Day 12 - Ride day 8 - The party is over- Time to give the bikes back.

This morning I sit on our hotel balcony in Mieming surrounded by mountains and the weather a little like I feel - dull with a little bit of drizzle. Yes, this, like all good things, is coming to an end. But the tour had a last day of adventure for us. Another 220 kms / 4hrs 30 of great riding. I did not set the trip metre until 10 kilometres into the ride and the bike computer told me today was our fastest day at an adverage 51.5km/h.

We started out from Bolzano head along some narrow streets and onto the road up the Sarentino valley. A road lined with orchards and vineyards with a lot of tunnels and turns built so the people up in the high valleys town could access Bolzano to work replacing a 100 k journey with a 20/30 k one. The path lead us to the Pennes Pass. We where in high country above the tree line again. The road was of baring condition but there was an amount of road works. Road work can be a good thing. They force you to stop and, as long as you can be close to the front of the queue, it means that you will get some riding time without slow traffic to overtake. Being Saturday, there was lots of traffic - cars motorbike and cyclist and few campers and the occasional tour bus. All making it a day to be on your game. Coming off Pennes Pass, we followed a coupe of cyclists going every bit as fast as we were. I was tail ending today and few of us at the back did not pass them for fear we might hold them up. Most of the way down, they were doing 85km/h, far braver than us on those narrow tyres and wearing just lycra. At the bottom, we entered the town of Vipitenio, an historic town from the Middle Ages with narrow market streets, busy with tourists now and time for another capachino and a slice of apple strudel - a large slice as it turned out and one I was happy to share with Robyn.

We had to leave a little before the others to fuel up, something I had not done after yesterday’s ride. With perfect timing, the others caught us up and we headed west and up Passo Di Monte Giovo (Jaufen Pass). This road had some open winding straights with a few tight corners as it worked its way to the top, a brief photo stop were we discovered the the photo button on our camera had stopped working consistently (annoying). The road down was good with lengthy straights followed by hairpins, quickly getting us the the valley floor again. Our lunch stop was a restaurant in St Leonhard, that claimed to be the birthplace of Andreas Homer “Sandwirt” a freedom fighter who lead an uprising of Tirol against the French / Bavarian occupation. In 1809 he lead offensive against Napoleon’s army of 40,000 routing them and reclaiming Innsbruck. However, by February 1810 ,he had been captured and was excuted by firing squad. Word was Napoleon orders were “give him a fair trial and then shoot him”.

The next part of our story takes as across the Ötztaler Alps up to level were again there is snow at the roadside. This is were Ötzi, the iceman Robyn and Anna had been to see yesterday, came from. This was a toll road costing €14 at the top just over the other side as we crossed back into Austria. The toll is at the location of the world highest motorcycle museum.

Now the story I don’t want to tell but reminds us that motorcycling in good fun but, like most things that are fun, has risks we attempt to mitigate with attention and experience. For those who read my US tour blog it was a moment like running of the road in Washington.

We free rode up the pass with the plan to stop at the toll booths. Anna and Robyn and I rode at the rear. I lead and, using the intercom, we gave Anna information on what was coming. We had fallen behind the others as we got stuck behind a bit of traffic at a road works spot. Axel was behind us bringing up the rear. We had overtaken a car and had advised Anna that the road was clear. Around the next corner came a car towards us, we told her. She had taken our advice and pulled out to to overtake. As she did so, the car she was overtaking drifted to the left, pushing her further out than she had intended and it turns out the gap to the approaching car was not as big as she thought. She managed to guide the bike between the cars but the hole was not big enough to put the panniers through as well. The rear left hand pannier was taken off on the front of the oncoming car as her handle bar clipped the mirror. Disappointing, as it would have been great to get through the day without this, but she was OK, a bruised thumb and leg but she was upright and the bike was rideable. Because we were on the intercom, we knew it had happened as it did and we stopped & Robyn went back. And of course Axel was on the scene immediately to take care of it all. Interestingly, here where this kind of thing happens, they all carry insurance claim forms with them and fill them out together. The blessing was the others involved were very nice about it all and in as long as it took for me to ride to the top and tell the others we would be a bit longer and ride back, they had it all sorted.

Anna was a bit shaken and very disappointed but she got back on the bike and rode the rest of the day out. A lesser rider would not have achieved that. There is pressure on a ride like this being the only female rider and she did her sex proud. And me, her Dad, too.

The rest do the day was mild from that height. We did not go into the museum - just did not feel like it. By the time we fueled and arrived but at the Edelweiss depot, we were back to feeling sad the day was done, the ride was done. Seeing the collection of damaged bikes from other tours made me feel that we have done pretty well.

Returning to the hotel where we first started in Mieming, we sorted our stuff and prepared for the journey home. The farewell dinner was a meal like any other night except it was the last and so there was some time for reflection. Axel and Jonas both had a bit to say and then tour members thanked them. I shared my business card and offered members to join the blog - if they emailed me I would send them the link. While we would catch some of them in the morning, we said our goodbye and made plans to stay in touch and maybe cross paths again.