Simplon Pass - Briga

Generally it would a reasonably easy rumble up.I, however caught it at 4 in the afternoon with some 34 degrees heat burning my retinas and it was an utter, utter furnace.And to be honest it pales in comparison to the passes further up.Nufenen/Grimsel etc have sections of pure cycling joy where this felt like purely a motorists road and not a cyclists.

My personal climb rating:

Did this following the Leman-Adriatique Randonee route, on which this is the first serious climb, getting to over 2000m. Shortly after Brig there is a fork giving two options. Left (blue) takes you up the main road. This is less steep, but longer and with traffic/tunnels. Right (white) is, for me, the preferred option. It takes you on a quiet road through a forest with some nice 10% sections to keep you busy. Taking this option you will rejoin the main road and head for the restaurant at the top through a series of avalaunche tunnels. There is a bridge on the way, with major roadworks going on 2007, hopefully finished soon.

I climbed the simnplon in late may 2006 - my first 1000m+ climb, on an oldish hybrid bike with quite full panniers. im not very fit or very young, and it was a nice steady even climb all the way from Brig. 1300m+ of climbing took about five hours, hardly a single gear change in that time! Light traffic. theres a restaurant at about 1600m, and above that height it was snowing - quite hard at the top. mostly not a problem as much of the road is in galleries, in which i found it easier and more pleasant to walk. the ride would probably be better done a bit later in the year.