Post by davidp on May 30, 2013 10:58:48 GMT
2013, this was going to be a big year with the main event an attempt in June at the Raid Pyrenean, 18 cols to cover in under 100 hours between the Atlantic coast and the Mediteranean, close to the French Spanish border. Plans began last year and a 2 week October trip to Mallorca put in the foundations for a steady winter and spring build up with reliabilities and mini sportives, then 2 weeks back on the island in March, followed by a some racing at home and the Coast 2 Coast in early May, 16 days in Italy to include the continents oldest and biggest Gran Fondo, the Nove Colli, and off to do the Raid mid June. How the plans of mice and men etc come to mind….the story so far follows.
After October I had the first winter cold which kept me off the bike for a couple of weeks, plus another week I initially had taken off for ‘rest’, then came the long long winter so like most others there was a distinct lack of base miles over November, December and January, and Feb was hardly any better. So having avoided getting soaked, frozen and hammered in the RT’s there was just a bitter day early March for the Mad March Hare mini sportive, a painful 75ml haul in a below par fitness state. Anyway it was soon off to Mallorca and the very first day ‘that storm’ which seems to have done for my health this year. I never felt right after that and the nagging chest problem gradually got worse and the C2C on the 4th /5th May was so painful it forced me to go to the doc’s where pleurisy was diagnosed and a course of antibiotics! Should have gone sooner, and rested too. However I was hopeful the medication would soon fix the problem so on 10th May off to Riccione on the Italian Riviera went myself, Mary and bike for sunshine, heat, and some steady miles plus the Nove Colli, which means Nine Hills (mountains really); or so I thought.
We flew Easyjet Gatwick to Bologna and got the 120km transfer to Riccione (near Rimini) where we stayed at the longest established of the dozen or so ‘bike hotels’, Hotel Dory, which is a nice place just a couple of hundred metres from the sea, on the half board ‘magic bike’ special offer. There are 3 to 5 organised rides each day all at different levels and the routes and profiles with details are put on the notice board each afternoon for the following day – you just put your name down on the one of your choice. As they all cover the same route to the first coffee stop if your group is a tad too quick then you just wait for the next slower one. I never did this as I immediately found that on any climb my breathing was a real problem and damn painful too, so I ended up just doing a few rides in the easy group or on my own, with several days just chilling out with Mary. The chilling out bit was quite apt as the area has had its worst weather for May anyone can remember, it was cold, windy and quite wet at times, especially the 2nd week. Some of you will have seen what the Giro riders were contending with just north of where we were.
On the first day the Giro was nearby at Gabbiche Mare for the individual TT and whilst Mary took the mini bus to the start I accidentally joined the fast group for a hilly loop into the Romagne countryside to pick up the race at the top of a hill at Novilara. What an experience seeing the Giro and cheering on the riders; incidentally the loudest and most enthusiastic encouragement after Nibali was for Mark Cavendish who is hugely respected in Italy. Afterwards it was a full on charge back to the hotel and I soon realised that this pleurisy thing is not to be taken lightly, so from then on I stuck with the ‘Cappuccino Light’, or slow group for the 2 weeks. Each group has around a dozen riders, varying abilities, and many different nationalities. Conversation can be challenging and my hints at the need for cake seemed to go largely ignored. You could climb full bore but had to stop at the top or any junctions, and on descents stay behind the guide for safety reasons. I climbed rather like Thomas the Tank engine, wheezing my way uphill each day, a bad lot really.
