In September 2012 Dragon Moto took 14 clients on a 9 day tour of France
& Italy covering over 3,200km fully luggaged - the Versys 1000, rider and
pillion loved it! First the group rode
through the Somme and Champagne regions of France staying one night before
riding south to the Vercors National Park which was the next destination.
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| Combe Laval |
The Vercors has fantastic roads and stunning scenery. One of the rides took the team to the “Hanging
Houses” in Pont en Royans before climbing to Combe Laval which is a stunning
feat of engineering with the road hugging the rocky outcrops. True, they did have to contend with misty
conditions for some of this ride but it only added to the drama of the scenery.
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| Mist in Combe Laval tunnel |
Next day dawned and the assembled throng rode
the Col du Rousset which descends from 1254m via 14km of awesome bends into the
town of Die (pronounced “Dee”!), before exploring other fantastic roads in this
area such as the Col de Cabre.
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| Altitude 1254m Col du Rousset |
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| Hairpin - Col du Rousset |
Moving onto the Aosta Valley in Italy travelling via Chamonix the group caught sight of Mont Blanc in glorious blue skies, before riding over the Grand St Bernard Pass at altitude of 2473m.
From a base in Italy,
a ride over the Petit St Bernard Pass descended into Val D’Isere before riding
24km to the top of the highest paved pass in the Alps – Col D’Iseran at an altitude of 2770m.
On the 3 day route home the happy riders rode over the Cormet de Roseland which reaches altitude
of 1968m via woodland roads and open mountain plateaus. Continuing this route via Lake Annecy they
rode into the Jura Mountains which offer fantastic riding roads including open
sweeping bends through forestland. Next
day was a happy and sad ride – happy in that it led to Bourgogne region, but
sad as it heralded the final night of the tour.
The Versys 1000 was used on a wide variety of roads on this
trip with only 400km’s on motorways. It
handled open sweeping bends to tight hairpins faultlessly and the fuel
consumption was excellent even at high altitudes. The comfort factor was key to a long trip
such as this – the bike perfectly matched the tour!
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