Steve's Ride Reviews
You can read the reviews I have posted below, with the most recent review first and then descending in date order back till 2012.
Once you open a review that interests you, you can in most cases click on the photo and you will be taken to the webpage for that tour from the company that that we booked with. In some instances you will find that a little searching will identify several companies offering the same tour. It can pay to check out the alternatives as this can lead to better prices or a bonus for booking or even access to a better room as companies each pre-book and some may still have first class rooms that others don't.
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Reviews are both subjective and relevant to the author who wrote them, as are the star ratings. Furthermore, these reviews present the author's opinion at a point in time and with the passage of time companies can change an itinerary, guides can change and conditions on the ground can vary. In relation to the latter, for example, the review from 2013 of the Po River Tour dealt with a tour that was impacted by massive rain and flooding across central Europe and northern Italy. A year earlier or later, riders would have had a vastly different experience.
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Therefore, please use these reviews as a starting point to gain an initial understanding of what is available and what you might experience. Not all the tours I have reviewed are offered every year, but where the tour or the experience is being offered in 2025 I have provided a link to the company's tour webpage. You can compare reviews in this website with other sites and after that you might want to contact tour facilitators and operators to ask questions and seek more detail about what is being offerer now.
Tuscany - Hills and Sea, Italy - Provided by Road Bike Tours Italy *****
June 2014
We’ve been back on the road again, this time in Italy. A little background first. As previously mentioned in my blogs, taking your ebike anywhere by plane is impossible unless you send through a courier company. I corresponded with the Specialized Australia team to see whether Specialized had plans to rent batteries in Europe so that you just take your bike without batteries and you rent what you need once you arrive. The answer was no. I’ll certainly keep pressing on this as I think the market will be huge given the number of touring e-bikes we’ve seen since we arrived in Italy.
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Anyway, Specialized put me in touch with Renato at the Taddei Bike Shop in San Miniato (about an hour's drive from Lucca where we were going to be staying) as they rent out Specialized e bikes including Creo’s. Renato was fabulous to deal with but he too had to contend with the Specialized suppliers in Milan. For five months we corresponded and arranged Creo bikes for Mary and I only to be informed by Renato the week we were departing that he had only received the large model for me and that he was advised that a medium or small for Mary wouldn’t arrive till 6 June at the earliest - useless as our tour started on 2 June.
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As an alternative, Renato went out of his way to bring an e hybrid bike to our house in Lucca for Mary to try, but it did not suit her. Ultimately Renato agreed to cancel my bike rental and we instead organised De Rosa e road bikes through Road Bike Tours Italy, our touring company. Not in the Creo’s class, but still much better than eMTBs or ehybrids.
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And to the tour. We have ridden with Luca and RBTours Italy twice before and we opted to join their Hills and Sea tour which took us from Siena to the island of Elba. Mary and I were joined by our Italian friends, Elena and Alessio, who both hired a e hybrid and eMTB respectively for the tour. They joined us in Lucca and RBTours collected their rental bikes from the shop in Lucca before picking the four of us up at our house and taking us to Sienna. Readers may recall that during the Bike and Barge Tour in 2022 our friend Elena who has no English had lots of quiet moments. This tour turned out to be the opposite with four Italian speakers plus Mary and I. By half way through the week I had to ask Luca to remember that my Italian is minimal and Mary's in nil and to ensure that they included us in conversations by mixing his choice of language. A small thing, but so important when you arrange a tour with multiple languages.
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To get the tour date that suited us, we had paid for a private self guided tour with vehicle support, with the option of a price reduction if another two persons wanted to join us for an open tour. We weren't joined by anyone else but Luca and his partner, Marilisa, arrived in a mini bus with the Alessio's and Elena' heavy bikes in the rear plus bikes on the roof for Mary, myself and Luca. At around 28kgs each, putting the two heavy bikes on theon the roof with our 12kg e de Rosa’s and Luca’s 7kg Giant road bikes wasn’t an option. Luca had had to remove the last row of seats to fit the two bikes plus luggage for 6. He also explained that he was in training for a difficult tour in the Dolomites and had decided to ride with us as our guide while Marilisa drove the van at no extra cost.
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The service from RBTours was, as usual, amazing. Having spent the morning driving from Lake Garda to collect us in Lucca, Luca and Marilisa started the trip to our tour starting point of Siena. Upon arrival at our hotel for the next two nights, Luca proceeded to set up the bikes to suit each rider. For Alessio and Elena it was mostly about adjusting seat heights and getting them familiar with riding unfamiliar bikes. Luca was worried about battery range with these bikes as initially we were riding 70 - 80 kms a day with big climbs. As it turned out he needn’t have worried as they both completed the rides every day except the big day where the bike’s batteries died with a few kms to go.
