MotoGiro D'Italia 2017

Back in 2017, myself and Bill put down the tools and headed down to Italy for the 2017 Moto Giro D'Italia. This is a time trial event held over 1700km through some of the most fantastic roads in Italy with many stops in towns and villages along the daily route. The event is run by the Moto Club Terni who through their hard work and dedication, put on a fantastic event. The routes are clearly marked, the route sheets are clear, there are support vehicles with mechanics to help keep the bikes running, some of these mechanics worked through the night in order to fix problems! but most of all they are a friendly helpful bunch of people and made the event what it is today.

So off we set with the two 1954 Velocette MSS bikes loaded up in the van. Hull to Roterdam on the overnight ferry, always a great crossing and much better than driving the length on the UK to the south coast. We made our way down into Germany with a stop at Rastatt (we will be doing some touring from this location at a later date as it seems a great location with some great roads in Germany and into France)

We crossed into Switzerland, Liechtenstein and then over the top through the SplugenPass which was impressive seeing as it had just opened the week before and there was still snow banked up high on the side of the road. We dropped down into Italy and stayed overnight in Colico on the side of Lake Como, not a bad place to wake up in with views back towards the mountains we had just crossed. https://youtu.be/hyjbNnYNHgE

Heading off down the side of Como, we were heading for Lake Trasimeno and took the main route past Milan, Parma, Bolonga, Florence taking in several coffee stops on the way, we have certain rules about coffee stops when we are out on the road! The main rule being that they are often! Once settled on the side of Trasemino we were able to have a tour around on some lovely biking roads with plenty to see. It truly is a wonderful area. We were getting close to signing on day now, so headed to the start of the Giro which this year was based in Spoleto in Perugia. The Hotel Arbornoz was were the event started and our first hotel for the week. We were greeted by the team and went through the signing on process getting all our route information, race pass, race numbers for the bikes etc. Then the bikes had to go through scrutineering ready for going out the following morning on day one of the adventure.

More to come on Day 1 of the Giro.....