Pandemica 2020: Battling Lockdown on Two Wheels, a Travel Diary (with Mishaps)
September 2020. Five months cooped up at home. Five. Enough was enough. The pandemic had the world in a chokehold, but not my urge to pedal. So, armed with my bike, a thirst for adventure, and a healthy dose of recklessness, I set off on Pandemica 2020: a cycling tour from Como to Siena, through mountains, lakes, art cities, and most importantly, a serious craving for freedom.
September 2, 2020: Como – Morbegno: Lake Views and Chiavenna Gnocchi
Yesterday, finally, the weather gods gave the thumbs up: I set off on Pandemica 2020. Como to Morbegno, along the Strada Statale Regina, then up to the Adda and from there, the Sentiero della Valtellina (a beautiful 110km cycle path from Colico to Bormio, connected to the cycle network that crosses Lombardy – you can almost get here from Milan entirely by bike paths!). Lake Como, as always, showed off its best side: stunning views on a glorious day. Dinner of Chiavenna gnocchi, venison in salmì with polenta, and a decent, unpretentious Sassella. Not bad at all.
Stats: 81 km, 7230 kcal, average heart rate 154, average rpm 60, average speed 17km/h.
During Pandemica, when possible, I’ll be asking people various questions to collect testimonies about Covid.
Pandemica Interview Day 1:
(To the hotel owner)
“Did you close the restaurant due to the health emergency?”
“No, we’d been helping out by hosting refugees in collaboration with the province for three years up until February. Then no one else arrived, so we kept it closed.”
“But did you have any consequences from Covid on the season?”
“Actually, not that much: we had a fantastic August. My father, in 50 years of business, doesn’t remember such incredible numbers. All cycle tourists! We’re very happy in the end.”
The Valtellina path brings in huge revenue. Further proof, if any were needed, that cycle paths are a very profitable investment. A few kilometers down the road on Lake Como, which also had decent numbers but isn’t specifically equipped for cycle tourism, I saw several hotels and B&Bs with “CLOSED” signs. Makes you think.
September 3, 2020: Morbegno – Bormio: Uphill Struggle
Yesterday, Morbegno-Bormio, 96 km, 3050m of total elevation gain, 8250 calories burned, average heart rate 140 bpm, average cadence 54 rpm – max 120 rpm.
Immediately outside Morbegno, the Valtellina cycle path, immersed in greenery and on a protected route (except for a few stretches on ordinary roads, especially at the beginning). Between apple orchards, enchanting landscapes, Rhaetian terraces, and Lega voters braying in a pen, it was all very enjoyable. It’s always uphill. In Tirano, hunger got the better of me and forced me to devour an embarrassing amount of margherita pizza and ham and cheese focaccia. Good, because the last 40km are all uphill, even tougher, with various short but intense bursts, and I needed the energy. 17km from Bormio, realizing that the SP27 follows the Adda and the cycle path, I threw myself onto the road (which in any case has better asphalt and less erratic gradients). In the last few kilometers, I was seeing angels and Madonnas between the sore saddle and the bricked legs. Then finally, Bormio, and a nice dinner of Valtellina specialties.
September 4, 2020: The Stelvio: A Real Grind (and a Massive Appetite)
What a brutal grind! It was incredibly tough, especially at the end; the gradient and the 30+ kg I was hauling up were killing me. But I enjoyed every meter; the climb is beautiful. A girl who was climbing quickly shouted words of encouragement to me – my bags were heavy, and I was struggling.
(Note: at the top, it was full of undisciplined youngsters without masks. I was RAVENOUS, INSATIABLE. I ate 3 plates of pasta alla boscaiola, meat, chicken, fruit, and dessert).
