Cicloreporter - Edoardo Frezet, Turin (2026)

02/08/2026

As long as we were drawing lines on the map, at our homes, or we were having a drink with our friends, we called it — half-joking — "the bikepacking we needed, not the one we deserved."
Then, reality happened.

Turns out there was only one name left standing. Simple, honest, no-nonsense. For a route that is, itself, honest and no-nonsense, yet never simple.

Last month, we surveyed the route with dear (and patient) friends - 400km, 14,000m of climbing, and an hour and a half of pushing a bike uphill for a good reason – “I'd tell you where to go, if this place weren't so beautiful”, in Stefano’s words.

Anyone can string together the greatest hits of the Alps: I mean, military roads and trails to the peak, there aren’t so many. But what about the in-between? Thanks to an unreasonable number of scouting trips, getting from one big view to the next is neither a boring transfer nor a needlessly brutal one. Balance was one of the principles we built the route upon. Big climbs, small hidden treasures.

One more piece of wishful thinking that turned out real? Climb high enough around here and you can usually see the summit before this one, and the one waiting after — sometimes even where you started, four days back. At any moment, you know what’s around you. Either highly satisfying or slightly unsettling, depending on how your legs feel that day.

More (much more!) on all that another time — we don't want to peak too early.

𝗔𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝘀. Stop.

Marco (un)sordo_a_pedali Giuseppe Cyclovagabond Stefano Scapitta

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01/08/2026

On Col de la Loze, during , a rider I've known since 2024 told me: "In Mangart you said, 'goodbye, see you in France in a few days'. These last days I didn't feel like riding at all. You gave me a reason to climb up here."
Then Stefano aka 🦑 's recent post — "where are you placing your community-building efforts?" — made it click: this emotional moment and a long-term reflection clashed. Community is something I think about a lot in relation to my job, and the very topic of my PhD too (different context and method, but still).

There is a huge paradox in ultracycling. By definition, it's unsupported: no outside interference, ideally a solitary effort. Yet almost every rider I've met (myself included) signs up either pushed by community, or in search of one. The French language captures this beautifully: it's a 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙙𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙚 / 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙚 journey.

Year after year, I keep meeting the same riders. I stay in touch with them, I know their habits, whether they scratched in a recent event. Increasingly, they thank me for being there, more than for the pictures — those come anyway.

As a photographer, I'm one of the very few people every rider will meet on the road. One after another, they meet me, we talk, they move on. However indirect, I am a connection point. That's exactly how community grows: we ride alone, yet we know others are doing exactly the same crazy thing, at the same moment. (nerd flag UP - this is Anderson’s intuition in his Imagined Communities, 1983).

To answer Stefano's question: I've come to think my job isn't "community building." It's community caregiving. I can't build this community, but I can nurture it, and I try to do that as well as I can.

This paradox opens up other questions too: If many riders want more competition (see debate about more rules, ), just as many ride for the adventure and the people they meet. As one of them put it: "If I can't interact with locals and other riders, why should I ride at all?"

This reflection is still very much in progress, and I’d love to hear voices of you all. But if you're curious about these topics, the journal on my website might be a corner to explore.

23/07/2026

2 years covering VIA, which starts tomorrow for the third time.
Zero idea what we were doing half the time with Francesco Gozzelino and Marco Rimondi , the Italian media team.

Crashing drones. Sleeping in legal(ish) spots. Interviewing riders on random spots. Eating whatever, whenever. Looking like actual stalkers waiting outside a garage at 5am. Chasing, hunting, losing, finding, waiting for, stumbling upon riders. Cursing with the tracking. _Track, drive, shoot, repeat._ Van life while covering an ultra is one of a kind.

This year we won't be the ones popping out of a bush with a camera while you ride. No chasing you up a mountain for "just one more shot" costing us 2hours we don’t have. No van parked somewhere it shouldn't be.

Gonna feel weird not being out there.

Thanks for putting up with us — best wishes to all the chapter III riders, and see some of you out on other races this season!

22/07/2026

Camping, family, friends, april 25th celebration (bonus: a couple supercool projects with Olé Tapas Bar RITMO Tuscany Bike Festival .

