Cat and Fiddle? boring straight bit of flat safe road ...

R

rszemeti

New member
Currently on happy holiday down in France/Italy near Barcellonette, some awesome roads through the alps ... get this ..

They have Europes highest road here, an amazingly twisty series of hairpins climbing up a mountain .. to be honest, I got tired after 15km of it and came back down .. it just went on and on ...

Saw a couple of ambulances and a helicopter tearing up it .. given that 50% of the traffic is on two wheels, you can guess what happened.

According to the paper, 29 deaths so far this season, 9 bikers in the last 10 days!! and urging people to take care. Makes the Cat and Fiddle look like a safety briefing.

Not a gendarme is sight on the road anyway .. so its still party on ... but quite a different attitude .. here, they didn't even close the road, just sent out a team to clear up the mess and asked people to be a bit more careful .. in the UK, they would shut the road until it had been lined with cotton wool, and make everyone ride at 10mph behind a safety car etc.

Always sad when someone gets spalttered, but at least here they seem to avoid the typical nanny-state over reaction.
 
This is what the top of the pass (actually a loop) at Barcelonnette looks like:

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It's not the most scenic, hardly anything grows at that altitude.

Not all roses for French riders... new legislation on the way later this year:

http://www.connexionfrance.com/Spee...ne-motorcycle-jackets-12724-view-article.html
 
Awesome road I was there 5yr ago not my favourite there was too much loose grit dragged onto the road by cars stopping to take pics.

Maybe we should start an Alpine passes thread Miles;) Might give some of us sticks in the mud an incentive to take a foreign tour I'll kick it off with this site The forum section is quite good
 
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its not the most twisty of the roads ive been on this holiday .. the road up to Col Turini was good .. and two top hotels at the end offering B&B to bikers .. double room with meal for 50 euros ....

The "route des grandes alpes" is all part of the tour .. from Thonon in the North to Menton ion the south .. coming back next year to do it in style :)
 
Heh, yes, but this has SUN where as Applecross has rain and snow :) ... And, yes, I have checked, I cycled over it once and nearly froze to death
 
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