Giro, Tour, Vuelta (and Barcelona)

• Selection and preparations
• Diary
  • Day 00 (2025-10-12) Train through Austria
  • Day 01 (2025-10-13) Hit it from the start
  • Day 02 (2025-10-14) Boring straights
  • Day 03 (2025-10-15) Over Po
  • Day 04 (2025-10-16) Apenines on the horizon
  • Day 05 (2025-10-17) Adventure Genovese
  • Day 06 (2025-10-18) Ligurian riviera
  • Day 07 (2025-10-19) Failure day
  • Day 08 (2025-10-20) Rainy day
  • Day 09 (2025-10-21) Provence/Rhône delta
  • Day 10 (2025-10-22) Day of punctures
  • Day 11 (2025-10-23) Windy day
  • Day 12 (2025-10-24) Relaxed day
  • Day 13 (2025-10-25) Final stage
  • Day 14 (2025-10-26) Barcelona
  • Day 15 (2025-10-27) Return day
• People and culture
  • Food
• Nature
• Technologies and man-made sites
• Lessons learnt
  • Driving
  • Equipment
  • Close misses
• Misc
• Statistics

Selection and preparations

• the target selection was not so involved like previous year’s trip, Barcelona was one of the cities I had always wished to visit and it’d also make me finally visit continental Spain so I only waited for an opportunity when I can take long vacation and when I am physically fit to perform >100 km/day trip
• the shortest path from Prague to Barcelona goes north of the Alps which I refused because of: a) worse weather at the time of year, b) missing the seaside, c) higher costs in Switzerland
• the shortest path through Monaco (bypassing the Alps) leads over Brennerpass and Bolzano, I didn’t want to ride the same route every year (and also the train connections to Salzburg were restricted in the autumn)
• thus the chosen path was inspired by reachability with train connections from Prague via Vienna – the route planning was very rough (e.g. I forgot to download offline maps for Lombardia), intentionally, I didn’t know how far and how fast would I cycle
• I only booked a bus ticket in advance, conveniently direct connection from Barcelona to Prague
• the trip was jeopardized by a stripped thread in the frame for rear wheel’s thru-axle (official repair had due only in Apr 2026, fortunately, a bootleg axis with a nut proved well)

Diary

Day 00 (2025-10-12) Train through Austria

• the trip starts by two-leg ride from Prague to Villach via Vienna, the morning is rainy and cold both in Prague and Vienna, the weather suddenly changes in the afternoon as the train enters the picturesque area of Semmering
• the train ride wasn’t boring (as I worried) and it was warm to finish recovering from previous cold
• the first stage is only a short climb onto the Tarvisio pass but it’s entirely in the dark after sunset

• I’m on tight schedule from the very beginning – the hotel reception closes at 9 PM, Garmin ETA oscillates between 8:50 and 9:10, I even get a call from the receptions whether I’d come, in the end I manage to arrive at 8:48

• sleeping: Tarvisio, hotel Tarvis

Photo Night climb to Tarvis with moonlight

Day 01 (2025-10-13) Hit it from the start

• the plan is to start the day early for the longest stage of the trip, hotel’s dining room shared with other guests and also local workers
• starting into a foggy day (it’s the pass and the highest point of the whole path afterall)
• I’m following the popular Alpe-Adria segment, I’m encouraged by fan grafitti, originally addressing Rogla, the road has very efficient descent ratio – just enough to ride fast but safely and not to waste the precious altitude, signs of a former railway
• I’m passed by German-speaking lightpackers trio and I join them, my sustained speed raises from some 30 km/h to whooshing 40 km/h, I’m enjoying the ride despite occasional undulations on the asphalt, when I hear one of my bottles falling off, I must return for it hoping to rejoin the group soon
• what a surprise, it’s whole cage that fell off (shallowly tightened screws didn’t withhold the bumpy resonance), first day, first mechanical and first use of the zip tie
• OK, I didn’t account for such issues, let’s continue, few kilometers later the bottle on the other side falls off, this time it’s the holder arm that broke, sigh, I drink some ballast and put the bottle on top of the bag, the mood is low
• meanwhile the Austrians(?) managed to have a coffee break, so I can join the group again; I expect to impress them with my planned 180 km stage, they triumph me with their plan for the day – 240 km (Udine, Triest, Postojna(?))
• the 700 m of descent can only get me so far (~70 km), so I say bye and I set out for my remaining 110 km, mostly flat
• the wind gods were by me as I realized in the afternoon, I could either pedal and go some satisfying 24 km/h on the flat, or just relax and the bike would still go 18 km/h, I hate you gods
• short stop at a supermarket to get a quick lunch (at 3 PM)
• the last 20 km on the approach to Treviso were burdened with heavy traffic or zig-zag cycling path with roots

