Reports by Györgi Gábor

After the last 2 years of my alpine bicycletours, in 2006 I went back to the Alps with the aim that after my tour maybe I would be the first hungarian people who bicycled up to all (74-75) of the asphalted alpine passes above 2000m. After 6 years of alone bicycling, this year I had two guys with me. In Italy and France we had nice, warm, sunny days with cycling a few hard cols, passes, like the 2612m high Passo Nivolet (I'm sure between the 3 best / most beautiful passes, where I had been), or the almost unknown Passo del Preit (2083 m), onto we bicycled in stormy weather with thunderstorms. The Fort Gondran (2347 m)was also very nice next to Briancon, I can suggest to visit it.

After Col du Lautaret, Alpe d'Huez, Col du Sabot, we arrived to Chamonix on a nice day, when at last we could see the snowfields of the Mont Blanc before sunset. Next day we got rain and cold as we cycled to Switzerland, and the bad weather remained for 3-4 days long. We had to postpone passes onto the next days, or climbed 1-2 of them partly in rain and arrived to the top in 4-8 degrees Celsius. The Sustenpass was the worst and coldest. The Passo Spluga (2117 m) was also a very beautiful pass, with a lot of hairpins, views and superb hairpin-row on a almost vertical wall, with short straight sections. Because the times went by too fast on that evening I decided to climb the famous Mortirolo (and the 2100m high Passo Val Bighera) in dark, in the night. It was wonderful: in a calm, dark forst in a warm air. I enjoyed very much the nature, air, and the views, because it was light, because I had fortune with the full Moon. I enjoyed the feeling so much, that I spent much time above. Our last pass was the Passo Goletto di Crocette (2070 m), onto we had 8-10% steep kilometers in or after raining for 2-3 hours. With a few passes postponed, we remained 4 passes to climb, that I did in September 2006.

Although the tour that I had on the legendary climbs of the Tour de France in 2004 tempt me back to indulge in nostalgia, this year (2005) I decided to bicycle on the cols of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de Suisse, and beside it to take part in the hard Fausto Coppi bicyclemarathon / gran fondo, which is a real challenge with its 187 km and has 4400m height difference.

Before the fantastic marathon, I bicycled to France to climb the Col de la Moutiere, and when I were there it was logical to climb also the 2802m Cime de la Bonette. Both cols are unforgettable.

Next to Briancon I enjoyed the nice Col du Granon (2413 m) which was not only steep but very beautiful. In 2005 at the Colle Finestre (Italia) there was a hard fight between profi Giro d'Italia racers; on my tour I had the most remarkable experience after a light rain, when the Sun could shine between the clouds.

In Switzerland I had cold weather for days, but I could climb nice cols. I loved Grimselm because I enjoyed very much the feeling of a triathlon race, and I loved Gotthard because its ``old'' feeling - thanks to the cobblestoned road.

In the last 3 days - through sunny weather - I went up to the legendary Passo Gavia, Passo Rombo / Timmelsjoch and last day the 2829m high Gletscherstrasse. The highest point on the last day!

In 2004 I succeeded in cycling through the French Alps, which had been one of my Great dream, plan for years. For years I felt that a tour in France can have more problems than in the nearer countries, but with the experiences of my tour in 2003 (along the Adria and to Montenegro), in 2004 I felt enough encourage to cycle up to the famous french cols. I had read a lot of travelogues (Trento Bike Pages, Velofahren.de, biketrip.org, etc.) and I tried to think about every problems which can occur through a French Alps tour: weather, busy campings, the effects of the Tour de France, and maybe some mechanical problems, etc.

In the first two days and in the last two days I had some problems, adventures, but just between the high mountains of the French Alps everything happened well. During the 12 days between the mountains, I climbed almost all of the passes / cols, that I planned for the whole tour, this means 21 serious ascents, 13 of them are above the height of 2000 m. The most famous cols where I cycled are: La Bonette (2802 m), Col du Galibier (2645 m) , Col d'Izoard (2361m) , Alpe d'Huez (1860m), Col de Iseran (2770m), Col Agnel (2744m), etc.

