Garda

After Sardegna it was Garda. Lago de Garda is a very famous sailing / windsurfing spot up in the north of Italy at the foot of the Dolomites. I have been there quite a few times but it never ceases to blow me away with breathtaking views, great food, wine and the famous Italian culture!

We were there for the Star Europeans sailing from Malcesine yacht club on the north Eastern side of the lake. The guys had a mixed regatta finishing 13th but finished off the regatta on a positive note.

We were also lucky enough to eat at our friend Luca Modena's restuarant a few times while we were there. His place is right down on the water just south of Malcesine on the lake, the food is incredible and he always plays the perfect host...

Sardegna

For the first week of September I sailed the Maxi wold Cup on Alfa Romeo. Sardegna (Sardinia) is one of the most beautiful places you can go sailing. Porto Cuervo was built by the Arga Khan in the 70's and is most definitely a must see port if you are ever cruising the Med!

We sailed through an around the straights of Madelena in between Corsica and Sardegna, crystal clear blue waters and sunny skies... Unfortunately our main rivals Wild Oats lost there rig during the second race so we were without a sparring partner after that. We won over the line and Morning Glory won on handicap...

The big man!!

This is a photo of my buddy Will McCarthy holding the Americas Cup. He has been on the last two winning crews with Alinghi....

Rallye Europe...

Just finished another memorable road trip. I was taking the Star and coach boat, from Cascais Portugal to Italy ready for the Europeans later in the year then dropping the car off in Munich before flying back to Aus.
So the Portugal, Spain, France sections were fairly uneventful, basically distance already covered last month. But Italy in particular Lake Como and the Alps was something else. Lake Como is one of the most photographed and filmed lakes in the world.

Waking up this morning and eating breakfast overlooking the Lake, mountains and Town of Bellagio on the opposite shore was even for a very uninspired tourist like me quite breathtaking. I then jumped back in the car and had a full day to be in Munich so managed a little touring through Switzerland, Northern Italy, Austria and finally Germany.

St Moritz was as expected, great views, beautiful lakes and snow covered peaks even in the middle of July, then over the Bernina Pass and back up into Italy via a small ski resort called Livigno. If you have seen the movie the Italian Job, the Dam and lake where there is a scene of the truck going over into the water was filmed here… As always in the Alps there are cyclists everywhere training and touring, plus in places Swiss Cows complete with big cow bells, some even wandering around the road!

Austria was more of the same, but I think I like the feel of Italy more, the combination of language culture and food is hard to beat!
Then it was the German Autobahn and some serious pace on the way into Munich. The roof racks on the car were having a hard time staying on at 240km/h, apart from the constant noise at that speed, everything felt reasonably normal, other than the extra hint of adrenalin when someone looks like pulling out from the right hand lane!
Maybe next time I will make it back in winter for some skiing. Very easy to imagine how sensational some of these places would be when there is heaps of snow around!

The Alps

On the way to St Tropez I spent some time travelling through the French Alps.

I wanted to see some of the famous places and alpine passes the tour de France passes through.

I did a lap from Grenoble, Alp d'Huez, over col de Croix de fer, over col du Galibier, then down to Briancon.

Huez is one of the more famous tour stages, Lance won a 14 km time trial there a few years ago. It rises from about 700m to 1700m over 14km with 24 switch back hair pins and a few ski lifts to negotiate, might also be fun to do some skiing there in Winter. I did see a few pro teams training as well as heaps of tourists taking on the mountain...

Galibier was 2645m above sea level and as you can see from the Photos well above the snow line. The tour comes through here in mid July only a few weeks away, it was well below 10 degrees, there were still quite a few tourists riding their bikes over the mountains, I would love to come back soon with my bike and a bit more time....perhaps one day to do la Marmotte race which is basically a 176km loop from Alp d'huez over this loop and back, only about 5000m vertical!! perhaps a little more training required for that one!!

Afterwards It was back down the hill to Nice to spend the night with my Great Uncle Charlie who lives in Antibes and then meet up with the guys on Alfa to get to St Tropez for the Giraglia Race....

Valencia

Now its some R and R in Valencia, I am staying with Will McCarthy and his wife Louise. They have two young girls Caitlin and Natalie. We had a small sample of the local criminal mind today. I went for a run along the beach (you can see the cup boats circling only a mile or so off the sand) and instead of taking the house key with me decided to hide it in a pot plant at the front of the house. Well 30 minutes later I returned and it was gone!! not only did I have to sit in front of the house for 3 and a half hours guarding it before Lousie and Will came home, but had my tail firmly planted in between my legs explaining the situation to them. I do feel for the poor bastard who trys to break in and rob us, Will is a very large human (one of the grinders on the Alinghi Cup boat) and would take great pleasure in demonstrating that it was clearly the wrong move for anyone to think that he is not the boss around here!
Incedently the Kiwi's won again today, looked pretty comfortable and they now lead 2 - 0 in a best of 9....

On the road again...

Okay so I think it is fair to say I have spent some time behind the wheel of late. After successfully tackling the US it was time to take on Europe. After the regatta finished in Holland we needed to get the whole show down to Portugal some 2500km away. Unfortunately the setup with Star and coachboat on the trailer only can really manage 90km/h so there was certainly plenty of time to enjoy the soothing tones of Dutch, French and Spanish radio. I only had one run in with the Police. The Spanish guardia civilia fined me for having my ipod headset in while driving.... no amount of conversing was going to change the outcome and the 3 of them made it very clear that I would not be allowed to carry on without coming up with the cash... I hope they enjoyed their friday night at the local pub!!

Portugal seems to be much nicer place than Spain, so should be all good spending three weeks there for the worlds from the 16th june....