• in the end, I finished the stage before the sunset and with slightly burnt face and thanks to the accommodation, I made an improvised fix with one bottle cage unusually on the top tube

• sleeping: Treviso, friend of mine

Photo Descent from Tarvisio

Day 02 (2025-10-14) Boring straights

• I wake up tired and with unsettled stomach, slow morning
• few kilometers and the half-broken bottle holder comes lose, another zip tie fixes it
• this day’s stage is on former Treviso-Ostigila railway, it means 10km long segments with no turns, then a slight turn, rinse and repeat; furthermore I’m isolated from the surroundings by alleys of trees (actually good protection from the sun), I pass just in the middle between Vicenza and Padua
• there are no natural stops, benches and it’s overall boring, at least I have the odometer to count down the kilometers and time to next stop (I make a stop every hour here)
• coffee break in Sossano, the only open place is a bar (run by a Vietnamese couple), then lunch from own supplies
• the Treviso-Ostigila track started with gravel, I’m worried that parts adjacent to the Adige would be even worse (they’re not even properly drawn in maps) but it’s a neat surprise – it’s the newest segment (uncharted) with quality asphalt
• (At one moment, I notice cyclists in the opposite direction are all wearing facemasks. After a few kilometers I pass a land of ammonia cloud.)
• end of the day shopping in Cerea, I committed the sin of buying bottled water, I couldn’t even contain it all in my bidons, so I at least gave the rest to a Romanian hobo (with whom I shared (had to share) the bike lot)

• I intended to repeat the model from the previous year of alternating one night indoors and one in the outdoors, hence I found a calm area (from map) between villages and I rode until (and after) sunset. There was surprisingly a lot of cars commuting from work (and people even walking) on the nearby road.

• sleeping: a playground near Correzzo (with all-night lamp next to head)

Photo Stretches of former Treviso-Ostigila railway, Chiesa di S.Sebastiano Martire ahead

Day 03 (2025-10-15) Over Po

• happy morning as I managed to avoid dew (the bench seems to be ideal height, band with no dew), the villagers commute back to work
• coffee break in Mantova, well-known center
• the tailwind is convenient (with that I’m not worried about not making it before sunset) but it makes me nervous whether I’d be able to ride so fast if it ceased
• the route is not a railway so it’s much more interesting, I use compass instead of odometer to entertain myself (estimating wind’s azimuth and calculating scalar product with my heading :-p)
• Oglio bridge is closed for traffic (apparently for some time) but a cyclist (pedestrian) can pass, lunch break (own supplies)
• Cremona – first true city (sorry Treviso and Mantova): big church tower, sumptuous city hall, music museum, it’s on a hill
• I cross the Po river over very long bridge as it span the river plain too, is it so fertile that they grow fresh corn in October?
• I measure daily consumption of (only) 1.5 l water at some 21°C (+evening compensation in the accommodation), that’s reassuring given the troubles with bidon holder

• I spend the evening (at least hour) searching an accommodation in Savona, it’d be a sunny weekend so the offers within my price range disappear in real time (does everyone lookup their accommodation in the evening), eventually I have booked something in Vado Ligure…

• sleeping: family B&B in Caorso

Photo Entering Mantova, this time from the east

Photo Bicycles in Cremona

Day 04 (2025-10-16) Apenines on the horizon

• I continue along the Po river, greeting black workers who pick cucumbers in the fields
• Piacenza – it should be similar to Cremona (sister city on the other side of Po) but I found it less impressive
  • a break in chocolaterie, ran by mother and son, only the son spoke little bit of English, I ordered three pieces of small biscuits and got them on three plates on a tray, it felt slightly awkward as I ate them after the clumsy and lengthy ordering dialogue, the awkwardness was mutually confirmed as I heard the staff exclaim: “Mama mia!” after I left the shop :-)
• in the afternoon I meet first hills after the days on the plain, it’s the land of vineyards with some roads steeply up and down (concave, felt like a fall), the asphalt has longitudinal tears, I needed to pay attention to them; it’s cultivated and apparently rich locality, there were some vendesi houses though
• (flat tyre on the front wheel, comfortable fix in ~20 minutes)
• evening shopping in Tortona, neat city that’s historically the entry point to pass the Apenines here

