Going Solo 121+ km??

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September 19th 2017

Published: September 19th 2017

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thebaz

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Rain where I'm headed

Finally a day of 'real' cycling, wherein I finally burn more calories than I consume (at least until I get back to the ranch), see what's on 'the other side of the mountain', and experience a bit of everything in terms of road and weather.

Bob and I were of opposite minds today - he wanted to explore the (flat) coast and I wanted to climb the hills, so we set off independently (in fact we didn't even leave at the same time). Rain seemed to have fallen earlier, and the roads were not always completely dry, but the morning clouds had been replaced by sunshine so my only concern was not to ride into the weather that I could see lingering over the hills.

After retracing yesterday's route to Cafaggio, I turned right this time and headed up amidst the morning traffic to Suvereto. I wish I had something more substantial to report here, but medieval towns start to lose their allure after you've seen a few of them, and this one didn't even have a view (OK, maybe it did and I would have found it had I been willing to wander through the cobbles, but I

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Suvereto - another old city on a hill

wasn't). Actually, there was some very nice scenery to be seen along the back road to Sassetta, but thinking I would wait until I got higher up before stopping to take a photo, I failed to capture the view before the road turned away and into the woods, only to emerge on the other side of the ridge. But the road itself was a joy: although it was pretty much a steady climb for 14km, the grade was gentle, the road surface was pretty good, and riding it was a treat. As I was heading up I saw at least two groups of English-speakers descending, and a guide with an American accent briefing others, so I guess this is a pretty popular route. I guess I got lucky - I just chose it because it was a squiggly line on the map.

Just as I got to Sassetta (where I found the tourist office had unfortunately closed for the season 4 days ago) it started to sprinkle - and the weather was coming from a different direction than what I had anticipated! I sheltered for a while under the tourist office roof, but it didn't seem like anything much

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Looking back at some of the climb towards Sassetta

was going to develop so I set off for Monteverdi Marittimo, and of course as soon as I left town the weather came in and it started to rain for real. The actual rainfall didn't last long, but the roads were wet and with no fenders on the bike, my shorts soon developed the familiar (and uncomfortable) 'racing stripe'. Fortunately, as expected the sun soon returned, so when I reached Monteverdi M. I sat on the steps of the church in the old town and ate part of my sandwich while I let the roads dry out a bit. Descents around here can be tricky at the best of times because of varying road conditions (not to mention the fact that being new to the area we never know what's around the bend - or even how tight the bend is), but the combination of a road darkened and made slippery by rain, and shade camouflaging the cracks and holes, made things doubly interesting today.

It turned out it was a long haul to Monterotondo Marittimo (24km, apparently, the first 4km of which was pure descent), and for most of it there was just me alone on a remote

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Part of the wooded section heading towards Sassetta

road through the countryside, with only a handful of cars going by over that stretch. I knew it was going to be a long day, so when I finally reached Monterotondo M. (yes, up another hill in case you were wondering) I didn't bother heading into the centre of town because I was already at the intersection with the road I needed to take to get to Massa Marittima. Instead I took a photo oriented back from where I had come.

The trip to Massa M. was not what I had expected, either, especially since it started with even more climbing (weren't all these towns at the tops of hills already?). There were actually a number of non-trivial climbs and descents before the road finally opened up (literally - a paved shoulder even appeared) into a steady descent, and it was at that point that my brain finally kicked into gear and I realized - from Sunday's ride - that the road I was on (SR or Strada Regionale 439) would not actually pass through the centre of Massa M.but merely skirt around it (on Sunday we had ridden in the opposite direction along SR439 but had then peeled

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The view from Sassetta (see the rain?)

off to make the climb to the city). Since the wind had picked up appreciably, I figured it would be a good idea to bypass the climb (which I assumed would be similarly steep compared to Sunday's) and save my legs, although I did stop and take a photo of the road sign indicating the way up to the 'other side' of town. In retrospect (something that came to me several kms later, at which point it was too late to reconsider), I really should have gone into town as not only was the climb from that side only 2kms long (because I would be starting from a higher elevation than we had on Sunday), but it would also have given me the opportunity to see if I had left my cleat covers where we had stopped for lunch. Ah well.

Also because of Sunday's ride I knew what I was in for heading back: a 39km slog home, mostly into the wind; and today, if anything the wind was fiercer than it had been on Sunday. Still, I took advantage of my repeat trajectory to find out once and for all what that object on the hillside in

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Monteverdi Marittimo - yet another old town on a hill

San Lorenzo was. It turned out to be the snazzy building for the Petra winery (designed by Mario Botta, I have just learned from Google).

So there you have it - a full and fine day of cycling capped off by an amazing display of lightning that continued all through our wonderful dinner. In fact I have just decided to order the same dish (beef) again on Friday as a fitting Last Meal.

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