Distance: 44.8 km
Time: 3 hours exactly
Speed: 14.9 km/h
Ascent: 515 metres
Total distance: 315.5 km
Total time: 17 hours 6 minutes
Wordle scores: Captain 3 Stoker 3
Word of the day: “pioggia” (pee-odj-ee-ah) – rain
The Stoker writes:
On opening the shutters this morning after a really good night’s sleep, I could hear the sound of rain falling outside. Not unexpected, but it looked like the rain jackets would be coming into play today.
We left our apartment confidently in the right direction in the drizzle, and stopped for breakfast just on the edge of town. New favourite cornetto: integrale con miele, a slightly granary croissant with honey. Delicious. A local lady in the cafe told us as we left that Vicenza had had no significant rain for a couple of years. That was about to change!
We donned our rain jackets, climbed on and set off. Gilbert then instructed a U-turn, in a “trust me, I know where we’re going” way, rather than a “you idiots, where have you gone” way, so we complied, but found ourselves entering a big road, which didn’t seem right. A bit of faffing on foot later we found the cycle path, the Pista Ciclabile Riviera Berica, which was worth the faff, a really good way to leave town.
We knew we had a massive climb coming early in the day, just 9km in. As we headed towards it, the heavens absolutely opened – it was coming down in sheets, we were soaked in seconds!
The climbing was once again entirely voluntary – we could have plotted a route around the base of the Berica hills, but it looked like a lovely quiet road, we needed the training, and the views from the top would be spectacular. The last of those three assertions was looking in doubt, but we set off up it anyway. Water was running down the road in waves, and the first couple of ramps were really steep, but we managed it just fine, and the gradient eased. It was a lot like climbing at home, actually – steep sections, followed by flatter sections where you can catch your breath and recover a bit, then more puffing and panting, repeat to summit. There were a couple of rather ominous claps of thunder, but then the rain passed over and at least it was dry.
We pushed on up, not much to see, we were up in the clouds.
There was a short foggy section in a spooky wood, and then Gilbert announced the summit with his little fanfare. We’d made it!
The descent began shallowly, but soon became ridiculously steep, with very tight, twisty hairpins to deal with. We took it steadily, and had a break after a particularly steep section to let the brakes cool. We broke out of the cloud into brilliant sunshine, and a little tease through the trees of the Po valley below.
And then suddenly there it was, all its flatness stretching out below us, broken only by the Euganean hills. A particular favourite of mine on our last trip, I’m sure you remember!
As we descended, we were suddenly deafened by a million cicadas in the trees! There must be a maximum altitude they live at, and we’d just come down to it. Their scratching would accompany us for the rest of the day.
A few more hairpins and we were down on the valley floor. It had definitely been worth the climb, a great test of the legs, and we had seen some beautiful views of the Po valley after all.
We stopped for lunch at Sossano, a second croissant of the day for me, stuffed with porchetta, very nice. The Captain checked back on our 2018 Italian cycling records, remembering that today would be the first point of conjunction of our two routes. Sure enough, we were only about 6km from Poiana Maggiore, where we lunched on the day from Verona to Este in 2018. In fact, that day had influenced this in a big way. As we lunched in 2018, the proprietors of the cafe told us about an amazing walled town, not far away, Montagnana, which they said was well worth a visit. We couldn’t go on that occasion, because we’d already agreed an arrival time with our Este host. Today, though, it was our destination for the day, and we’d be able to explore properly.
We raced through the last few kilometres of the day, still in sunshine. We even managed to trigger a speed camera at 31kph, quite respectable after all we’d done in the hills!
There was no mistaking Montagnana when we arrived, it looked like this:
It’s absolutely gorgeous, we’re in a little gate-house just outside the Porta Padova, and we shall be eating dinner in the moat gardens, as they are our back garden! We plan to wander back into town for a gelato in the main square after dinner.
What a day – biblical rain, a great climb, a brilliant view of the Po valley, and a gelato. Perfetto.
Here’s today’s route and a short video