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What?

This year has not been very generous in gravel rides and trainings (less than 2022 or 2021), due to a mix of increased shooting commitments and family commitments.

However, the few rides – except for the lonely explorations in Valchiusella – has been in great company and in spectacular places. As usual, I brought with me the “riding kit”: Em1 with Zuiko 12-40 f2.8 and Lumix 35-100 f2.8 II, all in the sturdy Evoc Pro Capture hip pack; I aimed at shooting a very simple chronicle of these couple explorations, without affecting too much the ride itself.

October: Val Clarée + Galibier

• 90 km
• 2.126 m climbing
• Start & finish in Briançon, FR

Marco, a fine connoisseur of the mountain trails around Torino, as well as the brain of Grambles project aiming at supporting people to discover mountain gravel (check it!), proposed an alpine tour starting in Briançon, taking advantage of the unusually warm weather. Mimmo, experienced ultracyclist, and Alberto, experienced mechanic and rider, and me, joined the party.

The plan was a double climb: the first started on road, became gravel, then MTB, then classic hike-a-bike to pass over the 2.500m border.

From there, a lunch break among abandoned bunkers from the WWII and an epic gravel descent through a modern military base until the junction to the world-famous Galibier climb.

After a short break at the top, one more long descent – mix of road and fast gravel – to the starting point a beer and a snack. A great, smooth day in the mountains!

From a photography perspective, the harsh light made it a bit harder to exploit shadows and shadows; however, the colors of autumn gave us some great sights.

November: a very late Via del Sale

• 110 km
• 2.414 m climbing
• Start in Limone Piemonte, finish in Imperia (trains to go and to come back)

“Hi Marco, what about riding Via del Sale next week? I never did it”.

“It’s mid-november and it snowed last week.”

“Why not? Let’s try!”

I wanted to fill this gap in my “gravel book” and, in the end, we were four riders meeting 6.15AM at the train station from Torino to Limone for this risky business; the same riders too – Marco, Mimmo, Alberto and myself, all set up to play poker with the weather.

[note: trains & bikes could make for a whole project, Train/ing]

Sure, we did our due diligence: temperature was low, but the sun would warm us up along the way. Webcams showed that the snow melted almost completely (what they didn’t show was the ice, but, well); daylight was a bit short, so we had lights (ehm, most of us had lights). But in this season, things are quite unpredictable, especially at that altitude.

Although we found bits of ice on the Piedmont side of the road, it was absolutely fun to ride. When we passed on the Ligurian side, temperature was definitely warmer.

Also, there’s no water along the way. So, the coffee offered by a kind guard was a welcome surprise; his fresh water was even more appreciated.

Eventually, we made it through to the beach in Imperia without any trouble. We crossed the very ancient Via Marenca (aka Via del Sale), an incredible gravel road, with many ramifications, all from 1900 to 2200 meters altitude of the peak Saccarello, with its Redemptor statue.

What now?

In a normal era, we would say goodbye to the mountains until next spring or summer. However, if the weather keeps getting better (meaning worse), we might try something stupider in the incoming weeks. Stay tuned!