Whats happening in the office.....

Spring Time

As I am writing this it is currently snowing outside here in Brianza, spring seems to be late in arriving this year!

For 2010 we have made some changes, dropped some events because they are happening anymore (all the Gazzetta Challenge events for example) and added others. The list of events on the site is not definitive and we will be adding a few more in the next week or so.

So a few new things to look forward to in 2010 with us here at ITC. The Nove Colli, one of the oldest Granfondos in Italy it is held on the Adriatic coast every year, this year it will also coincide with the arrical of the Giro d'Italia at Cesentatico. A weekend of cycling around our backyard – Lake Como – in April, a chance to ride some of the wonderful roads that run along the edge of the lake and wind up the mountains. A week long tour of the high Dolomites in June with all the classic mountain passes, we start off in Veneto and ride into the Dolomites and do some epic riding. We will be finalising the details for the Eroica this October very soon. To find out the complete list of events please check out the calendar to the right of this post.

We have some private group cycling tours happening this year as well, these are always great fun as everyone in the group generally knows everyone else and there is generally a strong competitive element as well. We generally arrange custom tours in locations where the clients suggest, or where we thing it would suit the groups riding needs. If you would like to learn more about our custom tours check out the Custom Tour pages.

The blog does not get updated that often, but hopefully we will be a bit more frequent than in the past!

Posted by: matt.cazz - Monday 01 March 2010 - Brianza, Italy - Link to this

Granfondo Giro di Lombardia

An extract from an email we sent to people signed up for our Giro di Lombardia trip:

Well there's just over 6 weeks to go till the Italian Cycling Tours Giro di Lombardia weekend and we are sure you have all been out riding lots to prepare for the trip. Unfortunately we have some disappointing news.

In recent days there have been ever strengthening rumours circulating about this years Granfondo Giro di Lombardia not going ahead. After making enquiries ourselves, we have been advised by reliable sources that this is indeed the case. It would appear that the local authority in Como has not issued the permits required to run the event and, as a consequence, the Granfondo cannot take place. The organisers, RCS-Sport, have not yet officially confirmed the cancellation but it is unlikely that the situation will change. Due to these circumstances, we may have to change to the weekend's itinerary.

The Pro Tour race scheduled for Saturday 17 October is unaffected and is still going ahead and our programme for Saturday remains as it is.

So with this in mind we have an alternative programme planned for the Sunday that will hopefully make up for the lack of the Granfondo event. For the Sunday we have planned:

• Ride of the Granfondo route with a choice of the long or short route.
• 2009 Italian Cycling Tours Cronoscalata* up the Ghisallo - race to the chapel of the Madonna di Ghisallo, patron saint of all cyclists with a great range of prizes including a DeAnima frameset, beer and ICT clothing up for grabs.
• A guided visit to the Museo del Ciclismo at the top of the Ghisallo climb.
• A barbeque or picnic looking out over Lake Como (depending on weather).

* To give everyone an opportunity to win it will not be just brute force that is required to win, but also a bit of brain!

We realise that this is disappointing but even without the Granfondo there is still lots of things happening with the professional race on the Saturday, the Granfondo course ride on the Sunday with our exclusive Cronoscalata, plus you will still get a chance to ride the beautiful area on Lake Como and hopefully still have a memorable weekend.

Posted by: matt.cazz - Friday 04 September 2009 - Brianza, Italy - Link to this

L'Eroica – Monte Paschi - Procycling Article

In this months Procycling there is an article all about the Monte Paschi Eroica down in Siena and how it is a fantastic race to see with it spectacular setting - and we kind of agree! They talk about what a wonderful part of the world it is and they say 'Factor in Italian food, drink, culture and we can't think of a better place to be on March 7th.

Interestingly the name of the event has be changed to 'Strada Bianche Erocia Toscana' which reflects the idea of it much better, see the new website at http://www.gazzetta.it/grandeciclismo/montepaschistradebianche/index.shtml

Places are still available if you want to join us for what should be a fantastic weekend, click here for more details.

Posted by: matt.cazz - Monday 09 February 2009 - Brianza, Italy - Link to this

http://www.sprintingforsigns.com

Just a quick note to say thanks to Rich over at http://www.sprintingforsigns.com for the plug! Head over there (once you have finished here!) and have a look around, has some good stuff on discussion.

Also added to this site are the details for the weekend tours to see the Eroica on the 7th March and the Milano-San Remo on the 21st March, so please do check them out. If you need more info please do send us an email.

Posted by: matt.cazz - Monday 17 November 2008 - Brianza, Italy - Link to this

The end of the season.

The 2008 season is now over, for us it finished in Como with the Granfondo Giro di Lombardia 2 weeks ago. It was a great event and was as popular as ever with over 2000 riders taking part. The weather was good and everyone had a great time.

Having said that we are already looking forward to the 2009 season which for us starts on 7th Febuary when we ride the Mediofondo at Laigueglia. It is a great event to start the season as it is generally warm with good weather. The ride is challenging, but not too hard. The second ride we have lined up is going to be the Eroica in Siena - but not the amateur version (that happens in October) - we will be off to ride when the professional ride at the beginning of March. The race has been called the Paris-Roubaix of Italy as it is run on both Tarmac roads and gravel tracks and runs through some of Tuscany's most scenic areas. We intend to ride both days, the race day on the Saturday and again on the Sunday, enabling us to ride most of the course in 2 days, but also having time for some good food and a few coffees.

Other events on the 2009 calendar include the Milan-San Remo, Giro di Sardinia, Granfondo Gianni Bugno, Giro d'Italia Dolomite Stars, Maratona Dolomites as well as others (see calendar on page margin).

We will also be running a couple of multi-day trips, one will be in Tuscany & Umbria and the other will be in Piemonte & Liguria. We have run these trips before with great success, the Piemonte and Umbria trip we did this year and was a good combination of hills, mountains, sea and vineyards. The Tuscany and Umbria tour has been around for a while, a classic trip in Tuscany, but also we head into the much less known Umbria for some great riding on empty roads.

Details of all these trips will be posted in the next month, so check back and feel free to send me an email.

Matt

Posted by: matt.cazz - Monday 03 November 2008 - Brianza, Italy - Link to this