Attention touring cyclists! You should all try to ride the FVG1, The Ciclovia Alpe Adria Cycle Path, that goes 400 km from Salzburg, Austria, to Grado on the Adriatic coast, at least once in your life. It’s fantastic! I went the other way, up from Italy, and this post is about the uphill section.
Cycling over the alps from Italy to Austria involves around 4,000 m of climbing spread over 4 days but it’s not at all difficult. The full name of the route – the Ciclovia Alpe Adria Radweg – is quite a mouthful: It’s the cyclepath, Ciclovia in Italian, that goes from the Alps to the Adriatic sea, and then just to be sure the Austrian for cycle path, Radweg, is thrown in. It’s signposted FVG1.
Thursday 15 September 2022. Venice to Tricesimo |155 km: 395m ascent|
My one-month French SIM card timed out so I had no phone again. I also had no adaptor plug for charging the bike from a campground power outlet because someone had stolen mine by the time I got back from my tour of Venice yesterday. A new tent and french-registered hatchback had appeared next to my pitch while I was away, and I wanted to ask the people in it if they knew anything about my missing adaptor, but they studiously avoided me by keeping to their tent the whole time. I think it was them.
I was starving after the few meagre slices of pizza that I’d scored from our little travel circle’s dinner last night, so after packing up and leaving my tentsite – with my miscreant neighbours still skulking inside their hidey-hole – I actually hung around until the camp store opened up to gulp down a donut and a coffee on the way out. That’s a first!
The first order of business after breakfast was to find somewhere I could buy a replacement adaptor, and I did manage to get hold of one after a frettful 10 km of searching on the way out of greater Venice. It was at a little mum-and-pop hardware store that looked like it hadn’t seen a customer in years and was overflowing with old stock, but the proprietor went straight to what I wanted and, for €16, I walked out with a double-adaptor that fits a standard European camp outlet. Hopefully. [It had a peculiar snap-on cap that doesn’t fit all outlets, and later on I had to buy an adaptor for the adaptor].
The second order of business, a new SIM card, had to wait until Latisana 100 km further along, where I forked over €80 to Vodafone for an “unlimited data” SIM card. Just like the “Three” SIM I bought in England, it too didn’t connect until the next day, even though they also swore it would be ready to use within 2 hours. This SIM could send calls Europe-wide (hence the high cost) and would work anywhere in the Schengen zone, I was assured.
It was all flat going and so I had plenty of battery left, but I stopped at the model town of Palmanova for a coffee and spag. bol. anyway. There was a constant stream of cyclists passing in front of the cafe in either direction, so I knew I had arrived at the right spot to pick up the Alpine Cycleway coming up from Grado and going on to Austria. I say ‘model town’ because Palmanova looks like a circa-1980s experiment in town planning with its radial system of roadways, but it is actually considerably older – a 1593 experiment in building a new type of fortress in the shape of a nine-pointed star. Still weird though.
To add to my recent bad luck I got another rear tyre puncture just coming in to Udine. The bike shop guy there was very gruff; the old coot (nothing at all redeeming about him) ordered me out of his shop – he doesn’t like people bringing their bikes inside; too bad about it getting stolen from out front, and it looked like that kind of neighbourhood – but he did condescend to come to the door and sell me a solid-looking tube for €12. I managed to install the new tube across the street from the bike shop at the local park in the pattering rain without being molested too much even though I had the bike upside-down with the wheel off and all my gear spread out around me. Some of the locals were just a bit too curious and friendly if you ask me, so I had to keep my eye on everything. It took quite a while too – I was weeping in frustration trying to get that damn tyre off, that’s for sure. And then I pressed on.
But I really had no viable means of navigation now without the phone, and it was hopeless trying to figure out the proper direction when I lost the Ciclovia signs about 10 km past Udine, even though I did at one time stumble across signs that said FVG 1 and immediately lost it again. This happens sometimes. Local kids having a bit of fun with the tourists by switching around the signs I suppose. It was getting dark and the weather was turning real ugly so I made for Ristorante Albergo Belvedere that was nearby according to my Bosch eBike computer accommodation app.
It was really teeming down by now and I was plodding along a lane in the gloom, imagining I was going in the right direction, when a police cruiser took an interest in me. Praise be I’m not in the US of A, I thought as they hove to, squeezing me up against a hedge to hinder my escape, and winding down their near-side window to glare at me.
