all similarly equipped Wash your mouth out you flat-barred wrong'un! :wink: http://thumbsnap.com/s/xS2KSyGV.jpg DickieH's London Road, JustinF's Arkose 4, Steve (not on here)'s Genesis and my Arkose 2 on a dry (wet) run along the Ridgeway and back earlier this year. I've since learnt how to pack a ...

Anyone else struggling with bike choice? The 3 sensible sounding options at my disposal would appear to be: 1/ 29" Inbred - decent range of gears and I'd pop some suitable fast rolling tyres on but not known for lightness. 2/ Surly Disc Trucker - again, plenty of gears and will accept bigish t...

James, was away when the cue sheets went out and only just had a chance to start properly going through them. Just wanted to say they're superb. Many, many thanks for putting all this together

Laurence

I may not have been being entirely serious

Just returned from a week of getting wet in the Dolomites. Hoping there'll be no rain left in Italy by September!

Hot and dusty. That's what all of us in my party are picturing...

Never rains in the Alps, we've decided. And they must ship the snow in each winter.

vaguely exciting, J!

Just one question left. How do we get onto the roof of the old Fiat factory for a lap of the test track? :D

Is there a local bike shop or other source of CO2 canisters? I know some people do fly without declaring them but I'll be leaving mine at home. Would like to have a couple with me for re-seating tubeless tyres, if poss.

Four gravel/gnarmac/any-road bikes in our four strong party: Two Arkoses, one London Road and one Croix de Fer.

I like the fact that whatever bike you take it'll end up being the wrong one for at least part of the route :)

I'd already converted the original draft Google Maps kml file into a gpx and imported it into something, which spilled the beans on the total climbing. Initially I gulped, but now it's become part of the attraction. Helped by the realisation there'll be 30,000m of descending :) Great that there's so...

Had my flight out booked since March :) Journey home I'll sort out when I get to Nice!

JamesO, do have an idea of expected numbers? Not that it makes any difference to me, I think it'd be fun whether small, medium or large, I'm just curious how many of us there might be.

I've two weeks booked off so plenty to fill the time I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that taking a fortnight over this would be the most fun way to do it! Unfortunately my riding companions will have flights to make but will let them ride on ahead if their daily targets get in the way of enj...

Many, many thanks, Dr Matt. Those IGC maps look to be exactly what I'm looking for.

Does anyone have any sources for detailed topographical maps (like our OS 1:50k or France's IGN equivalent) covering the Italian part of the route? Either digital or paper. Best I've found so far is the OSM with the contours add-in. I don't *need* any more than that, but I'm a sucker for traditional...