Although there was 1 or 2 rest days in the plan, as I didn't have any serious - whole day long - rain through the tour, every day I was riding my bicycle. The beautiful nature and the experiences, adventures, ascents gave my power to climb them. Usually 1-2 days with panniers were followed by a ``light'' day without panniers (but with 2 climbs).

After experiences in cycle-touring abroad gathered 6-8 year long, for this (2003) summer I preferred to cycle along the Adria next to the mountains than to push the pedals on the ascents of the Alps (I did it in 2001). Year by year I like more and more those places where I can enjoy both the beauty of the mountains and the clear lake or sea. Croatia and Montengro are such places. I knew that bicycling along the Adria to Dubrovnik would took me about 7-9 days, but besides (emellett) I wanted to visit a few islands. I thought if I reach Dubrovnik - this wonderful town, only one day trip from the Gulf of Kotor - I would have to cycle there to. About Montenegro I read and saw beautiful photos on the website of www.baraka.hu and and On the website of baraka there were useful informations about travelling to Montenegro and their programtips gave me good ideas where to bike. I could fit in the more than 2 week, less than 3 week long holiday only if I had reached Ljubljana by train and had planned to travel to home from there by train too. (This way was shorter by one day than biking to the sea from Zagreb) Besides I purchased a ticket for a ship between Dubrovnik and Rijeka.

Between 1997 and 2003 I was four times in Slovenia by bike, from these three times I crossed this small, but beautiful country. On these tours I gathered 261 + 654 + 252 + 217 = 1384 kms in the slovenian land. From these experiences I compiled the following tips.

As the winner of an article-writing competition in the Hungarian Bringa magazine, I could spend 11 days together with the Hungarian MTB squad in a training camp 80 kms from Athens, between 12 and 26 march 2002. We were in the friendly Hotel Bakos, in Loutraki, situated 3kms from the Korinthos channel and the Peloponnesus peninsula and at the foot of a 1300m high mountain. Although on ascents I prefer cycling looking around, taking pictures and making videofilms than cycling in a hurried style. So I was the odd one out from 24-26 head team. My goal was not to spend a good 11 days training, but to make nice cycle tours, enjoy the nature of Greece and to discover the north-east Peloponnesos.

With the experiences of 5 tours to the High-Tatras and two cycletours in Austria and Slovenia, in the year 2001 with joining to the holiday of my parents I tried to cross the swiss Alps. The startpoint was a small village Champoussin, situated 1575m high not too far from the Lake Leman. [...] On my first cycletour I biked to France through the not too high, but steep Col de la Forclaz. This pass are usually compared to the famous climb, Alpe d.Huez, because of their comparable steepness and long. Before that time I hadn.t seen the Mont Blanc, so I found amazing the huge mass of snow. [...] (1st training-tour: 171 km + 3741 m height-diff.) On my second cycletour . thanks for the warmer weather . I took sight at the 2469m high Col du Grand Saint Bernard, at the border between Switzerland and Italy. [...] On the last 7-8 km I met with a guy from Netherlands who cycled up with a bike with about 30 kg pack. [...] The tour ended with an almost 2 hour long climb that I got used to two days before. My parents were waiting for me with a warm soup and a delicious supper. (2nd training tour: 173 km + 3371m height-diff.)

After getting experiences on five cycletours in Slovakia and two in Austria and Slovenia in july 2000 I was ready to bike on my most serious tour in my life: to push the pedals from my favourite area, the Dolomites - which is said to be one of the world.s most beaufiful mountain-ranges . reaching the Adriatic sea to Nagykanizsa, a hungarian town next to the border. As in last year this year I also travelled to Cavalese, the place of our holiday with my parents, from where I set out the 1400km long . with a 3 day long detour . homeway after a week long training, warming up and programs together with my parents. In every case I wanted to visit the wonderful Lake Garda . which I only heard about . and Venice that I liked from the videos, but where I also hadn.t been before. During the week I spent in the Dolomites with my parents I made three beautiful cycletours and managed to cycle through some passes.

