For the last several seasons I've been lucky enough to enjoy a week or so's pass-storming in the Alps with one or both of my sons. Maggie had always been careful to stay clear of these 'Boys Own Tours', on a variety of grounds, but the particular being that a tandem in the Alps would be hard work. However, this year things were a bit different. The boys are now embarked on careers and leave is too precious to waste, and Maggie and I have done quite well on the tandem in Provence and Mont Ventoux. So she was prepared to reconsider.
The rules of the game were to be one pass a day, a decent hotel and a good lunch - all of which seemed fair enough. The passes were the Col des Saisies, Petit St Bernard, Iseran, Galibier and Alpe d'Huez - all ones that I know well and which are Tour de France classics. We took our Cannondale tandem, which has twin big discs and a SRAM XX based gearset that I had set up for the Alps and it all worked out very well. The tandem was fine, the weather mostly very good - a shower on Alpe d'Huez but that was all - and all of the passes were within our compass. We found Alpe d'Huez to be the hardest, probably because it was the last of the week, and the Petit St Bernard was quite a pull, too. But we had a good time and next year, who knows, maybe the Pyrenees ...
Mark
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