For Mary’s and my bikes, Luca had a bit more work. On Mary’s bike he replaced the handle bar stem with the one we brought with us so that Mary could achieve the right riding posture. He also installed Mary’s seat and put her Garmin holder on the handle bar and installed her preferred cleat pedals. My bike was a little simpler. Just a seat and Garmin holder installed. Then for both of us it was ride, test, adjust until we both felt comfortable.
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Day 1 for riding involved riding a loop out to Rada in Chianti for coffee, then on to Castelina in Chianti where we had a photo with symbol of Chianti, a sculpture of the black rooster. Then off to Gaiole in Chianti for lunch before returning to Siena. 73kms and 1243m of climbing. A nice way to start and to get used to the very different operating system of the De Rosa. Two chain rings compared to one on the Creo. The motor in the rear hub rather than between the cranks. A small internal battery located between the cranks and a large, strangely shaped range extender battery in the rear water bottle holder. And a manual campagnolo gear charging system. By the end of the week I was still finding the push button to raise the gears or to go from large to small chain ring was not an automatic process. Many times I automatically lifted my hand looking for an alternative gear change system.
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It took a few days of communicating with Luca before it became clear that the five mode e gear system needed to be set before you first put your feet on the pedals, otherwise the support was minimal. Second, based on the Creo battery system I had assumed that the internal battery would have twice the power as the extender. Assumption wrong! The extender by its size is twice as powerful as the internal battery. It’s only a guess, but I think De Rosa achieved 12 kgs overall weight by using a small internal battery. There were a couple of days where my range extender died and I had to stop, disconnect the extender battery and then restart the bike so that it starting obtaining power from the internal battery - weird!!
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Day 2 involved an 84km ride from Siena to Volterra with 1587m of climbing. A very big day, particularly as the final climb to the town was over 300m with steep gradients most of the way. Day 3 took us from Volterra to Marina di Castogneto Carducci on the coast after a visit to Bolgheri, one of Italy’s premier wine towns and regions. Mostly a downhill day, but we did climb to Montecatini Val di Cecina which contributed most of the day’s 773m of climbing. After 68kms of riding we arrived mid afternoon to our beach hotel - a hotel with its own private beach among many with sun beds and umbrellas and across the whole beach plus a beach bar for drinks. We looked but none of used the hotels beach facilities.
Day 4 saw us back in the bus for the drive to the ferry terminal at Piombino where we boarded the ferry and headed for Portoferraio, the Elba ferry port. We then drove out of the town to a carpark where we set up our bikes and started the day’s ride. Just 41kms for the day, but with the late start we still faced some challenging climbs. 766m of climbing over two climbs. The first up the Elba Mortirolo with a 3.8km climb and average gradients of 8/9% and I recorded a max of 17%. A real challenge, even on an e bike. We started our second big climb after lunch on the coast and this time it was about 7kms of climbing although gradients averaged about 5/6% and the steepest were around 10%. I had hoped to test the bike for speed on the descent, but half way down with a speed around 52kph I caught up with slow cars and motorbikes. The same happened on our last day of riding - so disappointing!
Which brings us to Day 5. It’s about 90kms to circumnavigate Elba and day 5 took us to the other half of the island. Just on 50kms of riding and 774m of climbing with most of this occurring during the initial climb from our coastal hotel to the hill top town of Marciana. After that it was a rolling coastal ride before lunch in Marina di Campo and back across the middle of Elba to our hotel.
So in summary, a week of challenging riding, fantastic views, very nice hotels including two night stays in Siena and Elba, excellent breakfasts, superb dinners, and to top it off Mary, Elena and Alessio and I bought some really good wines and enjoyed some diverse lunches. Drinks such as wine, coffee, beers and apperitivo’s plus lunches weren’t included in the package, but this wasn’t a problem and gave us the opportunity to discover drinks and foods that we might not otherwise have tried.
South Australian Wine and Food Tour - Provided by AllTrails *****
March 2024
This tour organised by AllTrails from Melbourne had 17 riders, including two from the USA and we all got on famously. The week consisted of a mix or wine tastings, meals, snacks, excellent accommodation and, of course, rides. Day one started with a bus ride from Adelaide to our Clare accommodation via a Seven Hills Winery tour and a Seven Hills Pub lunch before we adjourned for an excellent roof top bar meal at a Clare Restaurant - no riding!
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All week the daily routine was a morning ride so that we could undertake the wine and food tastings without having to drink/ride. Day two was a 46km ride along the Riesling Rail Trail from Clare to Scholz Park and then into the buses for a visit to the Mintaro Maze for a fab lunch and a visit to the nearby Martingale Hall to witness SA's plush past. Then back to Clare for a delicious Italian meal in a popular local restaurant.
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Day three we rode from Clare to Nooriootpa where we had to finish the 46lm ride a few kms short as the strong head winds were really slowing everyone down and we had another fabulous wine tasting and lunch to get to at Saltrams - wow what an occasion and many of us ordered wines to be delivered after we returned home. After Saltram we visited Penfolds to try the Penfolds Experience - blending Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro to create an out of the box GSM. Then it was off to Tanunda for the night and dinner at the 1918 Restaurant, an experience highly recommended by friends and they were right. A delicious Chef's degustation meal with matching wines. WOW!
