A summary of events from Thursday to Sunday morning

It's been a very busy and difficult couple of days! It's been so frantic, and with not much cycling, the blog has been a little quiet. 

Thursday 31st August was supposed to be day 1 of our 14 day south to north ride though Italy. It started well, but only 50 miles in, unfortunately me and the van were in a car crash. I'm ok, just a little stiff, but the van is un-drivable  and has now been taken away. 

Originally we had planned to camp each night and cooking our own dinners where possible to keep costs down. Meanwhile I was going to drive the van on each day, which was fully loaded with all of camping gear, tents, cooking stuff and luggage. 

We now have a replacement car, which is great news, but We've had to make some massive changes to our plans and the challenge going forward for a number of reasons. 

1. It's very small. We can't fit the tents and camping gear in it. Suddenly our trip going forward has become very expense. If we were to carry on with original route it would mean staying every night in a different b&b/hotel/Airbnb, no camping no cooking for ourselves. 

2. Probably the most devastating to the trip - I don't want to drive!! The accident has really shaken me up. If I was at home I wouldn't want to drive and it's really hectic here, it's literally like real life mario carts. It's knocked my confidence and you have to be bold and confident here. Being hestitant causes accidents and I'm worried I'll be a danger on the roads. The boys have been very supportive and understanding. 

So. We have come up with a plan which keeps costs down, means we don't need a lot of kit, and means I don't have to get behind the wheel!

Essentially - we head north about 2/3rds of the way up Italy, and stay in the same spot for 5 nights. 

Staying many nights in one place gets you much better rates than just one night at a time. In terms of riding, the boys will take it in turn each day to plot a different route. This means they can actually do more miles a day as there is less admin for them, and it means I don't have to drive anywhere. 

We will then go further north for base ourselves somewhere in the Dolomites for a further 5 nights in the same place. 

The guys will try their best to rack up a similar mileage to what was

Promised. But what we can't do in milegaves they can make up for in brutality - spending 5 days solid with the same base inI the Dolomites means they can take on harder climbs and do more miles per day. 

The new plan does render me a little useless. I feel awful and like a rubbish spare part and I'm effectively now just on holiday. I guess I'll try and run a bit, earn some sponsorship that way, and do the cooking for them. 

We've got the next 5 nights booked, but the rest is all still liable to change. 

We've been planning this trip since January, working out every day's ride to minute detail so it's really upsetting to have just change things up so quickly. Plus all the hard work that's gone in to the van, customising it especially for this trip. And ask that horrible two days we spent getting the van here when we could have just flown and hired a car it turns out. We're all pretty gutted and deflated but hopefully we can salvage the trip and still carve out an epic trip. 

So on Thursday morning we had set out to travel 100 miles. But just 50 miles in I had a crash. The boys were at the top of Vesuvius at the time, and raced back down and around the mountain to wait with me until the van was recovered, the police checks carried out, and a taxi and replacement car organised. That all took about 5 hours, and the guys still had another 50 miles to do. 

They arrived in Mondragone at around 9pm, so it was a very long day for them. Having to route around Vesuvius a different way added an extra 10 miles, plus they were riding flat out. Then during the evening they cycled 50 miles, through Naples, in the dark. 

The next day, Saturday, we set about heading north in the car and by train. The bikes were dismantled and went in the car with James with as much baggage as possible. His drive was about 280 miles and took around 4 hours in total. Meanwhile, Jake, Steve and me got the train up to the nearest place possible to the villa we had booked in the rural countryside. We arrived at the train station an hour before James, so ordered lunch etc. The station was around 25 miles from the villa, so Jake and Steve cycled, while I hopped in the car with James. 

We arrived at our villa at around 6pm, and it is beautiful. It's in a very remote location in Tuscany, with no neighbours for at least a mile, and a beautiful view of the town of Petroio which looks like a giant castle on a hill at first glance, but is actually many little houses. 

James was disappointed about not having been on his bike for two whole days during a cycling trip, so went out for an hour or two once we'd unpacked, while Jake, Steve and me went to explore our little hamlet. 

We walked a mile or so into town, to find an open pub bar at the top of the tiny hamlet that looks like one castle, so we bought a few beers and enquired about restaurants. About 1.5 miles from our villa in the opposite direction it would seem. 

Once James had finished riding we walked to the restaurant and had what most of use described as the best pizza we'd ever had, along with a whole litre of wine for just 5 euros!