• because the weather forecast was positive, I planned to camp at the bank of Torrente Scrivia but there was no place suitably accessible from (cycling) road, so I chose a field nearby, despite the proximity to water there were no mosquitoes

• sleeping: border of a field near Villalvernia

Photo Special serving of ??? in Piacenza

Photo First hills before Tortona

Photo A church in Tortona

Day 05 (2025-10-17) Adventure Genovese

• I cannot wait for the morning – I’m woken by cold, I don’t understand it, the sleeping bag should be comfortable down to 1°C and the forecast predicted ~9°C, it’s explained when I check the thermometer on Garmin that (also) spent the night ~20 cm above the ground – it reads 4°C, however, when I stood the bike upright, the Garmin on the handlebar showed 8°C already
• it’s still quite a moist morning, the dew is everywhere and despite it’s sunny, I cannot dry my equipment (mat, sleeping bag, tarp), the sun is too low and I’ve got kilometers to go and meters to climb
• (As I was travelling west, the sunsets were later and later, I thought I’d beaten the shortening of days. This morning I realized my mistake, the sunrises were later too.)
• the climb to Passo della Bocchetta was rather uneventful, when I descended to Genova, I broke the second arm of the bottle holder, ¯_(ツ)_/¯
• Genova
  • indisputable winner of the worst city award
  • highway and regular road above each other + cycling track in the middle but connectivity sucks
  • I got lost and the path calculated by navigation was unusable due to local reconstructions, so I ended up cycling among trucks in the port area, consequently the road was congested by Friday traffic jam up to Crevari (~15 km)
  • OK, there were some historical streets and I enjoyed the exhibition of various Italian “armed” forces (Carabinieri, Guarda di Finanza, Esercito, Corpo nazionale soccorso alpino e speleologico, Protezion Civile, Polizia di Stato, Polizia Locale and maybe other) at Piazza de Ferrari
• catching up with the plan in the afternoon, I reached Vado Ligure only after sunset, the main tourist “attraction” there is ferry to Corsica
• afterall a busy day: several occasions when I wanted to give up: cold morning, wet morning, no lunch in Genova, no cycling paths in Genova, heavy traffic in Genova – eventually resolved by great accommodation with EuroSpin nearby
  • great accommodation means I could do my laundry and dry my camping stuff in the well-equipped flat
• sleeping: rented apartment in Vado Ligure

Photo Abandoned cycling path along a road in Genova

Photo Riding until and into sunset

Day 06 (2025-10-18) Ligurian riviera

• the nice weather so far was about to cease on Monday per the weather forecast, so I scheduled a longer stages for the weekend
• the sunny Saturday at the Italian Riviera filled the road with loads of road cyclists and generally fit people
• the map promised a level ride on the coast and tunnels of a former railway, I was initially slightly disappointed as some tunnels were closed for reconstruction (October is likely considered off-season) and signs prompted for detours but when the tunnels were open, it was a joyride (light, dub music, passing through well-groomed towns)
• Sanremo: lots of people enjoying their weekend time
• (The problem with these long coastal segments is that there are hardly any places to pee.)
• Ventimiglia: mapy.com planned a path into the middle of a tunnel and then via elevator uphill, I noticed that only en-route, of course the elevator was not for cyclists, so I had to climb the hill myself
• entering France (no border checks for cyclists) and climbing to Monaco
• Monaco
  • difficult navigation: lots of tunnels (they form 3D network and shield radio (GPS) signal), EU mobile data won’t work (it hadn’t occurred to me I’d need to download it separately from Provence-Alps-Côte d’Azur in mapy.com)
  • a cyclist among skyscrapers, casinos and in the Prince Palace was surely an outstanding phenomenon, fortunately, the police were polite and tactful
• a couple more climbs to reach Nice, I noticed that (rear) shifting got somehow imprecise, I couldn’t understand how that can happen with Ultegra, if only I had thought more about it…
• Nice (Nizza)
  • arrived after sunset
  • the first language I heard was Arabic but soon French prevailed (and also other languages in the downtown)
  • I managed to do even little sightseeing (piggy-backed on the evening grocery shopping)
  • first time staying overnight in a big city and first time walking (longer distances) after a week, I realized I developed a reflex for cycling ban signs, even when walking
• sleeping: Nice, hostel, 4 bed bedroom

