A few weeks ago, we set off on our first gravel adventure of the year. Fresh out of lockdown, equipped with our beautiful panniers and well supported by a solid team!

A look back at those few days in Italy.

The genesis

February 16, 2020, Emilien Jacquelin beats Johannes Boe at the end of an epic sprint that would make the best sprinters in the peloton pale.  Sprint at the end of which he obtained his first world championship title (and not the last).
Like many cyclists longing for sunny mountain passes in winter, I'm glued to my TV to experience this moment. I understand that Emilien has a history with cycling and that this athlete is atypical.

A few weeks later, we exchanged messages on Instagram and I was pleasantly surprised by her response and enthusiasm towards Matchy. He debuts a jersey on the slopes of Ventoux, we cross paths on his home turf in the Vercors during a gravel trip, and we debrief on our last gravel trip in Italy which seems to have given him some ideas.

The idea

One biathlon season later (with another world championship title under his belt, back-to-back), it's time to think about the off-season. That sweet moment between lockdown and getting back to cross-country skiing, where the taste of a Spritz is supposed to soften a long and grueling season.
In the meantime, I receive a small Instagram notification " Tell me you're leaving again in May? »

Without hesitation, I prepare a few routes, once again thanks to Openrunner. The choice seems quick: "We love pizzas!" That's perfect, I'm not averse to mozzarella and neither is Martin! Ah yes, in the meantime Antonin Guigonnat and Martin Fourcade have joined the ranks. A few more watts and gold medals!

A complete team with Antoine, a good friend who was already on the trip in 2020, running like clockwork, he is at the head of Season, for your mountain biking and skiing holidays.

Eve of departure

After a few evenings studying the different options and mapping out the route, we send everything to Wahoo. We fill the Apidura panniers and choose jerseys that match the beautiful Cannondale bike loaned for the occasion. A great way to test the Lefty fork.
Don't forget the cargo shorts, the best ally for this type of trip.

The departure

On Wednesday, May 5th, the magic bus leaves Morzine with its captain Antoine and proceeds with the school pick-up towards Tuscany.

A quick stop at the Italian autogrill, bringing back fond memories of French triangle sandwiches... A first pizza at a restaurant, a return to normal life which we quickly rediscovered. In short, 7 hours of driving later and an apartment bought along the way, here we are in Siena!

Day 1

Waking up at 6 a.m., the slight stress and excitement of departure. The major stress, even though Martin devoured an XXL Milka bar the day before, his calves are bulging and Emilien is already talking about the average speed!
Heading towards Piazza del Campo, the legendary finish line of the Strade Bianche, and also home to the Palio, which embodies Italian passion. Getting there is hard-earned, but with panniers on your bike, you're not exactly going to be tackling those 18% gradients like some kind of MVDP (Motorcycle Tour de France).

Not too much time to lose, we still have 120km and over 2000m to cover, plus a ferry not to miss.

The route out of Siena takes us along a few short, flat sections of Strade Bianche before quickly leading us onto slightly more technical singletrack. While we're searching for the trail in a dense forest, we get a call from the hotel saying we need to return the keys, even though we've already been gone for two hours. A bit of a panic ensues—the keys were in the room!

We come out of a long gravel road of more than 10km, the return to tarmac feels good, just enough time to realize that Martin's GoPro mount has broken, and that it has therefore remained on a path for the pleasure of a walker or a wild boar.

A short stretch of road, a sign marking the entrance to the only village we'd passed all day. Given the pace since the start, I watched this sprint from a distance, knowing it was going to be a long day. A small restaurant for refueling. Cherry tomatoes, gnocchi, and strawberries for dessert—simple, basic, enough to fuel us for another 60 kilometers!

We set off again on small, idyllic roads; the paths are steep and the singletracks sometimes technical. We pass motocross bikes coming the other way on the trail, and I think to myself that I'm not exactly scoring points on the track… It has to be said that the heavy rain of the last few weeks hasn't helped make the terrain rideable.

We finish the trail section and have 20km left to reach Piombino. I slightly regret putting pressure on the timing, and also being in a 650x47 gear ratio; Emilien wants to take advantage of this flat stretch of asphalt to improve his average speed. It doesn't take much to get the other cyclists excited, we cover the whole distance in 40 minutes and arrive in Piombino at 5 pm for a 6:30 pm ferry. That gives us time to enjoy some delicious ice cream and explore the rather pretty town center.

We board and take advantage of a bit of calm to prepare for the next day. Because from the boat, the island of Elba looks as beautiful as it is rugged.

