Cycling in Sardinia and Corsica with Ciclismo Classico, 2012

Ellyn and I went on a 10-day cycling trip (called "Mediterranean Island Hopping") to Sardinia and Corsica with Ciclismo Classico. We met the tour in Alghero, Sardinia, toured up the coast to La Maddalena at the north end of the island, took a ferry to Bonafaccio, Corsica, and then cycled to Calvi at the north end of that island at the end of the trip.

It was a great trip; we met a lot of nice people, had some great riding, and ate and drank an enormous amount of wonderful food. As Joe, one of the other riders said, "When you get home, do not get on a scale, and for God's sake, DO NOT get a liver-function test!"

Our tour guides were Marcello and Massimo and both were great. We've heard from a bunch of other people who have ridden with Ciclismo Classico that they also have had very good luck with the guides, and we never got a single negative comment about the organization.

Probably what impressed me most, other than the beauty of Corsica, was the politeness of the drivers. I was never worried that somebody was trying to kill me as I am in the US, and many of the drivers or passengers would cheer for us, "Allez! Allez!" They never tried to make dangerous passes, waiting for a safe place to do it. And when they waved, they always used all five fingers rather than the one-finger wave that's so common at home in California.

Some Photos

Click on any image below to obtain a larger version.

Here is Massimo, one of the group leaders, with Ellyn's bike. We paid a little extra for carbon-fiber bikes and I think it was worth it.

Here is some Sardinian cheese called casu marzu ("rotten cheese"). It's illegal to sell, since it's riddled with larvae, but this stuff was for sale because it didn't have the "worms," so I guess it's not really casu marzu. But maybe the real stuff at least looks like this.

I'm not sure who the guy is between me and Ellyn, but he seemed nice enough.

Dessert after a great meal.

This is called "Elephant Rock" for some reason.

From left to right, Ellyn, me, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Marcello.

On the ferry from Sardinia to Corsica, just about to enter the harbor in Bonafaccio.

A view of a few houses and the harbor in Bonafaccio.

A typical lunch on the road in Corsica.

A group shot of all the members of the tour except for Marcello, the photographer.

A view of the harbor from Porto, Corsica.

Videos from Sardinia/Corsica trip

Here are a few short videos taken with a GoPro Hero2 camera hooked below the handlebars of my bike on our trip to Sardinia/Corsica with Ciclismo Classico in 2012. The first is a few minutes of a ride behind one of the leaders, Massimo, and the second is the last bit of a climb out of Porto in Corsica, over the top, and down the other side. The third is just a ride in Corsia where I'm following my wife, the guide Marcello (on the phone) and Emily, another rider in our group.

You might want to turn down the sound when you play these: the sound is just the rumble of the road and the wind going by.

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