Photo Cycling riviera Liguria

Photo Skyscraper in Monaco

Photo Passing “the Alps” second time

Day 07 (2025-10-19) Failure day

• the day starts early (8:30) because I have to stop at the beach for breakfast (which wasn’t possible in the hostel)
• I continue along the coast, it’s Sunday morning and I meet thousands of runners and hundreds of cyclists (it was a regular weekend, no race)
• I passed the riviera in Cannes with porters greeting me with: “Bonjour monsier!” (not actually me but it felt as welcoming as that)
• Cannes is where I turn into the inland and start climbing, the area is popular among cyclists
• the day was very nice (Nice) so far but it suddenly collapses when I routinely attempt to shift the rear gear – snap, the rear cable is gone!
• I still have several kilometers to the main pass of the day (plus one hundred kilometers to the planned end) and at first, the pedals seem stuck, I’m worried about finishing the day as planned so I push the bike forward instead of coasting back to Cannes; I don’t usually ask for help from passer-byes but when a French (woman) cyclist offered advice, I happily accepted it – first, she guided me to adjust the L screw (this way I unblocked the chain and reached gear n-2), second, she assured me about closed shops on Sundays (“Decathlon are very French”). At least I got two working gears to which she encouraged me to the rest of my climb with: “It’ll be tough ride”.
• OK, so I had 36x15 and 52x15 (which I’d use for 24.8 and 35.8 km/h normally), one for climbs the other for everything else… The cable problem brought me some luck too, first, the modified route was actually shorter and less ascending than my original plan, second, the delay saved me from going through rain that I could post-hoc witness from wet roads and humid air in Savernes)
• eventually, I reached Barjols which would be enjoyable place in the middle of French/Provensal countryside but at this time I felt trapped: compromised bike, injured leg (heavy gears made my right tendon of Achilles hurt) and imminent weather deterioration, hardly anyone could speak English in this corner of the world and most of the services were closed on Sunday evening (vivat to local petrol station and Asian restaurant)
• it was warm and dry in the old-ish hotel and I prepared an ambitious plan for a sortie to Aix-en-Provance and local Decathlon ready to combat the heavy rains the next day

• sometimes it feels like too much experience in one day

• sleeping: Barjols, countryside hotel run by senior couple

Photo Saturday morning on Promenade des Anglais

Photo Descent from Col du Logis de Paris

Photo Closed Decathlon in Frejus

Day 08 (2025-10-20) Rainy day

• the hopes of avoiding the rainy day and worries about the mechanical woke me up already at 6:30
• the shorter stage (because of weather) conveniently composed with the need to find a repair shop and have my bike fixed (internal cable routing FTW /s)
• I managed to climb the “pass of the day” (400 m near Pourcieux) with only water on the road, however, as it goes with passes the weather changed and the forecast earned its wings
• the final part is mostly downhill/flat so the hard gears aren’t such a big issue. as I dash towards Aix-en-Provence, I can observe La Croix de Provence when the low clouds allow that
• I reach the hotel around noon where I only unload my bags (oh, where are my mudguards?) and I continue to Decathlon in the same suburb
• it’s difficult to explain my problem (the replacement of internally routed cable) and constraints (I need the bike the same day) because I can’t speak French and no one in the shop speaks Czech, English nor German – Google Translate be praised, the pipeline is: mechanic, speech-to-text, French-German translation on her phone, German text (my “Sprechen Sie Deutsch” made a lasting impression), me reading, typed English, English-French translation and me showing sentences on my phone; finally the bike is accepted and ETA is 2 hours, I’m invited to leave
• while the bags remain in the hotel, the bike with the rest in the shop, I end up with soaking wet cycling clothes, a plastic bag with money, a cellphone and nowhere to go. I’m kidding I can go to the nearest restaurant
• the restaurant is in Italian style (I didn’t have an opportunity to visit a restaurant in Italy but now I do it in France) and I order desserts, coffee after the lunch and I sit inside almost until (afternoon) closing hour to fill up the repair’s two hours
• when I return for the bike (3 PM), it’s still disassembled on the stand and I get a new promise – end of the day (7 PM); it’s still raining outside so I find a place in shopping mall’s café ~kilometer far away; despite I’m bored and with a phone, I’m reluctant to book the next day’s stage until I know the state of the bike
• I get a call at 5 PM that the bike is ready, I’m immeasurably grateful and 35€ in total is very fair, so I can finally go to the hotel
• fortunately, they let me to park the bike in the room and they have electric heater so I can dry out all my equipment

