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#16
08-05-2019, 09:19 AM
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I would bring my own bike, or at least, maybe, rent from a place at which I had third-party knowledge. I had planned to rent an Open U.P. from Base Camp, a shop in Talloires, France, about an hour south of Geneva. They road bikes and gravel bikes, including Open U.P./UPPER and the 3T Exploro. I contacted them back in April, explained what I wanted, made a reservation, consulted with them on the size: An XL frame would be best for me. They offer a choice of pedals and will swap out stems to suit. I was psyched to do an extended test ride on serious gravel on a superb gravel bike. Then we arrived at the shop at noon on a Sunday, expecting to grab the bike, do a little fitting, and be on our way--we still had another 4 hours to drive. The young guys at the shop told me that they did not have an Open U.P. in an XL. They did not have any other gravel bikes in my size at the moment. Not only that, they never had an Open U.P. in an XL. I showed them my confirmation from their reservation system, which was confusing to them. But I had confirmed my rental with one of the co-founders. The young guys at the shop were extremely nice and apologetic. They put me on the phone with the other co-founder, who was equally apologetic, and at a loss to explain the actions of his partner or the reservation system. The shop guys then spent two hours with me, finding a bike that sort of fit, mounting bigger tires, SPD pedals, and a longer stem. The only bike they had that would take decent-sized rubber was a Felt VR2, on which they mounted new Donnelly USH in 35mm. Nice tires, but not tubeless, and therefore had to be inflated to 5 bar, or 72.5 psi, much higher than my brother's GravelKing SK 38s, which he runs tubeless at about 35 psi. This bike was super-light, had Ultegra Di2, an 11-34 cassette with a 50/34 crankset in front, and disk brakes. Better than a skinny-tired road bike, which would have forced us to change our itinerary completely; that shop doesn't rent mountain bikes; and it was Sunday afternoon in France--tout fermé. But the Felt was a size 56 frame, and I take at least a 58. In the end, I made it work, but not without some cramping in the hamstrings and lower leg muscles. With more apologies from the shop guys, a free sandwich, and a discount on my rental fee, we rolled south. 
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#17
08-05-2019, 09:29 AM
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__________________
Bike lives matter!
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#18
08-05-2019, 10:00 AM
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What would I do differently? I would bring a bike with 650b x 47mm tires, or at least something in the 40s. Tubeless with nice cushy inflation pressures. At times my brother and I wished for lower gearing. Mostly this was for the long steep climbs, where you're wishing you had just one more cog to drop down into. But lower gearing would really come in handy on the rougher gravel sections, where you have to use a lot of low-end torque to power through something. Both the Felt that I rode and my brother's bike, a Silex Merida 7000, had Ultegra gruppos with 50/34 in front and 11-34 in back. At times a 36-tooth cog in back would've been nice.
This I'd never ridden an electronic groupset before. Once I got used to it, the Ultegra Di2 performed beautifully. Tap once on the Down lever to downshift, and I found that if you hold down the lever, you can change multiple gears in one go. The only thing the Di2 refused to do was find me a bigger cog than 34, as I tried multiple times when riding in the heat and switchbacks, having lost track of what gear I was in.  My brother gave me strict instructions to bring both a rain jacket and a wind jacket, because mountain weather can change in an instant and hypothermia sucks. I wanted a place to stash these items, and I didn't want a backpack--I like to keep my jersey breezy. The Apidura 4-liter racing frame pack is very well made, super-light, and fastens tightly--no shaking about. It's also quite pricey. I didn't like having to reach around it for my water bottle, but I got used to it. There are other frame bags that are straighter and narrower, such as the Ortlieb or maybe the Revelate Tangle, and may interfere a little less with the bottles. Water: I wanted to bring a third bottle. If I'd had my act together, I would have ordered a 2- to 4-liter seatbag to hold the jackets so I could put another bottle in the frame bag, but I ran out of time. I picked up the Oveja Negra snack pack to hold food and liberate space in my jersey pockets for the third bottle. Yes, every town and hamlet and crossroads has a water source, a fountain with free-flowing spring water. It's awesome. The only time we absolutely needed a third bottle was on our first day, up to the Col de Parpaillon. I read somewhere that people doing the Torino-Nice rally thought of themselves as carrying full water bottles from one place to another, but I don't quite believe it. If there was a mechanical or some other issue I had to walk for several kilometers in the heat, I'd want more water.
