have been re-developed to some extent for some local purpose
Whatever their fate…there just HAD to be a lot of interesting stuff around after a lousy hundred years (which is NOTHING, when compared to the local church or public building with their cornerstone markings of 1200 or 1500AD).
What a place to kick off T2 then….
A smorgasboard of tiny single-laners….a little dirt…remote areas with awe-inspiring scenery, sticking our noses into some historical stuff along the way.
The Slovenian Border Ridge Road….The Panoramica…the Mangart…Mt.Zoncolan….the Stol…the backroads around Northern Slovenia…Casson di Lanza…Torri de Fraele….and endless other tiny stuff.
Stringing it together via some more well-known stuff, still single-laners though….the Gavia, Vivione, Kaiserjagerstrasse,….the Tremalzo and Croce Domini….not to miss the Mortirolo/ Foppa….then throw in a few of the Classics and “Must-Do’s” like the Timmelsjoch, Grossglockner and Stelvio….pad it out with the Umbrail, Spluga, Albula and OfenPass…just to throw a few names around…..and finish off with the Grimsel/ Furka/ Susten/ St.Gotthard rollercoaster.
And that’s only the riding!!!!
Red circle= approx T2-area….green= approx. Eastern Alps Main ridge
Ideas came together… and if the order to the "weather-gods” had been processed correctly, we’d make a major dash east from Zurich to Slovenia, then spreading our time moving west towards Zurich again in an extended North-South ZigZag.
Lump in the local tucker, the low-season timing post EU school holidays, glorious autumn colours!! the incredible vistas, the “smells” of the place, riding on the wrong side of the road, extreme landscapes, buildings and history….and it should be an unforgettable time!!!
Those were the plans…and that’s how it went!
T2 had it ALL….AGAIN!!!...incredible riding, unbelievable scenery, delicious single-laners, magic moments, SUPERB tucker …and “liquid bread”
Some stats ?
Near enough to 5000k’s, the bikes from Moto Mader near Zurich were EXCELLENT!!!!, no crashes (or rather: free-falls, considering the terrain), all timing and arrangements/bookings worked out perfectly, and a week after the return to Melbourne, the blisters and callousness on the “gas”-hand are slowly starting to come off… it’s been a HOOOOT of a time and the “weather-gods” DID PLAY ALONG!!
3 weeks of near perfect weather with only SOME wet roads on the 2.last day (near Andermatt) and a little drizzle on the last day along the way to Zurich….
The last day’s (Sat) Swiss morning-TV forecast promised something about “…a low-pressure-front coming in, snowfalls down to 1600m”.
By Monday , “Ranger” (from Alpenbiker.eu forum…who lives in the Dolomites) reported the Timmelsjoch closed due to snow, snow-tyres and chains needed for other passes…and the Passo di Gavia closed for the winter period since last Wednesday!!!
“The Aussies are gone!!...close down for winter NOW!!”
It just couldn’t ‘ve been any tighter!!
Hang in for Day1….(could be a day or 3....still sorting 8000+ pics!!)