• I’m more than a week en route and no one is actively interested anymore in the stages that I share

• sleeping: Aix-en-Provence, suburban hotel supporting handicapped employees

Photo La Croix de Provence

Photo Waiting for repair of the bike (raining outside)

Day 09 (2025-10-21) Provence/Rhône delta

• chilly morning, tendon was good 1 km, first climb and it started to ache then it got better midday as it warmed up, then it was worse in the evening due to fatigue
• occasional very light rain, observing the life in Salon-en-Provence
• Avignon had been a stretch-goal of the trip but the detour through Aix-en-Provence forced me to select a backup target: it also starts with A, it’s situated on Rhône and it’s historic – Arles
• Arles: 20th biggest arena in the (Roman) empire, restoration started in 1821 and still continues, UNESCO, Chinese tourists
• in the evening I was returning back to the sea, i.e. perpendicular to the coast and I experienced some headwind
• last minute sunset on the coast, AccuWeather time was precise

• the room in condo is like a cottage: shop too far, kitchen too small without dishwasher, it doesn’t save much time (cf camping)

• sleeping: studio apartment in Le Grau-du Roi

Photo Busy street in Salon-en-Provence

Photo Look down from an arena in Arles

Day 10 (2025-10-22) Day of punctures

• the first day when I use the second jersey because the primary one didn’t dry out overnight in the sea climate (it also rained)
• I enjoyed morning coastal ride through promenade of Jacques Chirac towards Montpellier (much better paneláks than the estate I slept in)
• Montpellier has nice modern (sometimes brutal) architecture in suburbs and decent historical center
• the suburbs are difficult to navigate, on top of that lots of construction works so I feel like half a day is over and I only managed to cover only 30km from the stage
• the afternoon is cloudy and windy with showers, fortunately warm
• I fulfilled my “dream” or fixing a flat tyre in rain – the result is I didn’t do it properly and I had to correct it one more time (this time with a patch) and the rear wheel is still leaking air every ~20 km

• together with cross/head winds and some hills it made quite a tiring afternoon, I had little time and no mood to stop in Béziers for sightseeing (I only noticed the magnificent cathedral in the “rearview” when leaving) and I merely slowed down when passing through the center of Narbonne in the evening, fortunately, the injured tendon didn’t bother me much in climbs

• sleeping: box hotel (former F1?) near Narbonne

Photo Brutalism in Montpellier

Photo Drive by backwards photo of Cathedral in Béziers

Photo Ultimate repair of the day’s punctures (and violation of Velominati rule #49)

Day 11 (2025-10-23) Windy day

• the weather forecast had literally warned of strong winds for the day, I decided to continue without adjustments of the route because: a) Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That, b) wind direction was almost perpendicular to my route (with small tail component)
• the wind among etangs is quite strong, smells of gas, I cannot make photos one handed and I hope everything is really fixated on the bike
• rainbows, little (salty) droplets in the air
• the wind was worst in Leucate-Plage, easy 40 km/h ride with tailwind but when I wanted to make a U-turn, the bike was undercut (I stopped already), bicycle felt like flying away (I only held the saddle of the horizontally waving bike) and my sunglasses were actually blown off my face (fortunately caught in roadside bushes)
• as I was passing a footway bridge, I managed to ride the whole length of it, however, there were some pedestrians at the end and I had to slow down, then I was simply blown down to the side, falling of a small slope (~1m), Garmin incident detection triggered, handlebar (left brake) bent
• a group of French tourists(?) helped me to stand up (despite I felt much safer on the ground, not exposed to the winds), we only screamed at each other, woman: “No bike day today!” me: “Merci but I must bike!”
• observation: palm seeds are poppy when you ride over them
• bicycle geometry is made for headwinds (cross winds can easily tumble you, tailwinds pull the clothing off) so it was actually a relief when when I turned into the interior and could cycle against the wind, also the wind was weaker between (sugar?) cane trunks
• Perpignan, I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (as I made this notice during a break, the bike fell down in the wind despite it was ~70° leaning)
• it already feels little Spanish (Rousillion region is former north Catalonia)

