Ride Director: Marnie Easly
Ride Co-Director: Woody Sherwood
Report by: Aaron Rosenthal
As we crested the final hilltop village, a beautifully designed metal sign provided information about the village and region. The opening sentence stated “The landscape is characterized by a succession of hills, woods, stretches of fields, meadows, and vineyards”. With the exception of our time riding adjacent to the beautiful azure Mediterranean Sea, this statement seemed to perfectly capture the riding component of this trip through Italy’s Piedmont and Liguria regions. The daily rides were primarily on wonderful narrow backroads with extremely limited traffic. In fact, many of them were not on the small scale Michelin map (1:200,000) provided by the trip leaders. Fortunately both the cue sheet and GPS tracks were spot on. On numerous occasions group members asked the ride leaders “How in the world did you find those roads?” The exceptions to that type of riding terrain were the 34K leaving from and returning to Turin, and the 36K along the Mediterranean from Finale Ligure to Varanzze where the traffic was fairly constant, yet generally courteous. These segments were also differentiated by their flat topography, in contrast to the rolling hills on the other days. Those hills ranged from moderate to very steep gradients (up to 18%), with the most challenging sections typically of short duration. Thus this ride may prove more demanding for some than the accurate 2B classification would indicate.
No doubt the vineyards, along with all the riders on this tour, fully appreciated the near ideal weather conditions that greeted us on a daily basis…not a drop of rain and warm riding temperatures throughout our two week journey. Entering the fall season, many of the vineyards sported foliage of changing greens and brilliant reds. The majority of the white grape vines had already been harvested, while the red grapes still had several more weeks to ripen optimally. Three wine tasting sessions took place. Each focused not only on the wines offered, but on topics such as the winemaking process, differences between grapes and wine names, and how our tongues work to differentiate tastes.
Beyond the exceptional riding, the majority of dinners were included in this trip, at least in part because the more rural hilltop location of the accommodations often made dinner at the hotel the only practical alternative. Most of those meals were a gastronomic delight, from the presentation to the varied taste sensations. One 7 course meal was from a Michelin Star chef, while a few others rivaled that level of expertise.
While the ride advertised staying in 3 star level hotels, a few clearly exceeded expectations. The most extraordinary stay was at Casetello di Cortanze, a renovated castle dating to the 13th century. The hilltop views overlooking the vineyards and valleys below were breathtaking. Happy hour took place in a cave-like setting, and the dinner was one of the best of the trip.
In addition to the search for the perfect cappuccino, this tour also provided opportunities to savor gelato and the region’s world famous wines.
Bicycle Adventure Club
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Telephone (858) 715-9510 office@bicycleadventureclub.org