Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 🏔🔄: Alternative Stage 4

Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 🏔🔄: Stage 3

Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 2024 🏔🔄: Stage 2 | Cancelled ❌️

Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 🏔🔄 2024: Stage 1

UTMR Day 0: Non-running stuff 👨‍🍳

#Day 1　
We started in Pompei with neutralized race on busy streets until we arrived to the foot of Vesubio 🌋. A climb of 1000m ⬆️, starting with road, later gravel switchbacks ↩️↪️ and finally a small section of #hikethebike.

Time to descent ↘️ to Napoli on a road with views to the sea 🌊 and the city. As I experienced 2 days before... crossing Napoli is an adventure, specially on the weekend that Napoli is winning the national league.

We continue through the coast. Quite some big roads... not so nice but they help to progress fast 🚴‍♂️💨.

The day goes by and I stop in Terrcina for dinner. I see bikes parked in front a bar which later I see is more a burger/kebap 🍔🌯 place. Not exactly what I wanted to eat but is fast and I'm hungry.

I ate at the right moment since there is a few kms more and then a long #hike the bike to Monte Circeo. On the way Chris (who I met in Transbalkan last year) overtakes me and I decide to keep their pace.

We arrive to the top on intense fog 🌫 and then down. First an asphalt part and then a single trail were ai take over. I arrive first down where I join a asphalt road. I keep going but there is no one and is near to midnight 🕛.

After 10 min cycling Simone and Chris overtake me again and I follow. They stop in Sabaudia for some drink and sandwiches 🥪🥪 and decide to make the night somewhere in town where is protected. The day has been long enough, quite rolling since despite the climb of Vesubio and the #hikeabike there is no big climbs and there was a lot of asphalt.

In front there is a tent ⛺️ from another bar which is closed and the owner just leaving. They ask to them if we can sleep there and they say that we can.

Is a good spot however I cannot sleep 😴 a lot... I keep awake for most of the time.

#Route: Pompei - 🌋Vesubio - Napoli - Bacoli - Terracina 🍔🍟 - San Felice Circeo - ⛰️ Monte Circeo -  Sabaudia

#🌋Volcano Vesubio: 1281m (uo to 1000m)
#⛰️Monte Circeo: 448m

240 kms | 2400m ⬆️ | 4h sleep 😴

#Day 2
We woke up at 4:30 and got us ready but before we left we were lucky that the same Bar of yesterday is open again. We got brekfast and a couple of coffees ☕️☕️ and we are ready to start.

We started a small forest 🌳🌿 section and some flat section on the coast to leave it and make it to Latina. Simone decided to stop for a coffee and Chris and me kept going for the first climb of the day. The climb ⬆️ to Norma. Here we enter into a more up ⬆️ and down ⬇️ terrain.

Norma 🏘 was beautiful and next town 🏘 was Cori which was more beaitiful. Shortly after I feel hungry and we stop in a bakery in Giulianello and buy Pizza 🍕 and sandwichew 🥪🥪🥪🥪. 1 I ate ate and the rest I leave it for later.

At this point we have started going through the Via Francigena. We leave the roads and starts on gravel roads and trails. A section with high grass that luckily earlier riders had made it wider.

On the trails Chris had a problem with his stearing and had to stop for a while to fix it. Later on in a town I found Simone and had a coffee ☕️ with him. So far the day was progressing very well.

We rode together to Rome. To get there we did the entire Via Appia antica. 15 kms of cobblestones 🪨. Beautiful but... hard on the body 😒.

Rome was packed but worth to visit it. Temperutes in the afternoon felt quite warm here 🌡. I did not stop long around and I kept going north. 

I met at somepoint Daniel from Luzern 🇨🇭 and we spend a couple of hours talking 🗣. He stopped later in a town to put some clothes on and check what to do later.

As I moved I looked the options and Viterbo looked a good stretch to motivate me. The night looked wet and with some more chance of rain 🌧 so I decided for some warm roof 🏨.

Then started raining and confimed my good plan 😁.  I was in a beautiful single trail next to a river. The rain did not feel intense since I was protected by the trees 🌳🌳  but everything was wet 💦, muddy and slippery.

I left the tricky single trail to arrive, after a short #hikethebike through stairs, to Capranica. Here I met Jakob, who just had early dinner, and shared the way for a couple of hours while talking 🗣.

It was around 8:30pm and I wanted to get dinner before it would get late... so I stopped in Vetralla in a place where they kept my bike in and didn't mind my wet/full of mud appearance. Pasta 🍝 + Pizza 🍕 was my choice. I expected to make this combo more often but in reality is that it was a slow option and I ended eating a lot of paninos 🥪.