Then, the next day, the longest ride of the week - 71km from Tanunda to Hahndorf. The ride included a visit to the Birdwood National Motor Museum (excellent) and a delicious lunch at the Fold Cafe across the road. Then it was off to the Nepenthe Winery to end our really enjoyable ride where we were supposed to experience a Nepenthe wine tasting witth accompanying anti pasto platters. However supposed did not convert to reality with the staff only starting to explain the wines after our guides complained that the staff were just pouring and departing. All up such a contrast to the Seven Hills and Saltram experiences.
Then we were bused to Hahndorf. The motel called 'Lodge by Haus' was very ordinary but it was well located and we could put our bikes in our room, albeit the result was a crowded room. Dinner and breakfast were across the road at the Haus Restaurant and we were impressed with the staff and the food/drinks.
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Our second last day of riding (46kms) took us from Hahndorf to MacLaren Vale via Meadows for lunch in town at the Tin Shed Cafe and then back to the Serafino Winery where we were accommodated in lovely, large rooms. The heat which had been with us all week got to around 40 degrees and was exacerbated by a burst water main in the road out front of Serafino. Luckily they had huge water tanks and could switch over, but our restaurant for the night was not so lucky and had to cancel at the last minute. Jo did a fabulous job of finding an alternative that could fit us in on a Saturday night. Vaserelli's in the Main Street did so and their staff did an amazing job of looking after us, storms and all that came racing through mid meal.
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Sunday saw his riding to Glenelg for our last night together. 42kms with the toughest climbing of the week and another stinking hot day saw us ride up to the Grand Stamford Hotel on Glenelg Beach around noon after an early start to try and avoid the worst of the heat. We had the afternoon to ourselves and then joined everyone for one last excellent dinner.
Mary's and my Specialized Creos with low pressure gravel wheels worked very well and we mostly rode in the Eco mode. The main exceptions were a few of the long, drawn out mountains on the way to Nepenthe and the climb beside the motor way into Adelaide which consisted of several climbs including three long steep climbs. I started to use the sports mode and Mary used a mix of sports and turbo. We only charged our batteries once during the week and that was before the 71km ride, but we had sufficient power available for days 4 - 6 and possibly could have gone another 45km ride.
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We were allowed to keep our bikes with us at all venues other than the Clare Country Club where they were stored in a conferenced room. This was a pleasant surprise and would have facilitated regular battery charging if needed.
We had a number of e road and e hybrid bikes on the ride, more so than we had previously experienced on an AllTrails ride. Based on experience in Europe I would not be surprised to see a majority of e bike on our next AllTrails ride. The staff at AllTrails subsequently accepted my challenge to try and offer an even better ride in 2025!
In summary, a hot but enjoyable ride, great company, superb food, mostly excellent accommodation and all but one amazing wine tasting experience and all topped off by the support offered by Jo, Andreas and Tim.
A long review but I felt I had an obligation to my readers to let them understand such a wonderful tour in Australia! This tour was a once in a while tour and is being replaced in 2025 with the Victorian Food & Wine Cycling Tour which should be just as good.
Alsace and the Vosges Tour, France - Provided by French Cycling Holidays *****
July 2023
We joined our third French Cycling Holidays tour once again lead by Susan and David with the addition of two support guys, Martin and Chris, due to the size of our tour group. Usually FCH would have groups of no more than 8 or 9 guests supported by two guides/drivers who would take it in turn to ride with the group or drive the support van. Special circumstances saw an extended family group of 13 joining the tour to celebrate a family connection to touring with FCH. As a result we had 17 in the tour group with two support vehicles driven by Chris and Martin, while Susan and David rode with the group.
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Mary and I made our way to Strasbourg where we were collected by David and driven to our hotel in Ottrott where we met the members of our touring group plus Martin and Chris. FCH supplied bicycles for the ride and our 17 bikes consisted of four Trek hybrid models, eleven Velo Ville e city bikes and two Specialized Turbo Creo SL E5 Comp e road bikes. The latter were supplied for Mary and I with an additional charge after FCH let us know that they were available. They were both models one below our own Creo Experts with aluminium frames and paddle gears and they were the best rental bikes we had ridden in Europe till then!
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It was a week long tour with bike fittings on the first day followed by a familiarisation ride to a nearby village for lunch before heading up to a convent at the top of a nearby mountain to get our legs working. We took pedals, seats and a stem adjuster for Mary. The latter was not fitted till later in the week when it became apparent that handlebar adjustments made by FCH were not enough for Mary's neck and back. Once fitted Mary's Creo was a delight to ride too.