• excellent evening light (clean air after wind) during the climb to Le Perthus/el Portús in the Pyrenees, it was of the easiest passes

• sleeping: highway hotel in La Jonquera

Photo Coastal rainbow

Photo The winds in the area were really strong. (Even a few days later when I was returning by bus further from the coast, our vehicle was rocked by the winds.)

Photo Notice the horizontal piece of cloth on lower left, it’s hard to capture wind in a photo

Map Red is faster, blue is slower. The wind direction was parallel with the road to the coast.

Photo Evening climb to Perthus

Day 12 (2025-10-24) Relaxed day

• despite I woke up autonomously at 7:18, it was a slow morning and I felt like the last guest in the hotel
• descent from Pyrenees along roads (and parking lots) with truck drivers, I felt so close to them (cf Angles Morts)
• agriculture formed the first impression: I expected oranges and got manure and slurry instead
• Figueres, birthplace and museum of Salvador Dalí
• I get a pull from a pair of cyclists on long stretches towards Girona
• Girona
  • rehearsal for entering a big and tourist city
  • soaring cathedral and center with historic narrow streets
  • despite sufficient time I didn’t dare to eat a lunch in a restaurant, instead I spent an equal sum on multiple takeaways (empanadas were good) and I was still carrying sausages and cheese, loss of rationality
  • but thanks to time availability I opted for a slightly longer route in the afternoon instead of closely copying A-2
• Riudarenes, it’s apparently abandoned area with no signal (and a closed càmping) and weird forest colonies
• the day turns into really nice and relaxed afternoon, even enjoying an ice cream in Hostalric (Catalonian fortress town)

• furthermore, I’ve got even time for evening sightseeing in Sant Celoni (I almost regretted that I had bought food in a local grocery store instead of eating out)

• sleeping: lonely hotel in Sant Celoni

Photo Catalonian patriotism in Girona

Photo Castle/fortress in Hostalric

Day 13 (2025-10-25) Final stage

• the last stage is meant to be shorter with the long-awaited reward at the end, therefore I don’t hurry up into rain in the morning
• it’s again a neat Saturday made for cycling so I route over Collsacreau and I meet large number of cyclists
• I end up crammed between rock on one side and road-rail on the other side, whereas the coastal cycling bath is behind the railway
• I rode surprisingly many kilometers in urban area until I finally reached Barcelona proper
• Barcelona is a cyclist-welcoming city, the infra is well-thought and omnipresent, although I was one of few competent cyclists (tourist rentals) and single one without an engine (delivery guys)
  • I “burn” bit of time by cycling to Barcelona Supercomputing Center (which is closed on weekends as I learn)
• I had myself photographed in front (back?) of Sagrada Família and I officially concluded the bicycle travel

• finally a free evening when I can just chill and Wikipedia

• sleeping: hotel in Barcelona (near Parc Güell)

Photo Descent to Arenys de Mar

Photo Escalators near Parc Güell

Day 14 (2025-10-26) Barcelona

• sightseeing day when I tried to pack as many sites as possible on a travelling salesman route (through places most recommended by friends)
• morning was rainy and my rain resilience was weak (shorts and cycling coat), so I had to wait in a café
• hotel, la Sagrada Família, Cas Milà, Casa Batlló, Arc de Triomf, Palau de la Música Catalana, Pla de la Seu, la Barceloneta, Palau Güell, Torres Venecianes, Castell de Montjuïc, (metro), hotel
• the last supper in El Glop with many courses (what a contrast to sleeping on a bench near Correzzo)

• the experience is so much stronger when I had to endure the two weeks trip, it cannot compare with just an “Euro weekend”, my notes said that I felt Barcelona-sick before departure

