velotel
09-02-2016, 02:17 AM
Italian dirt, lots of it, hours of it. And smiles, lots of smiles, hours of smiles. One of those days. Riding my bike on top of the world. The Strada dell’Assietta, built by the italian military in the late 1800’s to protect themselves against the french. They built a bunch of these roads on the mountains above Bardonecchia and Sestriere. About the same time the railroad tunnel linking the two countries under the same mountains was getting built. An odd contradiction. Whoever ordered the building of the roads was a friggin genius! Not for wars, for us, people riding fat-tired bikes that is. And low gears. Hurt city without low gears
The Strada dell’Assietta is the most famous of these military roads. All dirt and rocks, some 30 Km long, never dipping below 2000 meters, much of the time 2300 meters and higher. Most of it in a sort of national park. Sort of because the concept behind national parks between the states and Europe is pretty different. It’s a road for cars but on Wednesdays and Saturdays the road is closed to cars! Brilliant. Ride it then and you’re smiling all the way. Ride it with cars and you’re eating dust all day. I rode it on a Saturday.
Only part of it. Got to the Strada dell’Assietta via this kind of insane road/double track from the village of Salbertrand down in the valley between Susa and Oulx. Climbed up through the Gran Bosco forest to the Colle Blegier. Almost 1400 meters (4550 ft) of sustained effort, average grade over 9%, all dirt and stones and sometimes grass. A road of sorts originally but since a long time closed to cars so now mostly a double-track.
A glorious climb through a forest of mélèze, a pine tree whose needles turn orange in the autumn and fall to the ground, larch in North America. Wonderful trees, tall, straight, soft green in the summer, always a joy to look at. A return in late October when the forest is blazing orange could be spectacular.
Damned hard climb, but only because my gearing isn’t low enough. My 34/29 climbing gear worked well most of the time but since consistency is clearly the hobgoblin of good climbs, there were these ramps. Steep buggers. Not so steep that I couldn’t get up ‘em with the gearing I had but the price started getting excessive after awhile. With a 34/32 low gear I think the climb would be joy city. Most of the time.
Something like 40 switchbacks. Didn’t even try counting them. A lot, I know that. Always in this forest, always in the shade. Out in the valley in the sun temperatures were in the 90’s. Under the trees a world of cool air and silence. Couple of times heard a chainsaw at work but only for spurts. Turned out to be some old guy cutting firewood. Had this sort of mini-tractor with a trailer for hauling the wood down to the valley. Gave me a huge smile and greeting when I rode by. Working alone in the forest, looked like a happy man.
Like me, a happy man on a bike. A wonderful ride, up and up, long traverses between switchbacks, sometimes downright easy, just flowing along up the trail. Glanced up at one point and saw this wood and rock chalet in a clearing. A lot of work had gone into restoring/modernizing it. Into another switchback and another long traverse and now I was above the chalet. Some wood sculptures on the hillside. Nice looking place.
More climbing, still hard, then an easing. Next thing I know I’m at a small park with young women in bikinis baking under the sun while small kids are running around. Just beyond a parking lot full of cars. No idea where I am. Spot a water fountain, fill the empty water bottle, top off the second, ride back past the sunbathers and into final long stretch to the ridgeline somewhere out of sight above.
The road steeper, more primitive, really just a double-track. Lots of switchbacks and curling turns up the slope. The cumulative effort from getting to this point definitely slowing me down. Started hitting ramps that I could ride but the cost of doing so was wearing me out. Started walking some of them to save energy. Felt a bit frustrated at times knowing that with a slightly lower gear I could ride them without totally beating myself up. Oh well, another time when I’ve changed my gearing.
Forest thinning, more clearings, trees smaller. Feeling the altitude. Into a large clearing with huge views over the valley I climbed up out of and north at the Alps. Straight ahead a round summit of grass and rocks and not a tree in sight. Ridgeline can’t be far now.
Grades ease slightly but the double-track is covered with loose rock. Hard going. I’m staring at the track, looking for the easy lines, breathing hard, glance up, I’m there! Just beyond a gate closing the track the Colle Blegier and the junction with the Strada dell’Assietta. No wonder I’m breathing hard. The col’s at 2381 meters, 7811 ft.