After four Tatra-tour I knew that I wouldn?t be satisfied with visiting only Zakopane; our goal was to cycle to Krakkow and than back to Hungary. I didn?t know that a guy from the team punctured, so when I cycled back, I found nobody. I had to continue my tour alone, but I hoped we would meet until the evening. In Zdiar during eating I was just thinking that I would have to get used to cycling alone, when my teammates apperared on the road. At the wooden house in the forest at the top of the first climb of Poland we turned not left as in 1997 or 1995, but turned right to north, to the Glodowka meadow. In my fifth Tatra-tour, with about 7-8 years of experiences in cycling I could discuss with the guys that if they don?t join me I could visit the famous wooden church of Debno 15 kms from there.

We arrived at Kosice on a sunny and hot main road. The personell of a petrol station were so nice to let us to have a shower. Kosice was such a nice city, that I would rank it among my most favourite towns, to between Banska Bystrica and Bardejov. The center is ordered, clean and is full of flowers. The houses in the promenade are redecorated. In the middle of the main promenade there is a theatre, next to it a fountain in a small park. The water of the fountain erupts for the voices of music. That is an other place where people can spent a lot of time. We liked the center so much, that we decided to go back next morning.

In the following day we could took delight in the castle of Orava, that was built onto a steep rock. We went on cycling in the flat valley of the Orava river to Dolny Kubin, the town that I can remember because of its nice flowery bridge. After we left the town we had to hurry to under the roof of a bus station; we had a fast shower. To arrive to Terchova, the center of the Small / Little Fatra we needed our last efforts to climb a 12-14% steep ascent. As we saw some tables that prohibitted a lot of things because of the National Park, we decided to sleep outside of it. After a breakfast in the sunny square, we was biking through the nice, romantic, rocky Vratna canyon in sunshine and under blue sky. I found it one of the most beautiful place during our tour A stream was plashing (csobog) next to the road, and some green fir trees made the land variable with the white rocks.

I set out to make a good and complete tour to the High Tatras. We took part three of us in this thin two weeks planned expedition: Zoltán Maráz and R´dei from Szolnok and me, from Budakalász. Based on the guys experiences we planned the tour for the middle of august. Zoltán Maráz, with whom I got acquainted in the tour in 1993, had already cycled 6 times to there and back the highest mountain-range of the Carpathians through the years, the other guy had only one. I had left 28000 kms behind me by bike in the last 5 years before 1995. We agreed to meet in R´páshuta in the Bükk mountain-range. For me it meant 200kms for the first day with the pack of about 20 kgs. At dawn of the 9th of August 1995 we started at the same time, at 5 am. It was dark. On the whole rainy and grey day I tried to get used to the 20 kgs heavy pack. After the tiring, hilly area before Eger I had to climb on a long ascent up to the 700m high Bükk-plateau, and after 200 kms I arrived at the Hunter-restaurant in R´páshuta, where my tourmates had already waited for me.

After long planning ´s some training I and a friend of mine (from the secondary school), Csaba Budavári started to „conquer” the Tatra by bicycle. We had already known the hungarian land next to our home: Vác, Penc, Acsa and the sunny, hilly area with sunflower-fields. In Verseg we spent a little time in a village-muzeum (skanzen) which consisted of only two old houses. The old lady who showed us the rooms was very friendly. Not much before Gyöngyös, after reaching the top of a climb we got a nice view to the town, and the mountains (the highest: K´kestetõ) behind it. In the evening it wasn’t a problem to fall aslep; we were tired.

In the last few years the popularity of cycling has increased in Hungary, so more and more people are choosing biking to spend their spare time. With the growing popularity of cycling the local governments can only limitedly satisfy the claims of bike road-building. Although the length of cycle-roads increase a little from year to year. These roads are sometimes real roads, not the edge of tracks or parts of pavements, but in other cases they are separated with a line from the tracks or pavements.

Pilis is ideally situated for either cyclists to see Budapest or the bikers who are curious about Esztergom (church!!) and the Danube bend. We can find here roads with good quality, but the asphalted forest roads (without any traffic) are also good. The ascents [...] are generally 4-8% steep.

M�tra is the highest mountain-range (on a small area) of Hungary, its top K�keste� is 1015m above sea level. With the normal and forest roads, the Matra is in any case a favourable mountain-range for those who search after roads in forests, and who like the ascents. Eger, Par�df�rd�, Szilv�sv�rad, and the castle of Sirok are things that are worth seeing or cycling there for. At the south foot of the Matra are grown grapes.