Day 24: Bivio, The Alps, Switzerland

Stats... 45.91km in 3hrs 50mins. After joining parents at their hotel for a tasty breakfast we got on the road for an immediate 3km climb up 300m. The road was steep and tough. We met mum at Parpan for a 16km decent over a drop of 500m to Tiefancastle. This downhill was considered a break by the majority of riders so we continued up an elevation of 400m to Savognin for lunch via a tunnel named Crap! After lunch we decided to push on to our destination for the night of Bivio but this meant another climb in elevation of 500m. This part of the route took us past a huge lake that looked rather inviting as the temperature was soaring! We arrived at Bivio absolutely shattered only to find that there was no campsite resulting in our first real bed for 24 days! In summary, we have climbed the equivalent of two scarfel pikes today being a total ascent of 1,853m! However, we also descended a total 1,310m reaching a maximum speed of 51kmh for Al and 59kmh for Kris. Our ascent of the Alps is nearly complete although we are apprehensive over the final climb to the summit at Julier Pass tomorrow which will rise to 2,300m. From then on it is all down hill to Milan... according to Kris! We enjoyed a huge pizza each being our first hot meal in 4 days, a few well deserved beers and an early night!