Passeios e Viagens

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Riding in Tuscany has been on my list of places to ride since I began cycle tourism in 2009, and although I had seen many photos and videos, it was still very surprising. . 

Before heading to the hills towards Siena, I decided to do a quick stop at the historic center of Siena, where I was almost ticketed for riding my bike. Apparently, in Siena if you ride the bike on a pedestrian way (although selected cars can pass through), you can be ticketed, so watch the signs and ask (the sigh I saw had a bike a bike drawing, as if it indicated bikes were allowed). But, this encounter with Siena Polizia was fun, as the only language in common was French, which I don´t speak well and haven´t spoken in a long long time.

The ride out of Siena towards Castellina in Chianti was probably the best part, and the longest and highest climb of today's ride. And here I had one of the best surprises: I was joined by Carla and Paulo. Carla is from Rio and messaged me through Strava last night that she had planned a ride with Paulo towards Castellina...so we met up on the way up, chatted and shared laughs all the way up to the top.

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What a day! Filled with surprises and adventures.  I have been using Google (especially street view) and Bikemap.net to create my routes, which have worked out quite well...up to today.  I wasn´t able to fully check the BikeMap routes on Street View, so I figured I would adapt during the trip, if necessary...what a mistake. 

Leaving Orvieto is a shame...but, for a good cause: 130km towards Siena were on the way.  The first adventure came around 20km into the ride, I knew there was a part that consisted of trail...about 8-10km, so I told my self: If the terrain is not too bumpy, I would rather go slow on the trail than have to climb a really steep mountain (the alternative). What a mistake. for about 7km the trail isn´t too bad...for a MTB, eheheh.  But for about 1km, it´s a really steep uphill climb full of big rocks, which made it really hard and long (45 minutes) to push the bike and all of it´s 35+kg.  Once I hit the asphalt again I was so happy I didn´t complain for the rest of the day that most of the asphalt on the secondary roads are in terrible condition, especially the right side, where the bikes have to go.  Although the scenery during the trail was really really nice.

Once the trail experience was over, my main concern was: Not to go on another trail for the rest of the Bike Trip in Italy. With that said, I still tried to follow BikeMap´s route, but near Chiusi I was once again headed to trail land...so I decied to use the Google Maps routing feature, which was almost perfect. Google Maps sent me on a great route...with a really nice scenery and rolling hills.  But it sent me to the "Autostrada", which bikes aren´t allowed, even though on the map it listed the road as "SS", which I had taken before and it wasn´t the "A" nomenclature. So, instead of being 40km from Siena, I now had to rerout and found myself 60km from Siena with about 3,5 hours of sunlight...so I figured that if there were much climbing I was going to get to Siena after it was dark.

The last par of the trip was the best. I decided to pick up the pace and push hard on the hills and on the flats.  I rode through several small towns that were very charming, but the riding on the Tuscany hills was amazing, both climbing and descending.  The last part consisted of riding from Sinalunga to Trequanda, Asciano (muuuito charmosa) e Monteroni D´Arbia, antes de chegar em Siena.  I loved the ride and felt really good about riding back to back long rides with lots of weight for the first time.  Ciao :)