Climbing 70,000+ feet in a week

[dbnm]

Wanna do 70k feet of climbing in a week? In Italy?

Here you go

https://www.studiovelocycling.com/italy-2020-itinerary

[JAGI410]

I don't even wanna do 70,000 feet in a lifetime! That's nuts!

[Mr. Pink]

I just spent nearly a month in the center of that route. Three weeks at an AirB&B in Siena and three days at La Foce down in the Val d'Orcia, with a car all the time. Made it down to Spoleto and Trevi in Umbria, so, kinda Marche. Glad I didn't bring a bike, because it rained 70% of the time. But, yeah, covered a ton of territory, and there is not much that's flat at all. If you lived in Chianti, you'd be hard pressed to do less than 4000 ft in 30-35 miles.
Incredibly beautiful, if it isn't raining. Even when it is. Love that country.

[Clean39T]

That is my dream vacation......in every way.......

[zmalwo]

That's two and half mountain Everests.

[mhespenheide]

Put up the money and convince the grandparents to watch the newborn and I'm there. Absolutely.

[Steve in SLO]

Dream week for sure.

[Octave]

Wanna do 70k feet of climbing in a week? In Italy?

Here you go

https://www.studiovelocycling.com/italy-2020-itinerary
Steep places are steep. I'll be doing a four-day bikepack across Corsica starting on Friday. Not a single day with less than 10,000ft of elevation. The second day alone is 13,500+ feet. Total will be just over 45,000. If I had another 3 days to kill it'd be the same as above. Little gears and "settling in" to a rhythm are the keys to big climbs.

[martl]

Wanna do 70k feet of climbing in a week? In Italy?

Here you go

https://www.studiovelocycling.com/italy-2020-itinerary

Beautiful ride, i know a few of those roads.. but, ouch, that's gotta hurt. I find it is a lot easier to do sizeable elevations in just 1-2 *big* climbs a day, instead of doing the old up-and-down all day long. Well, Tuscany, Emilio Romagna, Marche, is where they invented the latter :D
Hefty pricetag for a week... i paid as much for a 30 day trip thrugh Bhutan once...

[kohagen]

“It’s a gem of a climb, with a maximum gradient of 22%”. Ouch!

[echelon_john]

I mentioned there's a discount for Paceliners, right? : )

www.luccavacationhome.com

[Bostic]

Who did the 32k' Strava challenge back in August 2015 to get to be able to buy the Strava Orange Giro Synthe helmet? This reads like that condensed into a week (albeit with great scenery). Four years, time for me to toss out that helmet too. :bike:

[sparky33]

Wanna do 70k feet of climbing in a week? In Italy?


Is this a fun trip? Or is it ride, eat, sleep, repeat?

While I feel pretty good about lots of climbing, I would probably stop having fun or feeling good after a couple days of that kind of elevation and distance. That said, I've never attempted it. The terrain looks incredible.

[tv_vt]

That is a pretty self-selecting tour. Gotta be really really fit and really $$ well off.

Guess I'm not going.:rolleyes:

[unterhausen]

I have done 39000' of climbing in 4 days. It gets a bit tiring.
This year, I did 36000 (according to rwgps) in 3 days. Parts of it were brutal

[AngryScientist]

Is this a fun trip? Or is it ride, eat, sleep, repeat?

While I feel pretty good about lots of climbing, I would probably stop having fun or feeling good after a couple days of that kind of elevation and distance. That said, I've never attempted it. The terrain looks incredible.

ding ding.

i really love cycling, but let me tell you: if i'm going to spend the $$ and time to go over the pond to italy, i want to soak in the culture, the food, the wine, the nightlife.

i want to do fun challenging shorter rides, then enjoy myself. i dont think a bunch of really heavy days in a row are going to allow one to enjoy the other aspects of european travel beyond cycling.

does look fun though!

[sparky33]

I have my eye on this Torino-Nice trip: https://www.ridebikeseatfood.com/alps-road.html

It's road alps, 373m, 37,000 for the week. That's about my appetite for a week.
I did a gravel trip with them and loved the creations of Chef Zander and Heidi's cycling camp attitude.

[homagesilkhope]

Looks like inexperience and excess run rampant, if you ask me. A dubious way to spend a week and a lot of soldi in Italy.

[Mr. Pink]

ding ding.

i really love cycling, but let me tell you: if i'm going to spend the $$ and time to go over the pond to italy, i want to soak in the culture, the food, the wine, the nightlife.

i want to do fun challenging shorter rides, then enjoy myself. i dont think a bunch of really heavy days in a row are going to allow one to enjoy the other aspects of european travel beyond cycling.

does look fun though!

My thoughts, too. I mean, you'd be watching Italy go by, but you would have zero interaction with the culture and people, because it would be ride, eat, sleep. I mean, you can do that anywhere, right? But, your friends might say, hey, how's Italy, and your response would be, nice roads. Not much else. I guess that's ok, there's a lot of people who travel all that way just to get selfies next to famous places, without even going inside. Really. I know one.

I could have shipped a bike, set things up, planned some rides, and it may have been great, although my girlfriend would be waving goodbye. But, I figured, ride a ton before I leave, and enjoy Italy while I'm there. You can see so much more with a car. And, lucky me, I would have been riding in the rain a lot. Which, you have to do in these point to point day rides. Trust me, it was miserable at times. But, museums and restaurants are fine in the rain.

Man, the food is great.

