I reached Italy on July 2nd determined to ride for a month as much of the year had passed preparing myself for the rides in Puglia. Even my recent elbow fracture was not going to stop me from staying on my bike! I stayed in Cisternino, a small village over looking the Itria valley. The Itria valley is located in the Italian southern region of Apulia, on the gentle Murgia hills where the three provinces of Bari, Brindisi and Taranto meet. The valley is overlooked by a handful of small white washed towns and dotted by traditional buildings whose history goes back as 700 years. The little white-washed walled towns surrounding the Itria valley are a startling contrast to the surrounding silver green of the olive groves, red soil and deep cobalt blue of the sea.
Much of the rides were in the company of my family who are all fantastic riders and some of whom take part in almost all the races around the region and beyond. In the group was also Leo Caroli, a veteran of bike races and a regional champion! My intention right from the offset was to survive while riding with them. We rode almost 65-80kms everyday on different routes depending on which way the wind was blowing. Yes! it was the wind that had the final say on the daily courses. The wind can be very strong in those parts and the idea was to start the ride against it and enjoy the tail wind on the way back. Before each ride, one of the experienced riders would wear the meteorologist's hat and come up with wind direction. Today is 'maestrale' (wind from the north) or' levante' (south) or 'Scirocco'(west) would be his call and everyone would just nod eagerly. Very soon it became a curious habit to peep out of the window lying on my bed to look at the neighbour's weather cocks (vane) to predict the bike course of the day!
Most of the rides were made of fast descends to the coast and climbs back to the village and in between riding through much of the beautiful country side. There were several routes around Cisternino varying in climbs, distance and gradient and almost all the rides over the month were always different by mixing up different descends and climbs. Each climb had a title such as Gravina, Panoramica, Selva etc and each one of them were difficult climbs. All the riders had their best times recorded in their minds and the only intention of going over them again and again was to better it! I started to take note of my times too and by the end of the trip I had shaven off seconds to several minutes on many of them. One climb that was hard to negotiate was the 'zoo safari climb' close to the town of Fasano. The 3.2km climb was made of 8 switch backs with an average gradient of 8-9%. My time on it was 14':40" and the best in the group clocked it under 12 minutes! Most local cyclists used that particular climb to train for switch backs for alpine races . A local belief suggested that if a rider could climb the 2 km long Gravina (climb leading to Cisternino)under 7 minutes, he was race ready! My time on it was 7':30".
Another technique we included in our rides often was 'progressions' on flats and that was one activity I enjoyed the most. The purpose was to imitate a sprint finish and ride a fast pace line and every 5 kms or so shift to the smaller cogs one at a time maintaining a specific cadence. The pace would get as high as 60-65km/hr on flats and that was insanely fast! The legs would cry for mercy and you could feel that the lungs just about to pop out of the mouth!
Another great event was on Sundays when most cyclists from the town headed out for a group ride. It was an occasion to compare yourself to others and to hear about all local cycling stories and gossips. They rode hard and getting dropped was not acceptable for many of the Italian machos! I remember an instance on one of the long climbs my wife had dropped a couple of riders, they fought hard as if they were fighting for their lives but the idea of getting dropped by a woman was not an honourable option for them! They eventually did get dropped and the effort took so much air out of them that we did not see them again for the rest of the ride. They bonked somewhere along the course.
While in Italy I also attended a few bike races mainly to support Leo. He rides for a team from Bari and some of the races I attended he finished 1st, either overall or in his category! We were proud to be on his side. The race pace at these regional races were really high and it was frightening just to sit on the sidelines and watch. I came back from these races so determined to compete in 2009 during my next trip to Italy. It would take a lot of pain to train over the next year but it looks promising to be fun! I will need a license and a team to compete and Leo has promised to look into it!
Rides in Italy have been great fun, the courses we rode on stay still fresh in my mind. Riding along the coast with the Mediterranean waves splashing the roads, riding on the foothills between olive groves, riding through vineyards in the historic Canale di Pirro, climbing the Gravina between pine woods, the overlooks at top of the hills with a dramatic view to the Mediterranean will be hard to beat. I intend to return next summer to Italy stronger and faster and hope to ride much better now that I am more familiar with the conditions.
Stay in Italy - 40 days
Bicycle Outings - 26 daysTime on the bike - 66 hours
Distance - 1800 kms
Avg speed over 1800 kms - 26.4km/hr
Total Ascent - 24,000m
Calories burned - 50833kcal