September 5, 2020: Bolzano: A Long Stretch and a Thrilling Descent
Yesterday, a long stretch of 112 km (average heart rate 124, average cadence 59, 5400 calories burned) to Bolzano to try and make up for some of the kilometers lost yesterday with the immense effort to get to the Stelvio pass. This morning, I couldn’t wait for the downhill: breakfast, adjusted the run of the mechanical disc brakes and… zoom! Down the hairpin bends, minimal traffic, breathtaking scenery, and adrenaline pumping. With the bikepacking bags, you have full maneuverability, and Daphne proved incredibly manageable: I reached impressive speeds (considering that the front with the bags is an aerodynamic wall) up to almost 65 on a straight stretch (and almost fried the brake discs before the next hairpin).
After this descent, I traveled several km on the SS38, with heavy traffic, looking for the Adige cycle path: I could see one, but until I found a gap to enter it from the SS38 and ask for information, I had to endure the motorized traffic. Once inside, though, what a spectacle! Well-equipped, well-maintained, various refreshment points down to Merano, between the green and the roar of the Adige. Reaching Merano, just before entering the city, I crossed a wooden bridge and returned to a normal road, descending towards Lana, then on the SP159 among immense apple orchards to go back to the Adige cycle path, followed it to Bolzano (a nice and lively city; I hadn’t been there before). I couldn’t not finish with canederli, speck, an Atesino wine with an unpronounceable name that sounded like starting a tractor, and apple strudel… all very good!
September 6, 2020: Towards Lake Garda, Bicigrill and Sunshine
Yesterday, a quiet stage, 96 km from Bolzano to the edge of the Rovereto-Riva del Garda cycle path (5519 calories burned, average rpm 60, average heart rate 124, average speed 17.5 km/h).
The Ciclopista del Sole (Sun Cycle Path) is truly a beautiful project. I continued along the Adige valley with perfect asphalt, beautiful landscapes among the Teroldego vineyards and apple orchards. Here and there, benches in the shade, marked drinking water fountains and… THE BICIGRILL! Lol! They don’t have camogli (a type of focaccia), but a lot of tasty things. And the results are clear: this stretch alone (Brenner-Mantua) is on par with, if not better than, other European cycle paths, like the Passau-Vienna-Bratislava one on the Danube. It’s packed with cycle tourists: of course, it’s a fundamentally different trip from the “expedition” type; heavily loaded bikes with bags are rare, but certainly South Tyrol, Trentino, and Veneto have created a work capable of attracting even a lighter or more occasional type of cycle tourist. And thanks to e-bikes, the base is widening; there are so many of them. One day it will reach Sicily (with routes also in Sardinia). I always knew that Italy in this type of tourism would have absolutely no rivals. I think I’ve hit the nail on the head.
Since I’m going south and I’m well exposed to the sun, yesterday I also deployed the high-efficiency solar panel: a bomb! It kept my phone charged at 100% until sunset! Light dinner in the evening (thanks to the bicigrill). Today, Lake Garda down to Desenzano.
September 7, 2020: Lake Garda: Tunnels, Turns, and a Special Guest
This morning, a low-energy awakening. Until the coffee at breakfast, I wouldn’t have been able to pronounce even my own name. I checked the map and weather: it promised torrential rain, and I’ve never tried Daphne on wet ground with 30+ kg of bags. I decided to make a shorter stage to Desenzano, where Tintin Alassan could join me! Done and dusted, I loaded everything and set off. I found the Ciclopista del Sole blocked due to works before the junction for the Garda cycle path. This forced me to go back and search. I changed sides of the Adige, and from there I managed to connect (thanks to a cyclist who saw me looking lost) onto the cycle path that leads to Riva del Garda: it’s very green, very pretty on a route between the mountains. It proceeds flat for a while, then climbs with sections up to 15% gradient up to the Passo S. Giovanni, until a breathtaking view of Lake Garda appears and it starts to descend. In Riva del Garda, I discover that the panoramic cycle path overlooking the lake starts a few km later, and you can only get there from the state road… And it immediately starts with a tunnel (the thing I hate most after headwinds). I reach the cycle path, on the state road: I have to cross, and the turnstiles are so narrow that only a pedestrian can pass. They help me lift the bike over the turnstiles, and I take the cycle path towards Limone: spectacular, but too short and overcrowded. In Limone, I have to take the state road again and tunnels of 1.8, 1.4, 1.3 km… One even uphill with a challenging gradient. I follow the local regulations that require cyclists to wear high-visibility clothing, I turn on all the lights so I looked like a Christmas tree, and I went for it. What a spectacle, Lake Garda! Around one o’clock and with still 49 km to go, I decide to push hard: I don’t know why, but on cycle paths it’s impossible for me to achieve the same performance as on paved roads, but here I started pushing a lot. And in Desenzano, I find a special guest: Tintin, who came by car to meet me!
