The past 15 days I have spent cycling around the Italian Lake area.
I started off by getting a bus from Prague to Romeo and Juliet town Verona Italy. I wanted to see a bit of the Giro de Italia bike race. I camped in the gardens of the Youth hostel, the cheapest so far L8000 ($7 Australia) including breakfast and a cellar toilet/shower room which when the sun shone through the stained class window gave an appearance of a holy shrine.
I met an American cyclist who had ridden from Napoli; Joseph was his name we ended up hanging out together. We planned to make a early start to ride to the top of Lago di Garda (80 km) to watch the Giro come past, but it was such a glorious day, when we saw a vacant table in the piazza, we called it ours, and sat back and watched the world pass by. We did see some of the Giro, from a cafe TV!
I enjoyed Verona, the city has a good feel to it, and I cruised around the narrow streets on my small-wheeled Bike Friday getting many curious looks from the well-dressed Italians. Most Italians cheer when they see me, they call out "BELLA BICICLETTA!" (beautiful bicycle).
I made my way to Lago di Garda the next day, as I was passing a small village cafe, the owner called out "where you from? As soon as I told him I was from Australia he came out with a free pineapple juice. Later in the day an Italian couple on a Harley Davidson motto bike, came over and were so impressed with the bike they took a photo of it.
Cycling around Lake Garda was a like a little bit like riding around Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay with mountains as extra scenery. There were a lot of people out just as to be looked at, and lots of traffic. At one stage a group of 100 Vesper motto scooters came past me, there horns beeping me for encouragement.
I continued to Lago di Tenno, then the Madonna di Campiglio 1600m, it's the mountain finish of a Giro stage won by Pantanni, as I climbed I had awesome views of the Brenta Gruppo Dolomites. In the last 3 days or so I cycled Lago di Iseo, Lago di Garlate, and now Lago di Como
I rode up to the Madonna di Ghisallo; the chapel dedicated to the sufferings of cyclists. I needed a bit of a breather before I went in the chapel, I felt a little light headed from trying to keep up with a Italian racer out on a training run, my legs felt like jelly as well. I entered the holy shrine, mounted on the chapel walls, were bicycles from the 1920 Giro di Italia, bicycles from the Italian champions Coppi and Bartalli; Francesco Mosers hour record bike; the Belgian "cannibal" Eddy Merkx orange machine, and a tragic reminder of how dangerous professional bike racing is: the twisted bicycle of young 22 year old Fabio Castelli. He passed away on a descent of the Pyrenees mountains in the 1995 Giro race. All so on display were jerseys from cycling legends, Migel Indurain, Greg Lemond, Merkx, Gimondi, Bartalli, and Coppi, to name a few. It was all overwhelming.
There have been plenty of little hard hills, the humid weather making them extra hard. I am a little disappointed with the amount of industry around the lake area. But I have met plenty of friendly/helpful people along my way, and must decide in what direction to ride next.
From LAKE COMO I decided to head South towards GENOVA, I didn't leave the city till 3pm! I paid for my indecision on which direction to take - I had to combat large truck traffic and a gust of wind that nearly made me come to a stand-still, so I got of the main road into the small villages. I got lost in the spaghetti like roads which followed the steepest hill they could find.
On the way to PAVIA (35km Sth. of Milano), I took a side trip to village called Morimondo for a shot of espresso to pep me up. It was a nice surprise to be greeted by a monastery &; open trattoria. That's where David &; Cristina from Milano invited me over for drinks.
I had a wonderful afternoon eating gelato, sipping vino, espresso &; enjoying "la Dolce vita" - the sweet life! I bid farewell, hopped back onto my bike feeling "happy", for the 20km ride to PAVIA. I couldn't feel my legs, there wasn't the usual discomfort in the groin area, I find when I have a little alcohol in my system it makes me ride harder. So when a old man buzzed past me on his moped, I accelerated &; jumped onto his wheel. I was on "the big ring &; the rivet", to try to catch him! Once I was in his slip stream, we cruised along at 35 - 40km/hr, it was great to do some motor-pacing.
Josepy said, "You have made it into the outskirts of PAVIA in half an hour!"
PAVIA has a university, so it's a lively city with a great old town centre. I explored Pavia city on foot, I have sore right knee the result from pushing it yesterday, sitting behind that moped. The Province of PAVIA is a beautiful area made up of small sandstone mountains (1500m) &; many wine types to choose from.
Local vino of Pavia/Oltrepo: *Bonarda* (sparkling red, nice),*Buttafuoco* (dry sparkling red, OK), *Sangue di Giuda* (sweet sparking red, taste like fizzy cordial), Croatina, Pinot Nero, Pinot Grigio, Riesling Italico, Barbera, Cortese, Moscato, &; Malvasia.(*) The vino I tried. I'm now 60km East of Geneva at Levanto. It's the last camping place before "Cinque Terre", 5 separate coastal villages perched on rocky ledges overlooking the sea. To get here, I had to go through 4 x 3km "Black as Black" one lane tunnels, my dyno-light hardly making an imprint in the ink like soup. Tomorrow I will catch a train to "Cinque Terre" & maybe walk back along the coastal walking-track back to the camp ...
Guys I met, who suggested to go to Corsica.
Cheers Carl.
The Halfway rest. Bike is a folding performance bike, a BIKEFRIDAY POCKET ROCKET Pro 9kg inc pedals. http://www.bikefriday.com/
After ride.Thats me, wearing the team jersey that the first American (Greg Lemond) to win the Tour de France wore, sponsors by a French toy company "Z"
Left: New Campagnolo Front Brake NOW I can Stop! I had Zero Gravity brakes, which aren't dual pivot = don't stop in an emergency!
Ooooh, 179 max HR,182 is my max in theory!!!!!!
128 BPM Av heart rate
I acceded 85m
Distance 17.6Km
First half of ride 21.4 AVG, BTW, 59m is meters above sea level.( Creek Level)
OVERALL AVS 19.3, slow for me, but got to be reasonable considering what happened to me 8 months ago, its OK. BTW 124m is East Ringwood above sea level
