So here I am in Pasman, just the sort of place I have been searching for this trip. A real paradise, I could certainly stay here for a few more days. But, tomorrow I continue south and keep on my bearing to Dubrovnik.

I first rode south on Krk towards the ferry at Valbuska. Krk is a nice island with lots of trees and a surprising amount of green. I then had a long 1.5hr ferry to Lopar on Rab, soaking in the sun and looking out at bright blue sea and islands all around.

I am going to hop from Krk to Rab and then on to Pag. A day on idillic Croatian islands sounds pretty appealing.

After 145km I arrived here at Postojna where I am 4 km from the largest caves in Europe, which I plan to check out in the morning. I knew today that if I could get away from the mountains, the weather would be likely to improve. I am now only 100km north of the Dalmatian coast so surely the weather couldn’t be that terrible here?

Today I rode the 26km round trip to Bovec to get food before the shops shut at 12 and to book a canyoning trip for the afternoon. I also sat in the town and drank cheap coffee. I joined a French couple who I met here at Korita Camp in Soca for a three hour canyoning trip. The Karst limestone region here is renowned for its gorges and rivers. Canyoning, rafting and kayaking are all being carried out in a big way.

At 1611m, the Vrsic pass is the highest in the Eastern Julian Alps and a climb I had read about some time ago and been wanting to ride. The descent consists of 26 tight hairpins, but this time they were paved. The highlight was a Porsche 911 pulling over to let me past as he realised I was faster then him.

On May the 21st I watched my cycling heroes on Eurosport as they tackled the Monte Zoncolan in the Giro d’Italia. The road looked unbearably steep, and even the for the finest cyclists in the world, the challenge of getting up the mountain was immense. I knew I had to experience it and when planning the route for this tour, the opportunity presented itself. I would start the Alps with l’Alp d’Huez and finish the Dolomites with Zoncolan.

Unfortunately the decent was short lived, dropping 800m in just a handful of kilometres. Then the road traversed the mountain and headed up again into the trees. Another hard pass, Passo di Falzarego, forced me to stop for lunch after just a few kilometres as I felt my blood sugar levels dipping. I felt poor on this climb but eventually found a rhythm tapping my thumbs on the handlebars and trying not to think about it too much.

After reviewing the Cita Bra earlier this month, I headed out with another recent addition to Arc’teryx’s trail running line. The new running legging, the Cita 3/4 tight, extends the brand’s focus on breathability for high intensity exercise. With this feature in mind I looked at the product’s general ability in handling a warm and heated environment – conditions at distance from Arc’teryx’s alpine heritage. Of course comfort would come into play as I assessed the material’s limits in the summer season.

I set off from the glitz and glamour of Garda and having ridden 35 km to the lakes northern tip (Riva del Garda), I began climbing. The first pass of the day taking me over to Roverto was not too painful but served to warn me of what the Dolomites has to offer. I then had an awesome decent hitting a max speed of 76 kmph and in doing so lost the altitude i had gained. The route, interspersed with long dark tunnels, spat me out at Trento.

The lake started looking very appealing as the temperature crept up. A quick check of the map, another 20 km up the lake, and I decided I could call it a day. Giving myself a rest afternoon seemed like real luxury, I still covered 119km through Cremona, Asolo, Desenzano and Maderno so I can rest easy.

My route today took me from last night’s camp 7km north of Alessandria along the SS10 to Piacenza and on to Cremona. I sit now at camp on the banks of the Po.

The X-Hale TrailBlazes are a trail running specific sock found within Bridgedale’s recently developed ‘Fast and Light’ range. Designed with warm conditions and quick movement in mind, the TrailBlazes were just … Read more

Making good progress at 25 km/hr, I barely noticed the wet and soon the skies cleared as I skirted around Pinerolo, Asti and Alessandria to end up here at the … Read more

From camp at 1400m I began the day climbing, working hard over numerous switchbacks that elevated me to 2058m and the summit of the Col du Lautaret with the infamous Col du Galibier looming ahead. The Galibier is for another trip so today I instead pointed the bike downhill and pushed for Briancon down a long, swooping decent which needed little braking – finally I seemed to be making good progress after a slow start.

I like taking part in some sort of big challenge event about three times a year, and as Jack and I had previously hiked across Scotland, from Kyle of Lochalsh to Beauly, an idea developed between us to complete a similar X-Scotland journey – but this time riding off-road on mountain bikes. The standard route for such a crossing is well established and several companies such as Wilderness Scotland offer supported and guided 7-day trips that follow a route well described, outlined and mapped in Phil McKane’s book ‘Scotland: The Wild Trails’. While our team followed sections of this route we also included the infamous ‘Sligachan Loop’ on Skye as a warm-up day and added a series of other departures to whet our particular interests in exploration and extreme challenge!

Hello, and welcome to my European cycle touring adventure blog. Over the next 3 weeks I aim to ride from Grenoble, France to Podgorica,Montenegro. I am taking in a few famous routes on my way including l’Alp d’Huez in the French Alps, Monte Zoncalon in the Italian Dolomites and the Vrsic Pass in Slovenia before cruising down the Croatian coast, cutting inland to Sarajevo and finishing up with a ride through the Montenegrin mountains. My aim was to create an interesting route, and to take in several countries with varying cultures along the way.

The Columbia Mobex Sprint is a scaled down version of the original Mobex, a forerunner to Columbia’s trail running launch collection. If anything, the smaller nature of the Sprint has further … Read more

Vivobarefoot and its parent company Terra Plana offer a range of ‘barefoot’ shoes that cover everything from smart office wear to serious athletic shoes. Barefoot footwear bases itself on the idea … Read more

Sitting alongside a number of prestigious outdoor brands in the Cascade Designs family, SealLine has a lot to stand up to. The Boundary Pack is SealLine’s go everywhere-do -everything pack and is designed to be as comfortable as a backpack on a the train as holdall deep in the canyon.