August 23, 2006
Surava - La Punt
After breakfast, I sat out in the sunshine on the hotel terrace, taking in the alpine view. I was joined by the proprietor and I further explained what our holiday was about. 'When you stop for lunch at the top of the Albulapass you should eat by the lake up there.' he suggested. If I'd known how the day was going to pan out, this would have been the cue for a hollow laugh.
Since the Liechtenstein rain shower, we'd had uninterrupted good weather. The Dutch couple back in Widnau had told us, they had had to take the Rhätische Bahn into the Engadin, because of foul weather over the pass. [given the style of bike they were riding, I'd call that a let-off.] For us the day was flawless. We started on the long climb through Surava, then a respite as the road levelled to Alvaneu-Bad. Route 6 follows a track on the other side of the river, but we took the road, as it seems did most other cyclists. We passed a golf course and the barely-started construction, which I surmise will one day be the clubhouse. With regard to golf, I'm on the side of both Mark Twain - 'a good walk spoiled' and G.K. Chesterton - ' a very expensive form of marbles', but the grass on this one was so beautifully lush, [the fairways looked like greens], that I might have been tempted to pick up a club myself. After the golf course, the ascent of the pass started in earnest. Up till now, I had spurned the use of my granny ring, but faced with another 25 kilometres of uphill, pride was soon brushed side. My front changer refused to shift the chain down to the small ring, under load so, not for the last time, I swung downhill for a few yards to make the change, before turning back to face the gradient.
I was not travelling uphill at much of a pace, but Barbara was even slower, so I told her I would stop every 2km to allow her to catch up. I can't say I resented the interruptions. We passed the village of Filisur, without taking a look and then just before Bergün the valley widened and the road flattened out. The Rhätische Bahn takes advantage and doubles its track here. I waited for Barbara outside die Konditorei, [cake shop/café] at the lower end of the village. We went in for cake and coffee. To my surprise Barbara turned down the offer of cake. We were sitting by a window into whose frame, after five minutes or so, appeared the face of Antonio, who'd spent the night in a hotel in Tiefencastel. We shook hands and wished each other well and he continued on his way. We weren't far behind him and continued the climb through the village, into its mediaeval centre, where, sitting on a bench Antonio was enjoying his lunch.
Continuing the climb, about 4km up from Bergün, I waited for Barbara once again. She was a little longer than usual in arriving. Her rear tyre was flat again. This time I knew what to expect and sure enough the tube had penetrated and been pinched by the sidewall of the tyre. The two layers of duct tape had split. I also noticed more of the same diagonal splits had formed on the same tyre wall. I patched them all, this time with three layers of duct tape. [Fans of Canadian comedian Red Green may now be applauding] This is no way to conduct an alpine cycling trip, but with no prospect of a bike shop this side of the pass, our choices were limited. My estimate of arriving at the summit between 2-30 and 3-00pm was beginning to look silly. Antonio had passed us again, while we were stationary. We encountered two other cyclo-tourist couples, one Swiss pair, he tattooed, she with a metal re-inforced face, their bikes loaded like donkeys, the second from Leipzig, with more reasonable burdens.
Next was a visible feature of the Rhätische Bahn, which I'd read about, but taken little notice of. I waited there for Barbara. Along the side of the road the railway line runs into a tunnel. A little way ahead, high above the road a viaduct takes the track across the valley. Nevertheless I was very surprised to see a train enter the tunnel and then a couple of minutes later cross the viaduct. The line spirals inside the rock before it emerges skywards. There are two of these on this stretch of line. For mountain railway enthusiasts here's the link: http://www.rhb.ch/
On this stretch, we were forced to stop by a rock clearing crew, while they prised away some loose stuff above the road. Eventually, having passed a greenish lake surrounded by trees, we were above the tree line. The sight of bare rock and scree put us close to the summit. Not so fast though, we were still climbing for 4km before it was time to go down. I had reduced the waiting distance for Barbara to 1 km, at this stage I was glad of the rest. I stretched it out again as I got close to the peak, pushing for the finish. Once there, I put on my rainproof top to keep out the wind and ate some fruit, while I waited for Barbara. It was after 5pm. A few minutes after her arrival, the Leipzigers took photos of us by the altitude sign and Barbara took theirs. We set off downhill, passing the lake where we might have had lunch. In fact, in spite of our exertions, we didn't have our usual lunchtime R+R.
On the descent, not far below the lake, there was a straight stretch of road, where I thought I might try to break my land speed record.* I let the bike go for a couple of hundred metres, then decided the surface was too uneven for safety and eased off. In addition my headset seemed to have worked loose and heavy braking meant heavy vibration. I then braked early for the next bend. My front tyre blew out. I was travelling at, I would estimate, 50kph. I left off the front brake and pulled a little harder on the rear. I had thought a front wheel blow-out, at that speed would have seen me smeared all over the tarmac, but in that sense it was anti-climactic. The bike slowed down and kept going in a straight, if slightly bumpy line up to the bend. Round the bend I pulled off the road and removed the front wheel. The sidewall had given out, my turn now. I covered the hole in the tyre with a large patch and replaced the tube. It was cloudy now and starting to get dark, early. We would have to stay in La Punt- Chaumes-ch, at the foot of the pass. Still high up but with the village in view, my rudimentary repair failed. I had to start again with the tyre, patch the tube and take it very easily into La Punt.
We enquired at the first hotel we saw, the Hotel Albula, near the railway station. The usual routine, we parked the bikes in the garage first. While we were doing this some of the hotel family's children were in and out of the hotel entrance, speaking to each other in Romansch or as Romanisch speakers like to say, Romanisch. Spoken only in the Graubunden canton, this was the first time we'd heard Switzerland's fourth language. It's another dialect of Latin, which never quite achieved the popularity of French or Italian, say. [Wikipedia will take it further, and a btw. for Carsten, Pumpiers are firemen] I asked if if there was a bike shop in the village. Yes, across the river in Chaumes-ch. While Barbara was in the shower I had a couple of beers in the bar, where a group of family and friends of the proprietor were engaged in lively conversation in both German and Romanisch. Before dinner, we took a walk across the river from La Punt into Chaumes-ch, the river being the Inn, the Inn of Innsbruck, which also gives rise to the name of the area, Engadin. The purpose of this evening ramble, it was by now too cold and windy to stroll, was to check out the location and opening time of the bike shop, Vélos Kesch. This turned out to be quite a hike and we were hungry on our return. We tried a local version of the alpine Italian dish, pizzocheri, which is buckwheat noodles and potatoes in a cheese sauce, salad, pudding and wine. I had another beer, then bed.
*For the record, it's 83kph on the A616 Manchester- Sheffield road, east of the Woodhead pass, UK. October 2005. On the same bike.
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 293 km (182 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |