A post for Doris to show you some pictures.
The first view across Lake Geneva to the mountains holding the next 4 days of cycling.
At the lake, looking across to Martigny where the climb will start after our stay in Montreux.
Well, I suppose the good news is that the clouds are hiding the high bits…
The ride profile from Montreux to the pass and then down to Pont St Martin. Good news is that we are already at about 400m… bad news is that the pass is over 2,000m higher…
The mountains gradually getting closer as we do the 50km long approach from Montreux before the climbing starts.
View from the overnight hotel at Bivouac Napoleon.
The cars go off into the tunnel and leave us with a bunch of keen motorcyclists and some determined motorhome owners.
It is becoming more obvious that we are going to go to, or even above, the snow line.
Obviously I didn’t need a REST at this point, but I thought it was my journalistic duty to show you a view back down the road. Thank heavens I never saw a picture like this before planning this trip.
Well I guess this is pretty epic.
The point when we realised that this really WAS the first day that the pass was open – view down from the col to the crowds and celebrations just below.
OK maybe there had been quite a lot of snow to clear.
And on the south-facing side of the pass the snow quickly disappears and the warm summer returns.
