Giro trip - Day 2
We left the hotel at 9:30 for today's ride headed eastward into a bit of a vineyard country. The terrain was rolling and made for nice riding.
In true Fullerini fashion he took his turn at the front shortly after leaving town on a gradual uphill. Soon enough riders riders began driftin off the the back of the pack. POP... POP... POP... In all fairness he did not lift the pace but the fact that it was uphill had an effect on the others. It seemed fitting though that it would happen when he went to the front.
After reaching the town of Possagno, we turned southward into an area of vineyards. This was pretty country and provided a nice, moderate climb, similar to something in MO, up to the picturesque small town of Asolo.
What goes up must come down and the descent was a gently winding road that provided some downhill fun. The road back to Bassano was busier than I would have liked but not awful. We rolled through town and over the famous wooden bridge designed by the famous architect Palladio in the 1500's before we heading up to the hillside town of Valrovina.
The road sign showed that Valrovina was 6km away. I question the accuracy of the sign. We seemed to get there much too quick. It was a nice climb. Steeper at the bottom before moderating the rest of the way before a leveling out in town. Once I found a rhythm it turned into a nice test of early legs and I was quite comfortable doing the whole climb in the 21. We reached Valrovina and went downhill briefly. I assumed this was the start of the downhill into Marostica but the road kicked up again with a tree covered couple of kilometers. Again we were greeted with a fun, winding but not overly technical descent that was longer than the Asolo downhill.
Lunch was in Marostica. A neat little town famous for its giant chessboard in the town square. Stone walls still partly surrounded the city as well as impressively rising up a big hill to the north of town. There was some serious labor involved in building that wall.
After lunch, Giuseppe and I tacked on an extra loop down to the city of Citadella while the others headed back to Bassano. Citadella is an entirely walled city with a moat around it and only four entrances. Seeing the giant wall in person was impressive. Inside the walls, there was not much other than some small shops but it was still interesting to look around. You could climb up to the top of the wall as well but we needed to be heading back to town.
The road back to Bassano was busy and not great fun. Something like riding on Manchester. We made it back to the hotel safely, though. That loop was an extra 40km and a total of 110km for the day.
This afternoon Joe and I walked down to the old part of town and the Palladian bridge where it is supposed to be something of a tradition to have a glass of grappa. As we were walking from the hotel the rain began to fall. We tried to stay under awnings and eaves of buildings to stay a little dry. At one point I passed by some scaffolding set up next to a building that was being worked on. Where metal poles connected the metal flared out. In a truly graceful manner, my right arm hit flush with this metal connector and darn near knocked me over. That will leave a nice bruise.
The rain apparently cut down on the people who showed up for grappa. It kept the rest of the group from driving down. We hung around the bridge for a while and the only people were 10-20 young toughs with their tattoos and piercings milling around smoking cigs and drinking some grappa. Eventually, Joe walked in unsure of what to order and came out with a couple grappas. This is not a drink I will be imbibing on a regularly basis. We gulped it down and headed back to the hotel after the rain stopped.
Tomorrow we start our excursion into the mountains.
We left the hotel at 9:30 for today's ride headed eastward into a bit of a vineyard country. The terrain was rolling and made for nice riding.
In true Fullerini fashion he took his turn at the front shortly after leaving town on a gradual uphill. Soon enough riders riders began driftin off the the back of the pack. POP... POP... POP... In all fairness he did not lift the pace but the fact that it was uphill had an effect on the others. It seemed fitting though that it would happen when he went to the front.
After reaching the town of Possagno, we turned southward into an area of vineyards. This was pretty country and provided a nice, moderate climb, similar to something in MO, up to the picturesque small town of Asolo.
What goes up must come down and the descent was a gently winding road that provided some downhill fun. The road back to Bassano was busier than I would have liked but not awful. We rolled through town and over the famous wooden bridge designed by the famous architect Palladio in the 1500's before we heading up to the hillside town of Valrovina.
The road sign showed that Valrovina was 6km away. I question the accuracy of the sign. We seemed to get there much too quick. It was a nice climb. Steeper at the bottom before moderating the rest of the way before a leveling out in town. Once I found a rhythm it turned into a nice test of early legs and I was quite comfortable doing the whole climb in the 21. We reached Valrovina and went downhill briefly. I assumed this was the start of the downhill into Marostica but the road kicked up again with a tree covered couple of kilometers. Again we were greeted with a fun, winding but not overly technical descent that was longer than the Asolo downhill.
Lunch was in Marostica. A neat little town famous for its giant chessboard in the town square. Stone walls still partly surrounded the city as well as impressively rising up a big hill to the north of town. There was some serious labor involved in building that wall.
After lunch, Giuseppe and I tacked on an extra loop down to the city of Citadella while the others headed back to Bassano. Citadella is an entirely walled city with a moat around it and only four entrances. Seeing the giant wall in person was impressive. Inside the walls, there was not much other than some small shops but it was still interesting to look around. You could climb up to the top of the wall as well but we needed to be heading back to town.
The road back to Bassano was busy and not great fun. Something like riding on Manchester. We made it back to the hotel safely, though. That loop was an extra 40km and a total of 110km for the day.
This afternoon Joe and I walked down to the old part of town and the Palladian bridge where it is supposed to be something of a tradition to have a glass of grappa. As we were walking from the hotel the rain began to fall. We tried to stay under awnings and eaves of buildings to stay a little dry. At one point I passed by some scaffolding set up next to a building that was being worked on. Where metal poles connected the metal flared out. In a truly graceful manner, my right arm hit flush with this metal connector and darn near knocked me over. That will leave a nice bruise.
The rain apparently cut down on the people who showed up for grappa. It kept the rest of the group from driving down. We hung around the bridge for a while and the only people were 10-20 young toughs with their tattoos and piercings milling around smoking cigs and drinking some grappa. Eventually, Joe walked in unsure of what to order and came out with a couple grappas. This is not a drink I will be imbibing on a regularly basis. We gulped it down and headed back to the hotel after the rain stopped.
Tomorrow we start our excursion into the mountains.
2 Comments:
What is Grappa?
Wikipedia defines it far better than I could but, basically, it is an alcohol distilled from the leftovers (skins, stems, etc) of the original wine-making process. It has the approximate strength of vodka so it has quite a kick. Not a great tasting drink. Some in the group described it as antifreeze.
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