They were okay, just doing their job I suppose, but not particularly friendly either, and they seemed to just get annoyed when I asked them if I was going in the right direction for the Belvedere. It couldnt have been more than 2 km away by this stage, but where exactly, I had no idea. Anyway, they let me go and I eventually did find the Belvedere after about another 4 or 5 km (the cops, not wanting to appear ignorant, had given me directions alright, but the wrong ones). You’ll see what I mean by examining my route at Tricesimo in detail.
The Belvedere was full, which was a bitter blow because I was all out of ideas and contemplating wild camping out in the rain with a police car on the prowl, but the receptionist lightened up a little when I said I wanted to eat in their restaurant, and kindly got me into the B&B next door for €60 that is run by a suspicious-minded widow named Francisca. The Belvedere had to vouch for me as an honoured guest, so it seemed, even though I was obviously a bit out of their league. [Judging by the clientele at dinner, it’s where the local rich old dudes bring their mistresses for an extravagent leg-over lay-over].
Francesca’s ‘Blue House’ was absolutely beautiful, and I can understand perfectly her being a bit apprehensive about strangers dripping water all her nice carpeted floors, but her following me around re-positioning everything I put down that I had to lug up the stairs in stages did get a bit annoying. And my shoes were in the wrong place; and don’t latch the door that way; and etc. etc.. Leopold, her Great Dane, seemed to like me though, and I’m sure his pleading eyes were imploring me to take him with me when I left. Good doggy. He probably gets the same sort of treatment all the time.
What really impressed me most about the house were the number of books in it, including in the room I was given. Must have been thousands. All in Italian, of course.
Friday 16 September 2022. Tricesimo to Tarvisio |101 km: 909m scent|
And there she was as I was leaving, fussing about re-arranging the pot plants at the front door where I had my shoes stored, and checking no doubt that I wasn’t carting off the family silver, and then calling after me to make sure I’d secured the gate so Leopold couldn’t get out. I know he wanted to, and I can’t say I blame him.
The debacle of yesterday’s poor navigation that kept me off FVG 1 persisted today right from the moment I left Francesca’s house. Ha! She’d asked me why I wasn’t staying for breakfast and I said it’s because I thought you told me it wasn’t included, and she said well that’s right it isn’t. Go figure. Don’t try the hard sell on breakfast with me madam.
And sure enough, as I set sail down the road, there she was again, double-checking that I had indeed shut the gate properly. Jeezus!
Anyway, I headed off from the Blue House in completely the wrong direction and didn’t encounter FVG 1 again until Gemona some 15 km away, and even there I wasted a ludicrous amount of time trying to find the trail because my promised Vodafone SIM still hadn’t activated. [It did activate at 11.00 am, after 23 hours instead of the promised 2!].
In Gemona a local even told me “Don’t worry, it’s not you – everyone has the same problem (with finding FVG 1) because the signage is total shit” or words to that effect. Even the people in the local tourist office had no idea how to navigate out of town by bike. Just have a look at my route in Gemona (its where my recorded track meets the River Tagliamento).
Once I properly got on to it, FVG 1 was really very good. Mostly rail trail or separated bike path. I must have passed over 200 cyclists coming the other way today, most of them Germans and Austrians and most of them on eBikes. It’s obviously a thing around these parts. A lot of them were group tours on rented bikes.
I stopped for an hour at the eBike hangout in Chiusaforte, got caught in a late shower again just like yesterday, and pulled in at the Hotel Nevada in Tarvisio at 3.30 pm as there are no campgrounds in the vicinity.
Saturday 17 September 2022. Tarvisio to Sachsenburg |102 km: 480m ascent|
The breakfast spread at the Hotel Nevada was a real cyclist’s meal. In fact the only negative with the Hotel Nevada was the mosquitoes in the room at night.
I got away at 08.15 in steady drizzle that eventually cleared up around midday. My original intention was to leave the Alpe Adria at Tarvisio and make for Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, but several people along the way (and my newly-working phone’s weather app.) told me that would be too risky as it was snowing in the high pass and I might not get through, in fact, probably wouldn’t. [This turned out to be true, and the only reason my eventual route was passable at all was because I was able to take the Mallnitz train tunnel]. So instead I stayed on the Alpe Adria, FVG 1, and crossed the border into Austria at a place called Coccau Valico, where everything instantly became much more eBike friendly.
I stopped at a really cosy eBike cafe at Kellerberg for 40 minutes and charged up while enjoying a plate of kasnudeln (cheese and potatoes stuffed into dumplings). There were about 50 middle-aged eBikers there in several large groups, most of them heading the other way (towards Grado). They were being boisterous and drinking ½-litre jugs of beer or Aperol Spritzers, and so couldn’t have been doing much cycling per day. The one I spoke to said her group’s aim for the day was the 40 km from Spittal an der Drau to Villach.