Duck under the gate and I’m on the col and standing on the road I’ve been wanting to ride for at least a dozen years, ever since I first saw it as squiggly line on a map. In front of me a big drop into the valley linking the vineyards of Piedmont to the Sestriere ski resort. Behind me an even bigger drop into the valley I climbed out of, the valley from Torino to Bardonecchia, to the left the Strada dell’Assietta curling across the hillside on its way to the Colle delle Finestre, the col made famous by the Giro. To the right, oops, wasn’t expecting this, another climb, the Strada dell’Assietta switchbacking up to a summit. Damn, I was thinking the climbing bit was finished. Looks like another couple hundred vertical meters to do.
And not a car in sight! Well, just one, a small 4x4 driven by a park ranger who stops to open the gate to descend down the track I came up. He walks back, looks at my bike leaning against the sign, walks over and starts to talk. I tell him I speak french, english, and only a very little italian. He speaks french. Wants to know which road I did. Tell him and his eyebrows lift. Looks again at the bike and starts asking me about it. Turns out he’s a road rider but hasn’t ever seen one of these fat-tired road bikes. He’s impressed. Tell him slightly lower gearing would have been good but otherwise the bike was sublime in the climb. And yes, definitely in answer to his next question, the bike is equally superb on paved roads. I can see his head taking it all in, contemplating, thinking maybe a bike like that could be just the ticket for him. Asks if I mind if he asks my age. Tell him 71. His jaw drops. Looks again at the bike. Shakes my hand, heads back to his 4x4 and work.
I linger some more, eat some dates, drink some water. Amazing place. Maybe a thousand meters of drop in front of me, that and more behind me, summits and ridges stacked into the distance. And there I am, on my bike, yes! Okay, time to roll, one more climb. Which rapidly becomes way steeper than I had thought it would be, or maybe was hoping it would be. Like I’m right back in my lowest gear, the one I thought I was finished with for the day.
The road is covered with a at times thick layer of fine, white dust. Definitely don’t want to be here with cars. They must kick up clouds of dust even moving slowly. I’m even raising a tail of dust and I’m definitely moving slowly.
Around a switchback then a slow curve and I stop, the views too good. Shoot some pics, stare into the distance. I hear a noise, look up. Coming down towards me is a young mother, what, probably 30-something, followed by her daughter, hard to tell but maybe 10 or 11, on mountain bikes. No one else, just the two of them. How things have changed in Italy! Wasn’t very long ago that I never saw women on bikes in Italy riding bikes for sport. And here comes a mother and daughter on one of the most spectacular rides in all of Italy. Just to get to here required a hell of a lot of hard work because there is no nearby car shuttle. Plus they have a long ways still to go, not that I know where they’re going but there is no easy exit from here. I know they’re italian because I heard them talk. I’m impressed and give them a big thumbs up as they pass by.
Off again, around another switchback. Just ahead a painfully steep ramp. My legs rebel, but relent when I promise it’s the last one. Which of course I don’t know since I’ve never been here but it looks like the last one. It is. Over the top, more than 2500 meters high (8500 ft), a magnificent panorama. In the distance I can see the famous Colle delle Finestre, or at least I can see where it is. Long ways away. I’d always thought I’d ride Finestre from Susa then ride the Strada dell’Assietta to Sestriere, then down the highway back to Susa. Finally realized that the distance and vertical were probably beyond my strength and decided to do the Strada dell’Assietta in bits. Starting with the bit I’m in the midst of. Looking back at Finestre from where I am, and seeing how far away it is and how far I still have to go, oh man, no way I could do all that in one effort. Just the climb to Finestre alone about wiped me out when I rode it! That was a huge climb, 1700 vertical meters (5577 ft) average grade 9,2%, with the last 8 Km dirt! But man what a stunning loop to do!
Now the descent, gravity pulling hard, the road relatively smooth until I hit a section of washboard. The coating of dust makes it hard to see the road. But I’m ripping along at a pretty good pace anyway. Meet one mountain biker coming up, young and riding fast. Sweep into a switchback and stop. Have to check out the views. Also see if I can figure out where I’m going. In truth I’m hoping to see a road dropping off the ridge and down towards the village of Oulx where my car is. What I don’t want to see is more climbing! Not looking good, don’t see a road dropping down.
