Stella Alpina 2006

[Slimie]

Great pictures, another addition to my "must do" list!

Thanks, Whealie

-Simon

[africajim]

I took three days to travel down from Holland, spent three days in Bardonecchia then four days to return to Holland for the ferry. I reckon it was the best fun I've had in years, doing the Stella and combining it with a bit of touring.

I arrived on the Friday night and had a quick run up to the base camp, there were a lot of tents up there! Saturday I toured around some of the Cols and hit the bar on Saturday night.

Sunday I assaulted the mountain with Marcus and his mate Roger, we had a hoot! On the way down I met in with Rob, Jim and the others and had a natter. I finished off the night watching the world cup with the locals which ended in some party!

Special mentions to Marcus for demonstrating how to attack a mountain with a Varadero, and to Steve, who made it to the T-shirt stand at just under 3000m on a ZXR!

I've a folder with a heap of pics taken on the day, if anyone would like to see them drop me an e-mail and I'll mail the folder to you, it's around 2.5mb so not too alarming! Dave, if you want to put them in the gallery I'll send them to you. I'm a little busy just now but hopefully find the time to write up a better report.

Great to see so much @T's doing what they do best! My Tiger performed perfectly throughout the trip in case you were wondering?

[redmarcus999]

Vara's can go off road, even up mountains, coming down is a different story.......LINKED BRAKES not good for down hill

[xrv_jim]

Hey, great pics Chris, sorry to hear you had problems on the way back.

Still on the road, now enjoying the Pyrenees before heading north and checking in with Wobblemonster on the way home...then will post some pictures and start sorting out the video.

xrv_jim & fewtrees

[raymo]

Sorry I missed u guys, I went with the big trail bike club so arrived late sat.. stella sunday morning,, quite busy with tossers on crossers,, ural combos. 4x4 quads and heaps of beemmers ( oh and an old velo thumping its way up).. TA got up no probs but |I dropped it twice on the way down , on both occasions going off like to let some poor git have some more room as they struggled up.. right side crash bars slight paint rash .

Monday we went col bashing all tarmac . bril.. The dash for Calais and the dover aberdeen bit was ****e but the we TA sat a 90 for hrs no problem.. 3000 miles in 8 days bit hectic will do it again but add a more leisurely amble back.

a definite must for the to do list and the world cup party was something else...

very impressed with the wee 1994 vintage TA.. a bit under powered and braked but it was the oldest and smallest bike in the group the rest on 1200 gas KTM 950 and 955i tiggers so I was a disc short a cylinder short and 300cc short.. but never very far behind..

TCK80 were great too

ray

[Whealie]

Still on the road, now enjoying the Pyrenees before heading north

Great to hear from you guys. Enjoy the rest of the holiday. I want that video.

[xrv_jim]

Here's a few pics of the Stella to add to Whealies posting...




[i] A couple of Whealie in action


Piguglyshandydrinker (aka Phil) beat the BM to the corner...


...but had no chance of catching fewtrees (it was a close run thing though!)


fewtrees gets his foot down




The carefully planned (ahem!) meet up with AfricaJim, RedMarcus et al




Post match analysis back at the hotel


Followed by (yet another f*ckin) pizza...mmmn!

Gallery is here http://www.xrv.org.uk/phpBB2/gallery...g2_itemId=2834

pics of the following days run in due course...

[xrv_jim]

The following days off-road run...


Where the f*ck are we?


Whealie poses next to the broadslide skid he just did. Amazin' tyres those TKC80's!


Up on the hill




Tarmac!

[DaveS]

Very very impressive.
I have to get myself there next year.

[boboneleg]

Great pics Jim, I will be there next year. Perhaps we could fill the I' Larici hotel with XRV members ?