30th September
Wonderful day. Just cycling to places I'd never get to with a car or a motorbike. How liberating does that make me feel. It's like a new adventure being done in a new way. Check out Mr Wobbly Head!
Mr Wobbly Head
Ortona Cycle Path
On the Ortona cycle path I dodge other users, I care not to crash and notice people are beginning to smile. At a small pedestrianised crossing I meet a young family who are curious about my ride and suddenly we pose for photographs. Some people are open to this, others not at all. Closed. The father Daniel told me how the great Italian cycle race the Giro d'Italia ran the time trial leg on this cycle path in 2023.
Hello people out there - great to meet you!
Proud Dad and his daughters
A Bit of Info
Giro d’Italia 2023
Running along a disused railway line, the time trial is just a small segment of a much larger network of coastal bike paths, known in its totality as the Ciclovia Adriatica and, in this particular section in the Abruzzo region, the Ciclovia Costa dei Trabocchi. As you'd expect from a former railway trackway, the bike path itself is a seamless ribbon of khaki green tarmac, the width of perhaps a car and a half and running on a gradient that barely changes. For the record, the course starts at two metres above sea level, reaches 14 metres above sea level after eight kilometres and then drops back to six at Porto di Ortona, by the time it reaches the foot of the climb that concludes the course.
So I'm on this delightful cycle path and the beer is cold and the people are friendly. I feel happy. I am rediscovering my love of travelling. The surface is smooth, there are no cars just cyclists. How well do the Italians know how to enjoy their moment. Take the famous Trabocchi restaurants on the path, how perfectly beautiful are they?
Trabocchi Restaurant
Then, my google map app tells me to leave the path and follow the little blue line on my screen. The road turns to a lane which deteriorates rapidly and rises until it's a donkey track and steep. Tip: change the 'cycle route icon' to the 'car route icon' and that will tell you the location of the nearest road and sure thing it looks like hundreds of metres instead of kilometres. I push and heave and moan and then realise this is exactly where a gravel bikes wants to be, in gravel.
Nearly another 100 mile push. It's flat, there is a tail wind and the weather is perfect. It can only get slower but right now we're on the moment. I am here, now.
Map of the Day
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