Riding/training in Tuscany

GeorgeShaw

I've just come back from a week in Northern Tuscany and thought I'd share what a great time I had there.

7 of us shared a villa in a small village above Barga in the Garfagnana, 35km north of Lucca. The local countryside is stunning with plenty of small relatively traffic free roads. There's plenty of variety to chose from, so you can do flat routes or climb over 1000 metres to the Appenine passes.

We also found a great guide, Jeremy Higgs (http://cyclingitalia.com/Home.html), who lives just outside of Barga and took us on some brilliant rides.

The food's great and pretty cheap as well - the region also has close ties to Scotland for some reason, so we heard some broad Scottish accents in the most unlikely of places.

This place is ideal for a relaxing cycling holiday or for a serious training camp that's not in one of the usual places - and easy travel via Pisa. We're already talking about booking up for next year.

Pep

http://cyclingitalia.com/about_us.html
why paying for a stranger (pardon, a "guide") to cycle with you is beyond me...

Sickbed

I guess it's a bit like paying for someone else to stop you making wrong turns in a language you don't know ;-)

GeorgeShaw

Pep wrote:

http://cyclingitalia.com/about_us.html
why paying for a stranger (pardon, a "guide") to cycle with you is beyond me...

It's for the local knowledge. For example, in the valley there are some quite busy roads, but often they "shorten" the old roads. So you can avoid them mostly, but to do that you need to know where to go at all of the junctions. The maps are not so good, and you'd be looking at them every few minutes. That's not a problem out the valley, but then it's worth paying to find the best routes, and the ones that are paved ... some marked roads aren't.

Then the guide also knows where the best cafes are, and where to find the water fountains ... you'll need them.

I know what you mean but, when the cost was split between 7 of us, it was well worth paying.

Pep

Well, I can't argue with your final statement. If you pay for something and at the end are satisfied then nothing wrong.

I payd for a guide for high altitude ice/rock climbing as I wanted to do things that done on my own, or even with very expert friends, would have put lives at risk.

But paying for a cycling guide I would not do it. Not even if I was a millionaire.

FJS

Whatever the views on guided cycling, agree that the Garagnana is a lovely part of Italy, with some excellent riding, including some very very serious climbs (did you do the San Pellegrino?).

BettyLeeds

Not only do you get loads of local knowledge with a guide, but a good one keeps you moving and makes sure that everyone in the group gets the best from the rides. Instead of spending all day staring at maps or Garmins, finding rides too hard or too easy. Isn't that expensive and makes the most of your hard earned holiday! Recommended

andymiller

Pep wrote:

http://cyclingitalia.com/about_us.html
why paying for a stranger (pardon, a "guide") to cycle with you is beyond me...

Because they know the area? Maps don't tell you which roads are used by big eff-off lorries, and IME even Kompass topographic maps don't distinguish very well between surfaced and unsurfaced roads.

No you won't put lives at risk, but possibly waste lots of time and energy.

Steve Worland

I've become a great believer in guides for foreign lands. Jeremy at cyclingitalia.com is one of the best I've experienced for road riding. If we'd been there on our own it would have been constant stopping at junctions and lots of great quiet roads routes and great cafes missed. £10 a day each very well spent.

GeorgeShaw

FJS wrote:

Whatever the views on guided cycling, agree that the Garagnana is a lovely part of Italy, with some excellent riding, including some very very serious climbs (did you do the San Pellegrino?).

We turned down the San Pellegrino. The direct route was described to us as "f*****g evil", with one section being 12% average over 3 or 4 kms with 25% ramps. We considered the easy way up, but in the end our long day was a trip to the coast to see the (neutralised) Giro stage. 190km and >2500m of climbing - although most of the latter was only 5-6%. The 500m climb to the villa at the end of the day in darkness was "interesting" though.

Pep

Guys,
I don't argue with you about cycling guides. But I just I'm very surprised they even exist. I rode in the far east where I could not even read the characters of the language, before gps and online maps, true it took a little effort to find routes and places etc., but not much.

BettyLeeds wrote:

but a good one keeps you moving

This I don't understand: a rider needs a guide to keep moving?
Never mind.

andymiller

Pep wrote:

Guys,
I don't argue with you about cycling guides. But I just I'm very surprised they even exist. I rode in the far east where I could not even read the characters of the language, before gps and online maps, true it took a little effort to find routes and places etc., but not much.

BettyLeeds wrote:

but a good one keeps you moving

This I don't understand: a rider needs a guide to keep moving?
Never mind.

You've never gone down a road thinking it would be quiet and it turns out it's not. Or gone past somewhere and realised later it would have been worth the detour, or made a detour only to find that it wasn't worth trouble, or realised later that there was a better route you could have taken? I seriously doubt it.

And thinking about the area you ride in. There must be some routes that are better than others, that you've found out about over the years. Would they all be obvious to a stranger with only a map? Again, I doubt it.

The point about keeping moving was about stops to check maps.