Luca is one of ‘the lads’, a long-standing school friend, with whom (on numerous occasions) I’ve drunk silly amounts of beer, embarrassed myself in front of the fairer sex and of course cycled many miles. Luca has decided to throw caution to the wind by handing in his resignation at work in order to fulfil his dream – a lengthy expedition through Europe, travelling from London to Istanbul (Turkey) by bike. I will of course be sending batches of TORQ bars to various post offices en-route to give him something to dunk in his European lager…

Over the coming months, the TORQ website will keep those who are interested in Luca’s journey updated with his latest discoveries and exploits.

Over to Luca:

The purpose of this page is to keep family, friends and anyone else who may be interested up to date with my progress on this slightly barmy tour that I’ve dreamt up. Also, I hope that the factual information I provide will be of use to anyone else considering a similar journey.

I’m currently planning my itinerary. The (very) rough route is likely to be London – Harwich – Hook of Holland – Den Haag – Hannover – Dresden – Prague – Krakow – Budapest – Belgrade – Sofia – Istanbul. I may add a loop through Zagreb and along the Dalmatian coast to Dubrovnic, or possibly miss out Belgrade to see more of Romania. To be honest, I might not even go all the way down to Istanbul. It all really depends how I feel at the time and what tips I pick up from other tourers I meet. I expect to be away about 2 months or so.

I’ll be on my trusty 10 year-old, rigid framed Marin mountain bike, fitted with touring tyres and panniers front and back to carry all my gear. This will include a tent (a one person Coleman Viper) and also a trangia stove as I’ll be camping as much as possible.

Hopefully I’ll be able to find an internet café every 7 days or so in order to sent Matt the latest installment from my journal.

Cheers Matt, for the web space and for offering to update the page – and for generally being my guru for all things cycling over the last 15 or so years (this hobby of ours has developed in to something approaching an obsession!)

e-mail me at lucastour@aol.com