2,605 kms driven in our leased Renault Kangoo, 1,618 miles.
Visited Carpentras, Bedoin, Bourg d'Oisans, Lake Como, Bormio, Arabba, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Lauro, Pagnano, Garda, Milan, and countless small towns in between on bike and in the car.
Next time, bring our own laptop. The internet cafes were fairly easy to find, but the performance of the computers was usually lacking. We'd buy an hour's worth of time and half of that would be used up waiting for pages to download. It was exasperating. Several of the machines wouldn't allow us to download photos. Also would have been very useful in investigating potential hotels.
Just about 900 miles ridden by bicycle, over 91,000 feet of climbing in 20 days of riding.
Days lost to rain: just 2
Days lost to travel: 7--3 in the air June 10-11, July 8, 3 driving from town-to-town, and 1 to Venice.
Climbs covered (most data came from http://climbbybike.com/ ):
1. Ventoux x 3:
- Bedoin 14.1 miles, 5322 ft climbed, 7.1% avg, 12% max
- Malaucene 13.2 miles, 5036ft climbed, 7.2% avg 12% max
- Sault 16.0 miles, 3780 ft climbed, 4.5% avg, 11% max
3. Col du Galibier & Telegraph combined 21.7 miles, 6312 ft climbed, 5.5% avg
4. Madonna del Ghisallo from Bellagio 6.6 miles, 1811 ft climbed, 5.2% avg
5. Climb from Onno to Ghisallo via Asso 10.1 miles, 1798 ft climbed 3.4% avg
6. Varenna to Esino Lario (and beyond) 7.5 miles, 2228 ft climbed, 5.7% avg
7. Stelvio from Bormio 13.4 miles, 5030 ft climbing, 7.1% avg
8. Stelvio from Prato allo Stelvio (the more famous approach) 15.1 miles, 5932 ft climbed, 7.4% avg
9. Mortirolo (Passo di Foppa) from Mazzo di Valtellina 7.7 miles, 4265 ft climbed, 10.5% avg 18% max
10. Passo Gavia, the "race face" from Ponte di Legno 10.7 miles, 4472 ft climbed, 7.9% avg 16% max
11. Passo Fedaia from Caprile, 8.8 miles, 3475 ft climbed, 7.5% avg 18% max
12. Passo Sella (both directions) 3.4 miles, 1309 ft & 3.4 miles, 1224 ft, 7.3% avg 6.8% avg
13. Passo Campolongo (both directions) from Arabba 2.5 miles, 968 feet; from Corvara (twice) 3.9 miles, 1007 ft
14. Passo Pordoi (both directions) from Arabba 5.8 miles, 2090 ft, 6.8% avg; 8.1 miles, 2579 ft, 6% avg
15. Passo Gardena (both directions) Corvara 6.0 miles, 1965 ft, 6.2% avg, 3.7 miles, 820 ft, 4.2% avg
16. Passo Giau from Selva di Cadore, 6.1 miles, 3025 ft, 9.1% avg
17. Passo Falzarego/Valporola 10.2 miles, 2995 ft, 5.6% avg
18. Tre Croci twice 5.0 miles, 1886 ft + 1886 ft, 7.1% avg
19. Passo Sant' Antonio 5.7 miles, 4885 ft (that sounds like an awful lot of vertical feet--I think the actual is closer to Tre Croci), 7.1% avg.
20. Tre Cime di Lavaredo, 4.7 miles, 1864 ft, 7.5% avg, last 4 k avg 11.7%
21. Monte Grappa, 16.5 miles, 5141 ft, 5.9% avg
22. Peri to Fosse, 5.7 miles, 2506 ft, 8.3% avg, 15% max.
Toughest climb? Stelvio from Prato. No breaks, 15 miles. And the last 4 km of Tre Cime.
Prettiest? Stelvio was the most impressive looking climb--gotta love switchbacks. 48 of them.
Flat tires: zero
Other mechanicals: zero. On the rainy day in the Alps (le Marmotte route) the rain cleaned my chain of every last bit of lube--it was squeaking like the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz--it was embarrassing, but it held and got me back.
Strudel consumed: 4 lbs.
The worst thing about riding bicycles in Europe: the motorcycles.
Self guided or supported tour? The downside we had to the do-it-yourself route was the travel days. Despite our best intentions, we rarely rode on days we were changing hotels. We'd say we'd ride after arriving at the next city, but we never did. We did ride the morning after leaving Arabba en route to Cortina, but Cortina was not very far away. It was still a hassle finding a place on the fly.
Supported tours avoid the transfer issue because you throw your bags in the van, it moves your stuff to the next hotel, and you ride to it. Also, supported tours have food at various locations throughout a ride and provide SAG support. Do-it-yourself and you're on your own. The tour companies also have plenty of knowledge of where to ride--although they're going off itineraries that are easily duplicatable--again, except for those one-way transfer days.
However, we spent four weeks, going where we wanted to go, when we wanted to go, rode as much or as little as we wanted, and spent the same we would have spent for 7-10 days of a guided tour (including airfare). That's the big difference in favor of do-it-yourself.
4 weeks? Too long? I didn't think so from a traveling standpoint. From a practical standpoint (employment, a house to take care of, loved ones, etc.) four weeks is a long time. But I'd do it again if everything worked out. . . otherwise, our next trips probably won't exceed two weeks.
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