Tuesday is spent heading towards Pisa with the highlight of the day being the bricolage store I find that had many wonderful things including widget boxes which I need for shim storage. 120 euros lighter I head for a campsite near Pisa airport.

Bright and early Wednesday I pick-up Helen from the airport which has nowhere to park a camper so I do loops around the link road until Helen appears and climbs aboard. We head straight for Punta Ala which is about a 2 hour drive but the first stop is an Autogril for coffee and a big hug.  A quick stop for supplies before arriving at the race venue (PuntAla Resort) a day earlier than planned.  

Trails end here!

Punta Ala is a small village typical of the coast line in many parts of Italy that has a range of hill that run into the sea.  This makes for great enduro venues.  After a little discussion we are allowed onto the campsite which doesn’t open until Friday so there are electricians, builders and cleaners everywhere.  We find a spot next to Dan (Irish) and James (Scottish) who are racing and settle in.  Talking with Dan I discover the main reason they are running full Sram equipment is the fact that we will be at most of the European races to give support!

Thursday is bright and sunny but the wind is blowing a hoolie which after washing Harry we need to resolve.  Where can we be safely sited, out of the wind as it’s gusting in excess of 50 kph.  After various discussions with the organisers and input from Todd, who has just arrived, we set-up just to the side of the restaurant.  We build up in just under 2 hours, which is way better than Sestri.  Around 5 Todd heads for his hotel whilst Helen has her first shower in Harry.  Then we walk the 10 metres to the restaurant where we sample the delights of their menu which turns out to be very good.

During the night the wind picks up and keeps changing direction with the result that Harry is rocking and the awning is banging around quite a bit.  Around 02:00 I get up and check all the bolts are tight and put an extra strap on the front before going back to bed for a pretty sleepless night. 

Helen ready to welcome racers

Our first customers arrive first thing on Friday although it is a little slow as there are only 160 of the possible 350 entered.  So with the spare time I set about reorganising various bits whilst Helen cleans the inside of Harry.  A pretty slow day and we have all of 3 people for the FF@F session which I use Dan’s Pike to work on.  We then jump in the rental and head for Forlonica  Where Todd has found a great little neighbourhood restaurant and we indulge in lots of seafood and pasta, yummy…

Race arena

Saturday is a little busier with most of the riders practicing on the stages of which there are 5 for the Pro’s and 4 for the amateur’s.   Everyone does the prologue on Saturday evening so about 1 hour before this Sam Shucksmith rucks-up at our pit trying to fix his flat spotted rear wheel.  After about 15 mins we decide it can’t be fixed so I loan him my Roam 50.  Well he only goes fastest in the prologue and really likes the rigidity of the Sram wheel compared to his (begins with an M and is yellow and black).  We eat in the restaurant again and thankfully as there is no wind have a very peaceful night.

What's my time

The pro’s are doing 44 km and 4 stages whilst the amateur’s are 38 km and 3 stages so Sunday see them starting from 08:30 in groups of 5 or 10 at 5 minute intervals.  It’s a beautiful day and I spend it renumbering the awning poles, to make it a little more logical to set-up for my future helpers, and working on various bikes.  The organisers have put the results screen in the corner of our awning so as the riders finish they all gather round to see their results.  By 16:00 It’s all done, Sam manages to hold on to a 5^th place with my wheel and various racers drop round to say goodbye and thanks for the help over the weekend.  Helen send’s Todd home and we set about cleaning, taking down and packing away.  By 20:00 we are in the restaurant for our final meal here, more pasta alla vongole for me and salad for Helen (she’s such a goody two shoes).

As we had free wifi at the race Helen has been doing some research on places to visit during the next 2 days before we both fly back to England.  So we set the satnav to Saint Gimignano in the heart of Tuscany.  It’s a wonderful drive and when we get there we find a camper aire that charges 22 euros for 24 hrs with electric so we park-up and hoop on the shuttle bus for the 1km ride up the hill to town.  A few hours of being a tourist before we settle on a small café for something to eat.  Here they have the local artisan beer that is excellent both in taste and strength at 7.2% alcohol.  Well it would have been rude not to have a couple, combined with a plate of snackage, which was also perfecto.  We walked down the hill back to Harry and spent the evening reading and catching-up on internet things (more free wifi).