Great vacation time, just not in real time but whatever

26/06/2026

"The bikepacking we need but don't deserve", aka TBWBDD- A random bunch of photos for a random group of bikepackers that will soon start a 5-days journey of some random high-altitude alpine roads. This is what TBWBDD is, or should be.
It'll take us 400km between Val di Susa and the Hautes Alpes, with 14,000m of elevation gain.
BUT since there are 5 of us, if my math is right, that means 80km and only 2,800m of elevation each. Right?

Gigi Luigi Grossi – route designer and photographer. His beard is smiling because he's very close to a mountain, even if just a TV screen.
Edo – photographer, and nothing else. He's smiling, but the freezing cold makes his face frozen.
Marco Marco (un)sordo_a_pedali – ultracycling racer. He's laughing in the pic because he doesn't suspect how slow he will be riding with us.
Giuseppe Giuseppe Cyclovagabond – ultra-experienced traveler. He's smiling, but the sun in the face makes him look angry.
Stefano Stefano Scapitta another ultra-experienced traveler, but not the same guy. He's smiling because he's on a regional train, his favorite sport.

Wait, don't we need a mechanic?
Don't count on me.

Oh, their very different bikes are also smiling, thinking of what's to come.

If you're in the area, feel 100% welcome to join us for one or more days. Start in Salbertrand on Monday morning the 29th, heading to Pramand-Jafferau.

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16/06/2026

I take photos because I love looking for stories.
At BAM! Bicycle Adventure Meeting this year, I found a beautiful one. Years of curious travelers and cyclists gathering, inspiring each other. Years layering up, a community that grows, a story that expands year after year.

In my own small way, and not without pride, I added my story to the great saga of BAM, bringing cycling photography into the conversation: gear, logistics, editing - but above all eye, stories, great authors for inspiration.

I had prepared a talk, but thanks to the 30 registered participants — sold out 🙏 — and the many who joined along the way, it became a conversation: a new story within the story. And that's what moves things forward — not monologues, but sharing experiences and challenges. Thanks to all the travelers we chatted with.

Now it's time to get back to traveling, cycling and photographing. Maybe see you next year, with more people and more adventures to share.

Thanks to Paola Piacentini for managing the frame of the talk; thanks to Andrea Benesso , Gabriele Cury , and Francesca for putting together this saga with a relentless day-to-day work.
Lastly, a very special thanks to The Sharing Van | Experience, trip and rental camper for making things much easier with the girls (“il camper è fortissimo” has been their verdict).

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Talk pics Luigi Grossi .cycloergosum

03/06/2026

𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲.

What's happening at gives me a cue for a broader reflection on support, influence, and interference in unsupported races — assuming this specific case is as clear-cut as it looks.
From my own experience, and drawing on my philosophy background, the issue is both fascinating and frustrating, because so far, I don’t see any solution
Rules are meant to draw a clear line between fair and unfair. The problem is, I've never found that line to be clear. The concept of unsupported is pretty clear, but as soon as we dig into what it means, it’s chaos. The idea that things must be "available to everyone," rather than clarifying things, makes them murkier in my opinion.
Here's a theoretical example inspired by last year's , which included a ferry crossing:
1. I book a Moby Lines ferry, board it, cross the sea, and keep riding.
2. I find a fishing boat heading the same way. They offer me passage for a fee. I pay, I cross, I keep riding.
3. I meet an Albanian family sailing from Ancona to Vlora with their private boat. They're kind, they offer me a free spot, I get to the other side and keep riding.
4. I'm very persuasive, a talented salesman, and I talk a stranger into taking me across. Same outcome.
All four options are, in principle, available to anyone, n planning, no friends, no pre-arrangement whatsoever. they're just luck, or depend on money or oratory talent. So what exactly sets them apart from "unsupported" principles? In the end, I'm trying to finish the race using whatever I find along the way, and not doing anything detrimental to other riders.
I know this is a provocative example. But it's meant to show that the threshold doesn't really exist — or rather, it's nowhere precise.
In philosophy, this is the classic paradox of the heap, or sorites paradox: if you remove one grain of sand at a time from a heap, at what exact point does it stop being a heap? Is 5 grains enough to make a heap? Or maybe 6, 10, 1000? And why?
[goes on in the first comment]

26/05/2026

Ride your stories! goes to ! and it’s not about the exclamation mark we share.

