We are sometimes asked, where do you plan to go next?  Our answer may provide one of the many interesting places to ride in  Europe, but we really have no idea. As summer comes to a close and the weather begins to change, Scott gets serious about developing tour ideas  for the fall and begins to bounce the suggestions off Pat. Warm weather (is dry too much to ask for?) it is critical to us, and so is staying south of 49 degrees (where we live). Exploring  places that are new is always high on the list. Adding some challenging (but not too challenging) geography, as well as nice cycling roads are also important. With all this in mind, we both agreed that a tour starting in  Toulouse and riding in a round about way into Spain's Basque country ticked all the boxes. 

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ann and steve maher-wearySo envious ! You are off again ! Will enjoy following along as usual. Spain is a great cycling destination.
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7 months ago

Patrick O'HaraYippee. Looks like a great itinerary. Looking forward to following along.
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7 months ago

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You would think with the number of these cycling excursions under our belts that it would be routine to get ready for a tour. Not. It always comes down to a mad scramble of house and garden preparations, dentist appointments, hair cuts, nail prep for some, bike repairs, equipment replacements, clothes purchases and trip planning details. We keep threatening that one day we will create a master list of everything that is needed for a tour but we have not. Instead, we think of it as a giant  puzzle.   Days in advance we start methodically emptying drawers and closets of our tour kit and creating piles of the necessary items around the house. (Thank goodness we do not camp!) This stuff will be amalgamated and organized into four panniers. Tough decisions are necessary when we realize it does not all fit.  The Bike Fridays will be broken down and stored into suitcases. The taxi will be scheduled and the tour will anxiously begin. We get most things right but there are always the missed items and the clothes that we  did not need or those that we had wished we had packed. It is all part of the touring game.

Over the years we have improved our tour planning techniques to suit us. Scott, by nature, is a logistical planner. His methods are fairly established using various map files and loading them onto Garmin's Basecamp software. He then builds a route often using Google maps to have a closer look at the roads. The planned tour map is then uploaded onto a Garmin 1030 device to keep us daily on track. Changes to our planned route are made  as needed on a Microsoft Surface Go. We would be remiss not to thank the Cycleblazers whose blogs we have consulted about travels in Northern Spain. The usual suspects include: The Andersons, Patrick O'Hara, Jacquie Gaudet, Steve Miller and the Maher-Wearys. Mainland Spain is new to us so reviewing your travels was most helpful.

We continue to use the Bike Fridays as our go to machines. They are very reliable and we have replaced many of the components over the years. They still perform very well for this purpose and their airline friendly suitcases can travel as checked bags. We did have Pat's rear Dual drive hub serviced at Rat City Bikes, an expert on these hubs, while in Seattle this summer. As well,  we have replaced two of our Arkel panniers that were showing signs of wear. Other than that, there is little changed for this tour. 

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Patrick O'HaraA very cool technology.
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7 months ago

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We fly out this weekend and begin with three days in Toulouse before starting our ride heading north toward the Tarn River. Thanks for following along.