I had booked in Viterbo during the afternoon and I had 25kmsto go with some soft ups ↗️ and downs ↘️. And I felt quite good after fueling so it did not take me much more than 1h... and befofe midnight I was there.

Quite a long day but today a shower 🚿 and a warm bed 🛏 awaited me.

#Route: Sabaudia - Latina - Norma - Cori - Giulianello 🍕🥪 - Velletri - Poggio delle Mole - Rome - Formello - Monterosi - Capranica - Vetralla 🍝🍕 - Viterbo

#⭐️Via Appia antica

247 kms | 3655m ⬆️ | 4h sleep 😴

#Day 3
I wanted to start earlier but I was ready to start around 5am. Within 1 km I found a caffeteria in a petrol station open and being May 1st (public holidays) I did not miss the opportunity to have the needed coffees ☕️🥐☕️ and stock on paninos 🥪🥪🥪 for the day.

I had a great start and the rain seemed to hold. Today looked more hilly. Visiting very beautiful towns like Orvieto. It was always the same pattern during the first half of the day. Up ⬆️ to a town with a castle 🏰 and down ⬇️ to a valley.

In the middle of the day a big climb on a very nice gravel path. On the top I met Miroslav and exchange some words before the descent. A mix of rocky wide path and gravel that ends on a road for a couple of kms.

A river section follows... I have some difficulties to navigate some crossing brought to Miroslav and me to dead end with a river crossing and being about 50 meters of the track. Looks close... so I try to cut through bushes 🌿🌾🌵. Miroslav suggest to leave the bike and see if I see the path.

I do that and find it so I go back and tell him I found it and take the bike. He says that betters go back to find it at the intersection 😆. I go through the bushes gaining some war scratches 🩹 and make it 🥳. That's not fast rolling 😒.

After that a kind of very hard mud gets on the way... It collapse all the fork clearance and you can here only things scratching 😒. All the riders shared the same experience when asking 🤣.

I manage to leave this are and I arrive to asphalt. When I get me I think that by speeding all the mud will go away with the speed... but not I really need to stop and remove it 🥢. It's like cement.

I kept going and I arrive to Pienza. Is around 7pm and start to think about the night. I ask for a couple of paninos 🥪🥪 and cappuccinos ☕️☕️.

I have a town 50k away and with check in until 10pm... I call and ask and they say that until 11 will be good. I never know what to expect so I just put some buffer. There is no time for extra dinner. I just leave and push hard to gain time in case of obstacles.

It goes up, down high gravel traverses on the ridge but all quite rideable. Finally 10 min before 10pm I arrive. The owner is there and give me a great service. You can go to shower and we can prepare some panino 🥪, here the patking for the bike and the key. You can go anytime tomorrow.

I do that and go back for 🥪 amdd little retreat 🤭 (🍺). I go to sleep before midnight after sorting out everything and I decide to start around 5am.


#Route: Viterbo - Montefiascone - Porano - Orvieto - Proceno 🥪🥙🧃☕️ - Radicofani - Pienza 🥪🥪☕️🧃 - San Quirico d'Orcia - Buonconvento - Vescovado

201 kms | 3555m ⬆️ | 4h sleep 😴

#Day 4
At 5am 🕔 I'm on the bike towards Siena with a light iluminating some nice gravel roads in the area of "L'Eroica". No coffee this morning so it does not feel great. My legs are "just moving" but without power ⚡️.

It takes me 2h to make it to Siena and then I met Mathieu having breakfast in a place just after crossing the whole city. That's good since the early start avoided to cross a city full of traffic and people (like Napoli and Rome).

We share some kms and then we met Andrea in a fountain 🚰. I stop and refill and keep going. Soon I catch up with Andrea and Mathieu.

Some flowy gravel road ↗️↘️ until we arrive to a big climb ⬆️⬆️⬆️ which over time it would get muddy. But it is a different mud than yesterday. The climb is endless and towards the end gets rough and steep so I decide to #hikethebike to save energy. Andrea push hard all those climbs.

The top has some ups and downs before a final down on a very nice gravel road and a final section of asphalt. That road brings me to Radda in Chianti. I did not know about the town but Laura let me know that it is a famous wine town 🍇🍷🏘.

I stop for few paninos, 1 on site and 2 to take away. And of course 2 more cappuccinos ☕️☕️. I have a few climbs before making it to the next big city; Florence.

I arrive to Florence in the afternoon with ok weather and totally crowded. Crossing Ponte Vecchio with a bike is a challenge 😅.