Day 2

So here we are on the island of Elba, on this bicentenary of Napoleon's death! Emilien is to Napoleon what Martin is to Mozzarella cheese, a huge fan!
The advantage of this day is that we're returning to the same hotel in the evening, giving us a chance to wash our clothes and lighten our load a bit. Except for me, though, who's taking everyone's swimsuits and towels; after all, we'll be cruising along the island's coast and coves all day, so we'll have plenty of opportunities for a swim.

105km and 2100m of elevation gain are on the agenda. The start is very pleasant, we stay on the road longer than planned, a short coffee stop at the " dolce vita "Just to enjoy the view after this first climb. I take the opportunity to win what will be my only sign of the trip, that's something, I can now concentrate on the prize for fighting spirit."

At the summit of Monte Perone (the island's highest road), we find a beautiful gravel track that will take us back down to the south coast. This gives Antoine the opportunity to show off his technical skills with some well-executed wheelies.

A quick stop at a restaurant in a small seaside village, a chance to savor Italian cuisine and the warm welcome once again. We set off again, and the road doesn't last long; the gravel path is lovely, but it climbs at a 20% gradient and it's hot. We're not complaining, though; it feels great in early May to enjoy the outdoors in shorts and short sleeves without worrying about the temperature.We quickly set ourselves a small mission to follow the trail, having to carry and find ourselves in the segment " brutal salita ": 1.3km at an average of 19% with a maximum section at 36%... Brutal then!

We switch over and the gravel descent is pretty nice, a bit of road along the coast, it could be worse, we find ourselves at a crossroads where the port (and therefore the hotel) is 10km to the left or we can follow the track (to the right) for a bit more gravel (and elevation gain). I feel like it wouldn't take much for us to turn left, if I didn't know what awaited us I probably would have done the same, but I knew that this loop on the southern peninsula of the island was worth it. No, no, guys, it's American gravel, you gotta go! "Deep down, I'm still crossing my fingers a bit, hoping that Google View hadn't misled me. I have to say, I'm getting teased a bit on the route; the question that pops up on every gravel forum keeps coming up here too, insistently..." Is that gravel? "Half teasing, and half truth, I still haven't found anyone capable of answering this question." That's surely what's enjoyable about gravel riding after all!

The path is really nice, in any case, it can be described as " American gravel "But I quickly start to break out in a cold sweat again when I see the track heading in the same direction as a DH trail sign…"
Martin's warning: "I don't think this is the best choice." "I think it's time to feign blind confidence in my line and put a little more pressure on to prick the pride of the champion who's going to ski down all this easily. More of a scare than anything else, and here we are back on a beautiful seaside trail. The perfect opportunity to enjoy a little cove and take a dip."

An Italian woman in her fifties takes the opportunity to have a good look, and it's not the sidelong glance with sunglasses that's going to fool us.
Back in the saddle, one last little bakery break and a quick return to Porto Ferraio, an opportunity to please Emilien who wants to improve his stats, by finishing the last 10 km at an average of 36.
Gelato upon arrival, a shower, a pizza, and another gelato (obviously).

Day 3

An early start to catch the ferry and begin another day getting closer to Siena.

As soon as we got off the ferry, we hit a nice gravel section. We only saw guys on enduro bikes wearing full-face helmets and protective gear. It felt like we were in Morzine, which made me a little nervous on the trail. It turned out that the Italians weren't the best mountain bikers in the world after all, because we stayed at 200m above sea level and the paths were really great for gravel riding.
Back on the road for a bit, a quick break for fresh strawberries by a field (Antoine's perfect excuse to relieve himself in the bushes), Martin's second flat tire a few kilometers later, even though I told him to put on the Hutchinson Touaregs… Luckily, we have a fantastic mechanic duo with Antonin and Antoine! Those guys from Chablais are resourceful!

We find ourselves a few kilometers further on, back in a pretty cool gravel section (where we come across a tortoise, a nod to my level during this trip)! The gravel section is quite long and wild, we rejoin the road, our stomachs are rumbling but there's not much along the way, so we make a detour towards Severeto to eat.

The village turned out to be very typical and very pretty. (Very good, in short). Unfortunately, oMartin gets to choose the restaurant. Four people to serve water, we're starting to think the sign " Michelin "The sign on the shop window wasn't a reference to those flat tires..."
The plates were very nice, but not very full. Gourmet food is great, but after 3 days on the bike, I think we could have eaten a 5th pizza!

