The Victour

Something like this.

Lots of road to cover.

Top of Cres, Croatia, originally uploaded by thevictour.

The highest point by road on the island of Cres, our first of our Croatian island hopping day (Day 5)

Roadblock in Slovenia, originally uploaded by thevictour.

One of the many obstacles that seemed to try to prevent us from getting to Trieste, Italy from Slovenia (Day 3)

Lake Bohinj, originally uploaded by thevictour.

End of day 2, in the Slovenian alps

Mountain top in Austria, originally uploaded by thevictour.

Day 1, sunset

287 kilometers today from Genova to friends’ house in the Provence countryside. (That means end of the cycling route.) We only left at 8:45am, had 150km in the bank by lunch on the Monaco boardwalk, and hauled until there was no more light. That makes 1904km in 11 days. Ouch. The bodies are still intact, but the bikes get dismantled for shipping. No we finally get a vacation for 3 days!

Fri Aug 25, Varazze – The previous night’s grappa drinking/lessons with the chef and other staff, and the morning’s smart navigation despite wrong ways down one ways made getting out of Florence on Thursday morning a longer process than expected. We rode through Prato and Pistoia, and began climbing. That was an impressive climb out towards Prunetta, then meandering through deep mountain valleys with Tuscan villages clinging to their steep sides, and a final, beautiful climb up the coastal range and a never-ending descent to Forte dei Marrmi on the coast. This town is the posh town on the Ligurian coast, which meant an overwhelmingly delicious dinner (winner was the gnocchi with scampi) at an otherwise complete Trattoria Tre Stelle, gorgeous cars (Bentleys, Porsche GT), lots of people watching, a wide soft sand beach with miles of umbrella loungers, and, as we found out the next day, a catwalk of fully committed road cyclists.

The catwalk included hundreds of cyclists, many in packs, cruising the strip at a comfortable clip, strutting their stuff, shmoozing the Italian, and checking each other’s gear out. And most of it was little known Italian carbon frames. It wasn’t the most ideal condition though — lots of traffic and chaos led me to a bump into the back of a quickly braked car, an punctured tire (saved by a great shop right there), and other close calls and one witnessed accident.

We followed the coast, endlessly descending to town inlets on the sea and ascending out, which made for a tough way to accumulate kms. We added a bonus tour to the stunning Cinque Terre and Levano. It was very difficult to leave.

We spun through Genova, the gorgeously architected city center and continuing city sprawl and settled in Varazze for the night. Tomorrow we either push approx 260 kms to the finish in Provence or stop for a Saturday night in Monaco. In either case, I can’t wait until my two day vacation in Provence after this two week trip.

After 228 km on Sunday, it seems anything less won’t do. Tuesday, after turning west from the Adriatic into the prevailing headwind, we rode hard for 231 km to the old Tuscan town of Lucignano, passing through Umbria and some great climbing towards Arcevia and Scheggia, then into Tuscany on a long but not too steep ridge climb to Cortona. The long ride set us up well to make Florence for lunch on Wednesday.

With 2 plates of pasta (each), 1 kg of bistecca, caprese, endless Montepulciano, hundreds of hanging proscuittos from the ceiling, and varieties of Grappa, Il Latini had concocted the best lunch we’ve ever had in cycling kit and a zigzag ride to a hotel. We spent the rest of the day enjoying this gorgeous city and another massive meal (including Jesse’s 1.2 kg monster bistecca Fiorentina) at Il Brindellone to fuel tomorrow’s ride to the Lingurian coast, Forte dei Marme, Cinque Terre, and up towards France.

On Sunday we pulled down to Split and caught the ferry straight over to the island of Hvar. I have to recommend the restaurant Alviz behind the cathedral for fair priced food and great owners. Vjeko will drink with you until closing.

Monday, our day off was spent almost entirely eating and catching up on calories, with breaks to visit town and ride over (um, by boat) to a nearby island, Palmaziana, with beautiful water for a few hours.

Monday night we loaded the ferry to Ancona overnight, which is both majestic (from the outside) and chaotic and comical from the inside. In our very cramped space, we managed to sleep the entire time and prep in a an vacant VIP room. 7 am arrival meant we hit the road early, turned away from the Adriatic and began our western journey.

Sunday Aug 20, 9pm, boat from Split to Hvar – Today we decided to make a big push for the city of Split so we could have a trip to the island of Svar, often laden with paradise-like descriptions, before crossing the Adriatic to Ancona, Italy and continuing the ride from there. However, that meant a calculated 240+ km ride. With some deft route finding and quick spins around Zadar, Sibenik, and Trogir, we made it to catch the evening boat to Hvar with a strong 30+ kmh average and a total of 228 kms. The first 75 km were very hard on the tired legs and early morning lack of focus, but Zadar on were good. We shortcut the route with an inland venture through rolling hills and blisteringly high 30s C heat and included a stop at what seemed like a Western saloon with multiple lambs on spits, tumbledweeds, and cowboy, laid back attitude. And the water was so cold.