Final tally: 91km, 5037 kcal, 60 rpm pedal strokes per minute, average heart rate 128 bpm.
September 8, 2020: Mantua and the Road to Bologna
And today, a long stretch of 108 km to Bologna. In the last two days, I’ve covered just over 170 km to be here tonight as scheduled (which got messed up the day of the Stelvio climb). Initially, I thought I’d arrive in Bologna today at lunchtime, to rest and recover energy before the Apennine stretch to Florence. Due to the schedule adjustment, I arrived at 3:49 pm, so three hours late, but still good. Yesterday, I went from Desenzano to Mantua on the Mincio cycle path, really beautiful, very green, and with stunning views (like the village of the Visconti bridge in Valeggio sul Mincio). Yesterday, the weather forecast predicted rain, but I got extremely lucky; in the end, I got away with a bit of drizzle, even though when I heard thunder in the distance, I feared the worst. Today, I’d run out of useful cycle paths, so I took provincial roads. Classic agricultural landscapes of the Po Valley, trucks everywhere, and a sun that was beating down hard and turned me lobster red. Tonight, I finished with an Emilian dinner (Sangiovese wine, fried gnocco, tortellini in broth, and a spectacular eggplant bavarese, vegetarian and delicious!). Tomorrow begins the most difficult part of this trip, so a good night’s sleep is a must.
Total calories burned: 8959 Total km traveled: 171 Average heart rate: 124 Average rpm: 62
September 9-10, 2020: Florence: Mishaps and Mountain Passes
Today, Florence!! But… the MISADVENTURES!
Between the day before yesterday and yesterday, everything happened to me. I set off the day before yesterday morning, full of energy and ready to go, and straight away, a DEADLY climb to the sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca (which celebrates an icon of the Madonna whose painting is attributed to Luke the Evangelist). On the final stretch with gradients of 18%, the icons were spontaneously appearing to me too…
After passing the sanctuary, an atrocious descent begins on a completely destroyed road, between rocks, brambles, and ruts dug by the rain… “It’s all like this,” they tell me. With 30kg of bags, a nightmare. But I can’t even process that when suddenly the rear brake stops braking. Luckily, I stop without consequences and realize that incredibly the brake pad has fallen out of the disc brake caliper… Where it ended up among those rocks is impossible to ascertain. Very carefully, I come down from that precipice and reach Casalecchio Sul Reno. I go back and forth (5 km, 7km all in directions opposite to mine) to find someone who can fix my brake. Finally, I find Ferretti Bike! I am greeted by a string of open-air swear words, “I’m in the right place, I think.” In fact, the guys don’t have my pad in stock, but with painstaking work, they adapt one. They explain to me to be careful because although it’s right to use mechanical disc brakes for cycle touring, mine have pads that are too small for the weight I’m carrying and, moreover, attached with a small magnet; they advise me not to return to extreme off-road because the strong vibrations could make it happen again. I’m paying for my inexperience with disc brakes; I’ve always used V-Brakes… And I miss my beloved Surly. This is the first time I’ve been stopped by a mechanical failure. It’s now past one-thirty when I get back on track; at that point, I decide to find a convenient hotel on the road and reassess. I find one and stop, 40km total!
