Ride To Spring: Day 1 (a wet start)
A 700km bike-packing trip from Innsbruck to La Spezia
Had we been overly optimistic when we decided to called our bike-packing tour a "Trip Into Spring"? Innsbruck welcomed us at with a downpour of icy April rain. After the early morning train ride from Vienna, we still had 100km and a major mountain pass to negotiate before nightfall. We hesitated under the cover of the station forecourt, but the rain showed no sign of relenting. Reluctantly we emerged on to the wet streets of Tyrol’s capital.
There were 13 of us, all keen cyclists but most of us past the first flush of youth. We’d chosen a route that would take us almost 700 kilometers in six days, mainly on cycle paths and quiet back roads through five Italian regions. The idea was to get an invaluable insight into the cultural, scenic and gastronomic diversity of Bella Italia. At the end we would sit on the beach in La Spezia in the Liguria region and drink Prosecco - a little bit of spring after all.
Bike-packing is both a trend and the original roots of cycling. Bikes have always been about adventure and freedom. People have been strapping bags to their bikes and headed off on long tours ever since the 19th century; and many of the most remarkable trips have been made by women.
Bostonian mother of three Annie Londonderry cycled around the world by bike in 1894. Devla Murphy, who died in 2023, turned her solo bike trip to India into one of the best travel books of the 20th century. Tourists have been bumbling down the path along the Danube for decades without ever considering their panniers made them trendy or adventurous.
Lighter, Quicker, Easier
What’s new is a new generation of light-weight bags that you can strap to swift road-bikes and gravel bikes and bike computers that can help you quickly devise new routes of your own.
It was definitely worth bringing thermal underwear, a rain jacket and sunscreen with me. However, a few kilometers into route, I realized that I should have trained not only my leg-muscles, but also my packing skills. I’d completed my first bike-packing tour only 12 months before, with the same crew, using with cheap bags hastily purchased on the internet. Soon my saddlebag, the so-called butt rocket, was wagging back and forth like a dog's tail, and the front bag was hanging crooked and wobbling too.
This time I wanted to cut a more elegant and stable figure. I had bought some pretty expensive bags from the northern English company Restrap. They would have been great - if I had taken the trouble to watch the six-minute instructional video in time. My expensive bag was sagging I climbed the the road from Innsbruck towards the Brenner Pass.
It’s a route I knew well from the indoor training app Zwift. However, there are no cars in that online world. Already soaked and stuck in traffic uphill, I almost want to give up on our "spring ride" after the first few kilometers. But after 20 minutes we reached the back roads and gravel paths above Patsch. The rain had reduced to an invigorating drizzle and the clouds were swirling playfully around the Stubai Valley peaks. As my fingers warmed, my optimism gradually began to return.
After our first Italian coffee at the border, everything suddenly looked wonderful: South Tyrol seems blessed in terms of weather and infrastructure. It had stopped raining, and suddenly there was a structurally separated cycle path in front of us: an inviting, safe, flat path that winds through the meadows of the mountain landscape.
Over 100 kilometers of freedom to Bolzano. Why can't we have this infrastructure in North Tyrol too?