ROUGH STUFF CYCLING IN THE ALPS
The original guide to adventuring by bicycle in the Alps, reprinted with stunning vintage photographyThe Rough Stuff Cycling in the Alps guide book was compiled by Fred Wright and self-published in 2002.
It preserved the collective wisdom of generations of riders who pioneered riding the 'rough stuff' – riders who headed into the high peaks armed only with touring bikes and canvas rucksacks, sandals and floppy hats, crossing mountain ranges and joining up towns and famous cols on little-known gravel tracks, dirt trails and even glacier traverses(!).
This was gravel biking before gravel bikes – mountain biking before mountain bikes, in some cases.
The book contained nearly 300 routes, ranging from easy unsurfaced roads at little more than 1000m to steep footpaths above 3000m, and from the southern French Alps to Switzerland, the Dolomites and the Austrian Tirol.
The entries often included detailed personal accounts of when the route was ridden, and the book also offered tips for beginners, advice on equipment and maps, and suggestions for routes not covered in the guide.
Only around 100 copies were made, and they are now impossible to find. But Fred does not want this information to be lost. With his permission, Isola Press has reprinted Rough Stuff Cycling in the Alps, in a limited edition, for the first time.
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