Talk had been of rain coming, but Saturday, June 19, 2010 dawned sunny, clear and spectacular. I didn't look at a map, but we must have been had a higher longitude than in California because there was plenty of daylight at 5 a.m. to go out and do anything we would have wanted to do. Of course, being 5 IN THE MORNING we never did take advantage of it. Should have. . . .
I did, though, get up and out the door at some time before 7 to recon the Madonna del Ghisallo climb before Il Perlo opened their breakfast offering at 7:30. Il Perlo sits a half mile, or so, from the official start of the climb as used in the Tour of Lombardy, but the stretch that passes in front of Il Perlo is the steepest of the entire climb, supposedly at about 14% for a short distance.
The climb has several switchbacks and climbs for a couple of miles (probably 6-8% range) before reaching a little hamlet called Guello. In Guello there is a little church that, when I first saw it, I thought was the chapel at Madonna del Ghisallo. But it didn't look right. The road had leveled off and the climb seemed to be finished. I decided that, no, it couldn't be, and kept on going. It was another one of those instances where I was wondering what was going to come next and was I over-committing too early in the day.
The road is easy through a little town called Civenna (we have pics of that on the way back on our ride of Monday June 21st). Shortly after passing through Civenna, and resisting the temptation to check out the pasticceria for its offerings, the road kicks up again with several more switchbacks. There are some decent gradients, but nothing knee-busting. There's a sign along the road announcing a soon-to-be held road ride in honor of Fabio Casartelli, who was from the area. He was a teammate of Lance Armstrong on the Motorola cycling team in the mid-90's. He was killed in a crash during mountain descent in the 1995 Tour de France: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabio_Casartelli
I reached the top, looked around for a few minutes, and headed back to Il Perlo for breakfast by 7:45. Shortly thereafter, Linda and I began our expedition.
This is Linda making the final approach to the summit of the Ghisallo climb.
This is the famed chapel at the summit. The Madonna del Ghisallo was declared the patron saint of cyclists in 1949. The story goes that, in medieval times, the Count of Ghisallo was running from some robbers. He saw the Virgin Mary at a shrine, ran to it, and was saved. There are hundreds of references to cyclists who've passed, photos, bikes, jerseys, etc., inside the chapel. I felt funny taking photos of it, so I didn't. This guy wasn't bashful:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/violentgrind/sets/72157602436988016/
The bike Casartelli was riding when he crashed was there. Moser's hour-record bike was there. One of Merckx's bikes. Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi jerseys (rather ragged--wool, you know).
We came across the nicest Italian man and his son. Linda and were trying to figure out how to take a picture of ourselves (trying to use some other method than the out-stretched arm) and we saw this gentleman at the entry to the chapel. He happily agreed to take a picture and ended up taking half a dozen. "Here, stand over here, this will be a good one." Them, he had his son take a picture of him with us with his cellphone. It turns out he was the owner of a spa and swimming center called Wet Life in Nibionno, not too far from Como. I wish I could remember his name. I have access to his website, I am going to try to see if I can reach him and if he remember us. Also, Wet Life is a sponsor of Comolagobike, a club in the Lake Como area.
Turns out Carlo Sancassano, the owner of Il Perlo where we were staying, knows this fellow very well. Carlo then broke out a Comolagobike jersey and windbreaker which he generously gave to us. Mapei's sport/training center is located nearby and is also a club sponsor. Too cool.
http://www.wetlife.net/#
http://comolagobike.com/
One of the photos taken by our Italian friend:
The cool comolagobike jersey (Wet Life sponsor logo is on the right sleeve):
Linda and I descended the back side of Ghisallo towards a short loop taking in Sormano. The next two photos are from the road after it had flattened out, just before Asso.
After finding our way around Sormano, we got back on the road to Como. At this point, the intent was to pick up the route of the Tour of Lombardy. We followed cyclists who, we assumed, knew which way to go. Unfortunately, at a critical juncture, there weren't any to follow and we ended up taking a route to Como, just not the Tour of Lombardy route to Como. The Lombardy route, I learned after getting back to Il Perlo and recounting our day with Carlo, takes a turn inland somewhere around Erba. We should have gone through towns like Albavilla, Soltzago, etc., and finished with the Civiglio climb and descent into Como. Instead, we ended up on the main link between Lecco and Como. Cars, cars, cars. We knew something was up because we didn't see any more cyclists. It was harrowing. Tip: double-check with locals for key points.
After arriving in Como, alive and still breathing fumes (vehicle traffic in Italy does not meet California clean air regs--on ANY level). We found a place to eat something and asked directions to Mennagio. We found another nice man--we didn't speak the same language, but he was trying so hard to be helpful. He was calling on all his buddies to help out, finally there was an acquaintance of his nearby that spoke English and we got our directions--with a caveat, she pointed our intended direction and said, "it's raining over there."
We weren't too sure about that and left Como confident that we'd make it home dry. We barely got the outskirts of Como when we heard the first thunderclap and felt the first few raindrops.
We entered a tunnel, came out the other end a couple hundred yards later, and it was raining. We sat in the protection of the mouth of that tunnel for at least 45 minutes thinking, "well, it's a thunderstorm, right? It has to move along pretty quickly, just like they do at home." We gave up waiting for it to move on and glimpses to the west weren't giving any hope.
Linda at the tunnel, and a view from our refuge out over Lake Como:
I wasn't looking forward to having to clean bikes again after my intentional rain ride in the Alps less than a week earlier. Turns out that Como either doesn't have the sand and grit the Alps do, or the Como grit is very, very fine (in which it case it's probably worse 'cause it can get into small spaces). In any event, the clean-up wasn't as bad as feared. Plus we rode in it for only an hour, or so, not 4-5 hours. And it wasn't raining as hard as it did in the Alps. But, like I said earlier, wet's wet and I don't care for it.
I'm ashamed to say I was a bit of a baby waiting at the tunnel. Poor Linda.
Anyway, we finally made it to Menaggio. It had quit raining by this time. We loaded onto the ferry for a ride across the lake to Bellagio. Here's Menaggio from the ferry, and Linda and me on board. I was smiling again at this point.
We ate dinner that night at Il Perlo, spaghetti al ragu--never tasted better.
No more rain that day. But we awoke to rain Sunday morning and it rained all day Sunday. No riding Sunday. I'm through with rain. Let the tough guys do that.
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