Epilogue

Epilogue

We finished our riding trip and took a train into Barcelona. All of a sudden and it's a shock to be done. Now just as suddenly we are flying home. See some of you soon and some of you later. There may still be some straggler posts, or I'm done.



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Unsure

Up close and with feeling

Back in France

Spain

Gummi bear tragedy

The Pyrenees weren't through with us

On to Spain

Obstacles

Obstacles

We are now just days short of being done riding. It feels very much like too much has happened and it is hard to keep track of it all. When we get home, as we sort and clean and repair our gear, we will have to try to sort and comprehend it all. Right now it is all too close by and hard to see.
We, again, hit some pretty substantial rain. Yesterday we started out and by 11am it was near 100 degrees. My sweat was sweating. We made a long ascent in to the French Pyrenees and as we did so the rain started and stayed. It also dropped in temperature by a likely 50 degrees. Possibly more. It took a fair while of warmth after ridingfor me to regain the non tingly feeling in my hands.
France from the start was easy going. Good roads, good signage to camps and on roads, and exceptionally courteous drivers. Shannon being able to speak French also makes it much easier to get around. I of course just stare at people like a possum whenever I am spoken to. Usually they take it very well and Shannon gets me what I need, which more often than not is coffee.
Right now we are in the Pyrenees and looking uphill. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to improve and we will try to make it over the pass and then downhill in Spain, and on to Barcelona. We are going to try to fly out of Barcelona on the 8th of June but still need to arrange that with the airline. Luckily Barcelona is quite nice, just in case we have to stick around. They have plentiful coffee for sure.
I think Shanfu and I both feel pretty well done in at this point, our bicycles are wrecks, our trailers scratched and though we are enjoying the trip, are ready to be done riding, and ready to be home and enjoying the U.S. again. Hopefully the weather, in both Madison and Portland, neither of which looks incredibly amazingly enjoyable at this point, will improve since we have had more than our share of rain. Either way, thanks for reading and we will see many of you quite soon, and others soon after.



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Pheau

Hello pyrenees hello rain

Coffee moments france

I ancient tag

Blushing wine

Deux

Blissy French day ride

Things French and lovely

Fresh and free

Awesome french madness

This has been the view throughout much of our trip.

7th country, finally Ziplocks!

Same

Barcelonette, France

The Alpes and other miracles

The Alpes and other miracles

As all of our intentions grew towards riding over the Alpes our minds were drawn to such questions as to weather and the passability of the Alpes pass. My own mind, which has actually rarely left it, was on Shanfu's ailing and repaired, warped and cracking, derailleur hanger. On a fine day out of some town in Italy along our route that no longer has any resemblance to the EuroVelo 8 route, her shifting once again became problematic and I saw that the repaired hanger was in fact cracking distressingly. The hopes of crossing the Alpes and in fact continuing on our trip now was squarely upon the shoulders of a miracle and the city of Torino providing it.
Let me say at the outset that Italy seems to hide their campgrounds, often with little or no signage, and pretty much always at the top of a lung busting hill. The hills offer striking views, but at the end of a cycling day and always dragging a trailer, these "beyond category" hills are never a welcome sight. Really exceptional views though.
We found the camp site which was on the land of a beautiful, hard to describe, villa. The next morning we struck out on foot to find a bicycle store or two to see if we could find the replacement part in question. We found a bicycle shop with a big friendly Bianchi flag waving in front of it and ventured in. He said that he didn't have that exact part but that the bicycle shop just a few storefronts down might have it. We found out soon after that the shops were related. The second shop did in fact have the part, and we of course looked at it dumbfounded and sure that it couldn't be true. We bought it anyway and without the Italian language skills to do so we tried to explain how he had just saved our trip, and said inexplicable things to him about Croatia and Montenegro. He smiled and didn't understand a word of it. No matter. We went on further to one more bicycle shop so that I could buy replacement cleats for my cycling shoes as mine looked like they had been thrown into a blender with badgers in it. They had, in fact. Also, new brake pads which were also less than reliable looking at that point. All in all we ended up finding everything that we needed. We went back to camp and I installed everything that could be installed and suddenly, after I guess hundreds and hundreds of miles, we were back in total working order. The Alpes were suddenly very much in our sights and the next day we hit the road.
We really liked Torino and even to the point of now feeling the need to go back, learning Italian and finding a place to live. Really really stupidly cool city.



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Picture if you will

Picture if you will

After Torino and with healthy bicycles under us we rode our longest day yet of 81 miles to a seriously uphill campground that was terribly hard to find. It was a long hot day. Another interesting aspect of camping on our trip, in the not quite on season, is that pretty much everywhere we have been they have offered hot showers, wifi, stores and restaurants, and other desirable items, but not most of them, not during the not quite on season. Hot showers often, sometimes coffees, almost none of the rest of those desirable services. Then again, we almost always had the camping to ourselves....
The next day, yesterday, we rode up in to the Alpes. It was not, fortunately, quite as intensely difficult or steep as we imagined. It was steep, of course, but luckily not quite as steep as the Giro hill we rode. Though it it was interesting to note that this pass road has also been a Giro stage in the past. We had great weather and a friendly breeze, and it wasn't until we were up over the top and almost the France that a tinkling of rain began. We rode down into the French side and found easy camping not on a hill just in time, after setting up camp and taking hot showers, for the thunderstorm to hit.
This morning we had hot coffees and croissants at our camp. Next, on towards Barcelona.


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Lately before now

Lately before now

I have had to leave a lot out on this wee blog, usually because so much happens of note, or because we don't have time to tap out words, and more often than that because we are putting in long days. Also, just as often, we don't have internet access. Hopefully I hit some highlights and some lowlights.
The Giro d'Italia stage that we saw was really an amazing event. It had a festival feel to it and being part of the crowd along the road and cheering the cyclists on was a lot of fun, despite it being cold, raining and us feeling on the verge of hypothermia. The side trip up around Cervinia for the stage was entirely worth the effort. Seeing other cyclists riding the same road that we had and wheezing, without trailers, made me feel like we had been crazy and a bit brave to do it with our towage. It wasn't until we were on our way back down the same road that I saw the gradient percentage signs of 15per cent. I wondered if they had taken the signs down on the uphill for the Giro so as not to demolish the racers spirits completely. On the way down it started to rain and just became more insistent as we rode. By the time we reached the camp we were soaked and it was just a matter of unblissfully setting up our tent, which was already soggy, and trying to keep every one of our belongings from becoming drenched. It rained and rained. We stayed in our tent almost the entire next day until the rain broke around dinner time. I read a book that day and moved on to another. It was not restful exactly, but it was a day of little movement. After that is when we headed on to Torino.


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Diet continued

Diet continued

I neglected to mention that we might as well have been sponsored by Gummi bear gummis (Das Original!) since we have each eaten our own body weight in gummis. We have also eaten more than our share of chocolat and marmalada croissants in the mornings along with manus tiny coffees.


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Pink

Giro, following the break

Giro

So much rain, Giro day

Giro horse play

Giro time

Pre Giro dreaming

Verona

Back in the beginning of Italy

Not always suffering (Croatia)

Maybe

Mind blowing and questions

More mind blowings. What?

France and over the Alps. At least at the top

1km to France and moments before the rain

Wheeze alps

Green

Up your Alps

Blowing minds around every corner, Italy

Alps attack

Last camp site in Italy before the Alps

The barking path balcony dogs

Installation of the missing piece. Miracle complete

Torino

Grazi

Torino

Torino

Blur oer miraculous Torino