I had to scratch from the Nove Colli but the itinery ran thus; I did a priority guaranteed entry via the hotel Dory when I booked the holiday and they gave me a fantastic pre event pack 2 days before the race (you get a gillet and loads of useful stuff, plus numbers and transponder), and there was a presentation in the hotel the day before. On the morning the 45 riders entered from the hotel had a very early breakfast at 4.00am and were transported with bikes to the start at Cesenatico, birth place of the late Marco Pantani, some 20mls away, at 5.00am to join another 12,000 riders for the 6.00am start. Mary had got a lift with one of the mini buses to the last feed station, at the top of the last climb, 18% max! as she wanted to see the race (yeh, it really is run off like a road race!) and also help out there – I stayed in bed and got up at 8.00 so I could ride up to Cesenatico quietly and at my own now abysmal pace. Thankfully it was dry for most of the event and in the evening the hotel had a party to congratulate all those guests who had ridden. Missing out due to my health problems left me depressed for 24 hrs, but I made the right decision not to ride. Now I am home and still no better so I am having to withdraw from the Raid too.
The hotel puts on a number of other events and socials during the week such as a wine tasting tour and a barbeque at the managers country home. The groups ride there and partners are bussed to the venues. In the hotel basement is a secure lock up for bikes plus cleaning and repair facilities, all the hire bikes are top quality Scott, and there are also a number of ‘city bikes’ free for guests. The latter are like Boris bikes and M and I used them several times to ride up or down the coast on the bike paths to have a coffee somewhere different. There is a disappointing lack of decent cake shops around, but we did find an excellent ice cream place 10 mins walk away which we frequented most afternoons – Italian ice cream, yummy!
All the organised rides leave bang on 09.30am in a set order and return around 1.30/2.30pm when there is a lunch buffet, also free to riders partners. There are 2 rest days, Wednesday and the Saturday change over day, plus they do a grand tour day on Tuesdays with longer rides. The slow group typically covers around 70km, upping this to 95km on the Tuesday. The 3 faster groups will each be from 80 to 90km but 130km for the grand tour day.
The coastal strip of the Italian Riviera is laid out on a grid pattern and majors on beach holiday hotels and is pretty boring, but once inland you are soon into rolling countryside and some fairly big climbs into hilltop towns with all their old architecture and most with a café to stop at. Roads are well engineered and the climbs steady, typically around 5%, and often 4 to 7 km long. Traffic is like the UK and busy near the coast, Italy is a similar size and population to us so it’s single file on anything other than the smaller roads. Some of the road surfaces are rough and need care, again like the UK. Due to the unusual weather it was arm warmers and gilets most of the time, plus capes when needed. Apparently it is usually hot, dry and sunny, but not in 2013. In conclusion I would say a week with the Gran Fondo is enough and a worthwhile experience, but imo Mallorca is far better for riding and for non cycling partners.
After October I had the first winter cold which kept me off the bike for a couple of weeks, plus another week I initially had taken off for ‘rest’, then came the long long winter so like most others there was a distinct lack of base miles over November, December and January, and Feb was hardly any better. So having avoided getting soaked, frozen and hammered in the RT’s there was just a bitter day early March for the Mad March Hare mini sportive, a painful 75ml haul in a below par fitness state. Anyway it was soon off to Mallorca and the very first day ‘that storm’ which seems to have done for my health this year. I never felt right after that and the nagging chest problem gradually got worse and the C2C on the 4th /5th May was so painful it forced me to go to the doc’s where pleurisy was diagnosed and a course of antibiotics! Should have gone sooner, and rested too. However I was hopeful the medication would soon fix the problem so on 10th May off to Riccione on the Italian Riviera went myself, Mary and bike for sunshine, heat, and some steady miles plus the Nove Colli, which means Nine Hills (mountains really); or so I thought.
We flew Easyjet Gatwick to Bologna and got the 120km transfer to Riccione (near Rimini) where we stayed at the longest established of the dozen or so ‘bike hotels’, Hotel Dory, which is a nice place just a couple of hundred metres from the sea, on the half board ‘magic bike’ special offer. There are 3 to 5 organised rides each day all at different levels and the routes and profiles with details are put on the notice board each afternoon for the following day – you just put your name down on the one of your choice. As they all cover the same route to the first coffee stop if your group is a tad too quick then you just wait for the next slower one. I never did this as I immediately found that on any climb my breathing was a real problem and damn painful too, so I ended up just doing a few rides in the easy group or on my own, with several days just chilling out with Mary. The chilling out bit was quite apt as the area has had its worst weather for May anyone can remember, it was cold, windy and quite wet at times, especially the 2nd week. Some of you will have seen what the Giro riders were contending with just north of where we were.