• sleeping: hotel in Barcelona (near Parc Güell)

Photo In our longitude it’d look Ukranian but this one is Barceloneta flag

Day 15 (2025-10-27) Return day

• early morning to catch bus (I had to do without my (pre-paid) breakfast)
• 26h rollback by bus
  • less comfortable than train but so much cheaper (and direct/quicker)
  • less hassle with bike than airplane
  • I can admire some of the missed sites during daytime: landscape from A9 near Avignon, Mont Ventoux, Fortresse Mornas
• sleeping: bus over Europe

Photo Loaded unloaded bike

People and culture

Photo Demography in Treviso

• co-travelling road (female) cyclist in slippers(!) on the train
• lightpackers – road cyclists who have a saddle roll-bag but only with slippers
• people who liked my bike
  • an Italian at Cerea supermarket, likes Canyon, has Grail
• Italy: cemetery is always very visible from the main road through the village/municipality
• Croce Rossa Italiana rescuers who came to “my” flat in Vado Ligure, it wasn’t an emergency, they were selling calendars for charity
• San Martino building looked like having dents from bullets
• Italy: I’m the youngest cyclist in the countryside, whitest in the suburbs and smelliest in the city centers
• two bikepackers in Nice: Helsinky-Porto (in 3 months), Stockholm-Valencia (~100 km a day)
  • my trip was dwarfed by their tracks, OTOH, I did more kilometers per day (therefore I didn’t join them the next day even though we were going in the same direction)
• bicycle mechanic in atelier (Aix-en-Provence): I was not sure if she could understand my explanation of the internal routing challenge but she confidently accepted the bike (eventual repair was more complicated) and pulled the fix off
• service workers in France: they usually don’t get bothered with a queue, they keep processing orders at leisure pace
• hôtel de ville is not a city hotel but city hall
• French woman in Perpignan – stopped by as I was having a lunch break on a bench, she was curious from where and to where I ride
• father and son cyclists from Medinyá – they did a morning ride and were quite fast, had a short chat with them, they recommended (didn’t discouraged) pista nationale and were partially interested in my route
• a young man who boarded the bus the very last (I’m not sure he got a proper ticket) and he was later detained at border check between Spain and France
• Zollbeamter on Swiss/German border – almost felt like home when I could hear and speak a known language
• automaton for cash (cash is legacy next to cards/NFCs) in Aix-en-Provence

Photo Octobre Rose in Saint-Martin-de-Crau (it was also big in Italy/Liguria)

Food

• boccio mantuana
• I started eating more protein on the third day as my nutrition would be mostly carbs (parmesan cheese turned out to be the ideal packing)
• superb sandwich in boulangerie in Saint Martin de Crau (butter + hunger) and sweetish pastry (fixme name)
• empanadas (not Mallorquinas), various levels from hand-made through franchises to industrial (in grocery stores))
• home madeable: empanadas, patata omelette, pastís de queso, pesto Genovese, salmorejo, croissant
• sweet bars: I didn’t need them for energy but they were crucial for mental fatigue (tyre repairs, snapped cable, Barjols evening)

Nature

• rivers
  • Tagliomento, Piave: unregulated, wide, creeks
  • Adige: I didn’t even notice
  • Oglio: I noticed because of the closed bridge
  • Po: major river, go up to cross it (as usual)

Photo Tagliomento crossing

Photo Po crossing

Photo Rhône crossing

• passes
  • Tarvisio (“the Alps”)
  • Passo dela Bocchetta (Apenines)
  • Col du Logis de Paris (French interior)
  • Col du Perthus (Pyrenees)
  • Collsacreau

Photo Passo dela Bocchetta (Apenines)

• huge flocks of birds in the vast fields of the Po plain
• highlands of Provence interior, tabletop mountains, La Croix de Provence
• seagulls are like kites that fly autonomously
• Rhoneland is similar agricultural scenery like around Po, drier, coarser, less sandy (I closely missed the bifurcation of Le Petit Rhône in Arles)
• flamingos in coastal étangs

Photo Flamingos in Étang du Médard

• tempête Benjamin (windstorm that passed over France when I was among étangs), Leucate station recorded winds of 70 km/h (not gusts)

