We were a group of 2, catching the early train from Gelterkinden to Airolo. We arrived at the foot of the Gotthard pass at 9am. The plan was to go early, trying to avoid the heat and hopefully, this being a weekday, would mean less traffic on the popular Tremola old road. We managed some of the above.
A short warm up of 6kms up and back down the Nufenen pass road from Airolo station before using the lovely new roundabout to turn onto the pass road and start climbing. The bottom section of the pass road is a confusion of junctions and turns which we managed to navigate after a bit of head scratching. It starts with tarmac for a km or 2 then a few sections of cobbles to sort of warm you up to the prospect before we finally started the final 6km with all cobbles, all the way to the top. The views at the bottom are great and climb quickly to where we realised how high we were in quite a short time. We stopped for mental preparation for the cobbles at the barrier, chatted to some e-bikers before they sped onwards up the hill. In the morning I wasnt feeling brilliant, like the start of a cold which as I am writing this I now have in full force. We set off again and it wasnt long before we caught up with them as one of the bikes was "kaput". Clearly it wasnt too bad as they must have been able to fix it and overtook us again later. Once we were past the barrier we lost most of the traffic, as they went up the tarmac road. This made the ride much more enjoyable. The temperature was higher than I had expected - my headunit showed 30Deg C early on in full sun when my weather app had predicted low 20s at this time of the day.
The last km is straight and in the last 2 attempts I have made on this climb I had needed to walk it, this time was fine and we cycled all the way to the top. I must have paced it better. The top was a hive of activity with cars, busses, motorbikes and cyclists of all kinds milling about. After taking the compulsory phot at the blue pass sign we were told about the "proper" white sign - so we took photos there too.
This white pass sign was right next to a grill selling bratwurst which were very tempting but we had another col to collect before lunch. We set of again north and turn right immediately to go up the side road. This took us above the tourist trap on a gentle slope aiming to stop at "the corner that never came". This was Bassa della Sella another new above 2000m col for me. The planned route had also included keeping going to reach Passo Scimfuss but I was feeling quite horrible by this time so we turned back to go and get a sausage.
Once revived by meat, mustard, bread and a bottle of Rivella Red we started the descent. We had felt some wind on the climb up and there was a good breeze at the top. We took what turned out to be the old road at the start to go down and - more cobbles! - we took our time over the bumps. A man passed us pedalling like a madman on the way down. Perhaps if you go fast enough they are less bumpy? We bumped all the way down to where this road connected to the new tarmac road and this was where the wind really picked up. It was quite gusty, made worse by fast passing cars and motorbikes. Some of these fast cars are quite ridiculous, the noise, the speed and the apparent inability to wait for a proper space to pass - it was not a fun descent to Hospental.
We got to the bottom and I remembered a side road to get to Andermatt. This meant a diversion through the village - cobbles - and found a wonderful fresh and cool fountain to refill bottles.
The side road also had some gravel but we chanced it on our road tyres. When this road joined the main one, we turned sharp right to cross over and go through the village itself. Through the main street, trying to stay on the larger slabs not the smaller cobbles and stopped again at the Station for toilets and a snack. We realised that the train from Goeschenen back home was in an hour so we had lots of time to go the last 5km downhill so took our time.
One the way down we again tried to avoid the road and took the new bike path downhill, stopping at Devils bridge. I had been here not that long ago on the way up when going over Oberalp pass.
Last leg on the main road again, we got separated by traffic again but soon regrouped and coasted down to Goeschenen station. The bistro was closed so we had coffee from the machine.
Our ride was finished and we just had the 2.5 hours back home in the train. Direct train to Olten and change to the normal S3.
Really enjoyed it, despite feeling a bit ill most of the time. Thanks to my companion for the company.
Distance - 42km
Climbing - 1163m
Avg Speed - 12.4km/hr
2000m cols - 2