[vqdriver]

nope

Wanna do 70k feet of climbing in a week?

[Octave]

I have to disagree with the "ride/eat/sleep/repeat" being a poor way to experience a culture. Most of my bikepacking trips (Marseille to Milan through the alps, Marseille to Stockholm via France/Belgium/Netherlands/Germany/Denmark/Sweden, etc. etc.) average about 180km/day with 2500-3500 meters of climbing. I get on the road early (6h30 usually), which means I get to experience both town and countryside without people, then I usually stop for a nice lunch, chat with locals in small towns, finish my riding around 3-4pm depending on the day. After a shower (or swim) and sometimes a short nap, I'll head out and explore whatever village/city/forest I'm in until 7-8pm, have dinner (often with local people), wander the town, see some sights and take some pictures, then sleep.

I've met fascinating people, seen incredible places, gone into 2000 year old churches and wandered art galleries, eaten pizza in Torino and Falafel in the north african quarter of Brussels, planted trees with activists outside of Gottenburg, Sweden and picked apples in Latvia. The key is to know your fitness, make interesting plans, be open to talking to strangers, keep a book with you for easy translations, and know when to put down a foot and take it in.

Everyone has different travel experiences, but having done many 10+ day trips of this nature, I can assure you it's not "watching the country pass you by"

[martl]

truth in that, but it's a completely different thing to do such a ride on your own, or in an organized group. Not saying it can't be done, but it is *much* harder.

[Octave]

truth in that, but it's a completely different thing to do such a ride on your own, or in an organized group. Not saying it can't be done, but it is *much* harder.
Yes, it takes a lot of work but also an attitude of adventure and exploration. I'm getting on a ferry to Corsica tonight for a four day bikepack. I have probably spent a combined 30 hours staring at maps and doing research for what will be about 750km. I still have no idea where I'm eating, but that's part of the adventure, right? For those longer trips I start planning and mapping about 6 months out and put hundreds of hours into it. Flexibility and a sense of adventure are the keys.

[martl]

what i meant was: It takes a huge effort, and may not be possible at all, to do that kind of "exploring" travelling you describe (which i love too) when in an organized group.

I always felt planning bike trips for myself to be comparatively easy. Getting good maps and being aware of the own capabilities riding-wise (="i'm comfortable with 2000m elevation and up to 120km/day" or the like), then in many areas the route plans itself.

[djg]

70,000 feet? Sure, I'll take double that in a month or so. Just give me a 5-day lift ticket and an airlines that won't charge extra for the ski bag.

[merlinmurph]

Well, in my lifetime (65), I have never been in good enough shape to pull off a week like that. It would be a great trip if one had the legs. Kinda reminds me of a ski trip when it keeps dumping and every day is a powder day - ski, eat, sleep, repeat.

There's some pretty nasty days. 80ish miles with 13000+ feet of climbing. Wow. Wish I could.

[93KgBike]

The wife looked at the website, looked at me, and said, "yes, but not with the kids... yet." :D

[marciero]

I think I'm going to ask Octave to plan my next trip ; )

It's not letting the country pass you by, it's experiencing the country in a different way.

[muz]

I am in good enough shape to ride this, but I have a problem with the cost. Considering how many hours would be spent riding and sleeping, it would be tough for me to justify the high cost for the remaining hours.

For comparison, I am considering riding this: https://www.1001migliaitalia.it/en/route-2020/

It's a 1600 km event, with "only" 55,000 ft of climbing, over 4 or 5 days, but is probably equally hard considering that the last 400 kms are flat. Yet the cost to ride it is 250 euros, not including food and lodging costs. I think I would be hard pressed to spend 1000 euros in my non-riding hours if I tried.

If I wanted to take things more slowly, I could credit-card tour Switzerland and Italy at a much lower cost per day, not stuck to someone else's schedule.

[unterhausen]

My wife wants to go to Italy. I told her I wanted to ride the Miglia and she said that wasn't her idea of a trip to Italy

[Mr. Pink]

Cost is also a big factor. In this age of AirB&B, I could do well over two months in Europe in nice apartments for that price. (Dont forget to include the tip, btw. A 7000 dollar bike package should run you about a thousand in gratuities, right?)

[PaMtbRider]

Cost is also a big factor. In this age of AirB&B, I could do well over two months in Europe in nice apartments for that price. (Dont forget to include the tip, btw. A 7000 dollar bike package should run you about a thousand in gratuities, right?)

I personally think a $1000 gratuity would be way to much. Figure a group size of 12 and they all give $1000 tip. $12,000 divided by 2 guides would be $6000 apiece for a weeks work on top of any actual pay they might get. A couple hundred buck per guide seems more reasonable to me, but maybe I'm cheap.

[Mr. Pink]

I wouldn't want to be your waiter, waitress, or bartender.

Doubt any of these people are paid well, and they provide an awesome service, from what I can see. A thousand is less than fifteen percent.

If I was rich, I'd sign up for a few if these week packages every year. To me, total luxury. Just show up with shoes and helmet and ride, no worries. A friend did a Trek tour, and it sounded awesome. But, I'm not rich. I can do a whole lot more with 5-7000 dollars than one week of cycling.

[merlinmurph]

Is it pricey? Yup. But it's also in line with the prices for tours with Backroads, a high-end touring company. The accomodations for these tours are *ahem* quite nice, and the meals are over the top, too. You simply can't compare it to an AirBnB. Wish I could swing it, but I would go for something more basic.
To each, his/her own.