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Over the week we rode to Ribeauville for one night, Colmar for two nights, Ensisheim for one night and Mulhouse for our last night, all in the French Alsace region. The daily rides varied between 50km and 100km with the ride from Ensisheim to Mulhouse via a 23km and 1200m climb of La Grand Ballon being a highlight. Of the 14 riders with e bikes, all but myself with two bars, were on their last bar of e support as we arrived at the hotel. Notwithstanding discussions elsewhere in this website of factors that can vary distances that can be achieved on e bikes, I finished with two bars of e support even though Mary and I rode the same route, used turbo and sport settings pretty much the same and i weigh about 40% more than Mary.
The hotels we stayed in were excellent, the nightly meals and accompanying wines were often Michelin standard and lunches were picnics with fresh ingredients each day purchased by one of the crew in between delivering our luggage to our rooms on days when we changed hotels. On our last morning we were driven to the Mulhouse rail station for the next leg of our European holiday.
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Overall it was another brilliant FCH bike tour and as usual they set the bar very high for future tours. The challenge for next time will be sourcing our preferred bikes. Susan advised that at present FCH is limited to sourcing Creos for the Alsace tour as their supplier is the only one carrying them and only in this region. However, twelve months ago we were being told that we would be on Giant e road bikes as Specialized Creos were not available. Hopefully by 2024 availability will have changed elsewhere too?
RACV Resorts Ride, Australia - provided by All Trails ****
March/April 2023
All Trails offered a ten day ride through Victoria with a rest day between each tranche of five day's riding and they kindly offered us the opportunity to join the group for the first five days riding from Mulwala on the banks of the Murray River to Creswick near Ballarat. The ride commenced with a gathering of the 27 riders and three crew at the Southern Cross Railway station in Melbourne at 6:30am and was followed by a rail trip to Benalla before being bused to Mulwala where we had lunch and our ride to to our first Royal Automobile Club of Victoria resort at Cobram, 55 kms along the Murray.
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Over the next four nights we travelled to Shepparton, Mitchellstown vineyard, Kyneton and into the five star RACV Goldfields Resort outside Creswick. In total I rode 383kms, climbed in excess of 2500 metres, overcame two climbs at 13% and 14% which had even our best riders walking and dealt with initial gentle tail winds that became wet and strong head winds over the last two days.
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The accommodation ranged from a van and cabin park run by the RACV in Cobram, to motels in Shepparton and Kyneton, a luxury hotel in the vineyard and ending in the luxury RACV resort with golf course located outside Creswick. All breakfasts were provided, while lunches were mostly always provided, and dinners were provided in Mitchellstown and Creswick. We managed to find interesting dining options in Shepparton and Kyneton which was great considering that the nights we were there most restaurants were closed.
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We opted to ride our e road bikes with 38mm gravel tyres as we understood that heavy rains had impacted the roads and in some cases resulted in temporary blue gravel replacements. This slowed us down compared to the road bikes with thin tyres on the unaffected bitumen, but we certainly appreciated our tyres when we rode on blue gravel and dirt roads or bitumen roads with lots of pot holes. We Also appreciated our choice of riding modes as the ride became steeper and the head winds stronger. Half way through our second last day we opted to stay in the Sports Mode and as a result we found ourselves slowly but surely catching the riders we normally only saw at the start and finish of sections and we rode into our Kyneton Motel with only three riders in front of us.
I was having problems with my battery and I arrived with only 10% of my battery capacity left. Mary on the other hand arrived with 65% of her capacity left. It got even better for me on the last day when I rode from Kyneton to Creswick over the two big climbs plus rolling climbs into strong headwinds mostly in sports mode and arrived at Creswick with almost 20% battery capacity left. Mary ,along with many other riders, chose to get in the sag wagon at Daylesford as the conditions got worse so her battery was still quite strong.
The ride over, the All Trails crew transferred us to the Creswick railway station the next morning and by 10am we were back in Melbourne.
Lake Garda Bike Hotel, Italy *****
Aug/September 2022
We arrived at the Garda Bike Hotel beside a major Italian lake called Lake Garda and my right knee was only just beginning to settle down after strain put on it by the weight and configuration of my bike and barge e bike. We had signed up for four days of joining guided rides using Pinarello Nytro e road bikes. We brought our pedals and seats with us and it took the mechanics about 20 minutes to set us up. Mary's bike had a Garmin out front bracket which was great but I was glad I brought my Garmin temporary bracket which worked really well.
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The Bike Hotel usually offers three rides each day, a classic (40-70 kms), an Enthusiastic (about 90 kms) and an Epic (around 125kms). The actual rides change every day but if you stay long enough you will see the same rides offered, but perhaps with a different guide. When I say guide, it's not like you would expect on a cycle tour. The Bike Hotel Guides seem to approach each ride with the desire of completing it as soon as possible, especially the last 20-30 kms! Average speeds I experienced for the last parts of my rides were around 28-32 kms and pauses were rare and usually for photos.