We set off again, and we can still see Piombino in the distance, as if on gravel the distances are not covered as quickly.
Especially since the road is steep heading inland, a day with more climbing than descending is always a bit tougher mentally. To reach Monterotondo, there are 17km of gradual ascent, including another 1.6km at an average gradient of 13%. On a gravel bike with panniers, it's a different story altogether.

Around us, it's not great, it's a bit like the Italian Springfield. The good news, as Antonin would say, is that the road is beautiful and the lines are perfectly white. An opportunity for a little skit (with an Italian accent): In exchange for 45 steam and nuclear power plants, we will paint white lines all along the road, perfectly white lines. Sometimes you have to be there to understand. In any case, those are the moments when you need a laugh!

A Coke at the top and we're off again. We cut across part of the trail that would have taken us up 400m of elevation in 5km to head towards Monteri, our stop for the night. It's an Airbnb, so we do some shopping for dinner and breakfast.
The village is tiny, a restaurant, a bar, that's all we needed. The pizzas are excellent, and at €7 each, you might as well get two! A bit like the Spritz. When you start thinking a guy is walking around with a raven on his shoulder when it's actually a surgical mask dangling from his ear, maybe it's time to lay off the alcohol. Actually, the guy was far away and his mask was black…
They certainly have a knack for business, 5 Kinder Bueno bars offered to finish, Emilien is over the moon!

Day 4

Not the longest day, but with its share of surprises to end on a high note!
Homemade breakfast by chef Antoine. Egg, bacon, homemade fruit salad... a real champion's breakfast, world champion (or not).
Right from the start, we were one step away from witnessing Emilien crash, followed by Antonin who nearly ran over his beautiful glasses – what a shame for this concentration of Jura technology… The steps are tricky with a gravel bike and the weight of the panniers. We set off gently, the trail is gravel almost from the beginning, and we even find ourselves on a ridge line surrounded by cypress trees, visible from afar – it's like a remix of gladiator and the Imola finale where Alaphilippe soared to victory. A little treat!

We find ourselves crossing rivers, which adds to the charm, and in the middle of a path we witness deer and a family of wild boar passing by one after the other – idyllic! If it weren't for all the lookout towers around, you could think it's paradise for these animals.

We don't stop there, the path continues and runs alongside a long fenced priority where about 50 does reside, quite strange, it doesn't really look like a nature reserve.(It feels a bit like we're in " on the front (in the parks in Sologne). Sure enough, a big, hot 4x4 catches up with us. I don't speak Italian, but I quickly understand that we won't be going on holiday together and that he wishes We didn't want to go any further. Private road or not, we weren't in the right place, and despite the superior numbers, we preferred to play it cool and turn back rather than make an enemy (the hunters' finesse seemed to be international).

A bit of extra road walking then, we rejoin our gravel path a few kilometers further on. The opportunity for a new encounter, we are first chased by two guard dogs which the owner of the place calls back with some difficulty, before arriving in a field where I see lots of sheep, and not a single power line, this whole thing reeks of Pyrenean Mountain Dogs (for the record we already came across one on the first day which almost bit our calf off, the opportunity to learn that Emilien is afraid of dogs).
No miss, I see the first Pyrenean Mountain Dog in the distance, and in fact, it has a friend, or a girlfriend. Two big Pyrenean Mountain Dogs in the middle of the path, no time to brake or doubt, I admit I'm glad we're a bit grouped together on this one, Antonin perfectly imitates the sheep, I still haven't figured out the technique, while I have a foot ready to pull out.

We recover from our emotions by enjoying the last few pretty cool singletracks, which become increasingly rare as we approach the city. On the final climb, I let the tough guys have their say; I'm completely exhausted as soon as I reach the bottom of the hill (which I still manage to climb by bike, not by escalator like some people...).
One last photo at Piazza Del Campo; it was nicer on Thursday morning at 8 a.m. than on Sunday at 1 p.m. We found a nice little restaurant (apparently the best carbonara in town), a fond memory of these four challenging, sunny days discovering a charming region, just as Italy knows how to do.

A small parking ticket on the windshield, we change our clothes and head home. Another 7 hours of driving to debrief and think about the next trip. One destination already seems to be emerging, so ready to go again?
As for me, the Dolomites are calling soon, and I can't wait to tell you more. Thanks to everyone for following along, and thanks to the amazing team who gave me a real run for my money on the trail and on the bike!
Special mention to Emilien who continued to make me sweat on the way back. It has to be said that the guy spends more time looking at the co-pilot than the road when he's driving ;)