Day 9: Leaving Como and starting the ascent

We awoke in Como to a very different picture: it was pouring rain! I’m not talking about a drizzle or even a normal rainfall; the heavens had opened up and were pounding down upon our tent, with strong winds to match. Eventually, I needed to empty my bladder and brave the storm. I ran to

Day 9: Rain Delay in Menaggio (Menaggio to Campodolcino – start of Splugen Pass)

Another guest post from Bert. I’ve been too slow on getting mine done, so enjoy another great one from Bert! Rain Delay in Menaggio (Menaggio to Corti – start of Splugen Pass) I woke up several times throughout the night; cold and wet. Small puddles of rain had managed to cross the sacred tent barrier;

We are on the mountain

We were doing better than expected, so we went up half-way on the Splügen Pass and camped. Now it’ll easier tomorrow. Also, some nice Italian couple invited us in and cooked for us. Totally awesome. More details later. Tomorrow, we will finish going up and then go down the other side!

Day 6: Onward through Genoa and up the mountains!

Today was another great day! We got a late start but we needed a lot of recovery after yesterday. The day started with a feast – of course. I whipped up some oats and then mixed them with fried French salami and garlic. We also had leftover ciabatta with butter, Tiroler ham, and some young

Day 2: Toulon to (almost) Saint Tropez

Well, there is a reoccurring theme here of missing my arbitrary (and aggressive) targets. I guess the second theme is death climbs. We were supposed to pass Saint Maxime but we stopped before Saint Tropez. The amount of elevation was not foreseen – bad planning and lack of experience on my part. But given that

Day 1: Marseille to (almost) Toulon

After our little visit to Paris, we hopped on the train to Marseille. It took only three and a half hours to cross the whole of France – French trains are amazing. Once we arrived, we put the bikes back together one last time (hopefully) and made our way outside. It’s amazing how Marseille feels