Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

OPINION

road.cc Italian road trip

Avatar
If Carlsberg did bike tours they would be like this, except the beer wouldn't be as good

Day 1 – you can always spot 'em

It's Sunday and we're off to the Milan bike show, followed by a few days riding around the Emilia Romagna a few hundred miles to the south. On the plane from Bristol the bloke sitting across the aisle from me has the unmistakeable look of someone that rides a bike for a living. I'm not wrong, David McCann is on his way to to the world championships where he's riding the TT for Ireland, after that he'll be looking for a new team as the Aussie outfit he rode for this season is folding he hopes to find something closer to home.

Dave is riding a Giant time trial bike, used by Once in their last Tour, he tells me that at one worlds the commissaires failed the chainset he was using… lots of other riders using the same chainset were passed, his was a different colour though.

Good luck today Dave!

Day 2 – there is more than one exhibition centre in Milan

Jo and I spend a hot, sticky day hauling bags and cameras around Milan – all was going well, our hotel was next to the city-centre exhibition hall so not too far to lug all the stuff. Turns out despite what the nice lady in our Milan hotel said, it's next to the wrong exhibition hall… time to jump on a bus and then the metro to the futuristic city that is Milan's Fiera Rho exhibition centre – it's huge, all glass canopies, elevated walkways and countless travellators. The bike show is at the far end passed countless halls that are soon to be filled with shoes and handbags.

We do the show, we do the pics, we do the video… it was worth the trip (report coming soon).

Now it's back on the travellator, back into the metro, Centrale Station and then a near four hour train journey south. Wake up when the train stops in Rimini – not sure how long it has been stopped. Not long it turns out. We hit the Italian seaside around midnight.

Day 3 – thinking of Trek

We're staying at the Belvedere Bike Hotel, “nice” doesn't really cover it. Jo goes out and nails 75Km on a guided ride up into the hills. I stay behind and write about last week's visit to Trek's 2010 launch in Milton Keynes. In the late afternoon though we both get out for a quick blast up to some nearby hill towns and end up chasing the light back to the hotel… this it turns out will become a bit of a theme.

Day 4 – The Furlo “gorge”

“It's 85Km out, stopping for coffee in Urbino then on to Furlo where we will have a buffet lunch then you can either put your bike on the bus or ride back… you putting your bike on the bus?” The question proves immaterial cos it's an early start and delayed by Trek picture fettling… we, okay I, miss it. Starting about an hour later we decide to catch them up. Coffee in Urbino though also includes cake and the place is so special we stay longer than intended. We go over the top to Furlo some nicely graded climbs followed by one long swoopy descent to the valley floor… we get to the restaurant just as everybody else is preparing to leave. No matter, arrangements are made by Marina the force of nature behind the Belvedere a table is cleared and in a now empty garden we are treated to a stupendous feast + wine. 75Km, and some hours, later I'm still full.

On the way back we ride through the actual Furlo Gorge which is as jaw-dropping as the meal we've just eaten. We decide to take the long route back via the coast rapping out a fairly steady 30KPH. It's after 4 and the sun goes down about 7, you do the maths. One town short of home it's too dark to continue, we call for help. The old Italian chaps in the bar stop and stare when 20 minutes later two attractive young ladies, dressed in white (one of them in heels) turn up in a van to pick us up and insist on loading our bikes (we tried to stop 'em) – Elenora, in heels, doesn't even blink when she gets an oily chainring tattoo. If Carlsberg did bike tours they would be like this, except the beer wouldn't be as good. I feel bad about that chainring tattoo though.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

Add new comment

2 comments

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 14 years ago
0 likes

Glad he did well considering he was on an old heavy bike too, he mentioned that he'd been riding in a 25 in Wales earlier on as part of his warm up, he didn't say that he broke Chris Boardman's record… maybe it hadn't sunk in  39

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael | 14 years ago
0 likes

Your good luck message to David worked - he put in a cracking ride and is currently sitting in the silver medal chair on the podium (although obviously the big guns will have something to say about that later on)

Latest Comments