Yesterday, I decided to follow a route on asphalt quite close to the Via degli Dei (Way of the Gods), which means the SR65. But to get there, I would have to make an exploit up to Monzuno and then on the Passo della Radicosa, but the detour for the bike has taken me too far. I find a compromise by taking the SR65 after a climb to Montefredente: “I’ll kill myself right away while I’m rested, and then for the Futa I only have to do 200 m of elevation gain.” Done and dusted, an epic ride begins, 41 km of Apennine climb through unknown landscapes, generally quickly passed through between the A1 motorway or the Variante di Valico (which, by the way, are horribly visible, disfiguring the landscape for km, generating noise pollution). But the landscapes are very beautiful; there’s a whole world up there made of small villages, friendly people who raise their arms to encourage you or sprightly old men who stop to ask you “how long does the battery last?”… “I don’t have a battery.” “Really!? Well, congratulations!”. After passing Montefredente with a vertical climb (but after the Stelvio I barely feel it, all with the 32 chainring except for some ramps with the 22) that takes me over 700 meters, a panoramic road with a gentler slope begins, as I imagined. I cross the border between Emilia and Tuscany (the village before with a Bolognese accent and the one after aspirated the ‘c’s…) and finally reach the Passo della Futa… “From here it goes down!”, I think. True, but not entirely true. After 20 km, another 18 km of climb up to Pratolino starts, which breaks me; I’m now tired and the gradients are prohibitive. In Fontebuona, I stop to have a sandwich. “Can I make it with prosciutto? How do you want it?”. “Is the bread without salt, ma’am?”. “Yes”. “Then Tuscan, aged 24 months, which is nice and flavorful”. The sandwich gives me the turbo for the last stretch, and then I fly down in descent to Piazza della Signoria. Florence by bike from the Apennines!
Statistics September 9-10: Total km: 39+91 = 130 Kcal burned: 4306 + 7181 = 11487 Average heart rate: 117 – 133 Average cadence: 58-57
September 11, 2020: Siena! The End (and Some Thoughts)
Siena! Yesterday, the physically most demanding stage, from Florence to Siena: 75 km through the “gentle” Tuscan hills, which perhaps due to the humidity, perhaps due to saddle sores, I felt much more than other days, especially during two very tough climbs. But crossing the Chianti area, among vineyards and postcard landscapes.
Tintin Alassan joined me here, and we went to have fun with my university friends, Stefano Reksten, Endo Massimo Colombo, and Andrea Uinponi. By bringing me here, when I resume it in the future, I can do Siena-Grosseto and then go up the Tyrrhenian coast to Liguria and from the Via del Sale (Salt Road) return to the Po Valley and then to the Alps.
In total, I traveled almost 900 km and burned 63,000 kcal.
The Covid situation is varied, but generally almost everyone respects the rules, the only notable exceptions on the Stelvio pass (buffet restaurant served by the staff, but for breakfast the cutlery for taking the food was shared and there were no protective gloves) and incredibly here in Siena (yesterday evening here there were gatherings in multiple layers without masks). In Mantua, instead, people had very little desire to joke: they were hit hard and in fact were very careful everywhere.
Daphne, instead, did not prove as reliable as I thought. I was already ready to speculate on how it’s possible to do cycle touring with a 200 euro bike, but she betrayed me with the brakes and with saddle sores sometimes really unbearable: nothing that can’t be fixed, but the distribution and the discharge of weights on the Surly frame is really something else, with that bike I did up to 185 km in one day without suffering.
This tour was an incredible food and wine tour, every day in contact with specialties and wines of different regions and territories. Spectacular the passages on the Stelvio and the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, and incredibly beautiful and well-maintained the fantastic cycle paths of South Tyrol and Trentino. It was short but intense, and honestly, I really needed it!