On the first day the Giro was nearby at Gabbiche Mare for the individual TT and whilst Mary took the mini bus to the start I accidentally joined the fast group for a hilly loop into the Romagne countryside to pick up the race at the top of a hill at Novilara. What an experience seeing the Giro and cheering on the riders; incidentally the loudest and most enthusiastic encouragement after Nibali was for Mark Cavendish who is hugely respected in Italy. Afterwards it was a full on charge back to the hotel and I soon realised that this pleurisy thing is not to be taken lightly, so from then on I stuck with the ‘Cappuccino Light’, or slow group for the 2 weeks. Each group has around a dozen riders, varying abilities, and many different nationalities. Conversation can be challenging and my hints at the need for cake seemed to go largely ignored. You could climb full bore but had to stop at the top or any junctions, and on descents stay behind the guide for safety reasons. I climbed rather like Thomas the Tank engine, wheezing my way uphill each day, a bad lot really.
I had to scratch from the Nove Colli but the itinery ran thus; I did a priority guaranteed entry via the hotel Dory when I booked the holiday and they gave me a fantastic pre event pack 2 days before the race (you get a gillet and loads of useful stuff, plus numbers and transponder), and there was a presentation in the hotel the day before. On the morning the 45 riders entered from the hotel had a very early breakfast at 4.00am and were transported with bikes to the start at Cesenatico, birth place of the late Marco Pantani, some 20mls away, at 5.00am to join another 12,000 riders for the 6.00am start. Mary had got a lift with one of the mini buses to the last feed station, at the top of the last climb, 18% max! as she wanted to see the race (yeh, it really is run off like a road race!) and also help out there – I stayed in bed and got up at 8.00 so I could ride up to Cesenatico quietly and at my own now abysmal pace. Thankfully it was dry for most of the event and in the evening the hotel had a party to congratulate all those guests who had ridden. Missing out due to my health problems left me depressed for 24 hrs, but I made the right decision not to ride. Now I am home and still no better so I am having to withdraw from the Raid too.
The hotel puts on a number of other events and socials during the week such as a wine tasting tour and a barbeque at the managers country home. The groups ride there and partners are bussed to the venues. In the hotel basement is a secure lock up for bikes plus cleaning and repair facilities, all the hire bikes are top quality Scott, and there are also a number of ‘city bikes’ free for guests. The latter are like Boris bikes and M and I used them several times to ride up or down the coast on the bike paths to have a coffee somewhere different. There is a disappointing lack of decent cake shops around, but we did find an excellent ice cream place 10 mins walk away which we frequented most afternoons – Italian ice cream, yummy!
All the organised rides leave bang on 09.30am in a set order and return around 1.30/2.30pm when there is a lunch buffet, also free to riders partners. There are 2 rest days, Wednesday and the Saturday change over day, plus they do a grand tour day on Tuesdays with longer rides. The slow group typically covers around 70km, upping this to 95km on the Tuesday. The 3 faster groups will each be from 80 to 90km but 130km for the grand tour day.The coastal strip of the Italian Riviera is laid out on a grid pattern and majors on beach holiday hotels and is pretty boring, but once inland you are soon into rolling countryside and some fairly big climbs into hilltop towns with all their old architecture and most with a café to stop at. Roads are well engineered and the climbs steady, typically around 5%, and often 4 to 7 km long. Traffic is like the UK and busy near the coast, Italy is a similar size and population to us so it’s single file on anything other than the smaller roads. Some of the road surfaces are rough and need care, again like the UK. Due to the unusual weather it was arm warmers and gilets most of the time, plus capes when needed. Apparently it is usually hot, dry and sunny, but not in 2013. In conclusion I would say a week with the Gran Fondo is enough and a worthwhile experience, but imo Mallorca is far better for riding and for non cycling partners.