I hope to arrive earlyish on Sunday. Drop the bags and get settled at the hostel before heading out on James tour of Turin route via the nearest Gelato.

Probably a bit late now but another option:

https://www.charliethebikemonger.com/pa ... 3545-p.asp

Buy more ti / 'why didn't I think of that?'

https://bikerumor.com/2018/08/14/king-c ... tle-cages/

yep, waiting for Sigma sports to get stock of those cages

Richard G wrote:Just for info... when's everyone planning on getting out there? Wondering if we might get a short ride in on the Saturday or the Sunday?

I will not be in Turin this year but the last two years I spent the afternoon before the start climbing the hills over the Po, east of Turin. The first time I climbed up to Faro della Victoria a little bit by chance, following the indications to colle della Maddalena, the second year I set Superga as my goal. These are 30 or so km rides if you stay on the top of the hills. If you want to do longer I think you can go down on the other side, but I didn't went there personnaly.

Cheers.

On the cage thing, I really like the sideload ones I'm using. Wouldn't be in a rush to switch back to normal ones again.

Turin Airport to city centre... what are the options for getting into the city centre please? Not sure we will have time to unbox bikes at the airport and ride in, which would be my preffered option. Thanks Andy

I have a route, but given you wont have time... there's a train station right outside.



https://www.aeroportoditorino.it/en/tom ... t/by-train

Crap, I should have checked that amazon link a little closer. That's was a B-Rad 4. It's massive. I only need a B-Rad 2.

Anyone know where I can get one?

Turin Airport to city centre... what are the options for getting into the city centre please?

Caselle train station (right outside the airport) to Station Dora, then a cab or short ride to the square. There's a GPX file of a bike ride that links these points in the route info.

jameso wrote:

Turin Airport to city centre... what are the options for getting into the city centre please?

Caselle train station (right outside the airport) to Station Dora, then a cab or short ride to the square. There's a GPX file of a bike ride that links these points in the route info.

I really should RTFI Thanks guys

With a bunch of stressed noobies at the Tomato. Not sure when I became old hat at this sort of thing.

Pissing down in Nice atm.

I've lost track of how many times I've packed and repacked today

I’m sure all is well and good.... But Scattamah’s spot tracker stopped responding 2 days ago. Missed his text last night. No word today as of yet and my texts are saying they have not been delivered. He sounded tired, but good spirits and said he wasn’t having any mechanicals. If someone out on the trail happens to see him out there, poke him to text home when he can. I’m not worried... yet. But you know how the other half can get if there’s not enough check ins’. Being that other half... his spot tracker needs new batteries, dammit!

Be safe out there fellas and thanks in advance.

Cheers
K

Ya! All is well. Heard from Scattamah late last night. Spot tracker has new batteries. I’m not worried anymore.

Happy race to those out on the trail. Be safe, be careful, have a blast! I’m going back to watching the blue dots...

Them there hills are going to be extra busy. Anyone who follows the road pro scene may have heard that Aquablue folded a week ago. They were supposed to be racing the Tour of Britain and now the team are at a loose end. Two of the guys Conor Dunne (tallest pro in peloton at 6'8") and Larry Warbasse have decided to recreate the ToB stages distances as it was their prep for the worlds. Conor and Larry went over the Col de Tende yesterday and the Finestre today - gravel and all. Hopefully not getting in the way of our boys.

If any of the racers find some size 14 flip-flops they belong to Conor! The pair of them are on Twitter and using hashtag #NoGoTour for their adventure.

A couple of their video's

https://twitter.com/conordunnealot/stat ... 9985991680

https://twitter.com/conordunnealot/stat ... 5739139072

Great. I sometimes see Larry Warbasse training around Nice, Conor Dunne now that I know his height I may no miss him in the future :)

BTW Warbasse needs some lessons on how to tighten a seat bag https://twitter.com/i/status/1036560961015087104

Sat in Limone Piemonte atm having a pizza, I inadvertently seem to have found myself at the pointy end. Today's run from Sampeyre down the death road up to Little Peru and a 70 km road grind means I've just over 200km to go to Nice if following the full route which is the plan so late pm Friday is on the cards. Strange what bloody mindedness can do.

Arrived at the Cafe du Cicliste at 4pm yesterday. Thursday's run through the Via de Sale was interesting in heavy rain, some quite difficult rocky downhills on wet rock. Thankfully yesterday was a lovely day with a long gravel drag up to the forts above Col de Turini, a place I've always wanted to visit due to it's legendary Monte Carlo Rally status. The Col de Madone was a bit of a sting in the tail and traffic in Nice was a shock to the system. No mechanicals, sore bum and lots of memories.

Nice one Duncan. What route?

The facebook group seems to be a constant stream of people posting to say they have dropped stuff, left kit places and similar.

Makes me wonder if folk are all carrying things in Stuarts favourite dangling style.

Richard. Did the full route apart from the Cannoni as i wanted to see the death road, wasn't disappointed as I was nearly sent into the ravine by a lunatic in a Fiat Panda. How was your ride, bit cooler than last month n'est Pas?

ianfitz wrote:The facebook group seems to be a constant stream of people posting to say they have dropped stuff, left kit places and similar.

Makes me wonder if folk are all carrying things in Stuarts favourite dangling style.

Different feel to the first year - much bigger and more boutique crowd, with less BP experience, I think. Route is a little easier (on paper) but it felt quite claustrophobic for me, moving so slowly through such big imposing terrain. Still a great ride, although Nice just reminds me of the bad aspects of Touristy Urban France!

Recent article in Bike Radar nailed this Gravel Bike fad - the best bike for riding gravel is a HT XC MTB! However, the Road Plus bike most people here are using is a reasonable compromise for a route like this which is mostly on tarmac. Just don’t understand the desire to compromise a nice bike buy loading the kitchen sink onto it, especially in the mountains.

Just as well Stu’s not here; his head might fall off from shaking it so much!

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:

ianfitz wrote:The facebook group seems to be a constant stream of people posting to say they have dropped stuff, left kit places and similar.

Makes me wonder if folk are all carrying things in Stuarts favourite dangling style.

Different feel to the first year - much bigger and more boutique crowd, with less BP experience, I think.

Looking back to our first bikepacking trips we had masses of stuff, didn't have any danglies though These days we probably take half the kit we did back then and what we do take is lighter, more compact. Unless you are bikepacking regularly then it's unlikely you'll be prepared to spend money on that lighter, compact kit.