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#19
08-05-2019, 10:19 AM
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The rental fee was €450 before the discount, or about $500. It was an 8-day rental, and I figured this was on par for what a lot of shops in the USA charge for a day rate for a premium bike. I don't know about other shops, because not many of them rent gravel bikes. Base Camp is likely the only shop in the small town of Talloires, although Annecy probably has a bunch. And it was Sunday afternoon in France. I could've gone with this outfit, which will deliver, and rents 2017 Scott Addict gravel bikes, https://alps-bike-rental.com/carbon-...-geneva-annecy, but I'd read that the Addict is stiff, and I really wanted to test ride the OPEN. The Scott would saved me some euros and a lot of frustration, but I had my eye on something newer and shinier.
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#21
08-05-2019, 04:01 PM
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__________________
Bike lives matter!
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#22
08-05-2019, 04:45 PM
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  My trip was all my brother's planning--all I had to do was show up and ride. And drive--I did more than my share of driving, and after a day of climbing and descending switchbacks, to then have to spend another 1.5-2 hours negotiating twisties is challenging. Having a van driver would be a very nice thing. We did one ride that velotel is featuring in his September Tour: Colle Fauniera and the Altopiano della Gardetta (that post is coming--day five for me). We wanted to do Strada dell' Assietta, in Hank's August Tour, but we got rained out. Quote:
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#23
08-05-2019, 05:37 PM
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Day 4: Rest day in La Morra
Day Four in La Morra began with a drive the afternoon before, followed by dinner at Osteria Veglio. My brother wanted us to spend a full rest day, with two nights in one hotel, with possibly an easy spin to keep the legs moving. La Morra is in the Barolo region of Piedmont.
After breakfast at the hotel, our rest day began with a winery visit at 9:00 a.m. I accused my brother of devising a rest day schedule that was more challenging than the col-hunting days, but he waved me off. The tour at Trediberri was incredible: Three Norwegians, two Danes, two Americans (us), and Nicola, our high-energy enthusiastic young winemaker. Right away he led us into the vineyards, plunging steeply downhill, while he talked about vine training, trimming, why he gave up spraying herbicides, the three main clones of Nebbolio, hail, insects, phylloxera and five other pests, downy mildew vs. powdery mildew, sun and vineyard aspect, the age of his vines in different sites... all while the hot sun was beating down with no breeze moving the air. Nicola pulled up some grass by the roots to show us the moisture in the soil, and gave us a crash course in grape farming. After more than an hour, we retreated to the tasting room, where we sampled a half-dozen Barolo and Langhe nebbiolo wines from the bottle: Incredibly bright, high-acid wines, high in ABV, but not overpowering or fruit bomby like one would expect from a West Coast wine with >14% alcohol. We swirled and spat, but there is some absorption through the mucous membranes: Barolo for breakfast. It was too hot for a ride, so after lunch at More e Macine we walked around the town, napped and watched the end of Stage 18 of the TdF. Then dinner at Osteria i Rebbi in Monforte d'Alba. Summary: Barolo for breakfast, barbera for lunch, Langhe nebbiolo for dinner. Pics: -Dinner on the deck on the evening of Day Three at Osteria Veglio -Barolo at Osteria Veglio -Squash blossom fritter stuffed with meat -Looking up at La Morra from the Trediberri vineyard -Nicola (in pink) holding forth -Lunch at More e Macine: Underneath that piece of toast is a Bavarese of funghi--it's like a flan or a pudding, this one made of mushrooms. One of the best things we had. -Ravioli del plín at More e Macine -Panorama from the town square in La Morra. Just about every hilltop has another town on it, sometimes with a castle or a tower.