I do not think to stop in Florence and I keep going since I have stocked paninos 🥪🥪. 

The way to Prato is good. Quite flat and fast. From here we got a message from the rwce direction that the original route through the Apeninos is not possible due too to much mud and we will have a asphalt section of 70 kms instead.

I put the new tack and start to go up. It goes up through a Valley for some 30 kms... It starts well but the last 3rd of the climb turn foggy and raining. I have in mind to get to Bologna which is a little less than 100k from Prato (with 70k of asphalt).

My plan is superseeded with an emergency plan... As soon I start to go down it gets so cold, visibility is crap and I'm slow 🐌.

I think to go as much down and stop in the first restaurant I find... I find one and turn to be an "Albergo". I ask for 4 teas 🫖🫖🫖🫖 in a row and then I have dinner. At the beginning I let myself thing about my original plan but after a bit I ask if there is a room free. The rain does not stop and tireness hit hard.

The owner says me that he has to look and I keep having dinner (himself goes for it too). When he finish and I go to pay Peppe arrive fully wet and ask for the same and he says that the last room is for me. However it has 2 beds so I don't mind sharing it.

The owners turn on the fire 🔥 to dry the clothes and tell us to put the bikes inside the dinning room. We talk a bit and go to sleep.

The plan is to leave at 4am 🕓.

...

#Route: Vescovado - Siena - Radda in Chianti 🥐🥪☕️ - Greve in Chianti - Il Ferrone - Impruneta - Florence - Prato - Vaiano 🍕🍕☕️ - Vernio - Castiglioni dei Pepoli - Lagaro

194 kms | 3605m ⬆️ | 4h sleep 😴

#Day 5　
But the plan did not go as expected... The door to the dinning room is closed 🔐 and we cannot get our clothes neither our bikes 😅. Breakfast time is at 7:30 so I decided to go to sleep 😴 again and try around 6:30 just in case...

At 6:30 the door kept closed... and indeed it will not be until 2-3 minutes before 7:30 🤦‍♂️. 
We get ready as fast as possible but then the owner says us that there has been some landslides due to the rain and the road is closed further down. There is some alternative but let's see.

Good to have Peppe speaking Italian and at this time Andreas (🇩🇪) who is coming from the pass alk wet joinwd us and we went all down to see what was awaiting us.

First stop✋️ by the police 👮‍♀️👮‍♂️ but after some Italian talking we go by the alternative (the original is totally run down... the mountain ⛰️ collapsed). 

The alternative is as well in theory closed because there is a gallery where stones are falling. We get to there and after some more talking 🗣. The people working let us pass... all of this happened while calling to race direction and sending pictures 🫡 in order the route for others can be changed.

After Sasso Marconi we should return to the original route to Bologna but situation is bad and we are send by road all the way to Bologna.

2.5h has passed since we started and we are soacked. We stop for a coffee and panino ☕️☕️🥪🥐 and I stock some more.

Peppe decided to go for a washing/driying 🧺🌬 place to wash his clothes. In addition maybe some required maintenance 👨‍🔧 on his bike.

I keep going crossing the flooded Bologna and wishing for the sun that was expected at 8am 🧐.

Finally rain stops and soon after the sun appears 🌤. After Bologba there is a few kms without towns... Finally I pass by Nonantola and is lunch time so I decide for good lunch 🍝 and I stock more paninos 🥪🥪. I keep going...

From Bologna is 200 kms of flat. At the beginning is asphalt but later is Gravel type 1, Gravel type 2, Gravel type 3 following canals where I see huge fields of trees flooded 🌊🌳🌊.

After a good bunch of kms I stop around 5pm 🕔 in San Benedetto Po for fueling ☕️☕️🥪🥪. There were not many options in between at least I left the track. Of course I take more paninos to take away.

Here I met Alex and share some words 🗣 but he leaves before me. When leaving comes Andrea. We exchange some words 🗣 and I leave before he leaves.

Andrea catched me soon and we share the next kms. At the time we arrive to Mantova we catch Alex and Andreas so we cross the city in a group of 4 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️.

The city really impress me... the most surpring one since I did not expexted it.

When we leave the city we get spread and only Andrea and me keep together. At this point my mind was thinking on a push overnight for the last 130 kms after Verona but I let the decission for later.

In any case around 8:30 I want dinner to refuel. Andrea stop with me in Valeggio sul Mincio. My body is craving something healthy. So I go for salad 🥗 and extra tomatoes 🍅.

Ready for the last 35 kms of the day. Dark approach and my idea of pushing through the night faded. The plan to join the room of Andrea in Verona for few hours and leave early in the morning was more appealing 🤭.

