Day 8 Lantsch/Lenz to Livigno

One of us was up at crack of dawn and rode bike into nearest town to buy food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The other one slept soundly until I returned and got the kettle on.

Chatted to a Dutch roadie over breakfast. Nice old chap. He rode a beautiful full carbon road bike. That included wheels and levers too. Full Campag groupset. Could pick it up with my little finger. Gorgeous bike. Think he said it cost about 3.5k and weighed about 6.

We had been recommended the Albulapass by several people and Top Gear reckon they found the worlds best driving road between Davos and Bormio. All were within spitting distance so we decided to ride a figure of 8 loop then leave Switzerland over Passo del Bernina.

The roads south to Albulapass were lovely but we've already mentioned the fatal accident on the pass. This obviously dampened our spirits but after chewing over some excellent coffee in a posh restaurant near St Moritz we moved north east to Zernez then north west to Davos. Roads and scenery both stunning. Davos looks touristy and busy but we are into the weekend so traffic has picked up significantly everywhere. Lots of posh shops and hotels in Davos and then they have what must be the worlds only remaining C&A, complete with original logo and possibly authentic clothing range.

Albulapass wasn't so great after all. It was a tight bumpy road and although it appeared quite desolate, we've seen more spectacular scenery on this trip. Still, you always need to go exploring to work these things out on a biking trip.

All scenery around Davos was stunning though and I don't think you'd be disappointed with any of these roads. Every village around here is very pretty too. They all look very wild west.

Heading south, Passo del Bernina is fantastic. Fast sweeping bends on immaculate surfaces. Shortly after the pass we turned north east into Italy and the Livigno valley. The rest of the road south from Passo del Bernina looked great but we wanted to move into Italy and Catherine was very insistent that the Italian men would be getting impatient without her. Not one to disappoint, I delivered her safely into her intended new homeland.

Great roads and we called it a day in Livigno. It's a tax-free heaven around here! Unleaded was 85 cents a litre as opposed to around 1.25 euros in the neighbouring countries. The downside is that everyone overfills so there's diesel all over the roads in and out. Go very careful in the wet.

There is a campsite in the centre of the village that looks like a dodgy RV park but tucked behind the super behemouths is a small tent plot full of mountain bikers. Never realised it was a big biking spot but I'll have to check this out when we return home. Lots of different nationalities drive from far and wide to ride these mountains. We are the only Brits here but there's lots of eastern Europeans. All very friendly, as you'd expect from a mountain biking crowd, and all happy to join us in talking bollocks for the night. There are apparently ski lift facilities to the peaks although the big group of Czechs next to us say the singletrack climbs are good riding too.

The facilities here are spotless. I've honestly stayed in hotels with worst. Showers are 1 euro for 3 mins. Better be good but I'll report back tomorrow.

Catherine cooked another superb tea and we enjoyed our excellent duty free wine from the local store. For 4 or 5 quid you can get some seriously good wine. For 7 quid you can get a litre of Gordons. If you're really posh, you can get 2 litres of wine in a basket for a tenner! I didn't keep close tabs on Catherine but if the bike feels one or two litres heavier tomorrow, there'll be a gin amnesty.

 
148 miles