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#25
08-05-2019, 10:03 PM
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Which side was Friebe talking about—from Pradleves? There are three ways up: https://www.cycling-challenge.com/co...ra-and-beyond/ We went from Ponte Marmora, which has fewer sections at 9% or greater. It’s shorter, at just 21 km, vs. 22.6 or 25 km for the other sides. I don’t recall it being any more of a beast than the three preceding days of climbing: It was long, it was hot, it was steep. Michael just turned 60 and I’m 56. We stopped for water and pictures, we stopped to let the occasional car overtake, we stopped when we needed to so the heart rate could go down. When I’m riding in Vermont I don’t stop on the climbs—my friends and I keep going till the top. OTOH, the climbs aren’t that long—7 km vs. 20+. Stopping is good when you need to.
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#26
08-05-2019, 10:16 PM
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#27
08-05-2019, 10:43 PM
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 Seriously, I’ve only done the east side once—the side with the steepest paved mile in the lower 48. And that was after riding App Gap. The west side of Lincoln Gap is less crazy, although there is a good dirt section.
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#29
08-06-2019, 05:38 PM
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__________________
Bike lives matter!
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#30
08-06-2019, 06:32 PM
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Day 5: Colle Fauniera and the Altipiano della Gardetta
Day Five: We rode from Ponte Marmora. There are three sides to climb the Colle Fauniera, also known as Colle dei Morti, for an 18th century massacre of Franco-Spanish troops by Savoyard soldiers. The Ponte Marmora side and the Pradleves side both first reach the Colle Esischie at 2366 meters, and then it's another 1.4 km up to the Colle Fauniera at 2481 meters, where there is a Gollum-like statue of Marco Pantani.
From there, riding through what feels like a keyhole in the rock (no pics), it's another 2 km of pavement to the Colle Valcavera, and then we left the pavement and entered the Altipiano della Gardetta, a high plateau of gravel splendor. This day rivaled and perhaps outdid the Tenda day for beauty, wilderness, and all-around gravel biking awesomeness. We cruised along 17 kilometers of unpaved road above 2000 meters, sometimes rough, sometimes buttery smooth from clay deposits. Trying not to crash from gawking at the views. We did not pursue the Colle della Gardetta because that would have been another 2 km there and 2 km back, it was getting late, and we still had to drive another 2 hours. We ran into a group of Brits bikepacking the Torino-Nice Rally, who were on their way to a rifugio for the night, and a beer! as one of them said. They had just come up the paved Colle del Preit, which we were about to descend, and which seemed a lot steeper than the way we went up: https://www.cyclingcols.com/col/Preit At the Colle del Preit, where there is an agriturismo, the pavement resumes. This was fantastic descent, until I leaned my rental bike over a little too far in a tight hairpin, the front wheel washed out, and I went down. I gave up a little skin on my knee etc.: The mountain giveth, the mountain taketh away. Just 52.4 km total distance and 1609 meters elevation gain. But those numbers don't mean that much. Cols: Esischie, Fauniera, Valcavera, Bandia, Margherina, Cologna, Salsias Blancias, Preit. Pics: -Climbing below treeline -Climbing above treeline -Signs indicating the average slope for each kilometer, and the remaining distance to the top. The sections on at least one other side of the Fauniera are named for famous cyclists; I think Buchet is a nearby peak. -the brothers and spooky Marco -Looking across the plateau at that huge scree-filled couloir -Looking west at the smooth clay section near the Colle Cologna -Looking back east along the ridge with the clay deposits, at the Rocca la Meja, which dominates this plateau. This was from short hike-a-bike to tag the Colle Salsas Blancias. -The road stretches north -Another view of the magnificent coxcomb of the Rocca la Meja -Michael at Colle del Preit -Descending the Preit, a closer look at the scree-filled couloir -The switchbacks of the upper Preit. The second one is where I left a little DNA on the asphalt.
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