Road flattens, then climbs, an easy climb, around a hill, and into fast cruising mode through a thin forest, then down again and onto a broad ridge. See three mountain bikers sitting on rocks. Ride past with a wave and into more climbing. Damn. Stop, check my map, not sure where I am. Turn around, ride back to the mountain bikers. The revolution continues, two women, one man, amazing. So far this ride I’ve seen more female riders than male, in Italy!
Tell them I speak french and english, only a very little italian. One of the women speaks french. Excellent! We look at the map, in the end she’s not sure where we are on the map but says I need to keep on going to Colle Basset where there’s a road down to Oulx. Exactly what I was afraid of, more climbing. Turned out to be an easy climb and the road absolutely delicious, a long, fast traverse across the mountainside, nothing but views the whole way. Get to Colle Basset and another gate and another park ranger, there to make sure no one tries to open the gate to drive through.
We chat a little, in french, I shoot some pics, then the two women and the man I saw earlier ride by with three other mountain bikers, two more women and one man. They take the road towards Sestriere. I head right and down. An enormous descent. Some 1400 vertical meters (4600 ft) of down, over half the distance on dirt with a coating of white dust so thick at times it was like some sort of ground fog, like skiing in flat light with the road’s surface semi-hidden. Made for an interesting descent. But only like that part of the time fortunately.
Came into a small basin with a restaurant and people all over the place outside eating and drinking and a parking lot full of cars. Also pavement. By then I was thrilled to see the black stuff and let the bike roll. Didn’t last. Apparently the asphalt was only in the vicinity of the restaurant to reduce the dust from the road. As soon as I was past the restaurant, part of the ski area, the road was dirt again and plunged down through the forest. Passed three cars going down through here. As soon as the drivers saw me in their rearview mirrors, with me still a bit away, they all pulled over and waited for me to pass so I wouldn’t be sucking down their dust. Nice of them.
Finally, the end of the dirt, and into Sauze d’Oulx, the town at the base of the ski station. Smooth blacktop, have to say that felt good. Into speed mode, the bike flying down off the mountain, carving through the bends, tucked low in the straights, getting knocked around a little by a strong wind I never felt up high. Around a bend and all of a sudden there’s the parking where I left my car! Yes! Loop done, an outrageously good day on the bike. Really gotta love my stoner bike. Took me places I never would have done without it. Now I just need to plan on changing my gearing, something lower to ease those ramps. Now 3 hours of driving to get home. Plenty of time to dream about my next visit.
The Strada dell’Assietta is the most famous of these military roads. All dirt and rocks, some 30 Km long, never dipping below 2000 meters, much of the time 2300 meters and higher. Most of it in a sort of national park. Sort of because the concept behind national parks between the states and Europe is pretty different. It’s a road for cars but on Wednesdays and Saturdays the road is closed to cars! Brilliant. Ride it then and you’re smiling all the way. Ride it with cars and you’re eating dust all day. I rode it on a Saturday.
Only part of it. Got to the Strada dell’Assietta via this kind of insane road/double track from the village of Salbertrand down in the valley between Susa and Oulx. Climbed up through the Gran Bosco forest to the Colle Blegier. Almost 1400 meters (4550 ft) of sustained effort, average grade over 9%, all dirt and stones and sometimes grass. A road of sorts originally but since a long time closed to cars so now mostly a double-track.
A glorious climb through a forest of mélèze, a pine tree whose needles turn orange in the autumn and fall to the ground, larch in North America. Wonderful trees, tall, straight, soft green in the summer, always a joy to look at. A return in late October when the forest is blazing orange could be spectacular.
Damned hard climb, but only because my gearing isn’t low enough. My 34/29 climbing gear worked well most of the time but since consistency is clearly the hobgoblin of good climbs, there were these ramps. Steep buggers. Not so steep that I couldn’t get up ‘em with the gearing I had but the price started getting excessive after awhile. With a 34/32 low gear I think the climb would be joy city. Most of the time.
Something like 40 switchbacks. Didn’t even try counting them. A lot, I know that. Always in this forest, always in the shade. Out in the valley in the sun temperatures were in the 90’s. Under the trees a world of cool air and silence. Couple of times heard a chainsaw at work but only for spurts. Turned out to be some old guy cutting firewood. Had this sort of mini-tractor with a trailer for hauling the wood down to the valley. Gave me a huge smile and greeting when I rode by. Working alone in the forest, looked like a happy man.
