For many gravel and adventure riders, the decision to enter a 720km long bikepacking event which contains a mighty 19,000m of climbing would be one that was taken after a lot of careful consideration and only with the right preparation in place. For Valerio Stuart though, the decision was made on the spur of the moment after some holiday plans fell through. With barely any time for preparation and a mountain of untested kit, would he survive or would he end up scratching?

Valerio Stuart wanted to go and visit his family in Tuscany, but didn’t want to go the easy way and just fly directly there from his home in the UK. Instead, he travelled much further south in Italy and then plotted a gravel bikepacking route back up the country towards his destination. Would he get mauled by sheep dogs, succumb to malnutrition or get wiped out by an errant car driver before he reached his destination? You’d better read on if you want to find out….