Walls and towers of S. Gimignano 

Someone spoiling the typical Tuscan view

In for a penny, in for a pound, Tuesday morning sees us set off for the next historic walled town, Volterra which is famous for its alabaster.  Like good tourists we pay our 8 euros to park in a guarded car park and do what tourists do, wonder around admiring the buildings/views whilst going in and out of various shops.  We have lunch in a small pizzeria and follow it with coffee and cakes in another café before heading for our campsite near Pisa.

After a 2.5 hour drive with the last few kms over very rough uneven roads we arrive at Lago le Tamerici  http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/italy/tuscany/pisa/coltano/camping-lago-le-tamerici-118229/   After parking up we go for a walk by the lake and see a beaver swimming alongside the reed bed opposite.  Aperitifs follow, before Helen packs for her flight in the morning and I draw a new, renumbered awning plan on the computer.

Wednesday is flying day so I drop Helen at Pisa airport before heading for Verona where Michele has arranged for me to leave Harry at the Focus distributors whilst I fly home for Steve Worland’s funeral tomorrow.  All goes to plan apart from my inability to find the place (well my satnav).  In the end good old google maps on my phone gets me there.  Michele gives me a lift to the airport and I fly back to Heathrow where Helen is waiting to take me home.   Back home and time to post this episode of the blog.

0270    trails end here

0274    race venue

0276    helen ready to welcome racers

0282   checking results

286  walls and towers of Saint G

296   someone spoiling the typical Tuscan view from ……

Roll into Sram HQ on Wednesday morning first thing, park-up in the marcom workshop and set about reorganising/restocking the van.  In the end I spend 3 days in Schweinfurt, pulling out on Friday evening to head back to Italy.  Swinging over between Munich and Strasburg for the night when I started feeling tired.

Great backdrop for bike fettling 

View back down the valley easing my pain on climb back to campsite

As I need to be in Pisa for Wednesday to pick-up Helen I will find a campsite for a few days but where?  Consulting my ACSI (camping guide & discount) I plump for Laghi di Lamar, Monte Terlago as it’s an area I’ve never ridden, plus I will be doing a race, then media launch in a couple of weeks here.  Arriving just after 10:00, check-in and get my spot which is within free wifi range of the bar.  Am I happy or what?  Then I send the rest of the day changing components on my bike, bringing it bang up to date before a shakedown ride as I need some fresh fruit and veg. So many small towns and all below me I decide on Vezzano where I find a small coop.  The 5 miles to get here took about 10 mins but the ride back took a little longer!

Up early on Sunday as Luca, the local race organiser is coming to guide me around the trails.  He brings a couple of friends, Max and ? (I’m terrible with names) so at 09:00 we head for the hills.  The riding is fantastic, not too extreme but fast flowing trails that throw up a few challenges.  Stopping for coffee in Cadine before taking on a few more stages.  By the end of the ride we have ridden stages 2, 3 & 5 and done a total of 16 miles whilst climbing almost 1000 m.  If you’re interested the ride details are here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/479107516.  The afternoon is spent reworking my suspension as I have a new fast black body and DebonAir air can for my rear shock before pizza and beer in the campsite bar.

So for Monday the plan is to do the same loop to test my new set-up.  It doesn’t quite go to plan as some days you have the legs and the next you don’t.  So not wanting to push myself too hard and having established my initial impressions of my revised rear shock (impressed), I cut out at Cadine, have a coffee, then do a little shopping before the long climb back to the campsite.  After a little rice cake action for lunch I do my washing and catch-up on this blog.

Busy, busy, busy...

Harry and his big brother

Well it's been a busy 10 days...  Harry's new coat took a day longer to apply than planned so I spent Saturday being pit bitch for Elmar (my boss) at his local Moto-X.  When we got back to Hagen I picked Harry up and I headed down to Sram HQ in Schweinfurt, via a campsite to do my washing. Monday to Wednesday was spent mainly loading parts into draws where I thought they would be best and making/modifying special tools etc.

 

So late on Wednesday afternoon I pulled out of Schweinfurt and headed for my first race, a Super Enduro in Sesti Levante.  Great drive, via the Brenner Pass as I have to avoid Switzerland due to commercial goods etc.  Filled the LPG tanks for the first time which was interesting as I've never operated a LPG pump before and the instructions were in German and Italian but hey I did it, so now I can have a cup of tea anytime! 

