Day 17: Forno di Zoldo to Bovec, 272km
Slovenia! I've escaped Italy. Roman is very kindly letting me crash his family holiday too, so beers and BBQ tonight.
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| Incredibly, Luka was even more excited than I was about the prospect of me sleeping inside on a real bed tonight! He got a go on the bike up and down the road with his Dad the next day too. |
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| New sticker time! |
The trail was... Frustrating again. 150km until the first decent bit (it was excellent, mind, from Sauris), other than just short gravelled sections over summits; more illegal routes and no entry signs; and a 45km detour to avoid a construction site; and then an absurdly difficult bit of single track that belongs on an Enduro course.
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| Start of my day |
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| More closed sections. Sign says "forbidden for all motorised vehicles" |
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| Not much the linesman can do about this one: massive hydroelectric construction works half-way along the trail. Oh well, only a 45km re-trace and diversion... |
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| I'm told the view is stunning! |
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| 14 hairpin switchbacks in the space of 235 metres! |
Overall, I have to say I'm glad Italy is over, even though my best day so far was from Turin to Lake Maggiore. I'll collect some further thoughts on Italy and France together in another post.
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| Absurdly difficult trails. I already had my doubts about this section after it started out narrow, with a precipice edge, and some big rocks to navigate. When I got here though, I stopped and turned around because I knew I would never get back up this slope. My bike is horizontal in this photo... |
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| Unfortunately, all those motorway miles had done this to the Michelin Competition Enduro VI tyre fitted in Ventimiglia (I didn't have any choice of tyre). It turns out I had over-estimated how much grip I'd have. |
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| So this happened. A lot. |
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| It turned out that "giving up" wasn't very productive though, so I kept hacking at it, and eventually got my way out (inch by inch at times!). This is me re-inflating the rear tyre at the top, after dropping pressures to help grip. |
Reading your comments, I'm wondering what the slovenian linesman had to say about ?
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