I made a big mistake at Spittal. The rail trail had already ended about 3 km out of Tarvisio, then there was a short steep uphill section followed by a long steady downhill all the way to Spittal on a normal road. My big mistake was that I set off from Spittal in the wrong direction towards Gmünd past a road barrier. A couple of guys in a van chased me down to tell me “Very danger – must go over hill” – a bit confusing because I thought I was going over the hill, but I got the message that I should turn around. The problem, I soon realised, was that the FVG 1 sign was placed at an uphill/ downhill fork in the road where it was impossible to tell what road it actually pointed to – in fact, I’d already gone halfway up a big hill on the other fork until I’d decided it didn’t look right. So, back to that uphill fork again, and this time I got nearly all the way the the top, grinding away in TURBO mode 3rd gear, when my rear tyre suddenly exploded – destroying the tube and putting a 5 cm rip in the new tyre I’d only just bought in Cavaillon 2,000 km ago.
I replaced the tube with my last remaining spare up there on the mountain teetering on the edge of the road, but had to put the damaged tyre back on, so I gingerly went back down into town. Two bike shops had already closed at 2.00 pm until the Monday (it was 3.30 pm Saturday by this time) but the Gigasport shop was still open (till 5.00 pm). Their bike department on the second floor with mechanic Hannes was very helpful. He fitted a new Schwalbe “Racing Rod” tyre and new rear brake pads, and sold me an extra tube (so 2 in total) that cost me €62 but saved me a whole lot of grief.
The repairs took until 4.30 pm. I still had plenty of battery left so took off towards Mallnitz. Hannes had told me definitely do not go to Gmünd as it was already snowing up there, and in fact the only way to get to Salzburg now until about March was via the rail tunnel at Mallnitz. Good advice.
Range anxiety inevitably kicked in again – there were no campgrounds showing on Google Maps – so I started trying every Gasthaus along the way. By 6.00 pm I’d already tried at least 6 – all full so they said, and I was beginning to get panicky. Some of them were quite horribly rude to me I might add.
By chance (serendipitously?), I spotted a “Draucamping Saschenburg & Mobile Homes” sign and pulled in. They had a spot for me, no problem. And for only €10!
I went back to Landgasthoff Lampersberger (from where I’d already been ‘evicted’ not 1 hour ago, but at least not too rudely in their case) for dinner and had a really good bratKartoflen meal for €10.
Overall then, this counts as a really good day with some incredible cycling, terrific scenery and a healthy mix of extremely helpful and downright stroppy locals. (temperatures 5 to 17°C).
– ends –
Day 68: Europe in 2022 so far: 6,537 km in 63 days of cycling
Nights in hotels 29
Night on ferry 1
Night in B&B 2
Nights in tent 36
Bike maintenance:
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- Rohloff oil change (Toulouse): km 0 (20,505 km on bike)
- Repairs to rear kickstand (Toulouse)
- 13 punctures:
- 2 punctures rear (Toulouse to Agde): km 250
- 4 punctures front (Toulouse to Agde): km 300
- 2 punctures rear (Hull to Birtley): km 2,730
- 4 punctures rear (Alnwick to Berwick): km 2,940
- 4 punctures rear (Sorges): km 5,016
- 1 puncture rear (Les Arcs): km 5,268
- 1 puncture (rear) Spittal an der Drau km 6,430
- 2 new tubes (Montelimar) km 780
- Two new Ortlieb Front Roller panniers (€140 Koblenz): km 1,870
- 2 sets new brake pads (£8 Boston): km 2,710
- Rear pannier rack broken; temp fix with cable ties (Bamburgh):km 3, 020
- 2 new tubes (Scremerston, UK): km 3,050
- 1 new tyre (Scremerston, UK) km 2,030
- New Gates CDX Carbon Belt (€87 Lyon): km 5,045. (25, 550 total for the belt)
- New Goretex rain jacket (€220 Lyon)
- 1 new tyre, Schwalbe Racing Ralph, (€62, incl. tubes, Cavaillon) km 5,167
- 2 new tubes Cavaillon km 5,167
- Refit rear tyre due to kangaroo-ing effect (Nice) km 5,426
- 1 new tyre, Schwalbe Racing Rod, (Spittal an der Drau) km 6,435
- 2 new tubes (Spittal and der Drau) km 6,435
- 1 new set of brake pads, rear. Spittl an der Drau km 6,435
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