It’s because riding and shooting are, for some aspects, natural companions. For others, they are contradictory, and this is probably why it seems hard to combine the two passion. We will dig into that - actually, that’s exactly what the workshop is about: providing riders some solutions, suggestions, and personal experience (= fails) to shoot-and-ride.

The assonance between ride and write is a perfect bridge between the two. Cycling is about traveling, meeting people, discovering things — we all try to document it somehow, if nothing else just to line up our own memories. 𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗲, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 - 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆.

In the talk, though, we'll mostly stick to photography as a way of writing a story. How can we tell "a ride" — vague enough a word to cover both the afternoon spin and the trip of a lifetime? Two very different stories, but stories all the same. Where do we keep our gear while riding? How do we balance solo travel with photography that isn't just a selfie dump? How do we find the right cameras at the right price (read: as cheap as possible)? Is any gear better suited to shooting while riding? And — maybe more surprisingly — is there something about our bike itself that can help? Are there photographers out there we can learn from, even if they have nothing to do with cycling?

The shots here reflect this approach to storytelling — barely getting off the bike, making the most of whatever situations come your way: 𝗮 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴. They're from a couple weeks ago, when I covered Backyard Gravel Bodensee, the latest brilliant event by The Cake Movement. Riding with a cool bunch for around 400km around Lake Constance, through rolling green hills, perfectly timed thunderstorms, and plenty of calories. If this whole ride-and-shoot, shoot-and-ride thing sounds appealing: sign up for the bam workshop!

Thanks to and .de for their support, and to all clients and partners — past and future — who allow me to do what I love in so many places and with so many nice people.

21/05/2026

2024 - I scratched after 20k for a mechanical. The first scratch for me, but not a really painful one since the weather was horrible, and I was lucky dotwatching from the sofa.

2025 - I finished the adventure route, riding along with Andrea - a great ride together. 430km of pure fun, mixed with great food and just a couple hallucinations in the last bit.

2026 - Coverage of the event, with and .romualdi. It's fascinating to be back on the same roads, to hit the same spots for a different purpose, diving into blurred memories from the ride.
On these three crazy days on the road, from the endless porches of Bologna to the equally endless beach of Riccione, we met dozen of riders -each and every one having a great time riding towards the sea.

29/04/2026

Nights are when things happen.

During the last stretch of , around 2.30am, I overtook another rider some 40km from the finish – sleeping on the side of the road, a long straight line in the woods.
Familiar sight: reflections from the golden bivvy, the bike leaning on the same bench. A body wrapped in uncomfortable position. Rough spot. For deciding to stop so close to the end, he or she must have been sooo tired.
I took no pictures this time, but that reminded me of other events I love to cover, when nights can make or break someone’s day. Improvised roofs, hidden shelters, or sometimes cozy basecamps.

If it’s a race, you feel the tension, you see the rush in the eyes. Precise movements – despite the tiredness – to do everything in the most efficient way, and to start riding again as soon as possible.

If it’s an adventure, you feel the camaraderie and the pleasure of sharing such moments, taking advantage of the few minutes together.

Most of the time, however, the two worlds merge: sharing is part of our nature, even during a harsh race. we’re social animals, as Aristotle wrote. And among amateurs like me, there’s the same anxiety to do things quickly and smoothly. Among us “non-pro”, ultracycling is more about not losing time than about riding fast. But we all love a good chat, whispering to not bother other riders.

Basecamps are the in-between stillness: the reward for a long ride, and the preparation for the next one.

Perhaps because of this ambiguity, they are an astonishing playground to dig into personal stories through the lens.

Mostly the OM system 17mm 1.2 PRO.

In the pics, a few different friends and rides: (yes, it’s the “nap toilet”), , .

, , , , ,

See you at one of the next events: ,

With the kind support of .de

Cicloreporter - Edoardo Frezet

02/08/2026

01/08/2026

23/07/2026

22/07/2026

26/06/2026

16/06/2026

03/06/2026

26/05/2026

21/05/2026

29/04/2026

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