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During our six days at Lake Garda I completed four very different rides, three of them with Mary. The first day was a 68 km ride up the eastern side of Lake Garda and into the hills before returning to the Hotel. Day 2 saw us transported to the base of Monte Baldo where we joined several other guests from the hotel in riding from the back of the mountain to the top and then down the other side towards Lake Garda and back to the hotel. All up just on 80 km of riding with a climb of 1,728m and a real good test of our Pinarello Nytros range. Day 3 we opted for a shorter ride with minimal climbing. So we rode south than east and then back to the hotel, just on 65 km and only 539m of climbing. Mary sat out the last day's ride and so I joined a hotel riding group including Brandan and Veronica Sweeney from Ireland who were also holidaying at the hotel. The Day 4 ride involved a rapid ride averaging in the low 30's from the hotel to the ferry port on the eastern shore of Lake Garda in a town called Torri del Benaco. After a ferry ride to Toscolano Maderno on the western shore, we climbed up into the mountains behind the town before descending to Garden Riviera and then riding long the lake foreshore to the lovely holiday town of Salo where we stopped for cold drinks as a beach side bar. After that, it was back on the bikes to ride to San Felice del Benaco before returning to the hotel via Desenzanodel Garda. All up, 90km of riding and an elevation gain of 807m.
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Our Pinarello Nytros were very good bikes, although Mary and I agreed that our Specialized Creos are better. Possibly due to the cost of purchasing Nytros and wanting to keep them affordable to rent, the Hotel had provided Nytros with Shram gearing, but no electronic gears like Shimano Di2. They also have big and small front chain rings and it was sometimes difficult to work out what gear we were in. This in turn caused each of us to drop a chain once. Easy to fix, but annoying. Nytros don't have range extenders and the main batteries had to be carefully used to ensue we had sufficient power to complete our rides. This was particularly the case with Monte Baldo with a climb of 21 kms and where spare batteries were retrieved from the supporting van to ensure we could get to the top and then back to the hotel.
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Besides range, we also noticed that the three modes - green (eco), blue (sport) and pink (turbo) operate differently to our Creo system. Provided I stayed in green it provided excellent support - for example at the end of my last ride of just on 90 kms with a steady 5km climb in the middle, I had only used the green mode and I had used only about 60% of my battery power. Using blue for steeper climbs and then reverting to green, it was like hitting a barrier we switched back. It was as if I had turned the power off for a few seconds and then the lesser support kicked in. This was even more noticeable going from pink to blue and while pink certainly made it easier to deal with gradients over 10%, we didn't experience the initial surge in power that we had found with our Creos in similar circumstances while climbing in Tasmania earlier this year.
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It is possible, however, that the differences in performance were the result of how the bikes were set up. The Creo's Mission Control App allows you to dictate how much support you get from each mode and after watching some You Tube stories on optimising each mode, we had changed the factory settings so that we removed the mode cross over set up and made sure that as you change up, you get the boost you are expecting. As a result, eith the Creo, if and when you go up or down a mode you notice the difference, but at the same time it's a smooth change.
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Communications with the Hotel's mechanics and guides (and it seemed most guides were also mechanics) was one of the weak points of our time at the Hotel. From bike setup, to bike use and through to our rides we felt that the communication levels were pretty ordinary. Of course everyone was Italian and English was their second language. This may explains why when they did communicate it sometimes took an effort on everyone's part to get messages across. But we were offered only rudimentary advice about the ins and outs of riding the Nytros - essentially just an explanation of the modes.
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This came to a head for us while climbing the first 16kms of Monte Baldo with gradients ranging from 5% to 12%. Working on the premise that we should ride the same way we would on our Creos we were moving between blue and pink as gradients changed. Then our guide appeared, saw we we in pink and chastised us for being so. At that point he advised that if we continued doing do our batteries would be empty after an hour of riding. We knew we each had a spare battery in the support van, but if he was right we would have used both by the first major stop at 16kms. So we changed to climbing using green till gradients got too steep and then we switched to blue. This way I arrived at the 16km mark with two bars left, while Mary had four. They swapped my battery then, while Mary's was changed after the second, shorter but steeper climb. So steep that we used pink for about 500m. As I weigh about 33% more than Mary we assumed that the power consumption differences were probably weight related.
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This has been a bit long winded, but an aim of this site is to hopefully fill in gaps never covered in bike or tour reviews. We had a great week of cycling, the Nytros were certainly great to ride, especially as we learned more about how to best operate them, the hotel services are fabulous including providing late lunches if you ride and washing your cycling gear overnight which makes it so easy to ride. The hotel staff were great and the guides were very good, but gave us the impression that our decision to ride e road bikes labeled us as non-serious riders. As a result we felt that notwithstanding how we rode each day, we didn't receive the accolades or feedback that the other riders we rode with received. Paranoid perhaps, but when Scott arrived, unpacked his road bike and immediately was approached by one of the owner/guides who had spent the whole week smiling at us but did not engage with us. Hopefully, the hotel will attract more riders like us and the guides will come to understand that us mature riders by using ebikes are able to join in the rides and do the climbs without falling way behind and yet still make a big effort!