Amazing!

Here's the summary video of day's 2&3. Surprisingly it's not that interesting and I didn't record much!

Day 2&3

So now it's Sunday. This morning James, Steve and I went to the supermarket to get food for the next 4 days. Meanwhile, today is Jake's turn to plot a route. There is a lake to the east, which looks like a nice place to cycle round, and also a place called Bagni San Filippo which looks like some sort of cave, sulphur place. And some kind of hot spring too! Sounds pretty cool. It's about 60 miles in total but with a few hills in there too. 

And they're off!

It's 8.30 and I'm about to check out of our little apartment in Sorrento. I've just gone down with the boys to wave them off as they kick off the challenge with great air and style. Thankfully they decided to leave the air horn for another time as 7.30 was deemed too early for such a thing

Yesterday was equally as boring for me and james. We arrived in Sorrento last night at around 7pm, which meant after we'd unpacked we would have time to actually go for dinner and talk about how silly we all are for agreeing to do this for a third time! Rather than go exploring, we went to the restaurant downstairs, where jake and steve had already been for lunch. If it ain't broke don't try to fix it! So we really haven't seen much of Sorrento at all. This is the view from our apartment

Right. Time for me to head off. I'm a little nervous to be honest. The streets are very windy and narrow and there are lots of moped which seem to just go anywhere. The motorway driving etiquette is very different here than the England. In England you generally drive in the slowest lane possible and move over to overtake and then go back in. Here, you stay in the fastest lane possible, and when someone gets up your arse and wants to get past, you move over a lane then back out in to the fast lane once they have gone past. Great!

I'm also going to take longer routes and avoid the tolls. In not fun in a right hand drive!! 

Good morning from our ski resort in Turin!

It seems we have found the least fun thing to do on a holiday - spending 16 hours in a car. 

We decided to push on a little further last night, which should make today a little shorter - around 11 hours of driving rather than 13. If we arrive in Sorrento at about 7pm instead of about 9pm today it will make all the difference - we can go out for dinner with the boys and have a bit of an unwinding evening and maybe see some of Sorrento before the fun and games start tomorrow. 

Here's a plot of our route from yesterday! 868 miles of driving...

600 to go today!

Last year I did little summary videos of each day. I'll be doing the same this time round too. You can find them on my youtube channel if you search for Emma Salter. Yesterday's is day -1 and to label it as a "highlights" video would be misleading...!

Here's the link: 

day -1

It's 7.30 am and we are on the road again. We spent the night in a basic b&b in a ski resort at 1000m above sea level. We are frustratingly close to the finish point of Ciclismo Italia, and the hills look immense. We've just driven past Mount Blanc, it's behind me so I can't take a photo, but here's some other little hills. 

The sat nav says we'll be at the apartment in Sorrento at 5.30, but that's if we drive continuously. So maybe 6.30 if traffic is kind...

Meanwhile back in England, Jake and Steve have arrived at the airport and are ready to go!

Day minus 1; East bound and down

We're on our way across the Channel!

While the cycle challenge doesn't officially start for another two days, James and I have the job of getting the support vehicle to the start line. Sorrento is about 1,500 miles from Sidmouth, and we've got only two days to get there. 

We were up at 5am this morning, to catch the 1020 Eurotunnel. Annoyingly, we will lose an hour, and will arrive at Calais at 1200 French time. 

The plan for the rest of the day is to get as far south as we can, ideally just across the border in to Italy. I have a cheap hotel room booked in a small French town called Chambery, which is about an hour before the border. It was a lot of logistics trying to think how far we can get today, in order to make tomorrow not as horrid. Chambery is about 550 miles from Calais. 

I'm hoping we can get a little further though, and push a couple hours further to Turin. This would mean losing the non refundable hotel room in Chambery though and booking another one. The plan is to reassess later this evening and decide how much further we want to go. If we can make real progress and get meaningfully further than Chambery, I will get on booking.com and book somewhere else. I've had a little look this morning and there are plenty of rooms available. 

Just for context - In total today we would have driven almost the equivalent of going from Exeter to Edinburgh and back again!! Tomorrow's drive will take just as long through almost the whole of Italy. 

Where are Jake and Steve?