Like me, a happy man on a bike. A wonderful ride, up and up, long traverses between switchbacks, sometimes downright easy, just flowing along up the trail. Glanced up at one point and saw this wood and rock chalet in a clearing. A lot of work had gone into restoring/modernizing it. Into another switchback and another long traverse and now I was above the chalet. Some wood sculptures on the hillside. Nice looking place.
More climbing, still hard, then an easing. Next thing I know I’m at a small park with young women in bikinis baking under the sun while small kids are running around. Just beyond a parking lot full of cars. No idea where I am. Spot a water fountain, fill the empty water bottle, top off the second, ride back past the sunbathers and into final long stretch to the ridgeline somewhere out of sight above.
The road steeper, more primitive, really just a double-track. Lots of switchbacks and curling turns up the slope. The cumulative effort from getting to this point definitely slowing me down. Started hitting ramps that I could ride but the cost of doing so was wearing me out. Started walking some of them to save energy. Felt a bit frustrated at times knowing that with a slightly lower gear I could ride them without totally beating myself up. Oh well, another time when I’ve changed my gearing.
Forest thinning, more clearings, trees smaller. Feeling the altitude. Into a large clearing with huge views over the valley I climbed up out of and north at the Alps. Straight ahead a round summit of grass and rocks and not a tree in sight. Ridgeline can’t be far now.
Grades ease slightly but the double-track is covered with loose rock. Hard going. I’m staring at the track, looking for the easy lines, breathing hard, glance up, I’m there! Just beyond a gate closing the track the Colle Blegier and the junction with the Strada dell’Assietta. No wonder I’m breathing hard. The col’s at 2381 meters, 7811 ft.
Duck under the gate and I’m on the col and standing on the road I’ve been wanting to ride for at least a dozen years, ever since I first saw it as squiggly line on a map. In front of me a big drop into the valley linking the vineyards of Piedmont to the Sestriere ski resort. Behind me an even bigger drop into the valley I climbed out of, the valley from Torino to Bardonecchia, to the left the Strada dell’Assietta curling across the hillside on its way to the Colle delle Finestre, the col made famous by the Giro. To the right, oops, wasn’t expecting this, another climb, the Strada dell’Assietta switchbacking up to a summit. Damn, I was thinking the climbing bit was finished. Looks like another couple hundred vertical meters to do.
And not a car in sight! Well, just one, a small 4x4 driven by a park ranger who stops to open the gate to descend down the track I came up. He walks back, looks at my bike leaning against the sign, walks over and starts to talk. I tell him I speak french, english, and only a very little italian. He speaks french. Wants to know which road I did. Tell him and his eyebrows lift. Looks again at the bike and starts asking me about it. Turns out he’s a road rider but hasn’t ever seen one of these fat-tired road bikes. He’s impressed. Tell him slightly lower gearing would have been good but otherwise the bike was sublime in the climb. And yes, definitely in answer to his next question, the bike is equally superb on paved roads. I can see his head taking it all in, contemplating, thinking maybe a bike like that could be just the ticket for him. Asks if I mind if he asks my age. Tell him 71. His jaw drops. Looks again at the bike. Shakes my hand, heads back to his 4x4 and work.
I linger some more, eat some dates, drink some water. Amazing place. Maybe a thousand meters of drop in front of me, that and more behind me, summits and ridges stacked into the distance. And there I am, on my bike, yes! Okay, time to roll, one more climb. Which rapidly becomes way steeper than I had thought it would be, or maybe was hoping it would be. Like I’m right back in my lowest gear, the one I thought I was finished with for the day.
The road is covered with a at times thick layer of fine, white dust. Definitely don’t want to be here with cars. They must kick up clouds of dust even moving slowly. I’m even raising a tail of dust and I’m definitely moving slowly.
Around a switchback then a slow curve and I stop, the views too good. Shoot some pics, stare into the distance. I hear a noise, look up. Coming down towards me is a young mother, what, probably 30-something, followed by her daughter, hard to tell but maybe 10 or 11, on mountain bikes. No one else, just the two of them. How things have changed in Italy! Wasn’t very long ago that I never saw women on bikes in Italy riding bikes for sport. And here comes a mother and daughter on one of the most spectacular rides in all of Italy. Just to get to here required a hell of a lot of hard work because there is no nearby car shuttle. Plus they have a long ways still to go, not that I know where they’re going but there is no easy exit from here. I know they’re italian because I heard them talk. I’m impressed and give them a big thumbs up as they pass by.
