Is anyone else going this year? For those that don't know what it is basically you spend the weekend drinking and riding bikes around Bardonecchia Northern Italy. Just a blast down through France and either over the top or through the Frejus tunnel and you're there. That's possibly over simplifying it a bit because to do the Stella Alpina part you have to ride up the Col du Sommellier to a point that the organiser decides is as far as a rational person would take a normal road bike. It varies year by year according to conditions but last year it was about 9 miles of riding on surfaces ranging between broken tarmac and loose gravel with avoidable rocks thrown in to mix it up a bit. For this you get the opportunity to buy a badge and a sticker off the guy and he only has a limited number made each year so you can't get them elsewhere. You can carry on to the snowline if you want to but it gets a bit more broken up there though last year two guys had ridden Harleys up there and I saw loads of shonky old BMW touring bikes up there alongside the obligatory KTM & BMW adventure bikes. It's always held on the 2nd Sunday in July and google will throw out loads of references for those even remotely interested. I'll be leaving on a lunchtime crossing via the tunnel on the Thursday then stopping somewhere along the way to end up in Bardonecchia Friday about 3pm ready to get on the beer. Most people camp but I'm a light weight so I've got a hotel booked but there'll be literally hundreds of British bikers there to laugh at for being on under powered bikes
