Thank you to a couple of forumites, looks like he has a plan. Flights and some accommodation booked.

March 20th
Portugal (Lousa)
Madrid
Ainsa
Barcelona (hostel with pool, almost on the trails)
Gorge du Tarn
Sospel
Finale Ligure (2weeks, joined by a friend for rest of trip)
Julien Alps
1st June – Paris to Vancouver
Vancouver/ North Shore for a fortnight
Squamish
Meet family_oab in Pemberton for a week
Stay with another pal and family in Whistler for fortnight.
Three of them have three weeks to go from Whistler to Calgary.
Stop in Halifax for three days on way back.
Back 30th August.

Uni starts in September….

Jealous, much.

Ok, last two weeks of May has fallen through.

Where to stay/ride/wander a hill between Finale/N Italy and Paris?

Couple of days near Mont Ventoux, few days in the Alpilles, Dignes et Briancon.
Rest in Burgundy enjoying the wine and then les Vosges.

Catalunya and València are worth a shot. Start in Valencia to allow the North to defrost and warm up a bit. Stop off in the the bit behind Cambrils in Southern Catalunya before going on up to Girona. Bit of Pyrenee action in Andora and France and then make your way to Alpes Maritime via Languedoc. It’s something that’s on my retirement to do list before I’m to frail to manage falling off.

Thoughts folks.

Eldest_oab was planning to go on 21st March.
However Portugal is closing down today (where his flight goes), Italy already is (they had three weeks there), etc etc.

I’m worried that crossing borders will lead to 2 weeks quarantine each time – and they were going to do 7 border crossings.

My suggestion to him – cancel and claim back as much of the Europe trip as you can. Get to Canada asap. Stay there. Then at least they aren’t crossing borders – any lock down they will just put up with, but it won’t last all summer.

Mrs_oab says cancel it all, go next year….

Any other thoughts or suggestions from you lot?

Mrs_oab +1

Three problem with that is he starts uni in September. So does he take gap year 2…?

🤷‍♂️ All bets are off. And university summer holidays are long.

EDIT – I proposed a daft thing

We are having the same discussions with Abigale at the moment. At least this year we won’t have to worry about the EWS logistics.
As soon as she finishes school placements and winds up her last year at Uni she was planning a quick tour of Europe’s best spots then off to Whistler for the rest of the season.
At the moment we don’t have to cancel anything and she is just thinking straight to Canada if possible.

What does he want to do.

Our trip to Lake Garda in June is booked as is Finale in September so our fingers are crossed but not hopeful.

Tough one but I’d certainly not plan on the Europe part if you can get money back etc.

Canada isn’t at quite the same level of panic (yet) – it may only be a matter of time but we also don’t have the same population density in general.

As you know the thing with Canada is that it’s still winter and so the biking season doesn’t start for a while and requires early season flexibility (i.e car ideally) to go where the snow isn’t.  From May onwards is more reliable in the low lands but Alpine trails sometimes don’t open until July / August.

Can he get a job for this summer that will help pay for next summer?  As above summer holidays are long and could go for a bit for quality not quantity?

Get to Canada ASAP, it’s not as if Canada isn’t ace.

Can he get a job for this summer that will help pay for next summer?

He is earning a good wedge doing 5-6 days a week at the local Hilton.

If its like our house it hard to see past this Summer. Like it was hard to see past last Summer and the Summer before. They have worked hard for it and it certainly broadens the horizons. He may or may not get the chance to do it again, that’s the gamble. Altering the plan rather than cancelling it or shortening it should be doable but probably more expensive.

Local elections on 15th and 22nd of march in France . After that France will probably go on level 3 with school closing etc….

Don’t forget to bring your own pen, @cchris2lou

I’d head to Pemberton and never look back!

A few muppets are stockpiling bog roll over here and there are a few cases but not much mass-hysteria.

“As you know the thing with Canada is that it’s still winter and so the biking season doesn’t start for a while and requires early season flexibility (i.e car ideally) to go where the snow isn’t.”

I’ve been trail building and riding most of the winter. Maybe more likely to catch the plague down here though.

^^Sounds good then. I’m always unsure how much riding there is low down near the coast in winter.

@walleater – where are you based?

^ I’m in Squamish.

Between Squamish and Vancouver tends to be OK to ride for most of the winter unless it’s a bad one.
If I remember right, Pemberton opens up before Whistler.

The lads are in Squamish hostel for a fortnight at the end of June.

‘Bike Squamish’ Facebook page is good for meeting like-minded people.
If they want to shuttle but don’t have a ride then the Shred Shuttle picks up riders from one or two points in town and takes them up to the top of the shuttle trails. They also do rides to Whistler.

As we all know, his travels were curtailed.
However, he is in Morzine for 6 weeks now with a couple of friends.

Like like the first week went well…

View this post on Instagram

First few clips from the awesome times in Morzine!

A post shared by Jack Robinson (@jack131201) on Jul 28, 2020 at 5:02am PDT

Looks like hes having a great time, Abigale set off this morning, at least it looks like good weather. Glad their making the most of it after the big change of plans.

He says it’s still noticeably quieter than last year, and they’ve multiple offers of cheap accommodation from folk desperate for *something*…