After a long time....

Have you wondered where I've been? I know, no updates since late August. There's a simple reason: I DID NOT RIDE AT ALL. Issues, life twists, life hacks... no time, a radical change on my life scheduling and, of course, the winter time, simply kept me off the saddle. Today I fired up the mighty RF, took it for a very very very small spin (mostly a test ride, to see everything is ok)... and tomorrow I'll ride to an event. So I can say I am about to be back. I look forward to the upcoming season. Got a lot of good ideas for my long, lonely, twisty, restless rides... the essence of this blog and my life on the saddle.

Vi siete chiesti dove sono stato? Lo so, nessuno aggiornamento da fine agosto. C'è una semplice ragione: NON SONO ANDATO IN MOTO. Problemi vari, casini della vita, attacchi alla mia tranquillità, mancanza di tempo, un cambiamento radicale dell'agenda della mia vita e, naturalmente, l'inverno, mi hanno semplicemente tenuto lontano dalla sella. Oggi ho acceso la mitica RF, l'ho portata a fare un giretto piccolissimo (più che altro un test per vedere se è tutto ok)... e domani andrò ad un raduno. Posso quindi dire che sono quasi tornato. Guardo con ottimismo alla stagione che sta per cominciare. Ho un sacco di idee per i miei giri lunghissimi in solitaria, in mezzo alle curve, senza riposo... praticamente l'essenza di questo blog e della mia vita su due ruote.

+2, 30, -1

Well well well. My mate (who doesn't really live in the next town) arrived yesterday, after a 600 km ride on the corners. He did some east side exploring and he notice we have 2 more passes (updated table below). +2 so they are 30! And then, well, weather permitting, the blast shall be TOMORROW. We plan to leave by 04:00am. -1 During the trip I'll try to post few entries. But I won't have much time. Must syncronize fueling, with pissing, with drinking, with blogging. Ain't that easy.

Bene: il mio compagno di avventura, che non vive alla porta accanto, è arrivato ieri dopo un giro di 600km (di curve). Ovviamente ha fatto un po' di esplorazione della zona est del giro, e ha notato che ci sono altri 2 passi minori nel tragitto (vedi tabella aggiornata sotto). +2 quindi sono 30! E poi, beh, tempo permettendo, la cosa si fa DOMANI. Partenza verso le 04:00am. -1 Durante il giro, postero' qualche entry con qualche foto... forse.... non è che abbiamo poi tanto tempo. Praticamente devo sincronizzare rifornimento, con reidratazione, con pisciate, con email al blog. Sarà dura. :-)

30 no more / Non più il 30

It rains. It always rain. And when it doesn't, I am busy, or a storm is approaching, or rain is somewhere else (usually where I have to go to). So I cannot really do any training :-( Then there's work. Guess when I got a very important deal signature scheduled for? June 30th. Fuck it. New CdT date will be posted soon.

Piove. Piove sempre. E quando non piove, sono occupato, oppure sta per arrivare un temporale, o una tromba d'aria... oppure piove dove devo andare io (tipo sulle Dolomiti). Proprio non c'è verso di fare un po' di training per l'impresa :-( Poi c'è il lavoro. Immaginate quando ho un appuntamento MOLTO importante per la firma di un contratto? Il 30 Giugno! Fanculo. La nuova data del CdT la renderò nota il più presto possibile.

Step ahead & CdT 2009 day

Ordered OIL & whatever I need to service the old lady.

Agreed with workshop for a new chain + set of sprockets.

And we got a date (which can change still, but won't be much earlier nor much after this):

June 23rd 2009

Route will be basically 2008 one, with few changes. Details in next weeks.

Let there be light

Just a little fact:
this morning, at 0700am I noticed it was actually pretty light out there. Days are definitely getting longer faster & faster.... and we all know what this means......... :-)

TOMORROW.

Bikes are both filled up & ready to rock. We loaded all we need (maps, camera, water, whatever).

We should be leaving at 0500am, say in 10 hs

26 AUG 2008: NEW DAY, NUOVA DATA, NUEVA FECHA

Just a reminder....... :-)

NEW DATE / NUOVA DATA: 26 Aug 2008

So here we are. Sitting in front of a computer rather than being lost somewhere in the alps.

My buddy really couldn't make it. I was the 1st one telling him we should not. So no problem: TOMORROW is the new day.

RIDE DAY MOVED AHEAD!

My buddy was caught on traffic and made it here TOO late to be ready to leave early tomorrow. SO we moved the ride to the day after, Tuesday August 26th.

We could skip the thunders awaited for tomorrow afternoon in the alps....

1 to go... TOMORROW

NO CLOUDS on sky. Sun, warm. Lovely day.

I hope it lasts....

2 days to BLAST!

Just filled up the bike to the very very very top. Loaded 20.04 liters out of the 21 liters capacity ;)
WOW

Later I'll lube chain, clean the bike a bit, check tire pressure, load the bag.

My buddy is reaching me at my place tomorrow.

Ah: on a side note, a thunderstorm is approaching as I type this! This image taken from a web cam 15 km from my place says it all:

3 days to go...

my bike only needs a fill up, chain lube and tire pressure check.....

4 days to go...

Weekend approaching.
We're about to start! 4 days!

Yesterday I adjusted my bike carburettors, to prevent a too rich mixture on higher passes (and we got a few!).

What about weather? :-)
Well, Paranoia is now an endless spiral of madness..... :-)

Here the forecast, foreseen today:

5 days to go...

I am training in these days. Yesterday 8 passes, 350km.
The more I ride around, the more I think the limit isn't time, but our strength.
In the beginning I thought we cannot make it, just impossible to do it from 0500am to say 11pm. But after having ridden hard in these days, I see WE CAN DO IT. I can do 350km of mountain in 5 hours easily. Multiply 3 and we're about in the figures, with still 3hs left.

What puzzles me is WILL WE BE ABLE TO RIDE STOPLESS SO LONG?

That's the real challenge.

Bikes are being checked. Today I check carburettors as over 2200mt height it gets too rough. Also I wanna balance carburettors. My buddy is servicing it and have MOT done too.

Today I'll just test ride the bike after what I've to do, and probably won't ride it till monday (the day). I'll just quickly ride it to nearby gas station on sat, to fill it up to the very top.

6 days to go....

tick tack - tick tack..... time is tickin' away....

we're pretty nervous. I mean, this is really a challenge.
It's been done before, but the group of riders who did it, set a 24h limit, had a real lunch break, and they were a dozen of bikes.

Yesterday we evaluated a slight change on the route. But in the end we dropped it.
Anyway, out of the original route, we'd cut STEPS from 23 to 27 and add an alternative route in between. We'd cut 89 km but add 128. Almost 40km more.... total 1174km. We DON'T really need it.

Just for the fun of it, here the modified part:

7 days to go....

In exactely one week, at this time of the day, we will be somewhere in the high mountains.

The pre-ride-tension is growin' on us.
My buddy, who's also a hardcore marathon runner, claims he feels like that BEFORE that ride, with that feeling "you cannot make it". But then he did.

Today weather's is precious, still a little cold for the season, but nice.

Wish we're getting this next week.

8 days to go

Blog has all the info uploaded.

You can see the route, the maps, whatever.

Now it's just 8 days to go.

Starting all shaman/magic/voodoo rites to have SUN on the day and the day before as well (to make sure we will find dry roads).