Generic Touring Thread

Have a ferry to catch at 8pm tonight and wasn't able to cycle to it in time. Just spent the last 2.5 hours trying to persuade the train people at Bologna to let me on with my bike. Eventually they've agreed to let me on with it in 2 large bin bags. Should just about make it on time.

On the plus side the Dolomites were great and I had a tasty pizza last night.

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Italian train system is a bit of a nightmare for bikes, only the Inter-Reggio (local) trains allow bikes and even then it's a hassle, the National ones don't allow them at all unless boxed/bagged.

Sorry to hear of your troubles so far-it'll be worth it in the end!

Sounds like you've had a few sketchy occurences recently. The best memories come with a little adversity - hope everything goes just right in future, especially for the ride to Istanbul - wish I had the freedom / legs to do it too.
Good luck.

I'm off to France for a holiday at the start of august and staying near Limoges for a week. There is an old Tour de France nearby that goes up the Puy de Dôme. Reading the web some people say you can go up it some say you cant. Anyone on here have any recent experience? I'm going to spend some more time reading up about it but thought I'd check here first.

You can go up. The road is closed to traffic (walking/cycling inc) and its a train or walk to the top.

From what I've heard if you go up before the trains run you can sneak up there? (its this point that I'm interested in) Could be risky but risky is fun isn't it?

Edit - I found this http://inrng.com/2013/09/roads-to-ride-puy-de-dome/ written 3 years ago so it could have changed!

You can ride up it one day a year with the local club.

Unfortunately, it was yesterday. :'(

Oh really. What's their name?

My dad would want to do that (he lives near)

Yesterday! That's bad timing!!!!! Does anyone know how strict the local authorities are about going up when your not supposed to?

Dude, as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm there's loads of hills to cycle up in France that don't risk you getting jailed or run over by a train. I'd probably turn your attention to one of them instead, TGV's are fast and relatively cheap!

There's a link the bottom of the inrng article comments.

You need to read Max Leonard's "Lanterne Rouge" book.

I'll check it out

ta http://inrng.com/2013/09/roads-to-ride-puy-de-dome/

Well I'm safely ensconed in a hotel in Sardinia now, I can safely say that it was a bit of a disastrous 'tour' and I'm generally quite upbeat about these things.

Positives:

Munich is nice, had some sausage and a giant pickled gherkin. My friends dad who's a cyclist took the morning off work to help me get new stuff.

The insurance companies sounded positivish.

Given some beers from a bike shop after they heard about ordeal

I checked into a random Austrian hotel at midnight soaked and freezing. They took pity on me and let me in for around 1/4 the normal price.

Dolomites were very striking

Arrived in Trento and a whole pile of Italians started buying me beers

I had a good pizza

I met some interesting cyclists on the train

I had a Padina

Negatives:

5 minutes after leaving my house I realised I had forgotten my shoes

Everything stolen subsequently arrived to my accommodation late then got little sleep because I was pissed off.

Had to wait till the shops opened at 10am.

The screws for my cleats were wrong that I bought from a second hand shop so they kept loosening. I got a whole pile of knee problems

Only left Munich at 6pm, about 15 hours later than planned.

Rain started at 8pm just as I was getting to the bottom of the Alps. I got cold and all my lovely sandwiches got soaked.

Stopped earlier than I had hoped because my back light stopped working. When I got to the hotel I took it apart and some water came out, it started working but decided to break again the next night. The following night the police escorted me off the motorway with a broken back light.

I wish I'd not done the Brenner pass as my 'big climb'. It's pretty dull and full of motorbikes and fancy cars.

I arrived in Trento and whilst having my pizza on the outskirts I'd booked a cheap hotel next to the train station. Little did I know this was right in the middle of an annual all night party called Notte Bianca. I put some tissues in my ears but the bass was deep enough for it to reverberate through my entire body. Once I got to sleep I was woken at 4 by some drunk revellers who had opened my stupidly unlocked door to discover me sprawled nude across my bed.

The whole Italian train fiasco. On the regional train to Bologna I spoke to an Italian and American cyclist who said I couldn't take it on the fast inter-regional trains. But they agreed if I just got on, played ignorant and was generally considerate they may take pity on me. So the first train arrived I was just about to get onto then the conductor came and told me to piss off, he wasn't happy. Luckily one of the station info guys saw this and was super helpful and nice about everything. He took me the main info office where for 2.5 hours they discussed taking the bike onto the train. Eventually he sourced me some big bin bags. At this point I got onto the train but it was a real ball ache to carry around. I really don't understand why they make it so difficult, my dismantled bike took up way more space, was less mobile and it annoyed me.

I got to Rome to transfer to the port and whilst walking from platform 4 to 25 I must have lost one half of skewer.

On the final train the police came and questioned me for 20 minutes, looking at all my cards, ID, passport, plane tickets, train ticket and ferry ticket. Very odd, told me it was normal but I suspect not.

Whilst in the taxi from the station to the port my taxi driver got into a road rage fight with another car, I was already late so this wasn't helping.

All in all its been an interesting experience and I've learnt some important lessons, mainly allow more time for this kind of stuff for disruptions. I'm happy with my set up for the TCR. I guess the final verdict will depend upon what my insurers say otherwise it's gonna be few months of credit card bills.

Good on you for doing it, most people would have packed straight away at the first problem, shows a top spirit to stick it out for the good moments.

Bloody hell. Chapeau for sticking that out and I'm glad there were highlights! I hope the insurance comes through.

Joe, how do you manage to have so many 'moments'? I think it's a super power!

I got cold and all my lovely sandwiches got soaked.>

The worst.

@skinny I think it's due to a decent level of poor preparation

@ùbér_grùbér absolutely, gonna need to waterproof my sandwich bag

It's a very elaborate and well excuted plan.
Baiting all the bad luck, zombies, now.
Sailing elegantly through TCR later.

I'd say that too, without trying to be mean. It's something to really work on.
It'll make you a lot faster.

It takes experience to be able to prepare.

I am fastidious in preparation.

The high and lows were exhausting to read, let a lone experience.
Solid effort for ploughing through dude.

Well this tour I didn't plan that much but compared to last years TCR my fastidiousness has increased massively. But yeah you're right, I reckon preparation is the key

Yeah, know you had some shit luck that made worse luck.

Lesson is, shit happens. To us all. So just brush it off and keep going. As you've never alone in the shit :)

Hope you're working hard on your tan.

Be careful with the knee. Let it heal, fully.