So I decides for a 3h nap in Verona 😴

#Route: Lagaro - Sasso Marconi - Bologna ☕️🥐🥪  - Nonantola 🍝☕️ - San Benedetto Po ☕️🥪 - Mantova - Goito - Valeggio sul Mincio 🥗🍅 - 

248 kms | 370m ⬆️ | 7h sleep 😴

#Day 6　
The plan was 3h but how easy is to snooze the alarm ⏰️🤭. So I started around 4am. It was around 140 kms left. 10 around Verona mostly flat and the last 130kms which sum up 4000m ⬆️ 🤯.

The GPS soon said me that next climb was going to be 35 kms and 1988m ⬆️. First 3 hours until I got to Cerro Veronese felt quite miserable. I'm not a person with little sleep and without coffee ☕️. Some rocky sleepery trails, which required to push the bike, and some up ⬆️ and down ⬇️ brought me to the coffee 🥳.

I found a very nice place and when ordering ☕️☕️🥐🥐🥐 a guy came and invited me to seat at the table he was with some friends. They were locals and they were following the race in dotwatcher. I talk with them about the race and the area and I left refreshed and motivated to keep climbing. I was not even half way...

Later came some steep parts in asphalt, another #hikethebike, then another asphalt part and finally a gravel section brought me to the hut on the highest point of the race. All in it took me 6h of sweat 🥵 to make it up 🔝.

I was thinking to go down and eat down but something made me stop and support the hut with some spending. I ate some pasta 🍝, cappuccinos ☕️☕️ and ice tea 🧃 and of course stocked a sandwich since I did not have anymore.

When leaving Andrea, who left a bit later in the morning, arrived. We exchanged some words and I left. There was a little downhill through grass trails and up again some 260m.

Later I thought it was going to be all down but it was a long traverse on gravel with some light up ↗️ and down ↘️... until finally it went down. The beginning a nice gravel road, then a steep grass trail and then a rough section to end on a road.

The road was 🤯... a couple of signs of 20% ⬇️⬇️⬇️. Long descent steep... It felt I was going to run out of brakes... but everything holded on a superfun descent to the valley.

From quite cold on the top to hot valley with some 24°C. I removed the jacket, cross rhe valley and..., initially I thought to just go for the last climb... but from the hut was less straight and the pasta felt already consumed 🔥...

I went to the supermarket... and it was closed 😒 due to "lunch break". So I was left with one sandwich 🥪, a power bar and gelatine blocks for a climb of 1400m and get to the end.

Somehow I got motivated and I pushed hard this last climb. It went up to Passo di San Valentino but it not finished here... Just at the restaurant it turn up to make another 200m ⬆️.

And the descent starts. First a nice gravel, then a bit of narrow asphalt and more gravel to arrive to a sign where it says... Watch out ⚠️.

1 km of a spectacular section wothout fences and through tunnels carved in the stone with stunning views. Althougn rough terrain. No room for mistake if you are in the outter side.

I continue through a grass field and then join a asphalt road that after a long descent will bring half way to the valley. Here there is a traverse to Brentonico. A few smalls up ↗️ and downs ↘️ and another big downhill through narrow asphalt/cement to the bottom of the valley.

The last 9 kms mostly on a bike line. We reach Passo San Giovanni and down to the lake. Quick go throug Torbole and another bike lane to arrive to the Bike Farm.

Finish 🏁

#Route: Verona - Ponte Florio - Cerro Veronese ☕️🥐 - Valdiporro - Bocca di Selva - Rifugio Monte Tomba ☕️🍝🧃 - Passo del Branchetto - San Giorgio - Avio - Passo di San Valentino - Bochetta d' Ardole - Brentonico - Loppio - Nago -  Torbole - Bike Farm

#🏠 Rifugio Monte Tomba: 1766m
#⛰️Monte Tomba: 1766m
#⛰️⛰️Passo del Branchetto: 1591m
#⛰️⛰️Passo di San Valentino: 1314m
143 kms | 4017m ⬆️ | 3.5h sleep 😴
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Nice combination of all kind of surface which helps to progress and don't overthing about the nasty trails/terrain.
Cool experience, met quite a lot of people along the way.

#23 out of 117 starters
#⏱️126h 59 min

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David Lopez Valero

Italy 🇮🇹 Divide 2023

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Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 🏔🔄: Alternative Stage 4

Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 🏔🔄: Stage 3

Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 2024 🏔🔄: Stage 2 | Cancelled ❌️

Sweeping 🧹 UTMR 🏔🔄 2024: Stage 1

UTMR Day 0: Non-running stuff 👨‍🍳

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