My barber, Danny Lopez, asked me yesterday if I’d been on any “périples” lately, to which I answered yes, even if I didn’t really know the word. Language learning is half about guessing and this time it worked out. Because yes, I have just returned from a 3000km drive to, through, and back from, Slovenia.

I cycled right through the country 15 years ago, with Shoko, but we tried to stay as flat as we could, so this time I had all new roads to explore in my new van (it might seem a little pathetic for a bike guide not to even take a bike with him for these research trips, but time is money and driving roads is far more efficient…but yeah, it’s still pathetic). Here are a few of them, including one in Italy – the impossibly steep Monte Zoncolan.

Our tour next August will be mainly in the Julian Alps, for the purposes of 44|5’s Project Trans Alps, the eastern end of the Alps range.

There are some serious climbs in Slovenia, including a road built just before WWII called Mangart Saddle (last 3 pics above). The road is stunning and small and has 5 very narrow tunnels that thankfully are sort of lit. Another climb on that same day, which has more switchbacks that consonants, is Vršič Pass. This one was built by Russian prisoners of war during WWI and has cobbled switchbacks. So the big questions is: descend or climb?

Apart from the 3 climbs above, I learned that nearly every road that goes up in Slovenia has double-digit gradients. Maybe it’s a law. My clients have all been warned to throw the biggest cassettes they can on their bikes before flying over to Venice next summer.

The most important thing I learned in Slovenia, though, is the definitive pronunciation (or at least where the stresses land) of Tadej Pogacar: TaDAY PoGAchar. There you go, you can text this to all the cycling commentators who still get it wrong.