Off tomorrow!

Rush rush rush... always a rush before leaving, and always a rush trying to build something requiring even the littlest of engineering. Now imagine putting both things together and you can realize how was my day today.
The Pannier is done, attached to the bike, and looking and feeling rock solid.
Tomorrow is Genova-Nice, maybe Monaco depending on where to stay...
Have to return the computer which is borrowed, so rush rush and more rush... keep tuned!
Fonzie

It's so ON!!!

As I said before, last night didn't actually sleep being busy finishing blog, facebook event, sending emails and rethinking the route in case weather conditions force me to avoid the Pyrennes or at least their highest Cols!
Went straight to work and surprisingly I wasn't feeling that tired. Not yesterday's ride nor the lack of sleep were making me struggle as I thought I would, and surprisingly time was slipping by quite fluidly.
At lunch decided to go to the Pinnolo as usual and pass by home to check if I'd had some replies.
I have to admit that I've been thinking about this charity thing for a bit now, and one of the factors which kept me doubting was the probable lack of response and interest. But after opening my inbox and realizing how many replies I'd gotten, and already 3 donations, I realized this trip is so ON! Very emotional honestly to actually feel your efforts are making an effect on people. But also so much motivation and adrenaline flowing that's almost 10pm and I'm still up and running!
Thanks so much for the support, donation, comments and time.
I say again, donating is not the only way of contributing. Paste my http://www.justgiving.com/LeTourdeFonz link or this blog address to your facebook, skype or twitter status. Comment, forward this messages to you friends. It all helps.
Fonzie

Le Tour de Fonz

So here's the plan. The big picture is to Head down to Barcelona in 5 days. One day rest there and then head north east approaching the Pyrenees and then 4 days crossing them to get to Biarritz where I have another lay day, and hopefully catch some surf. After that is a couple of days to La Rochelle and then a couple of days to Paris where I'll rest one more day. A couple of days run should see me in Brussels where I'll spend one day with friends after what I shall start heading south passing through Luxembourg, Metz, Strasbourg and Basel. Then to Luzern in the lake district in Switzerland where I have to asses weather and road conditions and decide the route to get back into Italy. Ideally would be crossing the Stelvio. If not possible the shortest route would be through the Oberalpass into Como. If none of them are possible, It might be the case to border the Alps to France and find an open Pass I can cycle through, maybe into Piemonte. After that is maximun a couple of days to Genova, back to work and not even seeing the bike for a while.
There's an event on Facebook called Le Tour de Fonz and you can check my justgiving.com page here.
To make donations follow the instructions. If you can't by any reason, just comment and give me some motivation, forward this info to your friends, paste the justgiving address to your Facebook status, it all helps!
Thanks a lot for all the support and lovely comments, inspiring me so much,
Fonzie

Last ride

Saturday was spent fiddling around so at the end couldn't go for a ride. This morning woke up confused about the daylight saving time change and left around 930 in the morning when I was planning to leave at 8. Some tea, a few biscuits and a nutella croissant for breakfast and off I went heading to levante (or the rising side, East).
Weather was flawless, not a cloud on the sky and temperature around 16 degrees, and the plan was head to Vernazza in the Cinque Terre and meet friends for lunch there. About 106 km and 1600 m climbed over 4 passes. As the last long ride before the trip, I wanted to pace myself to test if at the end of the day wouldn't feel the ride on my legs. I've been thinking that to complete this trip successfully I really need to put some effort on being patient. Be ready to spend a couple of hour more per day on the bike but not exhausting my legs. It's a full month of riding. Don't know if I'm really pushing the target a bit too far.
Got to Vernazza after 4 hours 51 minutes at 22,5 km/h average and with fresh legs and good appetite which is rewarded with a generous lunch with friends from other boats and then back on the train to Genova.
Body feels alright, but I realized that if I want to finish this trip as it's planned, I have to keep real focus on pacing myself, feeding and hydrating properly and get some proper sleep everynight... and as it's 4 am, still have to finish some blogging and have to work tomorrow, it's obvious I have to work on the focusing. Night night!

The Pannier

One of the ideas I thought of a few monts ago when this trip started wandering around my head, was to build my own luggage to carry my stuff on the bike, saving weight, trying to reduce aerodynamic drag and having a bit of fun while building it.
I thought of carbon fiber for its obvious properties but also because there's a couple of guys specialist on fiber works that are working with us on the boat so I thought they could give me a hand and help me find the material. Actually, they have given me all of the material I needed and not only given me a hand but help me massively for the construction of it.
After some brainstorming and researching, started by weighing all the luggage i would carry for the trip (clothes, spare parts, tools, cameras and batteries, etc) and after estimating the volume of it, made the model out of polyurethane. Then with some carbon tubing and sheets, built up the rack and last week starting glueing it together, bonding joints and laminating the case.
I also built an attachment for a video and photo camera I would carry behind so I can take pictures or flim some parts of the road so I can uploaded to the blog. Here are some pictures of the building process which I hope to finish on tuesday, so i can test run it that afternoon and hopefully fix any roblem on wednesday (meaning going to Decathlon and buy a proper one)
I'm trying to edit a little vid we did snowboarding so you have an idea of what I have in mind... buon weekend!

Le Tour...