Arriving in Sestri after lunch I found a wonderful car wash on the outskirts of town so set about cleaning Harry.  5 euros later he comes out shiny, shiny ready to place on my space but this being Italy, they don't know where this will be (local organiser and Super Enduro boys haven't worked it out yet) so I have to wait until Friday morning.  So Todd, who has come down from Schweinfurt to help and me, go and find dinner.

Friday morning and I wake to a rainy, windy morning.  These are the last things you want when you are putting up the awning, especially as it will be the first time.  So finally at 11:30 we get our place in the pit area and can start setting up. Thankfully the wind has dropped but it’s still raining on and off so we set about errecting the awning which has a lot of poles (I'll count them one day) that are stored in the garage and on the roof.  We spend around 3.5 hours assembling the awning which with a small lunch break and downing tools when it rained hard, we were ready to start wrenching at 16:00.

Awning up and closed down for the evening

At 17:00 I held our first FF@F (Fridays Fundamentals @ Five) session, which will be a regular feature at all the events I attend. This is where I'm hoping we can show that it's not a faff (see what I did there) to look after your RockShox fork to get the best performance out of it.  So, as there had been very little promotion a small firm crew arrive, and Carlo with his Pike fork.  I give Carlo's fork a lower lube, show him and the camera some tricks and tips and then do an interview explaining the concept of the need for riders to be able to look after their own equipment, especially in the enduro discipline.

Todd on the all important sticker application

Saturday is training in the morning with 2 stages in the afternoon so we are kept busy fixing racers stuff until 2 when we decamp to the parc assistance area where we set up under our ezzy-up too offer neutral support.  Riders will have 30 minutes to prep their bikes after the first two stages before being put into the parc ferme.  Matt Wragg on Pinkbike explained the principle behind this well " The idea is simple - your bike should be reliable enough to survive the whole weekend of racing. It's a great idea, as it pushes racers away from risking ultra light (and usually ultra-expensive kit) looking for small advantages, and towards strong, durable products. It makes for racing a world away from the World Cups, where forks and wheels are re-built almost every run and, in theory, makes for a more level playing field for amateur racers." - http://www.pinkbike.com/news/superenduro-pro-1-sestri-levante-friday-practice.html

The first rider to need help, well a new derailleur as he smacked it on a rock during stage 2 is Marco Miliventi who is leading the race.  We fix him up and then follows periods of inactivity punctuated by extreme madness with up to 4 riders at a time needing assistance.  In the end we have helped some 15 riders who without new parts or adjustments probably wouldn't have finished the race.  At 17:30 all the riders have passed through so we pack-up, I have the first shower in Harry and we head out for dinner in the restaurant opposite.

Sunday sees the riders collecting their bikes 10 minutes before their start time so we have various panics about the operation of their bikes, mainly gear adjustment (it’s amazing how many riders can’t do even the most basic adjustments).  With 2 stages today the leaders are due to finish around 14:00 with the last one home at 16:00.  Between the stages the riders return to the start to check in so we have several small tweak jobs then.  After they have finished we get hit up for parts riders have broken and Todd dictates the policy depending on age of product and how nicely the riders asks.  We then begins the take down of the awning which takes about 1.5 hours.  Todd heads for home as he is flying out to the World Cup in S. Africa on Wednesday and I slowly pack everything away.  I go for dinner with the Super Enduro crew and over pizza discuss various aspects of the event.

Lake Garda campsite with washing out to dry

As I don’t have enough of some things and too much of others I decide to drive the 900 km back to Schweinfurt to reorganise/restock but first a day on a campsite to do my washing.  I decide on a site near Verona airport as I plan to fly out of here in a couple of weeks to attend Steve Worland’s funeral so need to see how secure this is.  The site is on the south side of Lake Garda and is very big but peaceful.  After washing and various reports I make a very healthy salad before a long Skype call to Helen.

On Tuesday I start the return trip which I don’t rush as I’m not expected until Wednesday.  The only thing of note was the queues of trucks doing in the other direction around the Brenner Pass and the price of diesel around the pass.  The glamour of a German lay-is my night stop some 30 minutes shy of Schweinfurt. 

Arriving in Schweinfurt I set about reorganising the truck.  We go for lunch at a sausage shop and I spend the evening catching-up on this blog.