Bike and Barge tour from Amsterdam to Brugge
Provided by Tripsite *****
August 2022
​In late August 2022 we joined the Magnifique IV Bike and Barge Tour from Amsterdam to Brugge. This was a seven day, six nht tour that allowed the Magnifique to work its way along canals and rivers in the Netherlands and Belgium while we either watched on as passengers or participated in daily rides. We were joined by two Italian friends who were being initiated into the wonderful world of bike and barging. They both have city e bikes at home, so all four of us opted to rent the barge's city e bikes (see photo) to help with the daily rides which ranged from about 32 to 57 kms.
The week was fabulous - we were aboard a self proclaimed Luxury River Cruiser and it showed. Our above deck suite was spacious and very well appointed. Two single beds pushed together in the main cabin with a coffee table and two soft chairs plus wardrobe with a safe in it. The bathroom was big for a barge and the shower was the equal of any experienced in top notch hotels. We had 33 passengers, five crew and two guides on board and everyone had a great week.
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Our Italian friends enjoyed the experience although one doesn't speak English. It was disappointing that we only had one other Italian speaker on board resulting in lots of quiet moments for our friend. We have discussed this and the four of us agreed that for a week long adventure it's important to know the likely makeup of the touring group so that you don't find yourself feeling isolated. We had experienced this on a tour several years ago when we were two of just four English speakers on a German speaking barge and it made for a difficult week.
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The rides each day, after day one when it rained and Mary dropped the heavy ebike on the side of the road and cut her leg below her knee, were delightful. A bonus on our last day of riding was that the four of us were set up by the guides to use Ride with GPS on my iPhone to ride the last day on our own for the 33 kms into Brugge. This worked really well.
Usually each riding day started with us being divided into two groups to keep the rides manageable. Still, riding with a group of about 15 can be very tiring at times with daily average speeds around 16 kph. As at least half the participants had ebikes, it was surprising that average speeds weren't higher until you considered that some of the riders had opted for regular bikes rather than ebikes notwithstanding they were hopeless riders. The promotion material urges people to opt for ebikes if they can't maintain a daily average speed of 15+ kph, which is still slow, but at least feels a good pace.
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I twice acted as group sweep, once to a group containing some very slow riders. My job was to stay behind the group and let the guide know that everyone was still behind. With the slow riders we got down to an average of 11kph, the gap between us and the rest of the group blew out to about a km and yes we got to a major multi direction junction and had no clue which way the group had gone. To make matters worse the walkie talkie I was given to communicate with the group leader didn't work. She had accidentally changed the station and when I pressed the required buttons there was nobody there. So a final day on our own averaging about 22 kph was delightful and threw into question whether unguided touring might be a better option provided you have the right support such as Ride with GPS? It's a wonderful visual and audio guide, but it eats phone batteries. My phone started at 100% and was almost dead by the 25 km mark. Luckily we had our charging block with us and were able to recharge the phone as we rode.
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And what were our learnings from the week? First and foremost, bike and barging is a wonderful way of combining my two passions, exploring new places and riding bikes. Second and most importantly, really check out the implications of the equipment you will be riding if you are hiring your bike. In years past bike and barging in various forms has introduced us to riding with cleats, showed us the wonderful benefits of the Di2 electronic gear system and made it clear that to keep up with younger, fitter riders we would need e road bikes. This time round we opted for the offered e city bikes so that we could ride the same equipment as our friends. Perhaps if the route had involved more climbing they would have been great, but the four of agreed that manual bikes would have been more challenging and removed the down side of these bikes.
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The bikes we received weighed in at around 30 kgs each and were very difficult to manoeuvre whether on and off the bike. I have a weak right knee and it took three days of taking anti inflammatory tablets once the ride was over before my knee pain disappeared. Not being allowed to fit my clip on pedals (understandable given how stiff and heavy the bikes were and the likeliness of novice riders around you just stopping without warning) meant that each time we restarted the heavy bike really applied pressure to my right knee. On top of this, their weight meant that turning, manoeuvring, coasting and stopping were all major exercises that at times made riding on crowded bike paths or through heavily populated city centres very difficult.
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Tour of the East Coast of Tasmania, Australia, Provided by AllTrails *****
February 2022
Mary and I took the post pandemic plunge and headed to Tasmania to join the AllTrails tour from Launceston to Hobart! A ten day tour with eight days of riding and two rest days at Freycinet and Port Arthur. By driving to Melbourne and catching the Spirit of Tasmania we were able to take our Specialized Turbo Creo SL E road bikes and they made the tour so very enjoyable.