Hopefully planning an early night, as they are flying to Naples very early tomorrow morning and meeting us in Sorrento. The should hopefully be able to enjoy a day of sight seeing - visiting Pompeii and having a pizza in Naples where they were invented. I'll be giving them a shopping list though and getting them to check us in to our accommodation. Every hour will be precious to james and me tomorrow. 

For everyone who has been saying how lovely Sorrento is, and giving us recommendations for restaurants and things to do - optimistically we will arrive at 10pm tomorrow and will be up at 6am on Thursday to start this challenge off properly!!!

So what's changed from last year?

Free EU roaming. This will completely revolutionise the trip, if not for the boys then most definitely for me. In the past I would arrive at the lunch stop and have a vague sense of how long the boys would take to get to me, within a couple of hours or so. This meant I was very limited on what I could do. Now, I can text them, call them, watsapp them, and generally pester them by whatever means I like, for free!

We have all downloaded this app called Life360 so we can each see where the other three are. I think it's aimed at parents so they can track their children - perfect!

In the past I wrote these blogs as staying in touch with home was tricky, intermittent and costly. It enabled everyone we care about to have just one point of contact for updates, instead of us contacting people individually. Now that we're better connected though I'm not sure what place this blog has, but I will start with good intentions and see how I go. 

Sponsorship is rolling in!

So far we've raised over £200! I'm absolutely over the moon! Thank you everyone who has so far sponsored, this will no doubt spur the boys on through the next couple of months of training. 

Our trip is now just two months away, and we're busy putting the finishing touches together to the planning. The Eurotunnel is booked so James and I can drive the van down to the start point in Sorrento. Steve and Jake are finalising flight times and will have these booked soon. 

Training is going well. Steve has been over to Italy, and has risen some of the climbs - which is a fantastic scout out! Jake has been to Yorkshire and taken on some of the moors Up North. James has been doing his thing around Devon doing his "climbatron" and "climbathon" loops! Steve rode from London to Exeter last week too. Gedd'on boys!

James and I have written to a few companies to try and get sponsorship or support, and we're not getting very far. We've tried a few sports kit companies, as well as tyres. Last time we were able to secure a big discount from Brittany Ferries and some free on board dinner tokens. Eurotunnel sadly don't offer such discounts for charity trips. Maybe the boys can get better luck with their flights. We also had a big donation of stash from High 5 who gave us loads of energy gels and batter bottles, hopefully they can help us again :)

The MS Society have been in touch and are delighted that we have chosen to raise money for them again. They've spoken to us via email, on the phone and have sent us some advice in the post too. And some balloons!! Haha. As well as that they have given us some cycle jerseys, a running top for me, and some plain T shirts. Their branding has changed this year and the kit looked great. It's fantastic for us and the charity that we can really look the part. 

In the next few weeks I'm going to be contacting some local media outlets to see if we can make an appearance on local radio or tv to try and raise awareness for our charity. If anyone has any ideas of either corporate organisations who might want to give us stuff, or ways of raising awareness, please let me know. 

Here's James modelling our kit! 

 

  

It's on!

In 2014 we rode 1000 miles through France (http://lignedefrance.blogspot.co.uk/). It was epic. Last year we took on Spain (http://cyclismoespana2016.blogspot.co.uk/) and it was unrealistically hard. But as soon as the legs had recovered and the pain was replaced by rose tinted glasses, it's not a surprise that the boys wanted to start planning then obvious next challenge... Italy. Not completing a third Grand Tour is simply not an option.

Last year we raised over £3,500 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, which is amazing. They are close to a cure, and believe in my heart of hearts that it will be cured in my lifetime. That doesn't help me, or my family, or importantly my mum who has the secondary progressive form of the illness, but hopefully in the futures others won't have to go through what we go through. They are funding a 6 year third stage trial of a potentially break through drug. This is costing 6 billion pounds. We has set our target at £3,000; £1,000 per rider. You can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ciclismo-italia or text "CIMS50 £2" to 70070 to donate £2. Or substitute for however much you want to give.

So who's cycling this year? It's the exact same line up as last year - James Salter, Steve Hackett and Jake Cope. Hopefully they'll be using the summer to get ride ready.

This year's challenge: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/21358471  is 14 days long, including a rest day in Venice. We start in Sorrento and finish at Stelvio. It's around 1000 miles, so around 75 miles per day and around 62,000 feet of climbing including Italy's highest road. We will start at the end of August 2017.

You can follow our journey on this blog, and on our facebook page.

Thank you for your support - we're all very excited!

Emma