• I did ~1° in day, that’s time shift 4 min/day, daylength in Nice (~centerpoint of the trip) changed from 11:10:42 on Oct 12 to 10:28:03 on Oct 27, i.e. 2m50s per day, so I outpaced the sun (at least the sunsets)

Technologies and man-made sites

• Austria: blocking poles in middle of escalator to force transporting bikes in the lift
• Cremona circuit: very hard to see anything from behind the fence, it’s noisy though
• TGV train on a bridge between Éguilles and Salon-en-Provence
• The bigger road, the more energy efficient routing. Read: the least effort passes and paths to them are typically “occupied” by highways with no space for cyclable road. In contrast, the biggest roads route through tunnels or bridges and natural paths remain for cyclists.
• EV8 the international cycling path that I (unwittingly) copied in certain segments.
• Array of trees planted in rectangular patterns (Italy, France (seen from bus))
• Tollbooths (France) are huge vasts of asphalt, maybe it’s worth it in those areas with long internode distances.
• Barcelona: pedestrian red light is more like a recommendation than a stop, likely caused by not turning the lights off during low traffic times.

Photo Agriculture near Cremona in Po valley

Lessons learnt

• mornings are hard, daytime always improves and evenings are opportunities for repairs
• I still don’t know how dew works, it’s better to sleep at a location with it (higher place, under tree, not in the open)
• Clothes washed in the evening won’t always dry until morning. Order of effectivity: heating/heated rack, spin dryer, hair dryer, towels, bed sheets.
• Don’t freak out when it’s not dry in the morning – as it’s functional, you can dry it on the body (in given latitude/time of year).
• Long trousers were deadweight for this time of year and locations.
• Mediterranean (Provence) rain: radar cannot be trusted because rain spawns from nothing.
• Effects of high gear pedaling: slight lower backpain, sligt arm muscles overload, big problems with tendon of Achilles (might be from previous bruises by pedal on right calf).
• 400g of raw torsades is much more than 400g of raw rigatoni (after cooking).
• Hotel is better than private hosting in this time of year due to heating and drying options.
• Do not install new tube until you identify the cause (a thorn/shard/metal in the tyre).
• Mental energy and will are also a resource that can get depleted (trial by punctures).
• Riding along the coast with beaches (beach := coast in an urban area) is convenient and often picturesque but the problem is toilet (no natural spots to pee and lots of people everywhere).
• It was quite long, even processing notes for the blog was too long
  • as I’m getting fatigued: I don’t mind paying breakfasts, paying for single room, taking route without hills, copying main roads, how is it different from traveling by train/car?
  • “Italy is too long” – Napoleon

Driving

• How to roundabout: if you take the 1st exit, keep right, otherwise push to the left and then cross back right to your exit (carefuly, looking back). I still haven’t decyphered turn signals in none of the passed countries.
• don’t type and drive (the driver in opposite direction)
• Hot to efficiency (in dense city traffic): when there’s space in front of you, go (I picked this up by watch scooter riders (mainly) in Genova)
• OpenStreetMaps and road cycling routing – the convention in Spain was obviously different than in Italy and France, roads marked as suitable for road bikes (mapy.com) were often unpaved with roots or stones.
• Expect/account for rush hours: Fridays outwards from big centers.

Plot Subjective perception of cars passing in different countries

Equipment

• Garmin showed non-sensical HR (bad contact), increased average BPM
• It may be good to remember to take also an un-packing photo to have a validated list.
• Saddle caused some irritation but it was not prohibitive.

Photo First puncture near Tortona (thorn)

Photo Second (and third) puncture near Pignan (shard)

Close misses

• Avignon
• Le Petit Rhône bifurcation
• Fort de Bellegarde
• Marseille (intentionaly), Saint Tropez

Misc

• three pillars: bike, health, smartphone
  • two of them temporarily failed (only the phone survived)
• it’s the best when the hotel allows taking the bike into room
• there’s always a room for the bike in a hotel
• daily routine
  • evening
    • booking an accommodation
    • route planning
      • planning only the immediately next step, sense of day-to-day urgency for focus
    • cleaning photos, cropping and rotating
• big city guides/constraints you, the path, also the grocery and dishes you can get (as a traveller without restaurants)
• Booking.com actively requested my reviews except for the hotel in Barcelona
• camping places driven by in Spain were mostly closed for the season in October

Statistics