The Wobbling Sprocket

The site has been down.  Apparently someone managed plant a phishing page on my site in Venezuela.  I have no idea how they managed that.  We are back now though.

The weather has been perfect and this morning we are in St Florent after riding around the Cap Corse yesterday.  Greg A went the long way which is 85 miles and everyone else  went 72 miles…which is long enough for most people.

Our group is small, just 6 people including me.  That makes things pretty easy.  

We are staying at a new place in St Florent, the Hotel Tettola, which is right on the beach.  The Med was rough yesterday but I am looking out over the water right now and it seems the water has completely flattened out.  

Today we will ride to Calvi.  It's a climb through the "Desert of Agriates" then back down to the coast after which we climb up to Belgodere and a bunch of other small towns before returning to the coast and Calvi.  It's a great ride.  I will probably dump the van in Calvi and then ride backwards to meet the group.

Pictures are coming.  I need to shrink them down so they are easier to post.  Rusty is the photographer of the group.  He is stopping more than anyone else and we looked at some of his photos last night at dinner.  I will try to borrow his camera card and get some of those up.

I hope all is well elsewhere.  I have completely lost track of the news…and I have only been gone a couple days now….perhaps that is a good thing. 

Best,

Bob

Greg is going to use the Corsica Tour to kick off an extended Euro-trip.  After the Isle of Beauty he intends to cross over to Italy.  He has an entire month to check things out. 

It's not a bad idea.  Livorno, Italy is only a short 4 hour ferry ride from Bastia, Corsica.  Once in Livorno, the train line can take you to Florence Rome or Turin.  The nearest airport is in Pisa….15 minutes away by train.

Greg is bringing his own bike so he can make the most of it.

The narrow gauge train in Corsica is also interesting.  It traverses many Genoese bridges as well as  switchbacks.  The rail cars are mainly vintage.  The hotel we use outside Bastia is only about 400 meters from a station.  You can even bring your bike on the train (for a fee).

Corsica and 4 weeks in Italy to look forward to. Not bad!

Buzz and Kris know how to do it right.  They are joining our tour in Corsica and then plan to head right over to Italy for even more biking with their club, Cactus Cycling Club.  Corsica happens to be closer to the Italian mainland  than the French mainland although the Italian island of Sardinia is really only a stone's throw away (actually a 45 minute ferry ride).  Mainland Italy is  about a  4 hour ferry ride.

Buzz told me that Kris likes to climb.  That's a good thing since there is plenty of climbing in Corsica.  It should be a good warm-up for Italy.

Buzz and Kris mentioned that they would attempt to entice some others from their club to join them.  Actually, for anyone, a little enticement can be a good thing given we have a referral program ($100 discount for you and $100 discount for anyone referred .  It's also a good reason to test drive our  "Facebook Cycling Friend Finder tool". Which you can find at the bottom of our Referral/Discount Page.

Here's a pic of Buzz and Kris:

Great pic...I was expecting desert and mountains.