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Over the eight days of riding I rode in excess of 670 kms and climbed more than 8,000m. Mary's figures were slightly less as she had a hammie strain half way through a day's riding and later I joined one really long ride with a steep climb just to see how I would go.
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The tour was superb, with the tour crew - Rick and Lou - providing great support, with the 12 riders soon establishing a great level of camaraderie and support. In addition breakfasts were generally excellent and occasionally superb, while the provided meals (most lunches and dinners) were also of a very high standard, culminating in great meals in Port Arthur and Hobart. Accommodation was as advertised, 3 or 4 star hotels or equivalent with our accommodation in Richmond being a little quirky, but still pretty good.
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Our bikes each weigh 12 kgs without the 1kg battery range extenders and we looked at our pre-tour stats and decided that we wouldn't take the extenders as our main batteries should be capable of providing adequate support for even the longest days. We had our bikes in our room on all but one night and were able to recharge them from the room power points without any issue.
At our Richmond accommodation all bikes had to stay outside and so our bikes chargers were attached to a power board which was in turn attached to mains power in the establishment via an extension cord. We don't know how it happened (but could guess) but the charging stopped with just 1% power added to each of our bikes. The bike were locked down with a tarpaulin and a locked cable and we only discovered the failure to charge as the bikes were uncovered prior to our ride the next morning.
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We had finished the day before with 60% and 58% charge left on our bikes respectively after a 60km ride and we were facing another 80 kms + ride with lots of climbing. It was a great test for the bikes, particularly as we faced over 1100m of steep climbing. I'm pleased to report that even though we used the sports and turbo modes as needed (to beat the 'fast' riders up climbs or to counter strong head winds) we arrived in Port Arthur without any issues. However we had tested the batteries with my bike in the 'red' literally with less than 10% charge left, while lightweight Mary still had just over 10% left.
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One of our riders, Derek, rode a rented Zoomo Sport e-bike which essentially is an Australian developed urban e-bike which weighs about 28kgs and has a battery life of about 6 hours which apparently will allow the rider to get about 80kms riding up to 25kph depending on the terrain. At the end of the tour I asked Derek, who seemed to ride consistently between 10 and 25 kph, at what point each day did he replace his battery with his spare. His answer was that he had not had to use his spare, but he rode at slow speeds and often turned the emode off and relied on his legs alone. This process kept him within sight of his partner who was on a regular Trek road bike, usually at the rear of the ride, and left him with lots of e-power for the big climbs.
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So, did we enjoy the riding experience and would we do it again? The answer is a hearty yes! We really worked the sport and turbo functions hard and they came up trumps. On the day that I rode 119 kms with one big climb and about the last 40 kms into a strong headwind, I only used less than 40% of my charge. Possibly because the bike is so well balanced that riding on the flat or rolling roads, even with a headwind saw me averaging 28kph over the first 40kms and close to 25kph over the whole ride. It's a fabulous bike and I look forward to trying it soon in other difficult conditions.
Australia - Slow Ocean Road Tour, Victoria Provided by AllTrails *****
March 2021
Our first local cycle tour since COVID began was a six day tour organised by AllTrails along the Great Ocean Road which follows the Victorian coast between South Australia and Port Phillip Bay. We were collected in Melbourne early on a Tuesday morning (luggage and our bikes) and bused to a location about 40km west of Port Campbell.
Six days later we finished the riding element in Morningside before being bused back into Melbourne to end the tour. in between we had been provided with six lunches, five breakfasts and five dinners, all of which were excellent. We were to fend for ourselves for dinner in Apollo Bay but we all ended up eating in the same pub, such was the camaraderie we developed.
Richard, our tour leader, strongly supported by Lou our bus driver and general fantastic all round helper, looked after us fabulously. The tour was a mix of rides which averaged about 40kms a day and involved bus transfers when the distances got too long or we were mixing our activities. Besides riding the Great Ocean Road, we had a great time riding e fattyre MTBs around Cape Otway. We also stopped and admired many view points along the coast, visited an animal reserve, visited the Cape Otway Lighthouse, visited Timboon for lunch on our way to the start of the ride and travelled by ferry from Queenscliffe to Sorrento.
Dinners were excellent and ranged from a bbq dinner cooked for us by Richard and Lou at our Otway caravan park (we had a delightful solar power eco-hut which was spacious and well appointed) to an amazing dinner at the 360Q Restauant in Queenscliffe to celebrate the end of the tour. Accommodation ranged from motels to cabins to bnb’s and all were excellent.
Loire Valley - Cycling in the land of Châteaux, France provided by French Cycling Holidays *****
June 2019
Another French tour booked through Tour de Vines, operated by French Cycling Holidays and lead by the wonderful guides, Susan and David. We were collected from our Hotel in Tours and taken along with several other riders to our first nights' hotel in Azay-le-Rideau where we were joined by the rest of the riders. A lovely hotel which set the scene for the rest of the week, as did the excellent meals and amazing wines. After arrival we were fitted to our Trek 23 speed hybrid bikes including changing pedals and seats as required.
