To Sabaudia

Well we arrived and so did the bikes in Leonardo da Vinci airport. I have to complement the baggage handlers for their careful handling of the bikes, we watched them being unloaded.
A great deal of feverish activity ensued, putting bikes together in the shade, it's sunny here. It was a bit like aThe Generation Game, but there were no winners.
Previously known as loreal Has changed sponsors this year and will be backed by Athens' premier ice cream company "Andreus parkidopodos" - 99 for short.

Flap jack (Ian Wilde) came up trumps again, it's not the first time this has happened, I'm going to have to speak to mrs Wilde on the matter - we had to clear the room. He brought along some delicious flap jack made by the ladies from the salon sorry Gari the dentist practise - thank you ladies
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For the benefit of those who haven't read our previous years adventures or are starting to suffer from middle age brain drain lets start this years story with a refresher on the names of our main characters.
First of all we have the new boy on the block Mr Roberto Burke - aka "Gari"! Named after the famous (in Italy apparently) Gisebie Garibaldi who united the country back in the 1600's. The present day Gari is of a similar vintage as his name sake - or so you would think if you'd sat next to him on a three hour plane journey but isn't half as impressive. He does however have some redeeming features - well one anyway. He loves his history and has spent the last six months at his hairdressing salon in Lancaster whiling away the hours planning our route through the Apennine Mountains (Ed - sounds more like Yorkshire to me).

Andy Parkinson, a veteran of two previous tours previously  known as loreal Has changed sponsors this year and will be backed by Athens' premier ice cream company "Andreus parkidopodos" - 99 for short.  

We found a nice out of the way spot to dump the packaging and so the Fly Tippers were off.
Eventually we found our way out of the airport, once we'd got Rob's wheels to turn, it is quite important that they do that. We had a fairly flat 63 miles and managed to find a hill.
Notable towns visited were Anzio and Nettuno, they've made a pretty good job if clearing up the mess given that it was only 70 years since it got wrecked.
It's that warm, some are wanting to pack excess clothes etc and send them back home, time will tell.
Didn't see much of the sea, but what we did was nice and it's so good to cycle in warm sunshine.
Ah, beer time's arrived.

We're counting down the minutes now.......well the hours anyway, Friday morning will be upon us before we know it, some bikes are packed and ready for the off, some being packed right now and some being left until the last moment. Then there's the bags and what not to take. Do I take one pair of boxers or two?
All we have to do is get ourselves and the bikes to Leonardo da Vinci Airport, unpack everything, find somewhere to dump all the packaging and look for road signs saying "Brindisi this way".
Simple! That's us all sorted. Hang on a minute, that's quite a heap of stuff you've left behind there.  I can see it now, the valiant carabinieri chasing a desperate band of fly tipping cyclists.
"After them men, they can't have gone far. All you have to do is follow the trail of cardboard and bubble wrap".
Will our desperate band make it to the edge of the airport concourse? Find out in the next thrilling episode, published here on Friday evening.

 Sometimes we stop and smell the roses. Good Friday morning -early .
No wind  for the first time in what seems like months.
Taken above Slaidburn on one of our regular training runs

Sheep may safely graze.
Above Big Stone Bentham.
Ingleborough as back drop

Saturday morning came along far too soon, but breakfast was good and so back on the road. Buttertubs here we come........ Oh no we don't. Sadly the road to Reeth was closed and in spite of the North Yorkshire councilman's best efforts to point us in the direction of the nearest diversion, we turned him down, another time then.
The road through Wensleydale is nice though.......unless of course one of your pedals start to drop off.
Let's go and look for a bike shop then. You would think that with the Tour de France coming to Hawes there would be room for a bike shop, but no and since Sedbergh doesn't have one either we'd better go to Ingleton. It got a bit nasty and wet going over the hill to Ribblehead, but tea Ingleton was good. Not the usual full Croc's tea stop, but you have to make savings somewhere when you need a new pedal.

Ciao everyone.

And so it was our intrepid crew embarked upon a trip to Richmond, not the one in London you understand, the one in Richmondshire. Sadly the crew was diminished, so obviously (I hate that word, don't know why I used it, ah well) we were left with the four most intrepid members of the Crocs.
T'was on the morning of April 4th 2014 that our boys (I'm warming to that word) set off to conquer Yorkshire via Cumbria in the form of Sedbergh, Kirkby Stephen and Brough the on through Durham, not the city, just a bit of the county.
Brough is on of those places where random members of the public offer cyclists cups of tea which they.......I mean we declined on the grounds that we may have ended up in a cellar with lots of other confused cyclists who accepted the "kind" invitation.
Onward and upward , into the fog and over the top to Middleton in Teesdale where they speak in different tongues or at least with a very mild sort of Geordie accent......nice tea stop though.....bacon and egg in a panini. That may not be correct Italian grammar so Rob please feel free to amend.
It's about now that Pete wan noticing one of his pedals was becoming slightly loose. I say loose, nothing to worry about at this stage.
Barnard Castle and beyond......all downhill from here he said.....well the downhill bits were.
Back into Richmondshire and just where is Ingleton? Never mind, we'll go there tomorrow.
Lovely roads around there, a bit mucky, but quite lovely and not without hills. Who put Richmond on the top of one. It's well worth a visit and if you go, take a trip down to the River Swale then cycle back up.

Photos from first training trip to Keswick

Chaos wherever theCrocs stop for tea and bacon banjoes

1 puncture-mayhem!

Team Unity -Bowness ferry.

Training weekend 2-into Yorkshire!!

Friday 4th April
Lunch stop -Middleton in Teesdale via Kirkby Steven and Brough

Richmond-Ian has just been told he has to cycle back up the hill to our accomodation!
95 miles   ,5448 feet (only approximately!)

Saturday 5th April

Avoided Butter Tubs due to a road closure -how disappointed we were.
This attractive village green is in Redmire, Wensleydale:
before the rain came!

Over Widdale from Hawes and past Ribblehead.
Three Riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
Homeward stretch -and not before time
52 miles ,2909 feet