A couple of years ago my wife and I did a bike tour from Croatia to Lyon. At a few points we ended up on gravel roads, usually by choice. Some of these provided excellent riding and were highlights of the tour. I'd like to do more of this kind of riding (not so sure about Mrs Spin!), using gravel roads to link tarmac roads and access more remote places.
Any suggestions for areas / routes / other sources of info?
Cheers
Not the Alps but Tuscany would be high on my list. Look up Tuscany Trail for a route.
We're going to the Cévennes for a little 250m 3 day trip which will be road/ gravel.
We Did Tuscany Trail in'16 the first 50 miles were brutal but good after that. Start in Florence and then take the route south to Capalbio. It'll be pretty good.
I run an annual trip from Tarragona to Bilbao over 9 days in April-May, it's about 70% off road on gravel tracks and a bit of easy trail. Write up here http://phased.co.uk/musings-on-a-spanish-coast-to-coast/
Never done this, but its on the bucket list, maybe next year....
http://www.bikepacking.com/event/torino-nice-rally-2018/
Get yourself a copy of this book.
http://isolapress.tictail.com/product/rough-stuff-cycling-in-the-alps
Look at the torino nice route
I've been the same thoughts after watching Abandoned Engineering the other day and thinking i would love to exp!ore more.
Just tagging along with nothing to add.
I’ve been the same thoughts after watching Abandoned Engineering the other day and thinking i would love to exp!ore more.
https://www.instagram.com/bunkerresearch/
Weirdly fascinating stuff. Spent some time poking around the bunkers along the border during a first trip to that area in 2015.
There must be lots of stuff out in eastern Europe. I toured out there a few years ago and accidentally ended up on some pretty rough roads in Ukraine, Romania and Croatia a few times ("That looks like an interesting shortcut over the mountain on the map...". Cue 10 miles of uphill rocky track...).
There are quite a lot of multi stage marathon off road events in eastern Europe. They are for MTBs, but the routes might give you some clues about gravel road sections as well as the proper off road stuff.
Jameso _ I just need to order a particular adventure bike now to load my gear onto.😁
Some excellent suggestions. Thank you.