Our group of 10 riders was mainly from Australia and ranged from novices to experienced riders. The route for the week was essentially flat and daily rides tended to range from 40 - 60kms, making it easy for the novices to keep up. The highlights of the week included visiting the Chateau de Villandry which has amazing gardens and the Chambord Chateau which is an impressive castle built for a king. Our hotel was right beside the Chateau and provided us with amazing views.
Southern Dalmatia Plus, Croatia,Bike and Yacht Holiday Provided by Saddle Skedaddle ****
June 2019
Our first sea based bike and barge tour was a delight. We booked through Saddle Skedaddle, an English company and it was operated by a company called Island Hopping. We joined our boat called the Melody in the Croatian port of Trogir and were quickly settled into our twin cabin on the upper deck. The Melody was a good sized boat and accommodated our large group of 25 riders without a problem.
About two thirds of our group, including Mary, opted for the Cube hybrid ebikes, while the rest of us opted for the cube manual hybrid bikes. Over the following week we visited different ports each day, mostly on the islands that are prevalent in Southern Dalmatia, but also two on the mainland. The rides from the ports other than in Split, required us to climb from the port up into the surrounding hills/mountains and by the Thursday I was delighted to have the opportunity to ride one of the ebikes for the biggest daily climb of the week.
After having struggled at times on the manual bikes throughout the week, it was a delight to try the ebike and enjoy the big climbs, further reinforcing my desire to try a full E Road bike tour. The accommodation was excellent, the food was nicely prepared and varied, the bar has excellent drink choices and we really enjoyed the experience. Our guides were efficient and effective, but not as personable as some on other rides.
Tuscany - A Fantastic Journey, Italy, Provided by Road Bike Tours, Italy ****
September 2018
An adventure from Sienna to Assisi in Italy. Due to trains from Rome not directly linking with Sienna on weekends, we departed from our train in Florence and were collected by Luca and his cousin Richi who had taken over from Michalia as driver and mechanic. We met the other five riders who were joining us for this tour and our first get to know you activity was a bus trip to a nearby venue for dinner.
Unfortunately one of the five did not want to join in with the group and this was to be the pattern for the week. We were provided with Giant TSR road bikes and over the corse of the week we were faced with long rides, some with steep climbs, lots very ordinary roads with multiple pot holes and some amazing sights.
The climbs were on very hot days and twice my partner and I decided to finish the climbs in the bus. With temperatures over 30 degrees and 6-15% climbs we again were thinking about what it would take for us to complete rides with the group.
This highlight of the week was the visit to hilltop town of Civita di Bagnoregio, with amazing sights, a wonderful dinner and a welcome break from cycling. All up a week of highs and lows, but a tour with lots of potential for the very fit or with e bike assistance. Good hotels, nice meals and wines made for a mostly enjoyable week.
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Dordogne Castles and Caves, France Provided by French Cycling Holidays *****
August 2018
This was our first tour with French Cycling Holidays. Our guides/mechanics/drivers were Susan and David and they did a fabulous job. We were collected from our hotel in Brive on the Sunday morning and a week later we were back at the same hotel to collect half our luggage which we had put in storage to reduce our impact on the transportation of luggage in the minibus as we did not know that there would only be four riders joining this tour.
We were transferred to our Chateau for the night and did a short exploratory tour to the Caves of Le Saux get used to our Trek flat bar road bikes. The rest of the week was taken up with lengthy rides along the Dordogne River visiting very interesting places including the Troglodyte Caves and some interesting castles and we spent a day canoeing down part of the Dordogne. The accommodation was first class, the food and wine was usually Michelin quality and the bikes were perfect for the ride although the climb to the top of the mountain behind Rocamadour was too much for the two of us and we each spent parts of the climb in the bus.
Northern Italy - 3 Lakes and More, Italy & Switzerland Provided by Road Bike Tours Italy ****
September 2017
This was our first tour with Luca and Road Bike Tours Italy which was then a relatively new bike touring company. The company has a range of road bike tours across Northern and Central Italy and we opted for the tour that seemed to best suit our riding abilities as it was relatively flat most of the time and daily distances were manageable. Because of the newness of the company there were only the two of us participating and we had a fabulous time with the couple that were running the tours. Luca is the guide and for this tour his then partner, Michalia, was the bus driver.
Accommodation was mostly 3 or 4 star, the food was excellent, the riding ranged from very good to very challenging and the Bianchi road bikes were a pleasure to ride, albeit they had manual gears and calliper brake which required getting used to. The three lakes, Maggiore, Como and Iseo, were a pleasure to ride around and the ride into and out of Switzerland from Lake Maggiore introduced both a tough climb and a very different perspective to Italy.