Off again, around another switchback. Just ahead a painfully steep ramp. My legs rebel, but relent when I promise it’s the last one. Which of course I don’t know since I’ve never been here but it looks like the last one. It is. Over the top, more than 2500 meters high (8500 ft), a magnificent panorama. In the distance I can see the famous Colle delle Finestre, or at least I can see where it is. Long ways away. I’d always thought I’d ride Finestre from Susa then ride the Strada dell’Assietta to Sestriere, then down the highway back to Susa. Finally realized that the distance and vertical were probably beyond my strength and decided to do the Strada dell’Assietta in bits. Starting with the bit I’m in the midst of. Looking back at Finestre from where I am, and seeing how far away it is and how far I still have to go, oh man, no way I could do all that in one effort. Just the climb to Finestre alone about wiped me out when I rode it! That was a huge climb, 1700 vertical meters (5577 ft) average grade 9,2%, with the last 8 Km dirt! But man what a stunning loop to do!
Now the descent, gravity pulling hard, the road relatively smooth until I hit a section of washboard. The coating of dust makes it hard to see the road. But I’m ripping along at a pretty good pace anyway. Meet one mountain biker coming up, young and riding fast. Sweep into a switchback and stop. Have to check out the views. Also see if I can figure out where I’m going. In truth I’m hoping to see a road dropping off the ridge and down towards the village of Oulx where my car is. What I don’t want to see is more climbing! Not looking good, don’t see a road dropping down.
Road flattens, then climbs, an easy climb, around a hill, and into fast cruising mode through a thin forest, then down again and onto a broad ridge. See three mountain bikers sitting on rocks. Ride past with a wave and into more climbing. Damn. Stop, check my map, not sure where I am. Turn around, ride back to the mountain bikers. The revolution continues, two women, one man, amazing. So far this ride I’ve seen more female riders than male, in Italy!
Tell them I speak french and english, only a very little italian. One of the women speaks french. Excellent! We look at the map, in the end she’s not sure where we are on the map but says I need to keep on going to Colle Basset where there’s a road down to Oulx. Exactly what I was afraid of, more climbing. Turned out to be an easy climb and the road absolutely delicious, a long, fast traverse across the mountainside, nothing but views the whole way. Get to Colle Basset and another gate and another park ranger, there to make sure no one tries to open the gate to drive through.
We chat a little, in french, I shoot some pics, then the two women and the man I saw earlier ride by with three other mountain bikers, two more women and one man. They take the road towards Sestriere. I head right and down. An enormous descent. Some 1400 vertical meters (4600 ft) of down, over half the distance on dirt with a coating of white dust so thick at times it was like some sort of ground fog, like skiing in flat light with the road’s surface semi-hidden. Made for an interesting descent. But only like that part of the time fortunately.
Came into a small basin with a restaurant and people all over the place outside eating and drinking and a parking lot full of cars. Also pavement. By then I was thrilled to see the black stuff and let the bike roll. Didn’t last. Apparently the asphalt was only in the vicinity of the restaurant to reduce the dust from the road. As soon as I was past the restaurant, part of the ski area, the road was dirt again and plunged down through the forest. Passed three cars going down through here. As soon as the drivers saw me in their rearview mirrors, with me still a bit away, they all pulled over and waited for me to pass so I wouldn’t be sucking down their dust. Nice of them.
Finally, the end of the dirt, and into Sauze d’Oulx, the town at the base of the ski station. Smooth blacktop, have to say that felt good. Into speed mode, the bike flying down off the mountain, carving through the bends, tucked low in the straights, getting knocked around a little by a strong wind I never felt up high. Around a bend and all of a sudden there’s the parking where I left my car! Yes! Loop done, an outrageously good day on the bike. Really gotta love my stoner bike. Took me places I never would have done without it. Now I just need to plan on changing my gearing, something lower to ease those ramps. Now 3 hours of driving to get home. Plenty of time to dream about my next visit.