I'm back! It took just two rides, Sunday and Monday, plus a day off while it rained, to recover from a month away from my bike. Today's ride was perhaps the most climbing I've ever done in one day (3430 meters of vertical), through the absolutely stunning mountains rising above the Tuscan plains. I felt great and could have climbed all day. In fact, I did climb all day!
Yesterday, 8 April, was a traveling day for me, moving from the Sheraton in Florence to the Villa Chelli, south of Lucca, where Chris and Nicole's wedding will take place. The rain had been falling on and off during the day, so it was a good day to rest and reconnoiter for a very ambitious ride high up in the forests above Montecatini. So, after checking into the Villa, I drove off and discovered a network of narrow paved roads, about one and a quarter lanes wide, that linked the hilltop towns and old medieval castles to the northeast of Lucca. With the GPS on the dashboard and keeping an eye on where the roads might lead (and avoiding changes in altitude, which were not a problem in the car but might be a real pain the next day on a bike) I mapped out a great route.
It was a spectacular climb up from Montecatini, past the city of Montecatini Alto and then down to Pescia, on a particularly technical descent. Then the route wound up past the hilltop town of San Quirico, the castle of Castelvecchio, and through the town of Pontito. The highest point of the ride was just over 1000 meters past Pontito, before a plunging descent dropping a full kilometer of altitude in just fourteen km.
The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a ride, with no wind and temperatures climbing from 13 to 17 during the day. Overcast and humid, but not a drop of rain all day, although it started raining later in the afternoon. Shorts, vest and removable sleeves were perfect, as I layered down for the long climbs and zipped up and pulled up the sleeves for the long cool descents. |
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